Email this article 
Hide
Show all
The US and UK in the Eyes of English Majors in the Arab World
Abstract
The current study examines the attitudes of Jordanian female college students whose major is English language and literature towards the United States of America and the United Kingdom. It also looks into the reasons for their held beliefs about the West, the US and UK, in particular. A survey and semi- structured interviews were conducted with forty Muslim female students from various cities and villages in Jordan for this purpose. The selected students are in their final semester in the English program and have completed various courses in language and literature. In these courses, students have been mostly exposed to British and American literature throughout the four year period of their study. The study also examines whether student attitudes towards the West resemble those of the general Arab public. The findings certainly challenge the theory of the “Clash of civilizations.” In fact, the results demonstrate that students have a more favourable opinion of the UK than the US and that this has everything to do with their dissatisfaction with the current American foreign policies and nothing to do with the “American way of life.”
Keywords
Full Text:
PDFReferences
Bodily, N. (2012, April 25). Understanding Muslim Views of the US: Pollster debunks Muslim Myths. Retrieved from
http://www.usustatesman.com/understanding-muslim-views-of-the-us-1.2735354#.UA3YA2FWqhE.
Borger, J. , & Clark, T. (2012, Sept 11). Widespread distrust of US extends beyond Middle East, poll shows. The Gaurdian. Retrieved from http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2012/sep/11/distrust-us-middle-east-poll.
Bush, G. W. (2005, Jan. 20). President Bush's second inaugural address. Retrieved from http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=4460172.
Center for Strategic Studies. (2005). Revisiting the Arab street research from within. Amman, Jordan: University of Jordan.
Esposito, J.L. (2011). The future of Islam and U.S.-Muslim relations. Political Science Quarterly, 126, 365-401.
Esposito, J. L. & Mogahed, D. (2007). Who speaks for Islam? What a billion Muslims really think. New York: Gallup Press.
Figueiredo, D.C. (2000). Critical discourse analysis: towards a new perspective of EFL reading. Critical Discourse Analysis, 38, 139-154.
Fishbein, M., & Ajzen, I. (1975). Belief, attitude, intention and behavior: An introduction to theory and research. California: Addison-Wesley Publishing Company.
Furia, P. & Lucas, R. (2006). Determinants of Arab public opinion on foreign relations. International Studies Quarterly, 50, 585–605.
Furia, P. & Lucas, R. (2008). Arab Muslim attitudes toward the west: cultural, social, and political explanations. International Interactions, 34, 186–207.
Gallup World Poll Knowledge Center. (2011a). The Abu Dhabi Gallup forum: Research, dialogue, and solutions. New York: Gallup Press.
Gallup World Poll Knowledge Center. (2011b). Islamophobia: Understanding anti-Muslim sentiment in the West. New York, Gallup Press.
Holden, G. W., & Edwards, L. A. (1989). Parental attitudes toward child rearing: Instruments, issues, and implications. Psychological Bulletin, 106, 29–58
Huntington, S. (1996). The clash of civilizations and the remaking of world order. New York: Simon & Schuster.
Labo-Popoola. S.O. (2010). The place of literature in the teaching of English language as a second language. The Social Sciences, 5, 49-54.
Lewis, B. (2003). The crisis of Islam: Holy war and unholy terror. London: Phoenix.
Luke, A., & Freebody, P. (1999). Further notes on the four resources model. Reading Online. Retrieved from http://readingonline.org/past/past_index.asp?HREF=/research/lukefreebody.html
Moosavi, L. (2012, July 3). Muslims are well-integrated in Britain – but no one seems to believe it.The Guardian. Retrieved from http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/belief/2012/jul/03/muslims-integrated-britain/print
Park, A. , Curtice, J., Thomson, K., Phillips, M., & Clery, E. (2010). British Social Attitudes: The 26th Report, London: Sage.
Pew Global Attitudes Project. (2004). A year after the Iraq war: Mistrust of America in Europe even higher, Muslim anger persists. Washington, DC: Pew Research Center for the People and the Press.
Pew Global Attitudes Project. (2006). Europe's Muslims more moderate. The great divide: How Westerners and Muslims view each other. Washington, DC: Pew Research Center for the People and the Press.
Prados, A. B. (2001, Dec 31). Middle East: Attitudes toward the United States. Retrieved from http://fpc.state.gov/documents/organization/7858.pdf.
Sidhu, G. K., Fook, C. Y., & Kaur, S. (2010). Instructional practices in teaching literature: Observations of ESL classrooms in Malaysia. English Language Teaching, 3, 54-63.
Tessler, M. (2002). Islam and democracy in the Middle East: the impact of religious orientations on attitudes toward democracy in four Arab countries. Comparative Politics, 34, 337-254.
YouGov. (2010, May 21). Exploring Islam foundation. Retrieved from http://www.eifoundation.net/index.html
Zanna, M. P., & Rempel, J. K. (1988). Attitudes: A new look at an old concept. In D. Bar-Tal, & A. W. Kruglanski (Eds.), The social psychology of knowledge (315-334). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Zogby International. (2002). The ten nation impressions of America poll. Utica, NY: Zogby International.
Zogby International. (2004). Impressions of America poll. Utica, NY: Zogby International.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.7575/aiac.ijalel.v.2n.2p.8
Refbacks
- There are currently no refbacks.
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
2012-2023 (CC-BY) Australian International Academic Centre PTY.LTD.
International Journal of Applied Linguistics and English Literature
To make sure that you can receive messages from us, please add the journal emails into your e-mail 'safe list'. If you do not receive e-mail in your 'inbox', check your 'bulk mail' or 'junk mail' folders.