Yousra Abourehab

Interests

No activities entered.

Courses

Scholarly Contributions

Journals/Publications

• Abourehab, Y. (2023).

  It’s an Imagined Fuṣḥatopia: Teacher Language Ideologies and Multilingual Practices in Arabic Heritage Learning in the United States

  . Journal of Applied Linguistics (Oxford University Press).
  More info

  This article examines teacher ideologies and multilingual practices in teaching Arabic as a heritage language in the US. Using indexicality and its nexus to language ideologies, it identifies the key index values assigned to Standard Arabic (SA) and how these shape teacher positioning for teaching Arabic heritage. The article also analyzes the extent to which these ideologies are congruent or incongruent with their classroom practices. The findings of in- depth semi-structured interviews showed teachers’ veneration of SA with representations that index “perfection,” “majesty,” “purism,” and “generosity.” Although teachers seemed tolerant of using Arabic dialects strategically, their overall positioning supported teaching SA and minimized teaching dialects. Drawing on data from a larger corpus of around 25 hours of classroom video recordings, teachers showed ubiquitous multilingual and multidialectal practices in classroom discourse. With its dual focus on language ideologies and practices, this article enriches the discussion about the idealization of SA (fuṣḥatopia) as restricting the potential of Arabic dialects as important resources for learning SA. It also disrupts the linguistic hierarchy between SA and the dialects.
• Yaylali, A., Abourehab, Y., Sandoval, J., & Combs, M. (2024). Becoming Linguistically and Culturally Responsive Educators: Teacher Candidates’ Perspective Shifts in an Introductory Linguistics Course. Action in Teacher Education. doi:10.1080/01626620.2024.2392733
  More info

  Many teacher education programs aim to address the acute need for culturally and linguistically responsive educators by fostering linguistic consciousness and awareness of language learner populations. This mixed-methods study explores how elementary education teacher candidates’ perspectives shift through critical reflection and dialogue about English learners’ education and equitable classroom practices. Using a transformative learning framework, our findings illustrate that collaborative learning tasks as well as peers’ and multilingual graduate teaching assistants’ experiences play a disorienting role in challenging monolingual and bilingual teacher candidates’ beliefs about language acquisition, bilingualism, and English learners’ education. We discuss implications for teacher language awareness and instructional practices in ESL endorsement courses.
• Abourehab, Y., & Azaz, M. (2023). Pedagogical translanguaging in community/heritage Arabic language learning. Journal of Multilingual and Multicultural Development, 44(5). doi:10.1080/01434632.2020.1826496
  More info

  This article examines the potential of pedagogical translanguaging in a community/heritage language context. With focus on Arabic as a multidialectal and multiglossic language, the paper primarily examines the function of translanguaging practices in teacher-learner and learner-learner interaction to construct and negotiate linguistic knowledge in the standard variety of the language. The results show that the learners’ linguistic repertoires (multiple varieties of Arabic and English) are actively and dynamically employed in the exchanges to negotiate linguistic knowledge (lexical and grammatical) in a setting that venerates the standard variety as a medium of instruction with a monolingual policy. Also, the results show how these multidialectal practices are sometimes utilised to acknowledge and give voice to the heritage learners’ dialectal identities. It is argued that community/heritage language learning contexts are ideal translanguaging spaces in which heritage language learners find ample opportunities for identity negotiation and knowledge construction. These opportunities are augmented in a classroom atmosphere that gives legitimacy to their dialects and challenges the monolingual ideology. Pedagogical implications are discussed for Arabic heritage and mainstream second language programmes with heritage learners.
• Azaz, M., & Abourehab, Y. (2021). Should Standard Arabic have “the lion’s share?”: Teacher ideologies in L2 Arabic through the lens of pedagogical translanguaging. Intercultural Communication Education, 4(1), 90 - 105. doi:https://doi.org/10.29140/ice.v4n1.442
  More info

  With the multilingual turn in applied linguistics, translanguaging has been envisioned as a pedagogical approach in multiple contexts (Creese & Blackledge, 2010; Galante, 2020; Yilmaz, 2019). Recent discussions have turned to teachers’ perspectives to understand how teachers’ monolingual ideologies and beliefs could limit the potential of such approaches (Hillman et al., 2019; Holdway & Hitchcock, 2018; Tian, 2020). With a focus on Arabic as a multidialectal and multiglossic language, this paper examines teachers’ translanguaging ideologies and practices and their nexus to language learning and intercultural communication. It used a focused, semi-structured interview to determine to what degree teachers’ practices were consistent or in conflict with their ideologies regarding translanguaging. They were challenged with positions from translanguaging pedagogy to initiate their conceptual development. A discrepancy was found between teachers’ ideologies and practices. That is, whereas they initially hesitated to accept translanguaging as a legitimate pedagogy, they were indeed translanguaging. This discrepancy is argued to limit learning. A qualitative analysis of the interviews with some teachers showed the emergence of an internally persuasive discourse about the potential of translanguaging. In light of teacher reflections that specified legitimate challenges, we argue for the judicious adoption of translanguaging pedagogy in multilingual and multicultural settings and discuss pedagogical implications and future research directions.
• Oguilve, V., Wen, W., Bowen, E., Abourehab, Y., Bermudez, A., Gaxiola, E., & Castek, J. (2021). Community Making: An Expansive View of Curriculum. Journal Of Curriculum Studies Research, 3(1), 69-100. doi:https://doi.org/10.46303/jcsr.2021.8
  More info

  Making as a term has gained attention in the educational field. It signals many different meanings to many different groups, yet is not clearly defined. This project’s researchers refer to making as a term that bears social and cultural impact but with a broader more sociocultural association than definitions that center making in STEM learning. Using the theoretical lenses of critical relationality and embodiment, our research team position curriculum as a set of locally situated activities that are culturally, linguistically, socially, and politically influenced. We argue that curriculum emerges from embodied making experiences in specific interactions with learners and their communities. This study examines multiple ways of learning within and across seven community-based organizations who are engaged directly or indirectly in making activities that embedded literacy, STEM, peace, and the arts. Using online ethnography, the research team adopted a multiple realities perspective that positions curriculum as dynamic, flexible, and evolving based on the needs of a community, its ecosystems, and the wider environment. The research team explored  making and curricula through a qualitative analysis of interviews with community organizers and learners. The findings provide thick descriptions of making activities which reconceptualize making and curriculum as living and responsive to community needs. Implications of this study expand and problematize the field’s understanding of making, curriculum, and learning environments.
• Abourehab, Y., & Azaz, M. (2020).

  Pedagogical translanguaging in community/heritage Arabic language learning

  . Journal of Multilingual and Multicultural Development, 1-14. doi:10.1080/01434632.2020.1826496
  More info

  This article examines the potential of pedagogical translanguaging in a community/heritage language context. With focus on Arabic as a multidialectal and multiglossic language, the paper primarily ...