Getting ready for a new academic semester is a stressful time for many teachers of Arabic, especially if they are new to the profession. There aren’t many training courses and most of the times programs don’t implement any type of instructional coaching.
If you are teaching Arabic, know that being well organized will have a huge impact on the success of your course. Being prepared can help reduce your anxiety at the beginning and throughout the semester and it contributes to having positive interactions with your students.
Here are a few things you can do before the first day of class:
Know well your Arabic textbook
If your language program has a compulsory textbook, obtain a copy ahead of time and familiarize yourself with it. Once the semester starts, many teachers’ frustrations arise from the fact that they didn’t take the time to understand the pedagogical rationale behind the textbook or because they didn’t examine the type of texts and activities included.
Explore other Arabic materials available in the market
While it’s true that we don’t have as many textbooks and materials as in some European languages, there’s a decent amount of published materials that work well in the classroom. If you are new to teaching Arabic to adolescents and adults, I recommend that you start by exploring the titles published by Georgetown University Press, Routledge, and Yale Press. You will find several textbook series, grammar manuals, dictionaries, literary readers, and other materials that can supplement beautifully and effectively your main textbook. Knowing what’s available and where to find it, will save you a lot of time once the semester is rolling.
Have the Syllabus ready
Don’t wait until last minute to draft your Syllabus, or you’ll end up doing edits until 2AM the night before class. Having the Syllabus finalized a few days before you send it to your students is crucial, because this document contains essential information on attendance policies and grading that you shouldn’t change once the semester starts. Otherwise, you risk losing the respect of your students and you open the door for resentment and conflict. If you work with other colleagues on teaching the same course (which is common in many institutions), it’s even more important that you discuss and agree on the Syllabus ahead of time.
Share the Syllabus with your students
This allows them to read it in detail before coming to class and it gives them the opportunity to think of and prepare questions related to your course. If you share the Syllabus on the first day of class, students won’t have the time to reflect on it’s content, and you could be even depriving them from the opportunity to enroll in a different course than yours. Put yourself in the student’s shoes: Wouldn’t you like to know as much as possible about a course before attending a class? I would.
Send a welcome email to your students
Tell your students that you are excited for a new Arabic semester and that you are looking forward to meeting and knowing each one of them. By introducing yourself and showing excitement before you meet students, you set the tone for the first day of class and, hopefully, the remaining of the course if you keep the same attitude. I recommend that you send this email a day or two before you meet your students. When you do this, ask them to read the Syllabus and any other materials you deem necessary for your Arabic course. But please: Do not assign any homework.
Prepare the Daily Schedule
If you’re new to teaching Arabic, I recommend that you start by planning your classes weekly or bi-weekly, until you feel comfortable with the materials and the pace of class. Knowing what’s going to be covered every day and the homework assigned, will help you figure out how much homework you’ll need to grade and what materials must be prepared for each class. As you’ll soon discover, developing time management skills is a survival strategy, especially if you teach several courses or you have a lot of students. With time, you’ll be able to prepare your daily schedule for the whole semester and share this road-map with your students from the very beginning.
Organize your virtual learning environment
Whatever course management system is used by your institution, try to set up your grade book and upload all course materials (syllabus, daily schedule, rubrics, external links and materials, etc.) for maximum transparency and efficiency.
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If you have everything ready 24 hours before you start the semester, your first week of class will go smoothly. You’ll be able to focus on class preparation and you’ll enjoy working with your students. Moreover, you’ll come across as a professional teacher in the eyes of your students.
What else do you recommend teachers do before starting their semester?
Dealing with anxiety on the first day of class is common among new teachers of Arabic and, also, when you start working at a new institution. This is so because the first encounter between teachers and students is full of expectations, on both sides.
On one hand, students want to know if they’ve made the right choice by taking Arabic, they wonder if they’re going to like the language, if they are capable of learning it, and they want to be liked by their professors. On the other hand, as teachers, we want to make a professional impression on our students, we seek their respect, and we also want to be liked.
Teachers who are not native speakers of Arabic might experience additional anxiety, depending on the nature of their students and the level of Arabic they teach. (But this post is not about psychology or the native vs. non-native teachers debate -just not yet-, so I’ll get back to my main topic.)
Here are some tips that can help mitigate your nervousness the day you start teaching, while laying the foundations for a smooth semester:
Arrive with a smile
Arrive early to class, and show your excitement. Smiling from the heart breaks barriers and puts everyone at ease. Research shows that people who tend to smile are more liked than those who don’t; because as humans we like being with people that visibly enjoy being with us. If you smile in class, you’ll discover that students will smile back at you:)
Arrange the seating
In most classrooms, seating arrangements follow a very traditional pattern: people sit in rows, as if they were “workstations” . But for teaching and learning a foreign language, this type of configuration doesn’t engage learners to communicate and collaborate. One thing you can do, before you start class, is to ask students to help you arrange the furniture in a U-shape or conference table(s). This will create a sense of community, it will contribute to feeling more relaxed when teaching, and students will know that this is the first thing they need to do when they enter the classroom for the rest of the semester.
Introduce yourself
It’s not really about listing your credentials, but about saying your name, how it’s pronounced, and maybe sharing something more personal (hobbies, what languages you speak, Arab countries you lived in, favorites places in town, or anything of this sort). This humanizes you in the eyes of students, and it helps building rapport.
Something else worth mentioning at this stage, is how you want students to call you: ustaaza, just by your first name, or Professor? This will save you a lot of uncomfortable moments and emails that can potentially be a source of anxiety.
Know your students
If you introduce yourself, it naturally follows to show interest in your students. Depending on their number, you can have students introduce themselves in front of everyone, one by one, or have them talk to their classmates and then report back. I like asking my students to share: their name, nationality, major, languages they speak, why they chose Arabic, and what they know about the language. This is a great opportunity to discuss a few aspects related to your course, and to spot heritage learners and make sure that no one has been misplaced due to her/his Arabic proficiency.
Learn their names
It’s not enough to ask students their name; you need to learn them by heart as soon as possible. Calling your students by their name, instead of pointing at them, makes them feel valued and respected, and it develops a sense of community in the classroom, which helps creating a relaxed environment. When I first meet my students, I like testing myself recalling their names out loud, to see if I memorized them. I do a few rounds on the first and second days of class, until I get an A:)
Discuss the Syllabus
If you sent the Syllabus in advance (see my previous post), Day 1 can provide valuable information about the nature of your students (for example, their organizational skills). But even if they’ve read it at home, you’ll need to discuss the document in class in detail to allow for questions and concerns. Make sure that everyone is on the same page and that there are no misunderstandings.
And keep smiling:)
Practice Arabic
Regardless of the level of Arabic that you are teaching, students need to leave their first class feeling that they’ve learned something they can practice in the real world. If it’s Arabic 101, students should ideally know how to use a basic greeting and introduce themselves. If it’s a higher level, take this opportunity to do a speaking practice that helps students recall some of what they’ve learned in a previous semester. Shining the spotlight on students helps you focus your attention on them, rather than on your nervousness.
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The success of your Arabic course will depend a lot on the impression you give on the first day of class and the type of interactions you build with students. The best advice I can give you is: be honest and transparent, respect your students, and prepare well for every single class. As for the butterflies in the stomach: We all have them on the first day:)
Do you have any particular tip or habit that has helped you in the past? I would love to know!
Successful teachers invest in their personal growth. Sounds like a cliché, but it’s true.
Whether you received pre-service training or not, mastering the art of teaching takes more than a few semesters in the classroom. First of all, it requires an unconditional love for your profession. But love that isn’t nurtured… fades away. So how do we keep our inner teacher ignited?
Ideally, you’d want to work in a place where administrators encourage and support their faculty to develop themselves on a regular basis. If this isn’t the case, though, you’ll have to be proactive in finding learning opportunities that keep you informed and up-to-date in regards to what’s happening in language education and in TAFL.
As a teacher of Arabic, you can refine your teaching skills and keep in touch with pedagogical innovation in many different ways. It requires some investment but, on the long run, it pays off. Here are 6 things you can start doing today:
Check out new TAFL publications
I mentioned this in my previous post. Familiarizing yourself with the latest publications and resources is an opportunity to revise your curriculum and incorporate new materials into your syllabi. This enriches your courses and it helps you escape the routine of teaching the same textbook over and over.
Sometimes, access to certain publications requires financial investment (depending on where you live/work). In these cases, I recommend that you first reach out to your library or supervisor to help you purchase or subscribe to those resources that are relevant to your courses. For example, the specialized journal Al-cArabiyya: The Journal of the American Association of Teachers of Arabic is a good place for reviews on published textbooks and materials related to TAFL, but access to it isn’t cheap.
Remember that TAFL publications aren’t always in print format. We have some free websites dedicated to the teaching of Arabic. My favorites are Mumkin, Khallina and Aswaat Arabiyya, all of which include audiovisuals and ready-made activities.
Read second language research
This is, by far, one of the best strategies to keep engaged with the profession. There are hundreds of journal articles, books and blogs that are incredibly inspiring. Even if you don’t do research yourself, reading about second language education helps you revisit your values and discover if you are applying them on a regular basis.
If you are not research oriented, there are still very powerful publications for language teachers than can help you improve your practice. My favorite series, for this purpose, is probably the Cambridge Handbooks for Language Teachers. Browse it, and you’ll find amazing titles that will make your Arabic classroom a more interesting place.
Attend workshops & conferences
There are plenty of conferences in second language education, and many include pre-conference workshops. In the US, ACTFL and NCLTCL are well known among Arabic teachers. In Europe and the Arab World, there are also some conferences and symposiums dedicated to TAFL, and the best place to learn about them is Arabic-L (see next section).
While attending a conference requires some financial investment, it might be worth traveling to these events, to learn new pedagogies related to the Arabic classroom, and also to network and make meaningful connections. This is, for example, how I got my first job in the US: MESA was being held in Montreal (2007) and I decided to travel right before finishing my MA. I ended up having 3 unplanned job interviews and working at UT.
Subscribe to TAFL newsletters
The most well known mailing list in our field is Arabic-L. If you aren’t subscribed yet, now is the time! You can’t afford otherwise. (To access their archives click here, and use the search box to look for specific topics.)
Teachers of Arabic can benefit from this mailing list in multiple forms: You get to know about international TAFL conferences and workshops, new publications, job openings, questions of concern to instructors and linguists, and you can even use it to announce that you are on the job market 🙂
Interact on Social Media
Interacting with your colleagues on social media is very effective for sharing materials, activities, and to ask for advice and receive quick tips and tricks. My two favorite places are a Facebook group called جيل جديد من أساتذة العربية and Twitter.
On Twitter, I recommend following Rasha Soliman and أمريكية صعيدية. There are many other amazing people out there, but today these are my top choices 🙂
Ask for feedback
Whether it’s feedback related to our teaching techniques or other aspects of our job, receiving feedback on performance is crucial for our growth and professional maturity. Here are two things you can do:
Invite a colleague to visit your class, at least once a semester. If you do that, think of a particular aspect of your teaching that you’d like to improve and request specific feedback. It’s important that you had established a relationship of trust with this colleague, so that you receive honest feedback. Otherwise, s/he will give you generic feedback that won’t be very helpful.
Video-record yourself in class, and then analyze your performance and students’ reactions: the way you stand in class, how you speak to your students, or use the whiteboard, or explain grammar, your facial expressions, or your students’. While no one likes to see him/herself on camera, it’s super important that you watch yourself in action, from time to time. It can reassure you that you’re on the right track, and/or you’ll notice things you’ll probably want to change. Remember: learning is an ongoing project and there’s always room for improvement.
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Connecting with your profession on a regular basis is replenishing and nourishing at many levels, because you create for yourself learning opportunities through which you can grow and keep a healthy attitude towards your job and students. Otherwise, you risk becoming an obsolete teacher that doesn’t add value to the workplace.
What about you? How are you taking control of your professional development? Share with us!
One of my favorite classroom practices is playing songs on Youtube while students arrive to class. It exposes learners to the target language from the moment they enter the classroom, it wakes them up, and it helps them decompress if coming from another (stressful) class or meeting. Videoclips can even break stereotypes.
I’ve been doing this for many years now, and I’ve often seen it mentioned in my end-of-semester evaluations, which used to surprise me. Over the years, I’ve came to discover that very few Arabic teachers use songs on a regular basis; especially contemporary artists.
The presence or absence of songs in the Arabic classroom is directly related to teaching styles, curricular priorities, personal preferences, and the fact that most songs are in dialect. In any case, the use of songs shouldn’t be limited to a warm-up or pre-class time, but rather constitute part of the Arabic curriculum, especially if exposure to contemporary culture is one of your goals.
You might think this is an easy task, but it has its tricks. If you’re planning to use songs intentionally and purposefully this semester, here are some factors to consider if you want to make successful choices:
Take into account students’ proficiency level (specially their vocabulary knowledge; you want students to connect easily with the lyrics)
Pick an artist with good diction (it helps students with their listening & later with pronunciation)
Select a song that has an adequate rhythm (if it’s too fast, sing along becomes challenging)
Make time in class to rehearse line by line (students gain confidence & they improve their pronunciation)
What about the dialect? Given the huge amount of shared lexicon among all Arabic registers, it doesn’t really matter. Just follow the previous suggestions.
Now.. you can be the one who decides which song to teach, but if you let students pick from a selection, their engagement will increase. (I’ve had students in my class pull out their phones, record our singing, and post it on Snapchat. That’s a peak moment!)
The following list includes some favorite songs that work well in the Arabic classroom. Keep in mind that you don’t have to use the full length of the song for students to learn and enjoy.
Dalida – Helwa Ya Baladi (performed by Lina Sleibi)
Amr Diab – Tamalli Ma3ak
SHAMISONGS
Akher Zafeer – Akherto Lahen Hazeen (Jordan)
Ramy Ayach – Albi Mal (Lebanon)
Julia Boutros – Ala Shou (Lebanon)
What song would you like to learn or teach next?
Me, I’d like to fully understand the lyrics and cultural connotations of this upbeat song that gives me an adrenaline rush every time I sing:
حمزة نمرة – Habib Belk | عيطة العمالة
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In a recent interview, ESL expert Scott Thornbury, explained that teaching (and learning) grammar ideally happens through speaking activities that require students to produce specific structures of the language. The ‘invisible’ design of these opportunities, would be a natural way for learners to produce an output that aids in learning and solidifying grammar.
Does that mean that approaching grammar explicitly is counterproductive? Not necessarily. There are multiple factors that should be taken into account when deciding how and when to teach grammar.
According to psychological theory, ‘active learning’ is an essential component in the process of learning. When students are active participants in the construction of knowledge, we place them in a position of proactiveness. Discussion, for example, is a suitable way for generating new information and knowledge.
Consequently, when learners come across new grammatical concepts, it is more beneficial to discuss this new information than to just read it in the book or hear it from the teacher. In a flipped classroom setting, students would read the theory at home, and later they would re-construct this knowledge through classroom discussion and generation of examples.
Let me give an example pertaining to Arabic: When introducing the concept of Nominal Sentence (الجملة الاسمية) and Verbal Sentence (الجملة الفعلية), students typically read the explanation and examples in the book, or it’s the teacher who explains it on the board and provides the examples. Neither of these methods involve, in principle, ‘active learning’. One can claim, of course, that it’s in consequent activities that students ‘actively’ produce these structures. But wouldn’t it be better if students got involved actively in the learning process, from the outset? And how can we do this?
The answer might come from a Vygotskian approach to learning, where the co-construction of (grammatical) knowledge happens collaboratively and in partnership among learners.
So when introducing الجملة الاسمية and الجملة الفعلية , this is what I do:
STEP 1: Assign the reading before coming to class
My Arabic classes follow a flipped classroom design for two main reasons: 1) it allows students to study and reflect on the content at their own pace, and 2) it transforms the classroom into a more productive space, as you’ll see.
STEP 2: Have students re-construct the concepts & generate examples
My classes are also student centered. This means that students become the focus of the class when producing and sharing knowledge, whereas the teacher is a mere coach. As you can see in the picture below, the teacher is displaced from being the unique source of knowledge. In fact, students take charge of their own learning by reflecting out loud, negotiating meanings, and collaborating, to ultimately arrive at a shared understanding of الجملة الاسمية والجملة الفعلية. In student centered classes, the teacher remains the expert in the room, but space is made for different voices and opinions to be heard.
Students of Arabic in their 1st semester
By using the whiteboard, I also encourage students visualize their ideas. Writing and drawing schemes often times help students clarifying concepts, in ways that verbal explanations may not do. See what students produced:
Example 1
Example 2
Last but not least, by asking students to work on the board, I break the daily routine and I use body movement as a way to keep students alert for longer periods of time.
STEP 3: Discuss outcomes under teacher’s guidance
Once students finish their group work, the teacher can answer questions, summarize, and maybe provide some direct instruction, as a way to clarify unclear concepts.
At the end of class, students spontaneously took a picture of the board for their own record. On the following day, we continued working on الجملة الاسمية والجملة الفعلية (through a guided activity) and I saw some students pulling out their phones to look at the picture they had taken the day before. For them, this was more relevant than resourcing back to the textbook, because they were the ‘authors’ of knowledge. The following scene captures a student using her own production:
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Teaching grammar doesn’t have to consist of a boring reading or explanation. On the contrary, we can transform the classroom into a productive space where we empower students to become independent learners. Collaborative learning is an effective way to do so, and it motivates students enormously.
I’d like to invite you to experiment with the technique that I just outlined, in case you haven’t tried it before. And if there’s something else that works in your classroom, please share!
SYNCHRONOUS TEACHING
Some call it ‘live’ teaching. Synchronous activities happen during class time; or in real-time. They are essential in building a sense of community among our students, and they help us bond with them. The examples below require careful planning.
Things we can do
– Warm-up activities
– Elicit and generate vocabulary lists
– Brainstorm for ideas
– Explain grammar points (briefly)
– Share slides (no more than a handful)
– Check reading/listening comprehension as a group (briefly)
– Provide individualized feedback to students (through Zoom chat)
– Make notes on the Whiteboard (students and/or teacher)
– Watch videos/listening exercises (if files are saved on & streamed from the computer)
– Group discussions (Zoom allows for breakout rooms)
Asynchronous activities do not require participants to be online simultaneously. They also require careful planning. From a student perspective, they allow for deep thinking, reflection time, and collaborative work, as well as individualized feedback. This means that students have the opportunity to produce high quality work when guided adequately.
Things students can do
– Write essays, blog posts, reaction papers, a diary
– Read a novel, articles, blog or social media posts
– Watch Youtube videos, movies
– Listen to podcasts, radio interviews
– Conduct interviews with native speakers (via WhatsApp, Skype, Zoom)
– Work on video-projects (mid/end-of-term)
– Participate in forum discussions
– Video-record an oral presentation
Things teachers can do
– Record & share detailed instructions related to a particular task or project
– Record & share grammatical explanations and summary videos
– Record & share feedback that’s helpful to the whole class
The list is far from being comprehensive, but it hints at the many possibilities that can keep class engaging. A key component here is diversifying the type of activities and tasks that you conduct. By now, many students are tired from screen time and, in truth, 45-60 minutes of pure interaction are enough for a virtual language class. So if your typical class is longer than this, consider leaning towards asynchronous activities. It’s a great way to promote learners’ agency.
Face-to-face classroom interaction cannot be 100% replicated in an online environment; and that’s why it’s essential to invest in digital actions that foster a sense of community. In addition the synchronous activities previously mentioned, having everyone’s camera on seems to me crucial in creating proximity (if expectations about classroom etiquette were set early and clearly). Another thing to keep in mind is humor: This is an effective antidote to moments of stress, it keeps students alert, and it maintains social bonds.
None of this is easy; but we are all going to take away something positive and we’ll bring it back to our classrooms. At minimum, we are rethinking how we normally teach. As Arabs say رُبّ ضارّة نافعة ; in other words, ‘every cloud has a silver lining’.
Please, share below more ideas, tips, and webinars that helped your online teaching. (The best Zoom webinar I have come across is this one.)
Before the COVID-19 Pandemic, very few teachers were exposed or had experienced online instruction and the tools available for this purpose. As a consequence, our understanding of education delivery was disrupted, and the necessary readjustments were felt by many as a huge burden. Suddenly, teachers had to quickly learn how to manage remote instruction platforms, they spent extra hours planning their lessons, and we started to be hunted by professional and emotional insecurities linked to unprecedented situations and expectations. In many cases, teachers also felt abandoned because of the lack of support received from their schools and universities, most of which weren’t really prepared for the new reality.
As a result of these challenges, many teachers couldn’t hide their aversion and suspicion towards remote teaching and they even questioned its effectiveness, especially in the form of patterned complaints that quickly spread across institutions and instructional teams. And yet, some education experts already knew that online instruction can be as effective as in-person teaching. In fact, asking the question of whether remote learning works is to a large extent meaningless, because there is good and bad education happening in both formats; now and before.
So how can we ensure that online instruction delivery is efficient? What elements do we need to consider? How to identify blindspots and areas of growth?
Thanks to my work in coaching and training language teachers, I’ve had the opportunity to design a Self-Observation Form that helps practitioners monitor and improve the quality of their online instruction. While the form was initially designed for language teachers, it can work very well with any class that follows a flipped classroom model; that is, courses where students are expected to read and maybe do exercises at home, and classroom time is devoted to discussions, discovery, practice, and knowledge activation.
I designed a Self-Observation From because I wanted a facilitative tool that teachers could use individually to reflect on the way they teach and manage their online environment. Ideally this would require teachers to video-record their online class, so they can later watch it and examine it. In some cases, this can be a challenge, because many teachers have never watched themselves in action, and it feels uncomfortable.
The Self-Observation Form is divided into six broad sections, each of which contains discrete items related to essential factors that intervene in successful teaching. The form is not comprehensive, because it does not account for interactive decision-making or the various classroom management techniques that exist. But the 35 items capture important components that contribute to promoting learning and building a healthy classroom community. There is much to be said about the impact of each descriptor on the different items included in the form and the synergy or bad energy that builds up when one or various aspects are present; but I’ll elaborate on this in a separate post.
For now, I’d like to invite you to look at the Form, reflect on it, and think of ways you can adapt it to your personal or school needs. I believe that using the Self-Observation Form two or three times per semester can help teachers deliver online classes that are both successful and gratifying. For beginning teacher, the form can be even more beneficial when they have a coach or a mentor that is guiding their professional development. Another alternative is to use it in Peer-Observation routines, as long as there is absolute confidentiality and a non-judgmental relationship with partner colleagues.
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Mid-March 2020 was the last time I took a commercial flight (RBA-AUH). Abu Dhabi Airport would shut down some days later, and the Pandemic would officially kick-in. It’s been an interesting year, and I learned at least a few things:
1. Studying a new language is a wonderful experience. I decided to take Japanese seriously; and to witness the process by which a ‘difficult’ language unlocks, is simply amazing.
2. It’s OK if the world shuts down for a little while. It gave me time to reflect on what matters.
3. I discovered why I like face-to-face classrooms: I miss hearing the laughs, the wows and the yikes. I miss feeling their emotions.
4. Remote Education & Professional Development works. I’ve met so many wonderful people this year, and I learned tons.
5. I value my time extremely. I kind of knew it before; but Zoom has forced me to micro-plan my online classes so I can make good use of every minute (though I don’t always succeed).
6. Relationships are a two-way street. If we nurture them, something beautiful will grow. If not, they die.
7. I wear more sport clothes. Teaching from my desk has made me discover how elegant one can be with ‘chic sport’ clothes 🙂
8. I discovered how much I like giving workshops & webinars. Estoy en mi salsa!
9. I learned that 35 Celsius can feel like a refreshing autumn breeze (#UAE).
10. Teachers of Arabic need so much encouragement and support. And I feel that we are at a turning point in our field. With everyone online, I feel more connected to colleagues from around the world. Many initiatives are brewing, and it will be good for teachers and students.
Students of Arabic in their 1st semester
