Teaching Hebrew in American Universities Today: Challenges, Practices & the Profession

Session Submission Type: Roundtable

Abstract

This roundtable addresses the challenges of teaching Modern Hebrew in North American academic institutions. With the advancement of theory and practices of second language acquisition, the overarching question of this roundtable is HOW HEBREW IS BEING TAUGHT IN AMERICAN UNIVERSITIES TODAY? We are looking to create a space for discussing and debating the state of the field by touching upon practical issues as well as methodological concerns.

The topics for discussion aim at identifying common challenges and sharing creative ways and ideas for addressing them. Questions include:

Approaches to teaching Hebrew – what do Hebrew professors try to achieve in the course of one to five semesters and how do they assess these goals?

How do you address the growing gap between formal and colloquial Hebrew?

The diverse student body: including, for example, students’ identity; motivations for studying Hebrew; and heritage learners.

What can be learned from other language-teaching practices? What is the relevance of ACTFL in determining practices for teaching a Less Commonly Taught Language such as Hebrew?

To address more administrative aspects, we would like to discuss the ways in which the current crisis in higher education in general, and in language pedagogy in particular, affects Hebrew teaching and Hebrew programs. What are particular challenges posed by university administrations? Do these measures contribute to attrition and how do they affect retention of students in Hebrew programs? To this end, what measures can be taken to recruit students for Hebrew?

The roundtable will also address questions pertaining to teaching materials and methods: how can we effectively incorporate technology in the Hebrew classroom? There is an existing gap between materials that are available or that are being developed, mostly in Israel, and materials that many of us feel that are still needed. What do Hebrew professors in the US look for? What materials have yet to be developed?

Organizer & Moderator: Shiri Goren (Yale University)

Discussants:
Rina Kreitman (Columbia University)
Dror Abend-David (University of Florida at Gainesville)
Vardit Ringvald (Middlebury)
Naama Harel (Emory)
Ronit Engel (UPenn)

Sub Unit

• Pedagogy

Moderator

• Shiri Goren, Yale University

Discussants

• Dror Abend-David, University of Florida

• Naama Harel, Emory University

• Rina Kreitman, Columbia University

• Vardit Ringvald, Institute for the Advancement of Hebrew

• Ronit Engel, University of Pennsylvania