An Interdisciplinary Approach to Arabic Language Teacher Education
Liz England, Ph. D.
Professor, TESOL, Shenandoah University, Winchester, Virginia, USA
Liz England has enjoyed a lifelong career in Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages (TESOL). In her first post-doctoral position at the American University in Cairo in the English Language Institute as Assistant Professor (1984-86), Liz England fell in love with Egypt and returned as Associate Professor (2001-05). During both appointments, Dr. England taught in both the Master of Arts in Teaching English as a Foreign Language (MA TEFL) and Master of Arts in Teaching Arabic as a Foreign Language (MA TAFL).
In his introduction to our co-edited volume, Handbook for Arabic Language Teaching Professionals in
the 21st Century, (2006, Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Publisher, Wahba, K. M., Taha, Z. A. and
England, L.), Dr. El Said Badawi wrote in part:
The teaching of Arabic as a foreign language in the last century has made great strides, thanks to the adoption of theories and applications originally developed for other languages. However, except for a number of outstanding Arabists in the West who, through their own talents and personal endeavors, have managed to be at home with the language, there still seems to be a barrier separating the learning from intimate internalization of Arabic in a degree similar to that achievable by serious foreign learners of say English or other commonly taught languages. If the teaching of Arabic were to meet the challenges of this century, it would have to develop its own theory for its own application. Arabic, like all other languages, has to be taught and learned on its own terms. The group of scholars that has collaborated on this book should be proof enough that there is ready expertise to see the job through. (p. xiii)
Upon reading these words, I was filled with both a sense of privilege – for perhaps being one of those “group of scholars” - and fear - for definitely being less than “at home with the language.”
When I went to Cairo in 1984, I had a Ph. D. in second language acquisition and teacher education from the University of Illinois – Champaign-Urbana. I was comfortable with the anticipation of teaching graduate students in Teaching English as a Foreign Language (MA TEFL) in my new position (Assistant Professor) in the English Language Institute, American University in Cairo (AUC). But soon after arriving, I was surprised to learn that I had also been assigned to teach courses in the Master of Arts in Teaching Arabic as a Foreign Language (MA TAFL). I had neither knowledge nor skills in Arabic. Indeed, I found that my two groups of students – those in the MA TEFL and those in the MA TAFL programs - needed scholarly and professional information similar to but also different from one another. In this chapter, I will attempt to describe those similarities and differences.
In addition, I will also tell (parts of) the story of my own experience working with Dr. Badawi as he realized a vision to build AUC’s MA TAFL as the premiere and international model for Arabic language teacher education it has become today. Driven by a professional commitment to research-based teacher education and willingness to endure struggles to establish a designated program in Arabic language teacher education, Dr. El Said Badawi also supported me, as he did hundreds of other young professionals who worked with him and who have read his scholarly work. In telling this story, I hope to provide young TAFL scholars and teachers of Arabic as a foreign language with a model of leadership known well to Dr. Badawi’s students and colleagues like me. Indeed, I am only one of thousands who are deeply indebted to Dr. El Said Badawi - and many are contributors to this book. With them, I sincerely thank him here and always for his mentorship, leadership model and kindnesses to me.
REVISION:
