Spring 2019 Arabic Pedagogy Conference:
Common Challenges in K-12 and Post-Secondary Arabic Language Education
Saturday, April 6, 2019 | 9:00 a.m. – 4:30 p.m.
Swift Hall
University of Chicago, Main Quad
1025 E 58th St
Chicago, IL 60637
The Chicago Arabic Teachers Council and the Center for Middle Eastern Studies at the University of Chicago are pleased to organize our second annual conference on Teaching Arabic as a Foreign Language. This is an opportunity for K-12 and post-secondary Arabic instructors to come together and explore ideas relevant to teachers of Arabic at all levels. In this changing and growing field, it is vital that educators collaborate as they navigate the challenges of teaching communicative and intercultural competence in a language characterized by diglossia, diverse speakers, and a rich history.
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Program Schedule
8:30–9:00 a.m. Sign-in and light breakfast (Commons Room, Ground Floor)
9:00–9:15 a.m. Welcome (Lecture Hall, Third Floor)
9:15–10:00 a.m. Presentation 1 (Lecture Hall, Third Floor)
John Eisele: “Issues in Arabic Pedagogy: Variation, Vocabulary, Vocation”
10:15–11:00 a.m. Presentation 2 (Lecture Hall, Third Floor)
Mouna Mana: “Visible Proficiency: Thoughts and Strategies for Effective Language Learner Self-Assessment”
11:15–12:00 p.m. Presentation 3 (Lecture Hall, Third Floor)
Fadi Abughoush: “Games and Brain Breaks to Keep the Class Moving and Students Engaged”
12:00–1:00 p.m. Lunch (Commons Room, Ground Floor)
Music by Mark Gavoor
1:00–1:45 p.m. Presentation 4 (Lecture Hall, Third Floor)
Alice Saba: “Igniting Students’ Motivation to Learning Arabic in Elementary Schools”
2:00–2:45 p.m. Presentation 5 (Lecture Hall, Third Floor)
Nader Uthman: “Moving Beyond the Intermediate Plateau: Advanced Spoken Arabic via Real-Life Performance Tasks”
3:00–4:00 p.m. Student Panel (Lecture Hall, Third Floor)
Participants: Saloni Jaiswal, David Jones-Carroll, Krishna Kulkarni, and Daisy Zarco. Moderator: Aidan Kaplan.
4:00–4:20 p.m. Closing discussion and evaluations (Lecture Hall, Third Floor)
4:20–4:30 p.m. Raffle (Lecture Hall, Third Floor)
Conference Speakers
Since 2008, Fadi Abughoush has been teaching Arabic as a foreign language to students from grades 8 through 12 at Lindblom Math and Science Academy in Chicago. Through his role at Lindblom, he has developed and implemented an Arabic language curriculum and also takes pride in incorporating aspects of Arab culture (including music, art, film, poetry, literature, and cuisine) throughout his teaching and work with students. At Lindblom, he helped establish Chicago’s first Arabic V course (during 2014-15 school year). He is the Co-founder #arabiclangchat on Twitter. He believes in learning language with TPRS and comprehensible input. In March 2014 and 2016 he led Lindblom’s Arabic debate team to the International Schools Arabic Debate Championship Competition in Doha, Qatar. In the last 2 years he was part of the team that created the WL Guidance Document for Chicago Public Schools. Currently, he is the Language Department Chair, and he also serves as a member of the Teacher Advisory Board for Al-Masdar and as the vice chair of the Arabic SIG at ACTFL.
Mouna Mana is a language pedagogy expert with a focus on Arabic language education, language assessment, online learning, and teacher professional development. Dr. Mana recently served as the Director of Arabic language and culture programs at Qatar Foundation International where she supervised a range of grant-making programs including the development of K-12 Arabic programs. She has taught Arabic at the university level and with high school heritage learners of Arabic. Through her experience with the STARTALK initiative at the National Foreign Language Center, Dr. Mana has extensive experience in evaluation of Arabic curricula, K-12 and university programs, as well as language teacher training programs. She has supported the development and review of Arabic programs in the U.S. and in the Middle East, as well as conducted research on language teachers’ professional learning and development. She has mentored and trained Arabic teachers from a variety of professional backgrounds and has offered numerous professional development workshops across the U.S. Dr Mana has consulted for ACTFL and has published on Arabic language teachers’ professionalization.
Nader Uthman teaches Arabic language, literature and culture at New York University, where he is a professor in the Middle Eastern and Islamic Studies Department. A literary translator, he has also taught at SUNY Albany, Emory, Columbia, the United Nations and The New York Times. He was awarded the Presidential Teaching Award at Columbia and the Golden Dozen Award at NYU. This summer, he will serve as an Arabic language expert for the STARTALK@NYU Teacher Training Institute.
John Eisele has been the Arabic Studies program director at the College of William and Mary. He holds a joint PhD in Linguistics and Near East Languages and Literatures from the University of Chicago. He is the author of the book Arabic Verbs in Time: Tense and Aspect in Cairene Arabic (Harrasowitz: 1999) and of numerous essays published in Language, Journal of the American Oriental Society, al‑Arabiyyah, and Perspectives on Arabic Linguistics. He is a past recipient of Fulbright and NEH fellowships, and Department of Education grants. He has conducted research and published in three fields: linguistics, cultural studies, and language pedagogy, all related to Arabic or Middle Eastern Studies. In the area of linguistics, he has dealt with studies of the syntax and semantics of tense and aspect in Arabic, as well as Arabic morphology. With regard to cultural studies, he has applied the methodology of cultural studies to the study of the representation of the Arabic language as a cultural icon and linguistic object. In addition, he has published articles on the representation of Arabs and the Middle East in the Hollywood tradition, including an article on this topic (“The Wild East: Decoding the Language of Genre in the Hollywood Eastern”) which has appeared in Cinema Journal. His third area of research, Arabic language pedagogy, has taken the forms of several articles on the topic in journals and edited volumes, and a textbook project for Modern Standard Arabic and related dialects. He teaches courses on Arabic language, literature in translation, and Arab film as an introduction to the Arab world. He has also taught for several summers in the Middlebury College Masters in Teaching Arabic as a Foreign Language Program.
Alice Saba is the World Language teacher at Volta Elementary school. She started the Arabic world language program in 2008 and has been teaching there since. Alice grew up in Jordan and received her Bachelor degree From the University of Jordan. She has a Master’s degree in Teaching with an endorsement in Second Language Acquisition, Arabic Bilingual Education and Arabic World Language. Alice has been part of a team of CPS teachers and ACTFL consultants that created the World Language Guidance Document for Chicago Public Schools. Alice also started an after school Dabkeh and Percussion club, where students learn about the Arabic culture through music and dance.