Arabization and the Status of Arabic Language in Higher Education in the Arab World

This paper had been presented for promotion at the University of Khartoum. To get the full text please contact the other at heahmed@uofk.edu hhag2@yahoo.comIt might seems quite ironic that in a region such as the Arab World, often being characterized as bound by its culture and traditions, we find the symbol of this culture, the Arabic language, faces stiff challenges in the institutions of higher education. The root causes of the deterioration of the Arabic language in universities in the region are mainly internal. After the departure of the colonial powers, the pace of the process of comprehensive Arabization in the universities, except for few countries, is obviously slow. Moreover, Arabic courses offered in universities are limited in quantity and emphasis. The realization of this situation would not undermine the impact of external factors, especially globalization. Due to the globalization of financial markets, and the spread of knowledge through electronic means and other global mechanisms, languages spoken by small groups of people face tremendous risks. According to Mooney, every year ten languages disappear from the World and become extinct. From the ten thousand languages that were spoken at the beginning of the last century, only six thousand and seven hundred remain at the turn of the new century. Half of those remaining are spoken by less than ten thousand each, and a quarter of them, by less than one thousand each . Due to demography, geography, religion and economy, the Arabic language does not face this gloomy destiny, although it may adversely being affected