Defining Learning Outcomes for a “Core†Arabic Curriculum
Panel 144, sponsored byMESA IM: National Middle East Language Resource Center, 2010 Annual Meeting
On Saturday, November 20 at 02:30 pm
Panel Description
The increased interest in learning Arabic over the past years has presented the Arabic teaching profession in the US with new challenges in the areas of curriculum design. In response to changing students needs and new linguistic realities in the Arabic-speaking countries, teachers of Arabic in the US are reexamining their curricula and seeking different ways to organize them. The present panel aims to contribute to these efforts by presenting outcome-based learning objectives for the first three years of instruction in Arabic. These learning outcomes cover all language skills and culture and can be used as a framework for curriculum development at most colleges and universities in the US. The panel will feature four papers:
The first focuses on First Year and presents a complete set of learning outcomes derived from samples of students’ exams, skits, oral interviews, and writing portfolios. The paper also analyzes the results of two questionnaires designed to evaluate students’ own perception of their learning outcomes
The second paper discusses the results of a primarily descriptive study of the learning outcomes of Second Year Arabic students. To derive these outcomes, the researcher used three methods: 1) examined actual linguistic production of the students generated in skits, oral interviews, written compositions and test performance 2) interviewed teachers and teaching assistants, and 3) administered a year-end self assessment of linguistic proficiency by the students. Based on this data, learning outcomes for the third and fourth semester Arabic programs were written in the form of “can-do” statements for the skills of reading, writing, passive listening, oral communication, vocabulary, grammatical knowledge and cultural competence.
The third paper examines the learning outcomes of students in their fifth and sixth semesters of Arabic language instruction, which equates approximately with the Intermediate-High to Advanced-Low proficiency levels. In addition to presenting detailed learning outcomes for the various skills, the paper provides examples of student progress based on analysis of actual learner production.
The fourth paper takes a closer look at the speaking production of students who have completed three years of Arabic at a university Arabic program. The study compares the use of colloquial speech elements in the discourse of university Arabic students to the use of those elements in the speech of educated native speakers. Initial results of the study indicate that the timing of instruction in colloquial Arabic may be as important as the intensity of the instruction that students receive.
Learning outcomes, whose role in second language teaching is becoming more prominent, describe what students are able to perform with and in the language--the actual results of learning rather than the material "covered"--and are useful in assessing the benefits and limitations of a particular curriculum as well as recommending changes to it. This paper discusses learning outcomes of college-level Arabic students in the first year of study.
The paper is divided into two major parts. The first part discusses a complete set of learning outcomes for first-year Arabic students derived from samples of students' exams, skits, oral interviews, and (Arabic) writing portfolios. Also included is an inventory of vocabulary items (both words and expressions) based on word lists from the primary textbooks used in the course, as well as grammatical constructions students have been exposed to and worked with throughout the year. The results are organized into skill areas, each skill subcategorized into strategies, global tasks and functions, and limitations.
The second half of the paper analyzes the results of two questionnaires distributed once each semester, and designed to evaluate students' own perception of their learning outcomes. The questionnaires address the skills of speaking, reading, listening and writing and also contain a section on culture. Each skill area consists of a number of questions designed to elicit students' evaluations of material learned during the semester.
The objectives of the paper are twofold. First, by providing a detailed record of learning outcomes for first-year college-level Arabic we seek to provide a basis by which one may develop a first-year Arabic curriculum, or improve an existing one. Second, through a comparison of the learning outcomes with the results of the questionnaire we seek to identify discrepancies between students' perceptions of their abilities and their actual learning outcomes. Finally, the paper itself represents a model for analyzing learning outcome data from a variety of sources and determining how to balance and evaluate these data.
The second year plays a crucial role in the development students' capacity for a number of reasons: In many programs, it represents the final year of required language study, while at the same time, second year language study is a crucial link between beginning and advanced language study, with the largest contingent of students studying abroad in their junior year. Therefore, it is of the utmost important to have a clear idea of what kind of results can be, and actually are, achieved by third and forth semester language students.
This paper presents and discusses the results of a primarily descriptive study of the learning outcomes of second year Arabic students enrolled at the University of Texas - Austin. To derive these outcomes, we used three methods: 1) examined actual linguistic production of the students generated in tasks required for completing second year Arabic such as skits, oral interviews, written compositions and test performance 2) interviewed teachers and teaching assistants, and 3) administered a year-end self assessment of linguistic proficiency by the students. Based on this data, learning outcomes for the third and fourth semester Arabic programs were written in the form of "can-do" statements for the skills of reading, writing, passive listening, oral communication, vocabulary, grammatical knowledge and cultural competence.
There are two primary goals of this research project: The first is to make available a document which represents an outcome-based, measurable standard for the third and fourth semesters of Arabic, which represents in most universities in the US the final semesters of required language study. The hope is that presenting a model of outcome-based learning objectives will spur a dialog in the field of Arabic pedagogy about the merits of such a model, and perhaps bring Arabic language teaching in line with other languages programs that have already embrace outcomes-based curricula. At the same time, the outcomes presented here are a usable, Arabic-specific document that can be drawn upon when designing new language curricula.
The second goal is to provide a highly descriptive method for assessing student outcomes in an already extant program. We will discuss methods for collecting, analyzing, and summarizing student-produced data, as well as balancing these results with the experience of teachers and students' own perceptions of their language abilities.
The field of Teaching Arabic as a Foreign Language has made great strides in the past twenty years as a result of the move to communicative language teaching and the development of the ACTFL proficiency guidelines. Yet, despite this progress, there remains a broad spectrum of expectations of student progress, especially at the post-second-year level, which generally goes beyond the foreign language requirement of most universities. The third year is particularly important at programs that offer post-third year courses, where it serves as a transition away from a language-centric focus towards a content-based focus that requires students to learn content through their developing language abilities. This paper will examine the learning outcomes of students in their fifth and sixth semesters of Arabic language instruction, which equates approximately with the Intermediate-High to Advanced-Low proficiency levels. The presentation will argue for the importance of defining and codifying learning outcomes for the third year level in particular and will provide examples of student progress based on analysis of actual learner production. These outcomes represent a detailed roadmap for what curriculum designers and instructors are attempting to achieve in one Arabic language program in the US, and the presentation of them will aim to stimulate wider discussion in the field of what constitutes useful benchmarks against which Arabic language programs can compare and further refine their language instruction programs now and in the future.
The learning outcomes presented in this paper cover the four primary skill sets of speaking, listening, reading, and writing, in addition to cultural awareness. The initial outcomes were derived by analyzing progress expectations as expressed in course syllabi, interviews with professors, course curriculum, and the ACTFL proficiency guidelines. Further revisions were made by comparing the outcomes to oral and written samples of student production. Finally, a survey of student perceptions of their abilities to use the language was conducted to clarify points of uncertainty and provide further supporting evidence. The results were then used to further refine the learning outcomes, providing insight into the progression of proficiency and describing the transitional progress as students gain the skills necessary to successfully participate in content courses and continue to apply their language skills in ever wider contexts.
