A scoping review of world Englishes in the Middle East and North Africa

Abstract

This study presents the first scoping review (Arksey & O'Malley, 2005; Levac, Colquhoun, & O'Brien, 2010) of world Englishes (WE) research in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) – providing a knowledge synthesis of studies related to the sociolinguistic dynamics and realities of English(es) in one of the most underexplored WE contexts. Although the burgeoning research on English in the region focuses on macro sociolinguistic issues, language policy and planning, and language teaching and learning, there is a pressing need for a systematic investigation of scholarship with an exclusive WE perspective (Mahboob, 2013). On this premise, we map the body of WE literature pertinent to this region during the last two decades (2000–2019). We provide an overview of the state of the research activity, helping to identify the knowledge gaps and determine a fruitful research agenda for scholars interested in the diverse issues of WE in the MENA region.

English Features in Saudi Arabia: A Syntactic Study Within the World Englishes Framework

“…In addition, there has been a growing scholarship in World Englishes in Arabian Gulf in recent years. The status of English in the Arabian Gulf was investigated and analyzed by many researchers such as Elyas and Mahboob (2021a), Hillman et al (2021), Hopkyns et al (2021), Siemund et al (2021), Tuzlukova and Mehta (2021), and van den Hoven and Carroll (2021). A recent bibliography of World Englishes in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) has been documented by Elyas and Mahboob (2021b) stressing the importance of World Englishes by current research interests in the region.…”

A Call for Cautious Interpretation of Meta-Analytic Reviews

“…When the maturity of a given domain for meta-analysis is uncertain, it is recommended to first carry out a scoping review. A scoping review is another type of research synthesis that surveys a domain of literature identifying current trends, commonly used methods, and gaps in findings (e.g., Gurzynski-Weiss & Plonsky, 2017; Hillman et al, 2020; Tullock, & Ortega, 2017). A scoping review can help determine if subsequent meta-analytic work is appropriate and worthwhile.…”

English in MENA: A contemporary research bibliography

“…In some ways, it builds on Mahboob's (2013) discussion of ‘Middle Eastern Englishes situated in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia’, although the bibliography presented here has a much wider frame of reference. The work by Hillman, Selvi, and Yazan (2020), in this special issue) mapping out the body of WE literature pertinent to this region during the last two decades (2000–2019) is also included in this bibliography. While the focus of Hillman et al.…”

“…While the focus of Hillman et al. (2020)) is manly on peer‐reviewed articles appearing in such journals as World Englishes, English Today , and Asian Englishes , the bibliography below has set out to survey an even wider range of publications, although even here we would not claim to be totally comprehensive. For clarity and ease of reference, the bibliography has been presented in the form of specific sections dealing with such topics as ‘Books’, ‘books chapters’, ‘Scholarly theses’, ‘Applied linguistics’, Cultural studies, gender studies, and Islam’, Educational studies’, ‘Discourse, pragmatics, and corpus studies’, and so on.…”