CMES Outreach holds Arabic teacher training program for undergraduate students

Earlier this summer, twenty-nine undergraduate students from three countries and ten states came to Harvard’s campus for advanced training in Arabic language and culture teaching. They were here for an intensive three-week workshop, the Arabic Institute for the Next Generation, run through the Outreach Center at the Center for Middle Eastern Studies. Funded by a STARTALK grant to advance the teaching of Arabic in high schools, the program was designed to support the growing national demand for trained and certified high school Arabic teachers by introducing highly proficient Arabic language undergraduate students with little or no teaching experience to the content, pedagogy, and approach skills useful both to teach Arabic in grade nine to twelve classrooms and to pursue licensure from relevant state departments of education. Held May 23 through June 8, 2012, the Arabic Institute for the Next Generation was offered at no charge to Arabic language students from colleges, universities, and community colleges.

“As a Department of Education National Resource Center, the Outreach Center works to support the advancement of knowledge about the languages and cultures of the Middle East region. The chance to collaborate with the STARTALK program, Harvard faculty, graduate students from Harvard and other schools, as well as with K-12 teachers of Arabic around the country is a natural fit and one we are proud to be a part of,” said Paul Beran, director of the Outreach Center.

Harvard University is uniquely positioned to support the under-served Arabic teacher training pipeline from undergraduate student to classroom teacher. With a long and successful track record of teaching Arabic and Middle East studies, Harvard has the pedagogical background, content, approach, and practical experience necessary to offer an intellectually invigorating teacher training program. Harvard faculty and students played key roles in providing lectures, planning, and guidance. The curriculum and format were designed with the generous help of Harvard’s Arabic teaching faculty, and aligned with the Standards for Foreign Language Learning in the 21st Century; Massachusetts certification requirements for teaching Arabic in grades 5–12; and research-based best practices for teaching high school students.

William E. Granara, NELC Arabic Director and Director of the Moroccan Studies Program, provided six lectures on Arabic culture, literature, language teaching pedagogy, and skill building. Ali S. Asani, Professor of Indo-Muslim and Islamic Religion and Cultures, Director of NELC, and Director the Prince Alwaleed Bin Talal Islamic Studies Program at Harvard University provided a lecture on calligraphy, which was used as a case to develop sample lesson plans for teaching. Diane L. Moore, Senior Lecturer in Religious Studies and Education and Senior Fellow at the Center for the Study of World Religions, provided a lecture on approaches to teaching and highlighted the Cultural Studies Method.

In addition to faculty lectures, four instructors (experienced Arabic teaching fellows from Harvard and the University of Michigan) led the participants in review and discussion of recent literature and in the practical application of teaching skills. The program also incorporated the hands-on expertise of experienced high school Arabic teachers, who acted as online “virtual mentor teachers.” Participants recorded video of daily “micro-teach” lessons, which were then posted online for review and comments by the mentor teachers. Steven Berbeco, who holds an Ed.D. in high school Arabic pedagogy from Boston University, was the program director and lead instructor. Berbeco has taught high school Arabic at Charlestown High School and in Boston public schools, and directed a STARTALK Arabic summer academy from 2007 to 2010.

“The structure of this program gave students a truly comprehensive understanding of what goes into teaching Arabic as a second language,” said Ben Smith, who has taught Arabic at Harvard for eight years. Smith is a NELC PhD candidate and was one of the teachers on the program. “These students learned a tremendous amount about applied linguistics, pedagogy, and cultural topics related to the Arabic-speaking world, but perhaps most importantly, every day they put what they learned into practice, by actually planning lessons and teaching,” Smith explains. “This combination of learning and doing helped simulate the challenges of teaching Arabic. This was a truly unique and invaluable experience for this group of students.”

Samantha Sawan, a senior at Boston University, participated in the program as a student. She began learning Arabic in seventh grade as a heritage learner. After completion of her undergraduate degree, she hopes to attend graduate school to study Arabic pedagogy. “The Arabic Institute for the Next Generation was a very unique and eye-opening experience,” Sawan said. “Before the program, I’d never seriously thought about teaching Arabic as a profession, but after having such inspiring teachers, I can’t wait to get started!”

STARTALK, the grant funder, is the newest of the component programs of the National Security Language Initiative (NSLI). Other programs under the NSLI umbrella include Title VI/Fulbright Hays programs of the U.S. Department of Education, the National Security Education program of the National Defense University, and study abroad and exchange programs of the U.S. Department of State. STARTALK’s mission is to increase the number of Americans learning, speaking, and teaching critical need foreign languages.