Intersecting Scapes, Global Flows, and New Identity Options: Female Qatari Students' Informal Learning of Turkish Language
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With English penetrating every domain of the major cities of the Arabian Gulf over the last 20 years, there has been little attention paid to the learning and usage of foreign languages beyond English in the region, despite the transdisciplinary multilingual turn in applied linguistics and language teaching. This exploratory study draws attention to languages other than English which female Qatari national university students choose to access outside of formal educational institutions and practices because of intersecting scapes such as the mediascape and ideoscape. The findings reveal that female participants are engaged in informal learning of Turkish language due to the popularity of Turkish drama series and the shifting political relationship between Qatar and Turkey. Moreover, Qatari female students informal learning of Turkish provides them with greater agency and new identity options within the context of new millennium globalization and English language hegemony. The study reveals how females in the Gulf are increasingly learning and using additional languages beyond English which shape their personal and social identities outside of the formal language classroom.
