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<p>Extended residence in a country of immigration is routinely equated with the progressive acquisition of its dominant language, a premise that has rarely been interrogated in multilingual labour-migration contexts. This study examines why many non-Arabic-speaking expatriates in Saudi Arabia remain low-proficiency Arabic speakers after many years of settlement. Drawing on an interpretive qualitative design, it analyses in-depth, semi-structured interviews with 28 long-term expatriate professionals (minimum of 3&#xa0;years’ residence). Thematic analysis traces how everyday language practices, institutional arrangements, and Arabic diglossia structure trajectories of learning, use, and avoidance. The findings document a durable disjunction between exposure to Arabic and substantive participation in it. Arabic permeated public space, while extended interaction was consistently organised through English-dominant workplace routines, routine interlocutor switching, and expatriate social networks anchored in English or shared first languages. Under these conditions, Arabic use remained largely brief and transactional, producing familiarity without cumulative development. Participants gradually recalibrated their investment, as Arabic was positioned as optional rather than necessary for professional or social functioning, and demanding workloads further constrained continuity of learning. Arabic diglossia intensified these patterns. The gap between Modern Standard Arabic and spoken varieties, uncertainty about situational appropriateness, and experiences of accent-based evaluation generated communicative hesitation and reinforced reliance on English as the safer medium. The study challenges residence-based assumptions in migration–second-language acquisition (SLA) research by showing that language outcomes depend less on years of residence than on structured access to participation, institutional language regimes, and the lived consequences of diglossia. It points to the need for workplace bilingual practices and pedagogies that align formal Arabic with everyday spoken use.</p>

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Long-Term Exposure but Limited Arabic Acquisition: Expatriate Professionals Residing in Saudi Arabia

  • 期刊论文

  • 发表日期：

    2026年5月18日

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  • Mohammad Hamad Al-khresheh,
  • Shatha F. Alruwaili

摘要

Extended residence in a country of immigration is routinely equated with the progressive acquisition of its dominant language, a premise that has rarely been interrogated in multilingual labour-migration contexts. This study examines why many non-Arabic-speaking expatriates in Saudi Arabia remain low-proficiency Arabic speakers after many years of settlement. Drawing on an interpretive qualitative design, it analyses in-depth, semi-structured interviews with 28 long-term expatriate professionals (minimum of 3 years’ residence). Thematic analysis traces how everyday language practices, institutional arrangements, and Arabic diglossia structure trajectories of learning, use, and avoidance. The findings document a durable disjunction between exposure to Arabic and substantive participation in it. Arabic permeated public space, while extended interaction was consistently organised through English-dominant workplace routines, routine interlocutor switching, and expatriate social networks anchored in English or shared first languages. Under these conditions, Arabic use remained largely brief and transactional, producing familiarity without cumulative development. Participants gradually recalibrated their investment, as Arabic was positioned as optional rather than necessary for professional or social functioning, and demanding workloads further constrained continuity of learning. Arabic diglossia intensified these patterns. The gap between Modern Standard Arabic and spoken varieties, uncertainty about situational appropriateness, and experiences of accent-based evaluation generated communicative hesitation and reinforced reliance on English as the safer medium. The study challenges residence-based assumptions in migration–second-language acquisition (SLA) research by showing that language outcomes depend less on years of residence than on structured access to participation, institutional language regimes, and the lived consequences of diglossia. It points to the need for workplace bilingual practices and pedagogies that align formal Arabic with everyday spoken use.