Studying Arabic as an Additional Language Together with Arab Heritage Language Learners

This article reports on the findings of a study of the sociocultural-interactive strategies used by a mixed group of learners of Arabic at a Danish university. The group consisted of Arab heritage language learners and learners of Arabic as an additional language. The latter consisted of two subgroups: Danes and learners with some other linguistic backgrounds. The study explored the general patterns of sociocultural-interactive strategies used by the whole group, and ways that the presence of heritage language learners in the environment influenced the sociocultural-interactive strategies used by the other components of the group. A mixed method, quantitative and qualitative, was used. The major findings of the study were that the group as a whole followed the general patterns of sociocultural-interactive strategies to ask, cooperate, and communicate and that heritage learners' presence only partially increased and promoted the opportunities of sociocultural interaction in the learning environment.