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

[Dilworth Parkinson]

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Arabic-L: Wed 21 Oct 2009
Moderator: Dilworth Parkinson <dilworth_parkinson at byu.edu>
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1) Subject:Number of Al-Kitaab Chapters per term
2) Subject:Number of Al-Kitaab Chapters per term

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1)
Date: 21 Oct 2009
From:Hanada Taha-Thomure <hanada at arabexpertise.com>
Subject:Number of Al-Kitaab Chapters per term

Hello Dear David,

First of all, a warm salute to you and to my Alma Mater, AUB, and to  
the wonderful Arabic program you have there.

Second, I'm very pleased to hear anyone at all mentioning the word  
"goals".  It is essential that we move the discourse in the field of  
Arabic teaching & learning from "which chapter in which textbook ought  
we finish" to "what goals, skills and competencies ought our students  
learn and master."  The field of education has made wide strides into  
that domain and the Arabic language professionals and programs need to  
benefit from that, otherwise, we become yet again textbook and teacher- 
centered programs which is not a very relevant situation in today's  
world.

Having clearly articulated competencies ad goals that all learners of  
Arabic need to achieve after a certain number of instructional hours  
has been completed will help streamline the field and lessen the state  
of chaos created.  It will in addition, give teachers the freedom  
indeed to choose materials from various sources to help them  
accomplish those goals and competencies and for once we will all speak  
the same educational jargon.

Best regards, hanada


Hanada Taha-Thomure, PhD
Director of Arabic Programs,
Language Acquisition Resource Center, SDSU http://larc.sdsu.edu
858-342-7399 OR 619-594-0371
Director, ArabExpertise www.arabexpertise.com
Lecturer, Department of Linguistics & Oriental Languages, SDSU
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2)
Date: 21 Oct 2009
From: kassem wahba <kassem_wahba at yahoo.com>
Subject:Number of Al-Kitaab Chapters per term



1-      There is a big difference between goals of a program at a  
university level and material covered in terms of how many chapters  
covered per each semester for a course in a text book (any text –Peter  
Abboud or Al-Osh or A-Batal-Abbas- Younis etc). Since Each program-I  
assume- is based on a clear (not vague) philosophy in terms of goals  
specified for the learners, the teachers, and administration, The  
issues of covering materials depends on the program philosophy not the  
other way around. I assume that it is not sound rational to base a  
program’s goals on any textbook. However, the textbook should be  
adopted for the needs of any program in terms of the goals of the  
learners and what the teachers want, and the administration’s  
philosophy of having Arabic taught at their institute.
I think this is the problem of many language programs- a book is  
selected and adopted as a curriculum for the whole program.

2-      Another question related to the goals of a
  language program: is there a difference between the goals of  
learning Arabic at the university level or the non-university level?  
In other words, why should a student study a foreign language like  
Arabic in a university and not at any private institute? I assume  
there must be some differences.
The main differences are the goals of the program which should be  
based on a philosophy that assure delivering content + high quality  
instruction. Many programs will state that they deliver high quality  
instructions (whether it is true or not I am not arguing for this  
point- I assume there must be some sort of criteria) However, the  
content is the main difference between  learning Arabic at a  
university level and a non- university level. The question now is do  
any of the adopted language textbooks fit
  the goals of any Arabic language program at a university level?
I’m not passing my judgment on any text book but As far as I am  
concerned there is a big issue for discussion here.

    The issue of goals can be expressed briefly in terms of:  1) What  
the students will learn through the use of Arabic language (not  
English or using any other language) in terms of content (culture,  
religion. etc...) at the university level 2) What the student will be  
able to do with Arabic after taking X number
  of courses?

3- Is there a difference in terms of goals  (philosophies) between the  
following: a) an Arabic program housed in a Middle East Program b) an  
Arabic program next to an Islamic Studies program within the same  
department c) and an Arabic program housed in a foreign language  
department?



Let me pose the question again, if we assume there is a difference,  
does this help us to use same the text books for all the above  
programs. Is there any textbook that fits all the goals of programs?

3-      Since the goals of the program are linked with what the
  learners will learn in terms
    of content and  proficiency language level, the issue of material  
covered comes in a relatively secondary position after setting and  
knowing the learning program’s goals. The issue is not the materials  
covered, it is with the language tasks in terms of language use (FUSHA  
and ‘Aamiyya)  that students will be able to do or assumed to doing  
after studying one semester or two semesters in reading, writing,  
listening and speaking and in themes and topics that reflects the  
content of the materials covered.

5-      Another point related to the question posed: How many chapters  
covered in a book X in one semester? The question is an achievement  
rather than a proficiency-related question. It takes us back to the  
goals of the program to see if the goals are stated in terms of the  
number of lesson covered, if the goals of the program requires the  
teacher to end with a certain number of lessons per semester, IT seems  
to me that fulfilling of the above mentioned
  program goals and course objectives requires a different approach  
than the one we are claiming we are doing.
6-      Related to the issue of assessment, is the placement test. As  
we know that placement test is used by administrators to classify  
incoming students with various language abilities according to the  
different instructional levels represented in X program. Thus, since  
each program
  has different goals, it will have certain language requirements that  
are manifested in its own placement test. So placement testing is  
curriculum-dependent. In other words, I can not take a placement test  
from x program and use it in another program.
7-      What is the purpose of ACTFL ratings or (measure):
    One of the purposes of the ACTFL measures (as we know) is to  
establish standards that are comparable with other programs  
independent of the standard set within a certain curriculum or a  
program. However, the problem with ACTFL testing is it assesses the  
general language abilities and it does not reflects the learning goals  
specific to a certain program or a school x at the university level.  
Here ACTFL does not help us in to distinguish between language  
abilities required at a university and non-university level.   
Accordingly It is not appropriate to use ACTFL to set learning  
standards in a university program that has it own learning goals. This  
may lead us to be using another modified assessment tool that suits  
the requirement of each Arabic language program appropriate within the  
university level. However, ACTFL guidelines can be used for
  comparable purposes.

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End of Arabic-L:  21 Oct 2009