Transcript Teaching Arabic Speakers: Cultural and Linguistic

Teaching English to Arabic Speakers:
Cultural and Linguistic
Considerations
Presented by:
Shira Packer, M.A.
[email protected]
York University English Language Institute (YUELI),
Toronto, ON
NOT FOR REPRODUCTION OR CIRCULATION WITHOUT THE
EXPLICIT PERMISSION OF THE AUTHOR
Workshop Objectives
• To increase understanding of
– current trends for Arabic speakers learning English
– linguistic contrasts between English and Arabic &
potential learning barriers
– cultural differences that may affect student learning &
create administrative constraints
• To use this information to
– increase repertoire of effective teaching techniques
which accommodate Arabic speakers
– teach more effective learning strategies which engage
Arabic speaking students & target their specific learning
needs
– consider administering school activities to better
accommodate cultural differences
Your Experience with Arabicspeaking ESL Learners
1. Please introduce yourself and describe
your personal experience teaching and/or
administering Arabic speaking students.
2. To what extent do you think it is
important to better understand their
needs? Why?
Current Trends
Longitudinal Analysis of Population of Arabic Speakers
120
35%
35%
30%
100
102
25%
26.5%
80
75
20%
60
15%
40
10%
8.5%
20
21
5%
0%
0
Summer 2007 Summer 2008 Summer 2009
Total Number of Arabic Speakers at
YUELI
Summer 2007 Summer 2008 Summer 2009
Arabic Speakers as a percentage of
total student population
YUELI (EAP) Demographic Analysis:
Arabic Student Citizenship 2007-2009 (n=293)
4%
Citizenship
Number of
Students
Saudi Arabia
259
Canada
9
Jordan
8
Yemen
7
Israel
3
Iraq
2
Libya
1
Palestine
1
Syria
1
United States
1
Age Range
17%
46%
18 - 22
23 - 26
27 - 30
30+
33%
Gender Distribution
23%
Male
Female
77%
Linguistic Considerations
1. What differences are you aware of
between the Arabic and English language
(vocabulary, grammar, pronunciation,
rhetoric, literacy, script, etc.)?
2. How might these differences affect
English language learning of Arabic
speakers?
3. What other language learning strengths
and challenges do Arabic speakers
generally have?
Linguistic Considerations: Literacy
Arabic alphabet and script:
•
•
•
•
•
right to left
cursive
number characters are non-European
no distinct upper and lower case forms
consonant-based system where vowels are noted
with diacritics (harakat) and often omitted
• Often foster “poor” writing skills in first language
(Khuwaileh & Al Shoumali, 2000)
How does this affect learning English?
• Poor penmanship
• Write characters from right to left (e.g. ‘e’, ‘r’, ‘n’)
• Slower recognition and processing of letters
(especially vowels) and words
• Difficulty with reading comprehension
• literacy skills involving speed may become obstacles
(skimming, scanning, dictation, note-taking)
Literacy Exercise
Week 1: First Draft
Week 1: Second Draft
Literacy Exercise
Week 3: First Draft
(cont.)
Linguistic Considerations:
Vocabulary & Grammar
• Few borrowed words from Arabic
– low frequency of transfer related errors
– more intrinsic difficulty
• 3-consonant root word system
–
–
–
–
–
k-t-b = writing root
Kitɑɑb= book
kɑtɑbɑ = he wrote
mɑktɑb = office
mɑktɑbɑ= library
• Verbs
– No ‘be’ verb (e.g. My teacher very smart)
– verb forms incorporate pronouns, subject, and object in
morphology (e.g. John he works there)
– No phrasal verbs
Linguistic Considerations:
Vocabulary & Grammar cont…
• Articles
– No indefinite articles in Arabic
• Nouns
– Singular, plural, and ‘dual’
• Prepositions
– Indicated via prefix
• Complex Sentences
(Thompson-Panos & Thomas-Ruzic, 1983)
– Subordinate clause parallelism (e.g. The student arrived
while she carries her book)
– No relative pronouns (e.g. It is the woman (who) she has a
red coat)
– Arabic relator (e.g. This is the sweater which I lost it; The
sons when they grow up, they think about their parents.)
Linguistic Considerations:
Pronunciation & Spelling
(Lehn & Slager, 1959; Thompson-Panos & Thomas-Ruzic, 1983)
• Relationship between spelling & pronunciation
• Stress-timed sentence stress
• Vowels:
– Distinct vowel phonemes: ~11 English vs. 6 Arabic
– allophonic variants
• /u/, /o/, and /Ɔ/ (e.g. boot, boat, and bought)
• /ɛ/, /æ/, /ɑ/, and /ʌ/ (e.g. bet, bat, bought, and
but)
Linguistic Considerations:
Pronunciation & Spelling
(Lehn & Slager, 1959; Thompson-Panos & Thomas-Ruzic, 1983)
• Consonants:
– In labial to velar regions: ~23 English vs. 16
Arabic
– In post–velar regions: 1 English vs. 7 Arabic
– /p/ vs. /b/ and /f/ vs. /v/
– No /ð/ or /θ/ in colloquial Arabic
– /tdsz/ are alveolar in English vs. dental in Arabic
– Consonant clusters:
• e.g. spring: /sprIŋ/ /səprIŋ/
• e.g. film: /fIlm/  /fIləm/
Linguistic Considerations:
Pronunciation Exercise
Circle the word you hear:
1. Did you get the chicken ( box / pox )?
2. I love the ( burbs / burps ).
3. Do you need a little ( push / bush )?
4. Try not to ( bruise it / prove it ).
5. This ( prick / brick ) will only hurt a bit.
6. Vegetarians like ( braised / praised ) vegetables.
What does it sound like if you mix up the /b/ and the /p/
in the following phrases?
• polar bear
• probably
• pretty bad
• rumble
Rhetorical & Stylistic Considerations
• Arabic speakers may exhibit (Thompson-Panos & ThomasRuzic, 1983):
Overuse of:
Teaching Implications:
•Repetition of main ideas
•Providing new supporting
arguments
•Multiple supporting points within
a paragraph
•Paragraphing to isolate
supporting points
•Religious concepts and references
as supporting points
•Academic publications as
references
•Directness
•Indirectness
•Exaggeration (superlative)
•Avoid generalizations (“one of
the” + superlative)
•Synthesis of ideas (coordination)
•Analysis of ideas (subordination)
•Pronouns without clear reference
•Antecedent identification
Cultural Considerations
1.
Please describe some cultural differences that
you have observed between Arabs and
Canadians.
2.
To what extent might these cultural differences
affect the learning capacity of Arabic speakers?
3.
Has your school made any special religious
accommodations for Muslim students?
4.
To what extent should schools make
accommodations for Muslim students?
Cultural Considerations:
Assimilation
• Classroom conventions
– Absences & lates
– Privacy issues
– Turn-at-talk
• Family Life
– Marriage responsibilities
– Pregnancies
– Daycare
• Religious issues
–
–
–
–
Prayer times and space
Ramadan
Diet and drink
Hijab (veil)
• Personal independence
– Lifestyle (decision
making, cooking, etc)
– Family ties & social
connections
– weather
• Gender in the classroom
– Separate primary,
intermediate, and secondary
schools (public universities)
for boys and girls
– Gender request for teacher
– Husband-wife or brothersister requests for same class
– Occasional problem with
female completing outside
classroom assignments
Post-English Language Program
Considerations
• University applications
• Accessibility of Canadian universities for Middle
Eastern students
– difficulty entry standards (undergraduate vs. graduate)
– quotas for international students
Thinking Forward
• Dependency on Saudi Cultural Bureau
– to continue scholarship program
– to continue sending students to YUELI
• Future Arab student populations
– Arab English language instruction improving in quality
and quantity
Q&A
To what extent should English language institutions…
a) modify teaching curriculum and/or techniques to
accommodate Arabic speaking learners?
b) accommodate Arab cultural differences?
c) help graduates enter university programs?
Koran Sura 105: “Have you not seen what God did to the owners of the elephants?”
Works Cited
• Al Jarf, R. (2008). The impact of English as an international
language (EIL) upon Arabic in Saudi Arabia. Asian EFL
Journal, 10(4).
• Hayes-Harb, R. (2006). Native speakers of Arabic and ESL
texts: Evidence for the transfer of written word identification
processes. TESOL Quarterly, 40(2), 321-339.
• Khuwaileh, A. A. and Shoumali, A. A. (2000). Writing errors:
A study of the writing ability of Arab learners of academic
English and Arabic at university. Language, Culture and
Curriculum, 13(2), 174-183.
• Lehn, W. and Slager, W. R. (1959). A contrastive study of
Egyptian Arabic and American English: The segmental
phonemes. Language Learning, 9(1-2), 25-33.
• Thompson-Panos, K. and Thomas-Ruzic, M. (1983). The least
you should know about Arabic: Implications for the ESL
writing instructor. TESOL Quarterly, 17(4), 609-623.