Under the patronage of His Highness Sheikh Khaled bin Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, member of the Abu Dhabi Executive Council and Chairman of the Abu Dhabi Executive Office, the Arabic Language Summit will take place from 20th to 21st December at Manarat Al Saadiyat in Abu Dhabi, under the theme Language and Identity Formation.
Organised by the Ministry of Culture and Youth (MCY) in partnership with the Abu Dhabi Arabic Language Centre, part of the Department of Culture and Tourism-Abu Dhabi, this year’s edition of the event will gather academics, writers and experts to shed light on the Arabic language, culture and identity, in order to strengthen the position of Arabic as an essential element of the UAE and Arab world’s identity, and to further elevate its place among the world’s most important languages. Attendees at the summit will also discuss how to promote the use of Arabic in the arts and sciences, and how to raise its profile among non-native speakers through education and translation.
This year’s event will build on the list of 21 recommendations presented during the inaugural summit, held last year at Expo 2020 Dubai, and outlined in MCY’s report The State and Future of the Arabic Language.
The preservation of the Arabic language is among the UAE’s key strategic development priorities, both as part of the framework to achieve the national agenda for the Arabic language, and as a key focus for the next 50 years.
The recommendations include a call to announce a UAE Declaration for the Arabic Language, prescribing regional action to emphasise the importance of the language as a distinctive part of the identity of Arab societies. The recommendations also outline the establishment of new teacher training programmes and methodologies for the instruction of the language.
