How the Gap Between Spoken and Written Arabic Shapes Early Literacy in Egypt

How the Gap Between Spoken and Written Arabic Shapes Early Literacy in Egypt

On playgrounds and in living rooms across Egypt, children narrate their worlds in colloquial Egyptian Arabic, bargaining over snacks, playing games together, and asking endless questions. When they enter the classroom, they code-switch, reading and writing in Modern Standard Arabic (MSA), the formal language of textbooks, news broadcasts, and newspapers, as opposed to studying in colloquial Egyptian. The coexistence of two language varieties, kn…