Teaching Italians in English

I think adding English-language classes to the Italian university curriculum, and having sections in business or engineering or some science classes with teaching in English would attract foreign students (since that seems to be what they want) or Italian students whose English is strong enough to attend. But I do think it's a shame that the entire university shifts to English. Especially since one of the main reasons seems to be figuring in those US-dominated league tables, which are increasingly called into question.

Furthermore, foreign students who choose to study in Italy would no longer be motivated to study the language and hence the culture like literature, cinema, etc.

Since I teach at a major university in the Middle East where the language of instruction is English, I am entirely unalarmed by it.

#1, What is the justification for not teaching in Arabic? Surely young Arabs would make much better doctors, scientists etc if they were taught in their mother tongue rather than struggling along in their second language.

#1, What is the justification for not teaching in Arabic? Surely young Arabs would make much better doctors, scientists etc if they were taught in their mother tongue rather than struggling along in their second language.

Mine is, indeed, a scientific and engineering university. Do you have any idea how many original scientific papers are published in Arabic every year? A scant handful. (In fact, Arabic lags far behind any other major world language in publications of any kind.) The availability of quality up-to-date scientific textbooks in Arabic? Almost none. White-collar jobs in science or engineering for monolingual Arabic-speakers? Vanishingly few.

It may or may not be unfortunate that, for a civilization that led the world in the sciences a millennium ago, it has come to this, but there it is: would-be Arab scientists and engineers need English today if they are to have any chance to succeed in their fields. The policy of my university simply reflects this reality.

Yes, all other things being equal, it's more desirable to study in one's native language, but this isn't an option for enormous numbers of people all over the world, including most of the population of sub-Saharan Africa. And if instruction in English gives the students at that Italian university a competitive advantage, I say "Why not?" (The notion that Italian--one of the 25 most-spoken languages in the world--is in anyway threatened by the move seems beyond remote.)

Look, oh ye with scant historical knowledge: it's no different from the medieval and renaissance eras when universities all over Europe taught exclusively+ in Latin and the scholars therein wrote and published +exclusively in Latin. It was simply the academic language of the time.

Even though the Sorbonne, Oxford, Bologna etc etc all taught in Latin, the French, English and Italian languages didn't wither on the vine as a consequence. I think the reaction here is unnecessarily alarmist.

Malaysia used to use English as the language of instruction, then about 30 years ago started introducing Malaysian as the language of instruction from kindergarten and then year by year introduced Malay to the next level of school, so that now ONLY Malay is used throughout, even in universities. Whereas a very large Malaysians used to be fluent in English, they are now decreasingly so.

In Vietnam, students now undertaking any higher degree in any discipline MUST pass an English proficiency exam before being permitted to graduate.
Job applicants for all sorts of jobs are increasingly required to speak English, whether the job description says so or not.

Re. 4

From my own experıence of workıng wıth unıversıty students ın Lebanon, most cannot speak, let alone wrıte, Modern Standard Arabıc. They confessed they had faıled ıt ın school or gaıned a low grade.They all speak colloquıal Arabıc perfectly well and many of them spoke at least another language (usually Englısh or - more rarely - French).

When İ was ın Syrıa ın 1991, I met two Englısh nuns who were lıvıng ın Damascus. They saıd they taught Modern Standard Arabıc to local chıldren whose parents wanted them to pass theır Arabıc exam ın order to go on to do technıcal or scıentıfıc courses. İt seemed strange that foreıgners should be teachıng Arabıc to the locals but, agaın, ıt was because colloquıal messed up the learnıng of MSA.

So expectıng a unıversıty student or graduate to wrıte a specıalıst (scıentıfıc) paper ın Arabıc would be a tall order and explaıns why so few are publıshed. It's a bıt lıke expectıng İtalıans to wrıte ın Latın when that language would be somethıng they only learnt at school and perhaps don'f feel competent ın.

It's a bıt lıke expectıng İtalıans to wrıte ın Latın

That would be if you were expecting them to write in Classical Arabic. For them to write in MSA is like expecting the Swiss-Germans to write in Hochdeutsch, which they seem to manage. What are the generality of (non-religious) written Arabic publications around them written in - school textbooks, instructions, signs, forms, commercial papers, things like that? Are there not popular films and television programs recorded or dubbed into a standardised kind of Arabic suitable for showing in several countries of the region?

Hochdeutsch ıs not as far removed from Swıss-German as MSA ıs from the colloquıal Arabıcs.
Just for a start, the colloquıals don't have the cases and verbs are easıer.

Yup, there are fılms and news and so on ın Modern Standard Arabic - whıch they understand well. But when ıt comes to havıng to wrıte somethıng ın MSA, they say they don't feel they are competent to express themselves ın more than the basıcs. They were flabbergasted that İ could look up words ın an Arabıc dıctıonary; most of them saıd they could not manage that.

They'd got thru ıt at school - ıf they dıd pass - but most young Lebanese dıdn't have any competence ın wrıtıng anythıng specıalıst ın ıt. Thıs ıs what I was told by many unıversıty students.