<html><body style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; -webkit-line-break: after-white-space; "><div style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; -webkit-line-break: after-white-space; "><div style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; -webkit-line-break: after-white-space; "><div style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; -webkit-line-break: after-white-space; "><div style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; -webkit-line-break: after-white-space; "><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; ">------------------------------------------------------------------------</div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; ">Arabic-L: Mon 30 Jun 2008</div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; ">Moderator: Dilworth Parkinson <<a href="mailto:dilworth_parkinson@byu.edu">dilworth_parkinson@byu.edu</a>></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; ">[To post messages to the list, send them to <a href="mailto:arabic-l@byu.edu">arabic-l@byu.edu</a>]</div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; ">[To unsubscribe, send message from same address you subscribed from to</div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><a href="mailto:listserv@byu.edu">listserv@byu.edu</a> with first line reading:</div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "> unsubscribe arabic-l ]</div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 12px/normal Helvetica; min-height: 14px; "><br></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; ">-------------------------Directory------------------------------------</div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 12px/normal Helvetica; min-height: 14px; "><br></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; ">1) Subject:Report on experimental study abroad: Arabic and geology</div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 12px/normal Helvetica; min-height: 14px; "><br></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; ">-------------------------Messages-----------------------------------</div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; ">1)</div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; ">Date: 30 Jun 2008</div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; ">From:Mustafa Mughazy <<a href="mailto:mustafa.mughazy@wmich.edu">mustafa.mughazy@wmich.edu</a>></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; ">Subject:Report on experimental study abroad: Arabic and geology</div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 12px/normal Helvetica; min-height: 14px; "><br></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 12px/normal Helvetica; min-height: 14px; "><p>Dear Colleagues,</p><div style="margin-top: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-left: 0in; ">I would like to report to you on a study abroad program that I led to Egypt this summer. This program was different from anything I have done or seen before. I would really appreciate your feedback.</div><div style="margin-top: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-left: 0in; "><o:p> </o:p></div><div style="margin-top: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-left: 0in; ">This was an intensive Colloquial Egyptian Arabic program (64 hours of instruction in four weeks). Of course the colloquial-first students reached a solid ILR level 2+ by the end of the fourth week. You could actually have an involved conversation with them in clear Arabic. Do not worry. They finished Al-kitaab 1 before leaving for Egypt and they will spend the next year working on MSA to catch up with their peers in other universities. The program was hosted by TEFL International in Alexandria, Egypt (highly recommended).</div><div style="margin-top: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-left: 0in; "><a href="http://www.teflintl.com/egypt_alexandria.htm"><font color="#000080">http://www.teflintl.com/egypt_alexandria.htm</font></a></div><div style="margin-top: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-left: 0in; "><o:p> </o:p></div><div style="margin-top: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-left: 0in; ">The main mission of the host institute is to certify teachers of English as a foreign language, mostly American and European recent graduates who want to get certified to teach English in the Gulf or East Asia. That guaranteed the quality of instruction, since the instructors were well versed in both Arabic (MSA and EA) and up to date teaching approaches/techniques. The shift to instructors with TESOL background was very effective. It also gave students new ideas about what to do after graduation.</div><div style="margin-top: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-left: 0in; "><o:p> </o:p></div><div style="margin-top: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-left: 0in; ">The innovative part was the culture/geology component. The program also included a three credit hour Gen-Ed course on the Arab World. I team-taught this class with a colleague from the Geosciences Department, whose specialty is the geology of the Middle East. In addition to regular classroom instruction, every excursion included lectures on the land and its people. For example, the trip to the High Dam in Aswan included a lecture by my colleague on the geological history of the region, the rock formation of the river basin, and the process of building the dam. I talked about the socio-political history of the dam and how it affected the Egyptian nationalist/socialist identity. We even discussed the propaganda machine at the time and why Abdel Halim Hafiz was an engineer in many of his movies. That was followed by a discussion of how the dam affected the development of the middle class and the current economy. Having these lectures after reading Whatever Happened to the Egypti ans by Galal Amin (translated by David wilmsen) had the effect of magic; it all came together.</div><div style="margin-top: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-left: 0in; "><o:p> </o:p></div><div style="margin-top: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-left: 0in; ">I was thrilled to see students collecting rocks everywhere the same way they were collecting idioms and slang expressions. Everything involved rocks and words, and making the links between rocks/words and family relations, wedding ceremonies, burial rituals, or diet was always interesting.</div><div style="margin-top: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-left: 0in; "><o:p> </o:p></div><div style="margin-top: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-left: 0in; ">We are now working on another Colloquial Arabic study abroad program for next year. This will be designed for geology students who want to work in the oil industry after they graduate. The program will have a home base in Alexandria, but all the instruction will be on the road. The faculty leaders and the language instructors will join the students on a tour of the major geological areas in Egypt while learning Arabic.</div><div style="margin-top: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-left: 0in; "><o:p> </o:p></div><div style="margin-top: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-left: 0in; ">What do you think?</div><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-left: 0in; "> </p><div style="margin-top: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-left: 0in; ">Mustafa Mughazy</div><div style="margin-top: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-left: 0in; ">Associate Professor of Arabic</div><div style="margin-top: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-left: 0in; ">Western Michigan University</div><div><br></div><div><br></div></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; ">--------------------------------------------------------------------------</div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; ">End of Arabic-L: 30 Jun 2008</div></div></div></div></div></body></html>