Recent research on Arabic language learning has grown to account for various aspects of Arabic teaching not only in United States contexts but also around the world. There are still notable gaps in this area of research, however; for one, there is a paucity of work on Arabic education in the Canadian context. This presentation aims to contribute to understandings of Arabic learning in Canada by examining students’ perspectives on in-class group work in a Canadian Arabic program. Activities in which students work in pairs and small groups are central features of many Arabic language classes, particularly those that incorporate the Communicative Approach to language learning. Understanding students’ experiences of participating in pair and group work activities can provide insight into what factors make this type of work most effective and thus inform future practice. This presentation analyzes and discusses results of a study that investigated experiences of elementary-level Arabic students at a Canadian university, focusing on students’ experiences of working with peers during small-group activities. The presentation will start by providing a brief overview of the Arabic program that is the focus of this study, highlighting structural features of the program and placing them into the context of Arabic courses in the Canadian university landscape. As at most Canadian universities, classes in this program contain a mix of heritage learners of Arabic and students of Arabic as a foreign language. A high proportion of students in the Arabic program are heritage learners of Arabic, and these heritage learners are diverse in both the varieties of Arabic of which they have previous knowledge and in their motivations for enrolling in a university Arabic course. In the study, first-semester Arabic students completed questionnaires in which they were asked about aspects of their experience in their Arabic class, including open-ended questions about what elements helped and hindered their participation in group work during class. The most prominent and frequently mentioned factors that students listed were other group members’ willingness to contribute actively and the perception that they had the same level of Arabic skills as their group members. The status of classmates as heritage learners or foreign-language learners of Arabic was not a salient component in the students’ answers, an observation that supports findings of previous research on this topic. The presentation will conclude with recommendations, suggested by the study’s results, for making in-class group work most effective.

All teachers need to test what their students have learnt. Recent trends support assessment that simulate the cognitive and communicative demands of real-life tasks. Formative assessment (FA) is advocated by many researches as it has positively affected students’ achievement. Besides, it allows teachers to monitor the learning process. (Ozan & K?ncal, 2018; Kline, 2013; Ortega & Minchala, 2017; Huisman, 2018; and Meador, 2018) The paper aims at sharing an example of effective practice in using FA in a course that the presenter taught. It was a blended course that was based on a content-oriented approach. It was aimed at developing native speakers’ linguistic and cultural competencies. The instructional activities revolved around communicative and collaborative reading, writing, watching videos, presentations and debates. FA was designed before lessons based on the learning outcomes to evaluate students’ performance. All class interactions, whether online or on-campus, were used for assessment. Students’ presentations, individual and group projects, writing assignments were used to replace traditional tests to assess linguistic competence, as well as to monitor comprehension and acquisition of content. Rubrics were used as guidance for students. They provided them with clear explanation of what will be assessed, as well as a description of levels of performance quality. This presentation will showcase how using FA enriched the learning/teaching experience. It motivated students to take greater responsibility over their own learning and academic progress. All class interactions were opportunities for them to challenge themselves and make mistakes; hence, learn through trial and error. The feedback they got from the teacher and their peers were a low-stakes form of assessment, as they were graded for level of effort and participation. The students’ progress and improvement were manifested in their final projects and their evaluations of the course and the teacher. All of that was done in a calm, relaxing and motivating atmosphere far from tests anxiety or grades fear. Like students, FA allowed the teacher to monitor the learning process as it was progressing and shape subsequent instruction based on the information collected. It helped the teacher identify learning needs and problems and make adjustments to her teaching materials and techniques. Examples of teaching materials are showcased. The practical experience proved that FA that was designed before lessons based on the learning outcomes brought teaching and learning to life. It is highly recommended by the presenter as assessment for learning, not of learning.

Conventional scholarly approaches towards diglossia tend to view Standard Arabic (SA) as a formal and/or written variety, while, Dialectical Arabic (DA) is usually seen as a plethora of colloquial, informal, spoken varieties. This view assumed the existence of two separate codes and does not account for the occurrence of switching between codes within the same discourse. However, research has shown that both codes are used by native speakers in formal and informal situations, as well as in written and spoken discourse. The occurrence of code-switching (CS) in different types of spoken and written discourse in Arabic constitutes a challenge for learners and educators of Arabic as a foreign language. CS is used by native speakers of Arabic as a conceptually-framed linguistic device. Native speakers switch codes to convey specific concepts including importance, sophistication, seriousness, prestige, accessibility, and identity. However, limited research has been carried out about the pedagogical implications of CS in the foreign language classroom. In this paper, I illustrate the use of concept-based instruction to effectively teach CS to advanced Arabic students. I draw upon the corpus-informed data of Albirini (2011) on the social motivations behind CS and use the model of Thorne, Reinhardt, and Golombek (2008) to teach these concepts in the classroom. The model includes a three-stage process: orienting basis, conceptual materialization, and individual and group verbalization activities. Classroom application that aims at enhancing learners’ ability to switch between codes naturally in a way that will give them a native-like competence and augment their communicative repertoire. Key words Diglossia, Code-Choice, Code-Switching, Code-Mixing, Modern Standard Arabic, Dialectical Arabic, Colloquial Arabic, Concept-Based Instruction Citation Albirini, A. (2011). The sociolinguistic functions of codeswitching between Standard Arabic and Dialectal Arabic. Language in society, 40(05), 537-562. Thorne, S. L., Reinhardt, J., & Golombek, P. (2008). Mediation as objectification in the development of professional discourse: A corpus-informed curricular innovation. In J. P., Lantolf. & S. L., Thorne (Eds.),Sociocultural theory and the teaching of second languages (pp. 256-284) London Oakville, CT: Equinox Pub

In Language acquisition, immersion is defined as a technique where learners are submersed in an environment where they are expected to communicate in a target language and encounter the target language in authentic ways. Immersion often starts in the classroom but can extend to the local community and beyond. Language immersion is often misunderstood by teachers and students alike. Immersion is realized when the learner’s social and language objectives meet. Many attempt to create a “synthetic” immersion environment where student can communicate using the target language and ignore the fact that student motivation is key to maintaining it. In other words, a natural immersion is both a language and social pledge. It is realized when students express a genuine interest in participating in the local community, make a commitment to provide an added-value, and are provided with the tools to do so. Learners’ engagement in the community must have a meaningful purpose and clear expectations. To realize such an engagement, the learners environment must be nurtured to include other learners, coordinators, and society at large. Immersion is about building a mutually beneficial relationship between the learner and the community. Using tools such as role playing and project-based learning, learners expectations transition from passive participation to an active engagement. Such expectations are normal in all societies but are often ignored in a traditional language classroom. On the other hand, there persists a misperception that immersion requires merely that a learner is given opportunities to communicate in the target language and in topics relative to the target culture with no regard to the learner’s own personal interests and goals. As a result, the acquired language abilities become permanently tied to the situation that they were presented with in the classroom and often fail to transfer to their personal and professional lives. Teacher training is key to a successful immersion program. Teachers who value and respect their learners’ social engagements use some of their class time and office hours to encourage, support, and prepare students for their out of class activities. On the other hand, teachers who follow a more traditional approach, tend to classify out of class activities as optional or secondary and instead assess learner progress solely on in-class performance. Creating and maintaining a language immersion environment is key to a successful study abroad program. This paper examines the natural immersion approach, its implementation, and the challenges of its implementation.

The paper traces the evolution of the Saudi dialect, from the time satellite T.V. was introduced in the middle east in the early 90s to its written form in the social media, to identify structural patterns applicable to Arabic dialect pedagogy. A corpus of 30,000 words was obtained from Saudi Twitter accounts and analyzed using the qualitative data analysis software (NVivo) to detect syntactical patterns as well as word forms, and commonly used word affixes. Several trends were identified and classified according to the extent of their repetitions. The dominant register was informal, with overwhelming assertive and argumentative vernacular. The conclusion yields findings leading to Saudi Arabic dialect course development, and the advancement of Arabic dialects, as the effective communicative language of Arabs worldwide. Future replicas of this research should be performed to determine the applicability of this methodology to other Arabic dialects such as Egyptian Arabic and Levantine Arabic.