Language Use and Claimed Proficiency of Saudi Students at Undergraduate Level Spoken in Asir Region of Saudi Arabia

The present paper involves comprehensive socio-psychological features of the Saudi student community at the undergraduate level in the Asir region of Saudi Arabia. It seeks to look at their sociolinguistic profile to understand the influence of the majority ethnic/linguistic community with their language on this group. It focuses on the language maintenance and language shift of the Saudi student speech community living in the Asir region of Saudi Arabia and tries to study and understand their linguistic usage, patterns of language use, identity, status, and patterns of language use occurring in this community. The paper is an attempt to postulate where this linguistic battle is likely to lead. In this regard, many socio-psychological variables were taken and analyzed quantitatively. As for the linguistic profile of Saudi students, all the language speakers are native speakers of Arabic, and most of them are familiar with Arabic.


Introduction
Arabic is the official language as well as the native language of Saudi Arabia. Al-Quran, which is the holy book of Muslims, is written in Arabic, and therefore, this language is the holy language of the Muslim population all over the world. Due to the impact of Islam on the life of people in Saudi Arabia, Arabic is the language preferred in almost all spheres. It is used in almost all domains: formal and informal. Arabic is used throughout the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. Saudi Arabian government emphasizes the learning of Arabic in terms of reading and writing, so it is the only language used in basic education, without the interference of any additional foreign language. However, this is not linked to religious purposes since Islam does not forbid the learning of other languages (Aljohani, 2016).
English is considered a second language of Saudi Arabia, and it does not enjoy the status of an official language in Saudi Arabia. It is used and taught as a second or foreign language. There are multiple views about the exact date when teaching English as a foreign language was introduced in the Saudi education system. According to Baghdadi (1985) and Al-Shabbi (1989), the introduction of English in the Saudi educational system at the elementary level dates back to 1924, when the General Directorate of Education was established. Al-Hajailan (1999) and Zafer (2002) argued that English was first offered to be taught in Saudi schools in 1937. Niblock (2004) held the view that ELT was introduced before the emergence of KSA as a state in 1932, whereas Al Shahrani (2016) argued the exact date of the introduction of English in the Saudi Arabian education system is unknown.
Also, since 2005 the Kingdom has been trying to reduce its economic dependence on the oil industry and develop a knowledgebased economy to match those of first world countries. This resulted in a tremendous revolution in education in the country, and the number of universities in KSA increased from only 8 in 2001 to 28 government and 8 private universities in 2015. This sudden expansion of educational institutions at all levels had a significant effect on the teaching/learning of English in the country. Faruk (2013) specified that today nearly all universities and colleges in the Kingdom have English departments and English language centers. He further added that presently English is the medium of instruction in medical, engineering, and other science colleges. In the government/public school curricula, English also was introduced gradually during this period. It was first introduced in grade 7 in 2003 and then in grades 5 and 6. Since 2012 English teaching has been introduced in grade 4 (ages 9-11) of elementary education. Due to a tremendous shift in the teaching and learning of English in the Kingdom, the language has enjoyed a new status in the country. The Ministry of Education clearly stated the current objective of teaching and learning English in KSA along with official guidelines. According to the Ministry of Education (MOE) (2002), 'The aim of teaching English in the secondary schools is to have the public attain a standard which will permit him [sic] to make ready use of desired materials in English, and which will enable him [sic] to communicate satisfactorily, according to his needs, in both spoken and written forms'.
In a recent report issued by the MOE (2020), it was specified that English teaching would be introduced from grade one in Saudi government/public schools. Thus, things are changing for good, and since the government realizes the importance of English as an internationally intelligible language, it is showing more keenness in promoting English language teaching/learning in Saudi Arabia.

Method
This study is based on the analysis of the speech of hundred and seventy (170) language users of the Saudi student community at the university level. Out of 170 students, 100 were male students, 70 were female students, and all of them were studying in different faculties of the University. The age group corresponds between 18 to 22 years, and all of them were native speakers of Arabic. The study of the socio-psychological features of the Saudi student community at the undergraduate level in the Aseer region of Saudi Arabia was carried out by means of a sociolinguistic questionnaire, which was administered to one hundred and seventy language users at one test site, i.e., King Khalid University, Abha, Saudi Arabia. Language users were asked questions about which domain; they have acquired the languages and their views about their language and identity.  This graph gives a clear picture that male students use more Arabic as compared to female students, and there is a slight increase among female students in the duration of use as compared to male students. The finding can be as females are more vocal than their male counterparts, and they take their studies more seriously.

Overview of the Method
The significant correlations between the duration of use of Arabic and English with other variables are examined below. Male Female

Duration of Use of Arabic and English
Arabic English low level of education, and people who use less Arabic as compared to others have a higher level of education, have generally been educated in prestige schools, and the medium of instruction in schools has been English. The reason behind this is that education and, along with it, contact with English play a major role in the language choice of the student at the individual level. Furthermore, the linking of education and associated languages with prestige is also observed to be influencing the duration of the use of Arabic.
These correlations go on to indicate that education conflicts with the use of Arabic. Education is, thereby, observed to be one of the main factors which are leading to a shift from Arabic to English. It is observed that private educational institutes are very important sources for increased uses of English as compared to Government institutions. In spite of the fact that Saudi students are proud of their Arabic mother tongue, the wave of globalization has touched them as well, and they are conscious of the fact that English is the only way to 'good things in life'. Although the English language is used to a minimum level in their society, they are fully aware of its importance in the modern world. These correlations indicate that informants who use Arabic maximally feel that the medium of instruction should be Arabic. From these language consultants, it was also observed that they had acquired English from educational institutions.
So, it was observed that English usage directly leads to a decrease in the duration of the use of the Arabic language. Saudi students who claim higher proficiency in the use of English and who have more visual exposure in terms of English mass media will consequently use less Arabic.  This can probably be attributed to the higher English proficiency group being more in contact with English using communities. Their higher claimed Arabic proficiency could probably be attributed to a feeling of Arabic identity after contact with non-Arabic speakers. V.11, i.e., 'Duration of use of English' significantly and positively correlates with V.70(a) 'Audio and Video exposure' (r=.258), V.74, i.e., 'Print preferences' (r=.288), V.110, i.e., 'View about the medium of instruction' (r=.338) and V.114, i.e., 'Acquisition contexts of English' (r=.412). These correlations indicate that language consultants who use English maximally also have good audio/video exposure in English, and the same is the case with reading preferences. They mostly listen to and watch programs in the English language, and reading preferences, such as in terms of magazines, newspapers, and books, are in English. They have acquired English in schools and feel English should be the medium of instruction.

Duration of Use of English
V.11, i.e., 'Duration of use of English' correlates negatively with V.2, i.e., 'Gender' (r=-.502), V.10, i.e., 'Duration of use of Arabic' (r=-.463), V.27, i.e., 'Family's fluency in Arabic' (r=-.379). These correlations indicate that those who use Arabic more are females, and Arabic is used exclusively used at the family level. Again, it is natural to find that these language consultants show higher use of Arabic and claim higher Arabic fluency in their families. So, to gain some resemblance of prestige, these language consultants point out their family's fluency in Arabic. This was also observed in the interaction with the language consultants, where the second language after Arabic to be acquired is English along a prestige continuum. Fig. 5.1 depicts the claimed proficiency of Saudi students in Arabic and English graphically.

Fig. 5.1: Claimed proficiency in Arabic and English
The language consultants claim a high proficiency in English and the least proficiency in Arabic. High claimed proficiency in English is because all the speakers know the script of English and they practice it on a daily basis. From the graph, it is also clear that females claim more proficiency in English as compared to their male counterparts.

Claimed proficiency in Arabic (Vs. 54-57)
Proficiency in Arabic was elicited in terms of four skills-Understanding, Speaking, Reading, and Writing.

Males Females
Claimed proficiency Arabic English Table 3.6 clearly shows that out of four components of proficiency, i.e. Reading, Writing, Speaking and Understanding, two skills, Reading and Writing, have gone down. Proficiency in terms of Understanding is maintained among the student communities, and speaking skill appears to be on their way. The claimed proficiency in Arabic also declines as we move from 'Understanding' to 'Writing'. The decline is steep, especially from oral to written form. Also, the decline is seen among the females mostly in two skills, i.e. in Reading and Writing; it may be because females care less about these two skills. So, in all probability, this low score in reading and writing skills is because of the lack of practice in reading and writing Arabic. It may also be because of this that right now, their less concentration on Arabic. Comparatively, males have more reading and writing skills than females. Thus, it can be concluded that they are more proficient in two language modalities of Arabic, i.e., listening and speaking. From Table 3.7, it becomes clear that females have the highest English language skills. In fact, a large majority claimed to be able to speak it well. Most of these subjects also claimed to be able to read English. So, it might be recognized that those who have gone to school would most likely have at least some ability in all four skills, i.e., Reading, Writing, Speaking and Listening. During the field survey, it was found that a higher percentage of females were able to speak English than males. Coming across from Understanding to Writing, it is clear among both genders that Understanding and Reading are at a higher level while Speaking and Writing are at a lower level. The reason behind this might be that both genders get fewer speakers of English for communication, and only at the university level do they use English exclusively. In the case of other domains, Arabic is being given the most preference. So, in general, it can be said that a maximum of the males have at least some proficiency in English, with young speakers more inclined towards English.

Conclusion
The main objective of this study was to understand the language use and claimed proficiency of Saudi students at the undergraduate level. Another objective was to understand the impact of English on Arabic in terms of language use. To examine this issue, data were elicited from a set of student communities at the undergraduate level belonging to different ages, gender, and socio-economic groups. The main aim of the data was to understand the socio-psychological tendencies in the direction of language preferences, the changing patterns of language use and linguistic assimilation.
The study examined various features associated with students at the undergraduate level. Besides Arabic, the English language is also used by the student community in different domains. Normally a shift from Arabic to English was observed among the students at the university level, and a major shift was found among female students as compared to male counterparts. This study has also shown that the use of Arabic decreases with a decrease in age. Younger generations show more positive attitudes to the use of English. Education is one of the important factors in introducing English, and the wave of globalisation has important implications for them. The current generation of students is motivated to teach English and use it as a medium of instruction. It was also observed that educated students tried to use English as a way of communication with non-native speakers of Arabic, and they take it as pride in the exposure to the second language.
Half the day Less than half the day A little 6. Do you live in nuclear family or joint family? 7. Using the scale below provide the information about your family members in terms of their proficiency in Arabic and English and state their level of education and their occupations as well.