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MSU
Teaching assistant Nabil El Ferradi works with
students in MSU's Arabic Language and Cultural
Program.
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| by
Carol Schmidt |
| An
award-winning Arabic language and cultural program
at Montana State University that draws on cutting-edge
applications of distance education technology has
received a $431,000 grant to expand to other universities
across the country. |
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| MSU's Office
of International Programs received the grant from the U.S. Department
of Education's Fund for Improvement of Postsecondary Education
(FIPSE) to broaden the distribution of MSU's Arabic Language
and Cultural Program. |
| "We've
put together an entirely new model for teaching less commonly
taught languages, including Arabic," said Norman Peterson, assistant
vice provost for international education, about MSU's Arabic
Distance Learning Program, which fulfills a language requirement.
"There's nothing like (the MSU Arabic program) in the country.
Maybe there's nothing like it in the world." |
| MSU currently
telecasts the two-semesters of Arabic language instruction to
three other universities, but hopes to increase that number
eightfold by utilizing the FIPSE grant to expand the U.S. Arabic
Distance Education Network. This fall, a total of 81 students
in classes at MSU, the University of Montana, Idaho State University
and North Dakota State studied Arabic simultaneously. In the
last five years, the program has taught Arabic to 400 students. |
| The program
is delivered to various locations via a partnership formed from
MSU International Programs,the Department of Modern Languages
and Burns Telecommunications Center, which provides the broadcast
technology. That technology allows the program to use a first-rate
professor of Arabic language and culture, Nabil Abdellfatah,
a Ph.D. who teaches from the California State University-Hayward
campus and is a "nationally respected leader in Arabic instruction,"
according to Yvonne Rudman, the program's manager. |
| From the
beginning, the program has tapped students who are native Arabic
speakers as teaching assistants at each instructional site.
For instance, this year's teacher's assistant at MSU is Nabil
El Ferradi, a graduate student in electrical engineering from
Casablanca, Morocco. |
| El Ferradi
is impressed with his students' progress. American students,
known for long vowels and short attention spans, have risen
to the challenge of learning the language, he said. "It is a
cliche that American students are bad at language," El Ferradi
said. |
| "They can
write better than people who have been writing Arabic 20 years.
It's all about listening, I think." |
| The final
piece of the program is a semester abroad in an Arabic-speaking
country. Students who have finished the first year of MSU's
Arabic studies program can choose to study at Al-Akhawayn University
in Ifrane, located in the Middle Atlas Mountains of Morocco.
The classes at the university are taught in English, but the
students are immersed in an Arab culture. |
| Difficult
as it may be, students who take the Arabic distance education
course have scored as high or higher on standardized tests on
the language than students who study the course in a traditional
classroom and professor situation, Rudman said. |
| Best of
all, the method is relatively inexpensive. MSU can offer the
course at less than $10,000 per year per site, roughly one quarter
of the cost of offering a traditional classroom. MSU has surveyed
other institutions, and 35 expressed interest in connecting
with the U.S. Arabic Distance Learning Network. The goal is
to expand the network to 25 of those schools. |
| "The instructional
method allows universities, most of which are strapped for funds
in the current fiscal environment, to offer instruction in less
commonly taught languages," Rudman said. |
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