Arabic-L:PEDA:Number of Al-Kitaab Chapters per term

[Dilworth Parkinson]

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Arabic-L: Mon 12 Oct 2009
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1) Subject:Number of Al-Kitaab Chapters per term

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1)
Date: 12 Oct 2009
From:David Wilmsen <david.wilmsen at gmail.com>
Subject:Number of Al-Kitaab Chapters per term

To those of you using the al kitaab series in teaching non-native  
speakers of Arabic, I should like to see some discussion of specific  
goals for the number of chapters we should be covering per term or  
semester.  This seems to be something of a trade secret at each  
university whose curriculum I have examined. It should not be; we  
should all know where we want to take our students.

For students following a lock-step at a certain university (and for  
their instructors) this should not pose a significant problem, unless  
of course the school itself has no set goals. I taught for a year at  
one such school in the States, and for the whole time I was there, I  
could not get a firm commitment from any of the other instructors or  
the administration about where I should begin or end. At that school,  
my students were the best source of information about navigating the  
somewhat inflexible routines of the school, and so I petitioned them  
and started where most of them had left off and got them as far as we  
could get.

Of course, goals would have to be flexible, depending upon the  
aggregate skill in each classroom and the average of where all  
students had arrived upon beginning the class.

But for students coming from various schools in the States and  
elsewhere to study at a study-abroad locale, from whence I write, it  
becomes a more serious matter. In the Arabic program at AUB, we  
service non-native speakers of Arabic (and many heritage learners)  
studying for a three to four-term masters, a few undergrads pursuing  
four year degrees, and many many students coming for a semester or  
year abroad.  The placement of these last is the most perplexing.

The two main issues are both matters of articulation. Where do we  
place students who have studied some Arabic? (Granted, this is a  
universal problem.) We do have a placement test, but it takes three  
hours to complete, and so we often revert to the shorthand of placing  
students based upon where they have arrived in the al-kitaabseries  
(the books we use) or an equivalent.  Some of our students come from  
Europe, and many of them have used Schulz, Krahl, and Reuschel/Dickens  
and Watkins. Oddly enough, it is easier to articulate them into the al- 
kitaab curriculum than it is to articulate students coming from  
different universities in the States. Everyone seems to be getting  
students to different points in the book. Some programs use different  
books; often the textbook seems to be chosen at the discretion of the  
instructor; and sometimes the instructor appears to create his or her  
own materials as the class proceeds, never relying upon a textbook at  
all.  I won't go in to my pet peeves about the haphazard approach to  
Arabic teaching in the States. But those three aspects of the  
construct of the Arabic curriculum in the States complicate our  
placement of students coming to us from stateside.

To reiterate, the three perplexities are as follows:

1. variable chapter attainments in the al kitaab series
2. the use of books different from the al kitaab series
3. the use of no books whatsoever

These, then, certainly cause us some anxiety about the second matter.

That too is a matter of articulation; specifically it is a question of  
enabling students to meet a language requirement at their home  
institutions. We feel an obligation to the profession to return to its  
various members and institutions their students ready to articulate  
into their home institutions' curricula or to have satisfied their  
language requirements or to be able to place out of an achievement/ 
proficiency test.

We are definitely shooting at a moving target.

I should say that we usually manage and we have many success stories.   
But that doesn't mean that universities sending their students to us  
should remain so taciturn about their expectations.  (Granted, many  
stateside university study abroad offices would rather not acknowledge  
that their students are coming to Beirut at all, much less engage in  
an open discussion of what they would like their students to achieve.  
Their fears, I hasten to point, out are ill founded. Beirut is a great  
environment for a study-abroad experience.)

As near as I can tell, and based upon what I can extrapolate from  
universities' somewhat vague curriculum descriptions and from what  
many students in the lock-step who reach our shores seem to have  
achieved, then, it seems to me that many programs reach chapter 13 in  
book i at the end of two terms of teaching. I suppose that makes  
sense.  Figuring ten days (that is two weeks, if classes meet every  
day) to cover Aliph Baa, and then two weeks per chapter in al kitaab  
book i, in a fourteen-week term students should be able to reach  
chapter 5 or 6 in the first term and chapter 13 or 14 in the second.

In the fall and spring terms at AUB, we usually get as far as chapter  
16 or 17 in the first year; sometimes 18. (Our summer intensive  
program is a different matter, wherein we can meet students at half- 
way articulation points. We have no intensive program throughout the  
regular school year.)

We may get further than most because we do not address the vernacular  
Egyptian aspects of the lessons. Incorporating a vernacular element  
into the curriculum would probably add at least one and more likely  
two full class sessions to the amount of time it takes to complete a  
chapter. As we are not currently including a vernacular element, we  
save two to four weeks of class time, which can then be devoted to  
fusha. (Now that I think of it this way, it becomes clear to me that  
even that small amount of time devoted to the vernacular is not  
enough, unless students discuss their material in the vernacular). We  
are ordering the new Syrian-oriented DVDs and will start addressing  
the vernacular in class perhaps as early as this term, depending upon  
when the discs actually arrive. So our chapter attainments could begin  
to trend toward the presumptive mean.

We also teach spoken Lebanese Arabic in separate classes and many of  
our students either begin with that, if they have time, or take the  
two concurrently (again, if their schedules permit). It is a shame to  
waste their time in country focusing mainly on fusha, which, after  
all, they could study anywhere.

Regardless of where I think we should arrive or where I would like to  
start the "intermediate" class, we usually end up starting around  
chapter 15. (I place "intermediate" in scare quotes because after two  
terms of Arabic, students are not intermediate at all but high  
beginners-unless they have been studying a vernacular too.) That of  
course is usually a compromise position and it depends upon where all  
the students arrived in their various universities. Our term begins on  
Monday, and it seems to me that this year we will begin the  
"intermediate" level at chapter 14.

That means that by the end of the third term of al kitaab, we usually  
get to chapter 2 or 3 of book ii (assuming three weeks per chapter for  
book ii), and by the end of the fourth term, chapter 6 or 7. (By that  
time, our students are more-or-less true intermediates.)

The fifth level (which we do call advanced) began last year in chapter  
8 of book ii, and judging by the level of the students this year, it  
looks like that is where we will begin again.

By itself, book three could take several terms to complete. For some  
reason, students at that level are easier to place too.

I should add that we also have a full curriculum of Arabic literature  
and thought conducted in Arabic, many of them service review classes,  
and occasionally we have non-native speakers who have reached a level  
of proficiency sufficient to allow them to enroll and participate in  
those classes (three this term).

Do these attainments jibe with other programs using al kitaab?

I am not going to name names, but I would really appreciate some  
expectations/guidelines from those universities who regularly send  
their students to Beirut.

David Wilmsen, PhD, Arabic language and linguistics
Associate Professor of Arabic
Department of Arabic and Near Eastern Languages
American University of Beirut



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End of Arabic-L:  12 Oct 2009


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