One of the challenges facing students studying Arabic as a foreign language is the diaglossic sociolinguistic situation where native speakers use code mixing and code switching of different levels of the language. Consequently, students become culturally shocked as they find out they are facing multilayered levels of code switching and code mixing of the language. Ryding (1991) says that this frustrates students and discourages them from continuing studying the language. Ironically enough, this code switching/mixing situation is not reflected in their classes; which concentrate on either Modern Standard Arabic (MSA) or on Colloquial. Speaking of this language phenomena, this paper concentrates on three of Badawi’s five levels of Arabic language, namely, (a) MSA; the language of newspaper and modern literature, (b) Colloquial of the educated, which is a combination of MSA and Colloquial and is used as a prestigious form of the spoken dialect suitable for speaking in formal settings and about important issues, and finally, (c) enlighted Colloquial, used by literates in daily situations. The researcher believes that as students become confident in using these three levels, they will be able to manage successfully with the code mixing as well be aware of the other two varieties. The researcher, therefore, has analyzed the language of a number of T.V. talk show scripts characterized by using Colloquial of the educated, for the purpose of supplying students with some key points for using this language level, as well as making them aware of the differences between the three levels of language considered. The researcher has also designed three different “hands on” tasks, using an authentic newspaper article, to train students on code mixing and switching in different social situations, to deal with the problems faced in diaglossic situations.

The present study tackles language interruption which is extensively employed in various Arabic conversations. Although several research investigated interruption in the English language, (Bou-Franch, 2001), there still exits a need to investigate it in the field of teaching Arabic as a foreign language (AFL). Tannen (1994:2) noted that interruption takes place “when a second speaker usurps another speaker’s right to continue speaking by taking the conversational floor”. To employ language interruption in Arabic conversations, native speakers of Arabic perform a variety of speech acts (apology, direct commands, requests, etc.). As an AFL teacher, I observed that, even after reaching an advanced level of proficiency, AFL students have difficulty comprehending and employing interruption in Arabic conversations. This observation motivated me to conduct the present study that aims at helping AFL students reach a better understanding and usage of this Arabic linguistic feature. Results of the present study also aim at contributing to previous research that suggested a fruitful future investigation of interruption in other languages rather than the English language, (Shiel, 2001:30). Thus, first, I interviewed 25 American advanced AFL students at the American university in Cairo to find out how they view language interruption in Arabic conversations. Results are to be revealed and discussed. Second, a number of Arabic talk shows addressing political, social, and cultural topics were recorded. In consecutive AFL listening and speaking lessons, I asked AFL students to listen and elicit the speech acts indicating interruption whenever they occur in the talk shows. Results revealed that students barely managed to accomplish this task. Third, after listening to each talk show, AFL students were encouraged to employ interruption in a group discussion relevant to the tackled issue. Despite of the various speech acts employed by Arabic native speakers to perform interruption, AFL students tended to (only) say “no” or “but”. Since interruption is a problematic area in advanced AFL listening and speaking classrooms, and so as to help students overcome this problem, I analyzed the recorded Arabic talk shows. Speech acts indicating interruption were elicited and classified based on their different types (apology, agreeing, disagreeing, etc.). Classifications of these speech acts were stated in a number of lists to be integrated in the listening and speaking curriculum for the use of both AFL learners and teachers. Different pedagogical activities (based on the provided lists) are to be developed to reach a better understanding and usage of language interruption.

The challenge of teaching grammar To teach grammar or not in foreign language classes is still a debatable issue. Andrew I O’ Sullivan ( 2010) argues together with other linguists that grammar books are not enough for teaching grammar because they focus on stating rules and on the sentence level only. Another debatable issue is also whether or not to use authentic material to facilitate the teaching of grammar in foreign language classes. Some linguists are in favor of using it to raise the students’ motivation and language proficiency like Baird (2006). Yet, others like Martinez (2002) argue that it is too hard and also culturally biased. A third party is in favor of using authentic material and encourage designing special tasks to the learners that require partial understanding. Morley ( 2001) As the researcher is interested in teaching Arabic to foreign language students not only from books but also from authentic material, she conductED a research on ten newspaper articles. The articles were short political articles chosen from AlAhram newspaper. They were of the same themes taught to the intermediate learners of Arabic. The researcher analysed the ten articles to find out the most salient morphological and syntactic structures used. She found out that the most salient morphological words used in all the articles were the verbal noun, followed by the active participle. Accordingly, the researcher designed some tasks and activities to facilitate the teaching of these two items, as they are problematic to the students. The drills were gradually designed. They moved from teacher- centered to student- centered tasks. Finally, the researcher ended the presentation by her recommendations.

This paper shows how media provides an excellent source for making students of Arabic as a foreign language (AFL), more linguistically and culturally competent. It suggests that media sources can be integrated into Arabic language classes (focus is on the intermediate level students). This integration strives towards helping students avoid prejudices, in addition to helping them understand the inner linguistic meaning of phrases and cultural expressions. It would also enhance students’ critical thinking, their language skills as well as their cultural biases. A better understanding of the new culture would be reached as well. The Topic of teaching culture in foreign language classrooms has been of great interest for language educators. A lot of researches have been written on the impact of teaching culture in foreign language classes, (Tanriverdi, 2002). Competence in language use is determined not only by the ability to use language with grammatical accuracy but also through the appropriate use of the language in a particular context, (Tsenk, 2002). As an AFL teacher, I have noticed that culture teaching in my classes is sketchy and shallow. In other words, not enough of it is taught as students are generally only exposed to superficial culture information like, food, arts, etc. Although, it is important for the students to learn this information, however, it will not lead to a deep understanding and appreciation of the target language and its appropriate linguistic use. To provide our students with different perspectives to culture learning, teachers should integrate in their teaching hidden culture concepts. Among these culture concepts are values, ideals, conceptions, and communicative norms which are much more important for understanding what people say and how they act, (Ratin and Rodgers, 1984). For the purpose of the present study, the researcher analyzed oral and written media scripts, i.e. news paper articles, TV talk shows, TV ads and works of literature ; short story, poems, that portray cultural topics. Each topic is then discussed in terms of its values, its norms, its cultural specific phrases, and collocations which carry certain values and beliefs with their appropriate uses in language. Some examples of topics are patriarchal family in the Egyptian society, housing, marriage norms, etc… In conclusion, this research tends to show in a practical way how culture can be introduced to AFL students, in a way that could help students have a better and deep understanding of the new culture at hand.