Saudi Arabia’s Code-Switching Trend

Saudi Arabia’s Code-Switching Trend

Amongst teenagers and young adults in Saudi Arabia, code-switching between Arabic and English has become a very common phenomenon. Within this demography, the attitude towards code-switching appears positive as they view the trend as a natural outcome given the massive investment in education by the Saudi government, including scholarships to Saudi citizens to study abroad. It is generally believed that this blending of Arabic and English languages is less about the dilution of the Saudi heritage and more about practical functionality in an increasingly globalized world. 

The Saudi government, through the public-funded Custodial of the Two Holy Mosques scholarship program, supports Saudi nationals in various fields at international universities, to meet some of the goals of the Vision 2030 initiative. The scholarship often covers tuition and living expenses for graduates and postgraduate studies. Available data indicate that an estimated 70,000 Saudi students are studying abroad. Saudi Arabia remains a major source of international students, with the United Kingdom, the United States, and Canada being popular destinations. It is noted that these enrolment figures may have changed over the years due to changes in scholarship programs. 

This code-switching phenomenon appears widespread in large urban areas, like Riyadh, Dammam, Khobar, and Dhahran, where English is more prevalent in professional and social settings. Smaller cities tend to have fewer code-switchers as the majority of residents are usually monolingual Arabic speakers. Some studies suggest that code-switching between English and Arabic can potentially distort the Saudi identity or the Arabic and Islamic identity in general. They argue that code-switching is a tendency towards the westernization of Saudi Arabia. 

However, in a recent interview with Arab News, a Saudi Arabia-based English newspaper, a senior linguist at SURV Linguistics in the Saudi Arabian capital city, Riyadh, Majd Tohme, observed that code-switching is a very multi-dimensional issue, noting that the debate should not hinge on whether code-switching is good or bad. He pointed out that the question should be whether code-switching works in the everyday context. He observed that if it works, then it is the purpose of any linguistic pattern. 

At an institutional level, there appears to be some concerted efforts by the Saudi government to preserve and promote the Arabic language through the King Salman Global Academy for Arabic Language in Riyadh. The institution has launched several educational products and initiatives to strengthen Arabic fluency, both for native speakers and those wishing to learn Arabic as a foreign language, and these efforts are gaining traction. Part of the institution’s projects includes the Ahlan Wa Sahlan Platform, a digital learning platform that integrates interactive education, continuous assessment, and digital tools to create an immersive Arabic learning experience. 

An instructor at Saudi Arabia’s Jouf University, Kais Sultan Mousa Alowidha, in a 2024 report, found that bilingual Saudi nationals often switch between Arabic and English depending on the context, particularly in casual or professional settings. He noted that Saudi students who have studied or grown up abroad find themselves flipping between languages almost unconsciously, and maintained that the mental switching is often tied to topic-specific language associations, where some topics are assigned to a specific language in the brain. “Once the topic surfaces, the corresponding language follows automatically”, he opined. 

Saudi Arabian researchers and scholars pointed out certain key drivers of the code-switching trend, including its prevalence in urban areas where there is greater exposure to English language speakers and global influences, generational differences, where younger Saudi nationals, particularly university students and international students, are more likely to code-switch and have a more positive attitude toward the code-switching trend. Other drivers include the issue of functionality, where code-switching helps in filling linguistic gaps, to express a specific concept, among others.