<html><body 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: Fri 26 Jun 2009</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:Teacher accent and class size queries</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: 26 Jun 2009</div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; ">From:Chris Holman <<a href="mailto:chrish@uoregon.edu">chrish@uoregon.edu</a>></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; ">Subject:Teacher accent and class size queries</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; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium; ">Hello everyone! I have written this list a few times before, and I am always helped by your responses. So, here I am yet again with two questions:<br><br>1) I am in the process of re-writing a first-year curriculum, and I am curious as to what other departments have done when it comes to the accents/dialects of the teachers working in the program. I know that there are regional variations (i.e. North Africa vs. Arabian Peninsula) with many letters, and that other languages (i.e. French, English) can impact the way an Arabic-speaker pronounces certain things. My question is whether or not it makes sense to streamline pronunciation in the first term or two of Arabic instruction, so that students are all hearing the same things regardless of the teacher and his or her personal geography. What I have personally experienced is what I have been calling 'manufactured diglossia', where our students sometimes think that a word is different only because of the difference in pronunciation. It is, in fact, the same word...but students hear it differently and thus categorize it differently. This is more of a problem in the beginning, in my experience, and I am a big proponent of getting students familiar with the regional/dialect variations...but only later in the year after students have a strong foundation to work from.<br><br>2) This is a common problem, I am sure, but my main issue is that the average class size in my program is around 22-23 students. First-year classes have been maxed out at 28 as recently as last year, and this summer there is potential for a class of 30 in ARB 103 (third quarter, first-year). My question is what people in similar situations have done when it comes to homework. In our program we are only three instructors with minimal help in terms of grading, and this Fall we are looking at an enrollment of well over 200 students in 9 classes. I have tried multiple approaches over the last three years, but every term I end up behind. So, any ideas or suggestions that you have would be greatly appreciated. It's just that there is only so much time in the day and correcting 75 homework assignments/night is pretty much an impossibility (unless the homework is extremely light) given all of our other responsibilities.<br><br>As always, thank you for listening, responding and anything else. I hope that the summer is going well for all of you!<br><br><br>--<br>Chris Holman<br>Instructor & Arabic Program Coordinator<br>1236 University of Oregon (WLA-YLC)<br>Eugene, OR 97403-1236<br>(541) 346-1538 Fax: 346-3917<br></span></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; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><br></span></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: 05 Sep 2008</div></body></html>