Arabic-L:PEDA:Effective Programs for Arabic Heritage Learners

[Dilworth Parkinson]

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Arabic-L: Thu 11 Mar 2010
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1) Subject:Effective Programs for Arabic Heritage Learners

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1)
Date: 11 Mar 2010
From:Nehad Shawky <shawky at aucegypt.edu>
Subject:Effective Programs for Arabic Heritage Learners

Effective language programs for (Arabic Heritage Learners) AHL

In the previous post "Is it time our children heard about “Sirat Banu Hilal ," I raised  the question to educationalists , language planners/parents of   Arabic Heritage Children (AHL)  about how to begin Arabic Heritage  teaching, i.e. the use of  our heritage components in classes  versus AFL corpus. There is a general recognition that the needs of heritage learners are different from L2 learners, I suggest there could be a necessity for a growing body of literature that identifies those needs. What distinguishes heritage language and foreign language acquisition is that heritage language acquisition begins at home, as opposed to foreign language acquisition which, is usually begun in classrooms. The model for instruction proposes that the curriculum should be organized so that students initially draw on their knowledge of the spoken language. The norms of various written genres are introduced gradually, progressing from less to more formal and more complex discourse typ!
 e, with an emphasis on text cohesion.

Due to the  lack of pedagogical literature proposing effective teaching strategies for heritage language populations, especially strategies that could apply cross-linguistically. Linguists are invited to attempt to wed practice to theory, proposing a pedagogical approach to heritage language literacy that is based on insights into bilingualism and intergenerational language shift.

Other consideration, therefore, related to the development and implementation of Heritage Language programs include: curriculum development is an important component of an AHL language program. There is an urgent need for more planning; Effective language programs require honest assessment and evaluation to ensure that both the short and long term objectives are being met. A broad range of people should be involved in that evaluation, not only the people who set up the programs. AHL history,  as a resource and material for use in language instruction, thus ,we could create a bridge between AHL learners and their history in order to create a compromise for some subjects.

 Read the whole article on  “علينا ألا ننسى تاريخنا فلنا فيه عبر وعظات, and do post your comments. http://ahlbaladi.blogspot.com

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End of Arabic-L:  11 Mar 2010