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Letter to Arabic Teachers
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Salaam 'alaykum! Kul Sana wa Antum Bekhayr!

This is our second letter to the Arabic Teachers Network in an attempt to keep in touch with you and hopefully allow you to keep in touch with us at the NCLRC.

It seems appropriate to reflect on 2007. In many ways, it has been a significant year for the teaching of Arabic in K-12 classes across the U.S. We notice that a good number of programs, particularly in public schools, have offered second and third year classes. In some school systems, access to Arabic learning has increased at the high school level since more of them are offering courses. Curriculum development and materials preparation have increased. And, most significantly, the opportunities for teacher training increased through the STARTALK program, with funds from the US government and coordinated by the National Foreign Language Center at the University of Maryland . The conversations about accreditation and certification have become louder and we are beginning to see responses on the part of universities who now offer or are planning to offer full programs of training and degrees in teaching Arabic as a foreign language (TAFL) in K-12. No longer do public officials look blankly at those who suggest that Arabic be taught in the schools. And Iowa has gotten its share of attention outside of the caucuses! National Public Radio interviewed Ikram Easton in Cedar Rapids about a project she designed with her high school Arabic language students to translate children’s books and send them to Iraqi children. You might want to check out the interview as well as a rather nice article about the project.
And on January 2nd, the New York Times carried a rather lovely article about the elementary program in Kalona, which was also picked up by the International Herald Tribune (read it here). If any of your hometown papers publish articles about your programs, please send them to us so we can forward them to the network.

Plans for more teacher training and intensive language programs for high school students in Arabic, Chinese, Farsi, Hindi and Urdu are planned for the Summer of 2008 through STARTALK. The deadline for applications has passed. However, we encourage you to contact the STARTALK staff with ideas and future plans. It is never too late to plan for next steps. For Arabic, contact Jerry Lampe at glampe@nflc.org. The telephone number is 301-405-9690.

The dates for the NCLRC Arabic institutes in Washington, DC have been set. The institutes are: Teaching Arabic to Upper High School and College Students, Mahmoud Al-Batal and Kristin Brusted, May 19-23; Arabic K-12 Hands-On, June 23-27, Dr.Muhammad Eissa, Iman Hashem; and Writing and Implementing an Arabic Curriculum K-12, June 28-July 3, Dr. Eissa, Iman Hashem, and Christine Brown. More information.

Our presence with Arabic sessions at ACTFL this past November was evident, but it seemed as if there were fewer sessions than last year. We counted 11, three of which were in the same time slot! We need to be more present at ACTFL. We know that there are many of you who are doing some very creative work in your classrooms and programs and it would be good to share that work with others. The deadline for submitting proposals was January 11, 2008 and we hope you did not miss it. We need to continue to increase the visibility of Arabic at conferences. If you can’t attend ACTFL, then consider presenting at one of the regional foreign language conferences. These are listed in a lot of places; one predictable site is the NCLRC’s site. We are posting information about conferences of interest to teachers of Arabic including descriptions of presentations about teaching Arabic on the professional development section of this website. (Incidentally, wouldn’t it be a good thing if all of us who are involved in the Arabic language teaching/learning field were able to get together for a social occasion at ACTFL where we could continue our networking and sharing of information and resources, including just having a good time? If anyone has some good ideas on how we can do this without it being terribly costly, please let Dora Johnson know (djohnson@cal.org).

Most encouraging is the interest of the Northeast Conference on the Teaching of Foreign Languages. The board of NECTFL made a deliberate decision to encourage an Arabic strand at its conferences. NECTFL meets in New York City, March 27-29, 2008. For more information about this important initiative, contact Dr. Rebecca Kline, Executive Director, Northeast Conference, at Dickinson College, Carlisle PA 17013. Telephone: 717-245-1977. E-mail: nectfl@dickinson.edu. Web site: www.nectfl.org.

This spring also sees an all time first – we anticipate a conference entirely focused on Arabic language and culture K-16, to be held in Chicago through DePaul University. It will be held June 13-16 at DePaul University in Chicago, Illinois. For more information, please contact Nesreen Akhtarkhavari at: NAKHTAK@depaul.edu

Alongside issues of curriculum and certification, materials continue to be the big need. We will soon be posting any information we have collected on materials, on this site.

As we have said before, we have come a long way in a short time, but we still have a long way to go. Please send us information about your programs, your plans, your materials and information about new programs that may be starting up in your communities. We will make every effort to disseminate information about your work to the broader public, but we cannot do it without you.

We at the NCLRC, look forward to another banner year in 2008 for the teaching and learning of Arabic K-12.
Dora Johnson
Salima Intidame
Banafsaj Kanaan
Catharine Keatley

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