Arabic-L:PEDA:Which dialect to teach

[Dilworth Parkinson]

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Arabic-L: Thu 22 Feb 2007
Moderator: Dilworth Parkinson <dilworth_parkinson at byu.edu>
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-------------------------Directory------------------------------------

1) Subject:Which dialect to teach
2) Subject:Which dialect to teach
3) Subject:Which dialect to teach
4) Subject:Which dialect to teach

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1)
Date: 22 Feb 2007
From:"Jeremy Palmer" <jeremy.palmer at gmail.com>
Subject:Which dialect to teach

Dear Mike Schub,

I am surprised that you do not know which spoken variety to teach. The
profession has come to the following conclusion regarding the issue:

you should teach variety "x", because variety "y" is not understood in
countries "a", "b", and "c" - but the majority of the people who  
speak "a",
"b", and "c" (and don't forget "d") understand variety "x". We have also
always felt an acute attraction for dialect "z", so you might  
consider that
as well. You must realize, however, that variety "x" might not be  
understood
outside of that particular city, so you really should teach variety  
"x.1",
which is not to be confused with dialect "x", due to the sensitive  
nature of
vernacular discrimination and language identity. Did we mention the  
lack of
codification for variety "x" in general? We hope you won't try to
standardize variety "x.1" without the consent of the local populace, who
might not even wish to consider "x.1" a real "language". Good luck  
with all
that!

Humor aside, this is one of the most loaded questions in the  
profession.  I
am a proponent of teaching spoken varieties, though I will not  
attempt to
enlighten this listserv. Perhaps a personal email might be more  
appropriate
in which I can reveal my own variety bias.

Best,

Jeremy Palmer
Second Language Acquisition and Teaching
(SLAT) PhD student
University of Arizona

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2)
Date: 22 Feb 2007
From:"Bill Young" <byoung at casl.umd.edu>
Subject:Which dialect to teach

It seems to me that no one can say what the "best" variety would be
without knowing more about your program, your students' goals and needs,
and your location.

How many years of teaching spoken Arabic do you want to provide?  If you
need course materials for two years of spoken Arabic, you might want to
focus on either Egyptian or Levantine Arabic, because there are probably
more textbooks and teaching materials available for those dialects than
for the others.

Do you want to enable your students to shift easily between the formal,
"modern standard" register and the colloquial register?  (In that case,
your courses in modern standard would have to be integrated with your
courses in a colloquial variety.  Any spoken dialect could be integrated
with courses in classical Arabic.)

Do you want your students to be able to interact with Arabic speakers in
the local community?  (ex. in Chicago the predominant varieties in the
immigrant communities are Jordanian/Palestinian and Egyptian, with some
Yemeni speakers.  In New York there are probably more Egyptians and
Yemenis than there are Syrians or Moroccans.)  I don't know what the
predominant immigrant dialects are in Connecticut, but you could
probably find out easily enough.

Do you want your students to improve their spoken fluency by attending
language programs overseas?  In that case you have many dialects to
choose from (Egyptian, Jordanian, Moroccan, Syrian, Tunisian, Yemeni).
Not all Arab countries have programs for teaching Arabic to English
speakers, however.  There is a new one run by Georgetown in Qatar but
nothing in Kuwait or Oman or Sudan or Algeria, as far as I know.  I
think that there are programs in Saudi Arabia but they have religious
restrictions.

Do most of your students want to learn spoken Arabic in order to get US
government jobs?  In that case, Iraqi dialect is now very marketable,
for obvious reasons.

Does your institution have strong programs in Middle East anthropology,
African history, development economics?  Can you recruit students from
these programs who want to use spoken Arabic for doing field research?
If so, ask them which dialects they need.

 From a purely linguistic perspective, there are no grounds for choosing
one dialect over the others.  Most native speakers argue that their
native dialects are "closer to Classical Arabic" than the others.  I've
heard Egyptians, Syrians, and Sudanese all make this argument, even
though all of these dialects have diverged significantly from classical
Arabic in many respects.  Egyptian dialect is probably understood over a
wider geographical area than the other dialects, because it has been
"exported" from Egypt in Egyptian films, songs, and TV programs.  But
the Arabs who understand Egyptian Arabic do not speak it with each other
and only use it when they meet Egyptians or foreigners.  So this is not
an especially good reason to choose Egyptian.

Anyway, these are my opinions.  I hope they are helpful.

Best,

Bill Young
University of Maryland

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3)
Date: 22 Feb 2007
From: "John Joseph Colangelo" <yaacolangelo at hotmail.com>
Subject:Which dialect to teach

My two cents,
I would give an introduction to Levantine, Egyptian and Moroccan  
Arabic. John Jospeh Colangelo

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4)
Date: 22 Feb 2007
From: Dan Parvaz <dparvaz at mac.com>
Subject:Which dialect to teach

I'd argue that the "best" spoken variety is some combination of:

1. The one you know (the minute an instructor claims they speak "all  
dialects" or "several dialects", run in the opposite direction)
2. The one your institution has resources for (sister school? study  
abroad center? native instructors?)
3. The one for which there is some interest and/or focus (have an  
African studies program? Assyriology? etc.)

Others can speak better as to the "how" here.

-Dan.

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End of Arabic-L:  22 Feb 2007
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