This study aims at examining Saudi Arabia’s language policy through the virtual linguistic landscape (VLL) of the kingdom’s higher educational institutions’ websites. Particularly, the study utilized three overarching frameworks, Ivkovic and Lotherington’s (2009) informational and symbolic functions, Spolsky and Cooper’s (1991) three-conditional model, and Fasold’s (2006) language prestige. The study sought to reveal the languages evident in the university websites, their informational and symbolic functions, and the current language situation of the Kingdom. Results reveal that there are four available languages; English, Arabic, Spanish and French. However, most of the university websites only offered English and Arabic. Hence, multilingual accessibility was not strongly observed. The informational function reveals the speech communities present mainly spoke English and Arabic. Also, it is revealed that highly populous non-Arabic speaking expatriate nationalities were not recognized in terms of language inclusion in the websites, proving the value that the institutions assign to English and Arabic. On the other hand, English was deemed to be a tool to disseminate information to non-Arabic speaking users. In terms of language dominance, English emerged to be valued more than Arabic as reflected through most university websites’ preference for English as their default language. The use of English was driven by international collaborations, global ranking efforts, benchmarking curriculums, preparation for Vision 2030, spread of Islamic faith, and better international representation. Considering all the findings vis-à-vis the Kingdom’s language policy, the study reveals that the observed bilingual nature of university websites’ VLL reflected the country’s current language policy.

Authors:
Nadine Emirey Lacsina, Al Yamamah University, Saudi Arabia

About the Presenter(s)
Dr. Nadine Emirey Lacsina is an Assistant Professor at Al-Yamamah University- Al Khobar in Saudi Arabia. She has delivered lectures on IMD and language structures. Her research interests include Applied Linguistics, Sociolinguistics, SLA and CDA.

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