Challenges in Teaching Arabic as a Foreign Language

An essential collection of empirical studies on the TAFL (teaching Arabic as a foreign language) classroom experience, by leading professionals in the fieldAlthough teaching Arabic as a foreign language (TAFL) has grown inexorably in recent decades, there is a dearth of empirical research on the TAFL classroom experience. In this insightful volume, Dalal Abo El Seoud brings together up-to-date practice-based research and conceptual contributions by eighteen professionals in the field. These address a wide range of challenges in teaching Arabic as a foreign language and ways of overcoming them with a clear eye to twenty-first-century language-learning skills, which advocate communication, collaboration, critical thinking, and creativity. The chapters address curriculum design, teaching Arabic to non-English speakers, trends in the use of technology, motivating students, teaching Arabic language varieties, and teaching language skills. This volume will be an invaluable resource for teachers and teachers in training of TAFL and for scholars and researchers in the field. Contributors:Dalal Abo El Seoud, The American University in Cairo, Cairo, EgyptHagar Lotfy Amer, The American University in Cairo, Cairo, EgyptWael M. Asfour, independent scholar, Cairo, EgyptMona Azzam, State University of New York at Binghamton, New York, USAMahmoud Al-Batal, The American University of Beirut, Beirut, LebanonNino Ejibadze, Tbilisi State University, Tbilisi, GeorgiaShereen Y. El Ezabi, The American University in Cairo, Cairo, EgyptMohamed Ibrahim, Kafrelsheikh University, Kafr al-Sheikh, EgyptMimi Melkonian, Brunswick School, Greenwich, Connecticut, USAHaitham S. Mohamed, University of California, Berkeley, Berkely, California, USAJoanna Natalia Murkocinska, Nicolaus Copernicus University in Torun, Poland. Heba Salem, The American University in Cairo, Cairo, EgyptMohamed Sawaie, University of Virginia, Charlottesville, Virginia, USALaila Al-Sawi, The American University in Cairo, Cairo, EgyptPawel Siwiec, Jagiellonian University, Cracow, PolandIman Aziz Soliman, The American University in Cairo, Cairo, EgyptPrzemyslaw Turek, Jagiellonian University, Cracow, PolandShahira Yacout, The American University in Cairo, Cairo, Egypt