Challenges in Teaching Arabic as a Foreign Language

An essential collection of empirical studies on the TAFL (teaching Arabic as a foreign language) classroom experience, by leading professionals in the field Although teaching Arabic as a foreign language (TAFL) has grown inexorably in recent decades, there is a dearth of empirical research on the TAFL classroom experience. In this insightful volume, Dalal Abo El Seoud brings together up-to-date practice-based research and conceptual contributions by eighteen professionals in the field. These address a wide range of challenges in teaching Arabic as a foreign language and ways of overcoming them with a clear eye to twenty-first-century language-learning skills, which advocate communication, collaboration, critical thinking, and creativity. The chapters address curriculum design, teaching Arabic to non-English speakers, trends in the use of technology, motivating students, teaching Arabic language varieties, and teaching language skills. This volume will be an invaluable resource for teachers and teachers in training of TAFL and for scholars and researchers in the field. Contributors: Dalal Abo El Seoud, The American University in Cairo, Cairo, Egypt Hagar Lotfy Amer, The American University in Cairo, Cairo, Egypt Wael M. Asfour, independent scholar, Cairo, Egypt Mona Azzam, State University of New York at Binghamton, New York, USA Mahmoud Al-Batal, The American University of Beirut, Beirut, Lebanon Nino Ejibadze, Tbilisi State University, Tbilisi, Georgia Shereen Y. El Ezabi, The American University in Cairo, Cairo, Egypt Mohamed Ibrahim, Kafrelsheikh University, Kafr al-Sheikh, Egypt Mimi Melkonian, Brunswick School, Greenwich, Connecticut, USA Haitham S. Mohamed, University of California, Berkeley, Berkely, California, USA Joanna Natalia Murkocinska, Nicolaus Copernicus University in Torun, Poland. Heba Salem, The American University in Cairo, Cairo, Egypt Mohamed Sawaie, University of Virginia, Charlottesville, Virginia, USA Laila Al-Sawi, The American University in Cairo, Cairo, Egypt Pawel Siwiec, Jagiellonian University, Cracow, Poland Iman Aziz Soliman, The American University in Cairo, Cairo, Egypt Przemyslaw Turek, Jagiellonian University, Cracow, Poland Shahira Yacout, The American University in Cairo, Cairo, Egypt

Table of Contents:
About the Contributors Transcription Introduction Dalal Abo El Seoud Part 1: Curriculum Design 1.Badawi’s Arabic Language Levels Between Theory and Application: The CASA Approach as a Model Iman Aziz Soliman and Mohamed Ibrahim 2. Cairo, the City of the 1001 Faces: A Project-Based Learning Course Heba Salem Part 2: Teaching Arabic to Non-English Speakers: The Case of Slavic-language Speakers 3. How do Poles in Cairo learn Arabic? A preliminary survey Joanna Natalia Murkocinska 4. The Advantages and Disadvantages of Teaching the Arabic Language to Native Speakers of Slavic Languages Przemysław Turek 5. Grammatical redundancy and metalanguage in teaching Arabic as a foreign language Paweł Siwiec and Jagiellonian University Part 3: Trends in Technology Use 6. Technology-Mediated Learning and Teaching in Arabic-as-a-Foreign-Language classes (AFL) Mimi Melkonian 7. The Technological blend: engagement, interaction, e-community in an online AFL course Shahira Yacout 8. Creating Comics Digitally in the Online AFL Classroom: Students’ perceptions Mona Azam 9. Digital storytelling: A learning-oriented assessment activity Dalal Abo El Seoud Part 4: Motivating Students of Arabic 10. Way beyond Enjoyment: Bringing Movies inside the AFL/ASL Classroom Laila Al-Sawi 11. Games in AFL classrooms: When to use a game? And how to design an in-class game Haitham S. Mohamed 12. The Effect of Motivation on Learning a Second Language: A Reflection on AFL Classes at the American University in Cairo (AUC) Wael M. Asfour Part 5: Teaching Arabic Language Varieties 13. Colonial Powers and the Imposition of What to Teach: Modern Standard Arabic or a Dialectal Variety? Mohamed Sawaie 14. Teaching Arabic as a Foreign Language in the Twenty-first Century: Accommodating Change Mahmoud Al-Batal 15. Specificity of Teaching Arabic as a Foreign Language: University Education Nino Ejibadze Part 6: Teaching Language Skills 16. Mastering the Morphology; Towards the Superior AFL Level through Translation Shereen Y. El Ezabi 17. Media and Arabic Language Post 25th January revolution Hagar Lotfy Amer

About the Author :
Dalal Abo El Seoud is a senior instructor in the Department of Arabic Language Instruction at the American University in Cairo, where she has been teaching since 1997, and served as chair of the department during 2013–2019. She is co-author of the three-volume series Uktub al-‘arabiya: Writing Skills in Modern Standard Arabic (AUC Press, 2012–2014) and The Concise Arabic–English Lexicon of Verbs in Context (AUC Press, 2011), and author of Fish, Milk, Tamarind: A Book of Egyptian Arabic Food Expressions (AUC Press, 2022).