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Arabic Language Instruction

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  09 March 2016

Peter F. Abboud
Peter F. Abboud*
Affiliation:
University of Texas at Austin
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Extract

The last fifteen years have witnessed rapid growth in the number of students studying Arabic and of programs concerned with the teaching of the language. This is directly attributable to the awakened interest in the United States in the Middle East in general, and the Arab world in particular, as a result of the entry of the U.S. in World War II and its emergence as a global power with strategic, economical, and political interests in the area. This is not to say that the teaching of Arabic is a new phenomenon in the U.S. As an indespensible tool of Orientalistic scholarship, Arabic was taught for many years in a few institutions which offered programs in Oriental and Semitic Studies.

Type
Research Article
Information
Review of Middle East Studies , Volume 5 , Issue 2 , May 1971 , pp. 1 - 23
Copyright
Copyright © Middle East Studies Association of North America 1971

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References

Notes.

1 This is a completely revised version of The Teaching of Arabic in the United States: The State of the Art.: (ERIC Clearinghouse for linguistics, Center for Applied Linguistics, 1968). The format was worked out in conjunction with my colleague, Professor M.A. Jazayery, who will use it in his forthcoming article on the Teaching of Persian).

2 A recent study conducted at the University of Michigan of the vocabulary of eleven most commonly used MSA books and readers shows that the number of items they all share is negligible; the vocabulary common to even as few as three of these books is remarkably small.

3 The Arabic Teachers’ Workshop of 1966 reached this conclusion after studying all the available ‘intermediate’ books. See Papers of the Arabic Teachers’ Workshop on Intermediate Standard Arabic Instruction, pp. 22-33.

4 A forthcoming issue of the Bulletin will carry an inventory of Arabic language tapes.

5 Papers of the Arabic Teachers’ Workshop: Ann Arbor, Michigan, June 8-18, 1965. Preliminary ed. Center for Applied Linguistics. Washington, D.C. December, 1965Google Scholar; Abboud, Peter, ed., Papers of The Arabic Teachers’ Workshop on Intermediate Modern Standard Arabic Instruction. Preliminary ed. Middle East Center, University of Texas, Austin, Texas. December 1966.Google Scholar

6 See Abboud, , Victorine, C. and Bunderson, C. Victor. A Computer-Assisted Instruction Program in the Arabic Writing System. The University of Texas at Austin, Computer Assisted Instruction Laboratory. Technical Report No. 4. Austin, Texas. February 1971.Google Scholar

7 For additional listing see my paper, The Teaching of Arabic in the United States: The State of the Art and Blass, , Birgit, A., Johnson, Dora E. and Gage, William W.. A Provisional Survey of Materials for the Study of Neglected Languages. Washington, D.C., Center for Applied Linguistics, 1969.Google Scholar