This study investigates emerging attitudes toward Spanish language education in Jordan, focusing on perspectives from parents, community stakeholders, and employers. Despite the global expansion of Spanish as a major international language, little empirical research has examined how it is evaluated and positioned in English-dominant, non-Hispanic contexts in the Middle East. While English remains the dominant linguistic capital and a prerequisite for academic and professional mobility, findings reveal a growing reconfiguration of language value in which Spanish is evaluated as an added resource within English-dominant trajectories. Through semi-structured interviews with 90 participants, the study identifies three key trends: parents frame Spanish as cultural enrichment and symbolic capital; stakeholders emphasize its relevance for global citizenship while highlighting institutional constraints; and employers regard Spanish as an advantage when combined with English in multilingual workplaces. Drawing on theories of language attitudes, linguistic capital, and language policy-in-practice, the study demonstrates how an English-plus ideology is emerging in the Jordanian context. It concludes by underscoring the need for policy coordination, curricular planning, and equitable access to support sustainable multilingual development. • Spanish is rising as a valued complementary language in Jordan’s English-dominant context. • Stakeholders view Spanish as an added advantage within an English-plus ideology. • Spanish links to global citizenship, culture, and employability. • Access remains unequal due to limited resources and teachers. • Multilingualism in Jordan is driven bottom-up by social demand.
Gogazeh et al. (Sun,) studied this question.