Teaching Arabic as a World Language in the United States: Challenges, Constraints, and Complications

• In Event: Multilingual Pedagogies, Identities, and Literacies in U.S. Education

Abstract

Teaching any world language in the United States has always been a challenge, but this is more true of some languages than others. Languages which are seen as the “languages of the enemy” – historically, German, Italian, and Japanese, and today Chinese, Farsi, and Russian – have been especially difficult and controversial. This is especially true in the case of Arabic. There are a number of social, cultural, religious, ideological, and political factors that work against students enrolling in (let alone succeeding at learning) Arabic, not to mention the linguistic ones. In this presentation, we will examine and respond to some of the key barriers that face Arabic language teachers in the U.S., focusing on the nature of the marginalization of Arabic as a foreign language and proposing possible responses to that marginalization.

Authors

• Timothy G Reagan, University of Maine

• Bushra G Amil, University of Maine