Teaching Arabic as a Foreign Language

TAFL Teaching Arabic as a Foreign Language

From Sunday 15 - Wednesday 25 July 2018, NVIC organises a new edition of the TAFL course. This intensive, interactive course is developed for (future) teachers of Arabic. It addresses both the practical aspects of teaching Arabic as a foreign language and the underlying linguistic and cognitive processes.
Course description

The TAFL course is an intensive, interactive course devoted to the methodology of teaching Arabic to non-native speakers. It addresses both the practical aspects of teaching Arabic as a foreign language and the underlying linguistic and cognitive processes.

The course will start with theories of second-language acquisition and a theoretical background on methods of teaching foreign languages, before moving to the practical aspects of teaching the four language skills (reading, writing, listening, and speaking). In addition, it will focus on a number of important questions confronting the teacher of Arabic as a foreign language, such as teaching grammar, designing a syllabus, and writing lesson plans.

Goals and objectives

- To help the participants enhance their teaching skills based on recent research on foreign language teaching.
- To familiarise participants with different approaches and methods for teaching foreign languages in general and Arabic in particular.
- To provide participants with knowledge of key concepts and recent discussions regarding the process of teaching Arabic to non-native speakers.
- To familiarise the participants with strategy-based learning.
- To discuss strategies for feedback and evaluation of the various skills in an Arabic as a Foreign Language class.
- To help participants to note the challenges teachers of Arabic face today.

Target group

The course is aimed at teachers of Arabic (or future teachers or Arabic) with varying levels of experience (teaching experience not required), who are interested in developing and enhancing their teaching skills in the framework of the latest trends in foreign language teaching. A BA in Arabic Studies (or similar) is required.
Course materials

A reader of recommended literature, on both foreign language teaching in general and teaching Arabic in particular, will be provided to participants via an online repository. This literature serves as a theoretical background to the course.

Every participant is also invited to bring his/her own teaching materials for discussion purposes.

Instructors

Adel Abdelmoneim and Heba El-Ramly teach Egyptian Colloquial and Modern Standard Arabic to Bachelor and Master students at the Netherlands-Flemish Institute. They rely not only on their classroom experience, but are formally trained in TAFL as well.

Practical information

The course is held from 15 -25 July 2018. The deadline for registration is 1 July 2018.

The course equals 5 ECTS credits. Please consult your own institution if you want to validate these.

The course fee is EUR 550 for participants affiliated to institutions supporting the NVIC and EUR 600 for non-affiliated participants.

Application

Please send in the application form, a motivation letter and your cv to info@nvic.leidenuniv.nl before 1 July 2018. Upon doing so, you will receive additional practical information regarding your stay in Cairo, as well as payment details.