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Experiential learning a Key to develop oral proficiency skills: CASA summer experience
Abstract
Language programs and pedagogy are always shifting to adjust to new fresh ideas, students’ needs and new challenging goals. As CASA summer program underwent a major change in curriculum and structure, the goals for teaching the advanced colloquial Arabic course shifted as well. The colloquial Arabic course diminishes the focus on teaching textbooks and concentrates on providing students with rich authentic cultural learning opportunities linked to MSA course content in an attempt to move the students to the superior level. The most recent guidelines released by the American Council on Teaching of Foreign Languages (ACTFL) stated that mixing both MSA and a dialect is a predominant feature in Arabic speech at the Superior –level (ACTFL2012). In addition, the updated course aims to reflect the linguistic reality of the Arabic spoken varieties through exposing students to a variety of authentic cultural activities aiming to foster higher language proficiency that is sociolinguistic appropriate . Al Batal and Benlap (2006:397) mention that “the Arabic classroom is a place in which multiple registers co-exist, as they do in real life”. Moreover, in order to maximize oral interaction with Egyptian native speakers, activities were designed in cultural context to raise their cultural awareness and set the students on the path towards the superior level. As stated by Huntly (2018), Interactions are key to developing the necessary cultural knowledge and awareness students need in their future life. In this context, the study discusses and aims to: 1) share the instructor’s teaching experiences, instructional practices to engage CASA students in authentic cultural setting with the expectation to reach the superior level by the time they end the full year program. 2) present an instructional approach in which colloquial Arabic course integrates MSA content to be taught side by side as one language entity focusing on developing spoken oral production. 3) designing task based instruction questions to reflect on meeting authors, community based learning, visiting historical sites ….. etc. to deepen their cultural and linguistic competence. Finally, the study provides suggestions on how to improve authentic instructional activities to promote students to the superior level and to more sophisticated levels of Arabic language use. In addition, it suggests further areas of inquiry, and provides practical implications for effective course and curriculum design as well as class instruction and activities.
Discipline
Language
Geographic Area
Egypt
Sub Area
Language Acquisition