ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses language attitudes only as they relate to three areas under study, namely diglossia, social identities, and code switching (CS). It reviews the historical background of language attitudes in the Arab context, focusing on their relationship to the language varieties at play in Arabic speakers' social lives. Language attitudes are an integral part of the study of language and key to understanding and dimension of its sociolinguistic context, namely the common beliefs about the language varieties used by speakers in a speech community. The chapter explores the attitudes of Arab speakers toward Arabicization, it is important to outline some of the arguments for and against Arabicization as well as the approaches that different scholars have undertaken in analyzing this language policy. English is viewed favourably due to its link to globalization, power, versatility, practicality, and prestige. The chapter presents a study which reports that the positive attitudes toward English are well documented in previous publications and are confirmed.
