10 Things an Arabic Course Taught Me about Spanish Programs

by Ann Abbott

Ann Abbott is the Director of Undergraduate Studies and an Associate Professor of Spanish, Italian, and Portuguese as well as an Affiliated Faculty of Latin American and Caribbean Studies at the University of Illinois in Urbana-Champaign. Her work focuses on student learning outcomes in as well as critical analysis of foreign language community service learning, social entrepreneurship, social media and languages for specific purposes.

This summer, the European Union Center was pleased to co-sponsor the 5th Summer Institute for the Languages of the Muslim World (June 10-August 3, 2013) in collaboration with The Department of Linguistics at the University of Illinois in Urbana-Champaign in collaboration with the Center for South Asian and Middle Eastern Studies , Center for African Studies, CIBER, Center for Global Studies, and REEEC.

The Foreign Languages Building at UIUC
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Spanish doesn't need to work very hard to attract students to its courses. Spanish is strong in high schools, so many university students simply continue on the path they have already begun. It's also viewed as a useful language, either when traveling through Spanish-speaking countries or within the US. And, let's be honest, many people see it as an "easy" language to learn.

But Spanish enrollments and number of majors have been going down at the University of Illinois. All of a sudden, we do need to start working harder to attract students!

And that's where we can learn a lot from the less commonly taught languages (LCTLs). To attract students to their courses, they do several things well: form alliances, advertise strategically and often, create eye-catching flyers, connect with heritage speakers, and more. Turns out being a "hard" language makes you create a compelling me
ssage and offer a high-quality product, just to bring in students.

So when my daughter, Giulia, decided to take Intensive Beginning Arabic this summer through the Summer Institute for Languages of the Muslim World at the University of Illinois, I was curious about more than just the wonderful language she was going to learn. I was interested in how they were going to teach it.

To make a long story short, Giulia had a fabulous experience in her course and in the program. Fabulous. She learned the language--the basics. She made friends. She learned a lot about cultures of the Muslim world. She came to love languages (all languages) even more. And I can say that she also matured personally a lot because of the intensive (8-weeks of daily classes) nature of the program. She was proud of her accomplishments at the end of the program, and I was proud of everything she learned.

Here's what I observed about Giulia's beginning Arabic course and the SILMW program that I think all language programs should copy.

1. Provide a full package. Giulia got a lot out of her beginning Arabic courses. But those four hours of class each day were just one part of her learning experience. There were receptions, meals, talks, conversation tables, cooking classes and so much more. Every single one of those elements contributed to Giulia's learning. Honestly, until recently, when I thought about my Spanish courses and even our whole Spanish program, I just thought about the classes and course design. We miss out on so much when we only think about the learning that takes place in class and during homework.

Are any languages really "easy"?
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2. Extra credit motivates students. This is what I firmly believed until this summer: students who want extra credit should just spend more time working on the "regular credit." But then I saw how motivated Giulia was by the extra credit system in her Arabic course. Yes, she was motivated to get the points, but not just for the sake of accumulating points. You earned extra credit by attending extracurricular activities and writing about them. She really did learn "extra" with her "extra credit." And mentally, emotionally, the extra credit system was like a cushion that helped her accept less-than perfect grades that inevitably occur when you're learning a language. That didn't make her a "lazier" learner, though. No, it made her a more engaged learner. I want to re-think what extra credit could do for our Spanish program.

3. Emotions matter. I knew this. I knew about the affective filter. I knew that I wanted my classroom to be a safe place, where you can make mistakes, struggle and not feel too embarrassed. But I had never seen the emotional turmoil the learner goes through when they're not with me! As much as Giulia loved her course, her teacher and her classmates, those eight weeks were an emotional roller coaster for her. The first days of classes she broke down in tears and said, "Everyone gets it except me!" (Which wasn't true, of course.) Her confidence waxed and waned all summer long, but the days leading up to quizzes and exams were filled with anxiety. We can't take away all anxiety, but we can create a supportive, friendly environment before, during and after classes.

4. It's good to learn in English, too. I speak the target language 100% in my classes. That won't change. But I saw the real value of the information Giulia received in English. Most of the extra-curricular events were in English (also because people in the program were also studying other languages). As one example, Giulia enjoyed a talk about Arabic influences in Spanish. If presented in Arabic, she would have understood very little. Instead, throughout the program Giulia came away with a lot of cultural knowledge that was presented in English. That knowledge matters! Is it more important that our students are perfecting the past subjunctive or that they gain a deeper, more nuanced knowledge of the cultures represented through the language? They're both important, yes, but I saw this semester that there are real benefits to providing more information in English. It's not just important in later classes. It's important from the beginning. We don't do nearly enough of this in our Spanish program. I'm going to start thinking about how we can thoughtfully incorporate it.

5. Create a sense of community. Language classes naturally create a sense of community. Classes tend to be smaller. Your teacher always knows your name. You work in small groups with your classmates often. The activities that you do--the information you exchange--usually involves sharing opinions and experiences, so you eventually end up knowing your classmates quite well. But Giulia's sense of community extended to the whole program--she felt supported by her teacher, the tutor and the other teachers she met during the extracurricular activities.And her community extended to those students in SILMW who were studying other languages, too. This was accomplished in several ways:
• Classroom spaces being near each other.
• Extracurricular events that included all the students in the program.
• Friendliness!
• T shirts. Yes, t shirts! Giulia has worn her SILMW t shirt with pride during and after the course.
Beth Chasco, the Spanish undergraduate advisor, and I have been giving a lot of thought about how to create more of a sense of community among our Spanish majors. She has worked a lot on Mi Pueblo conversation groups, and I kicked of Mi Carrera workshops last semester. But we'll need to do even more.

6. Provide tutoring. Giulia knew that she could go to her teacher before class, after class and during office hours. But she also liked having a tutor who was available and who was different than her teacher. She could sign up for tutoring through the learning management system (Compass) and get extra help. She needed that. And sometimes she just needed to know that it was available. Once, Giulia went to the tutor to get help with the sounds of Arabic. And it's so important that tutors also be positive and encouraging. The teachers get to know their students very well, so being encouraging comes naturally, I'm sure. Tutors don't have that sustained relationship with the students they see, but they also need to be positive and encouraging. Spanish has (had?) a tutoring room, which was great. But it was under-utilized, and I don't know how well TAs were trained in taking on the role of tutor. I'm sure we can do a better job with this.

7. Extra-curricular activities really do matter. Do you think that having a cooking demonstration for students is fluff? Would you consider organizing a potluck dinner at a local park to be a waste of your teaching time? From what I saw this summer, I can tell you that those things truly matter. They matter to students because they're interesting and fun. But they also matter because students learn. They do! Giulia learned food vocabulary during the cooking demonstrations. She "experienced" the cultural importance of socializing with friends when she went to the coffee shop conversations. Understanding Ramadan by going to a potluck dinner at 8:00 p.m. at Crystal Lake Park was eye-opening. The program also set up a way for students to have language partners with IEI students, and Giulia really enjoyed the time she spent with her language partner. (And at home we all enjoyed the figs from Saudi Arabia that he gave her!) In fact, she's still meeting with him, even though the course is over. We don't do any of this in Spanish. We should.

8. Give quick feedback. Giulia waited anxiously for the moments when her grades were posted to Compass. And it never took too long. (Although of course, after students have spent a lot of energy studying or writing a paper, they would love instant feedback. That's not possible, of course.) This made me realize that I take too long. Again, I saw how encouraging this was to Giulia. And it truly wasn't about grade-grubbing or caring only about the grade. She put a lot of effort into studying (most of the time...), and just wanted to see the results.

Here are a few improvements I would suggest.

9. Look at every thing from the perspective of your student/client. I found the information on the web to be a little thin and a little confusing. Certainly, the website and flyers did not reflect the richness and high quality that Giulia experienced. In other words, I don't think the program sold itself as well as it could have through its informational and promotional materials. And I, as the parent who was paying, found the registration and payment process to be pretty opaque and confusing. I would have like a price clearly stated on the website. Instead, I had to go through several different steps and phone calls to work through everything. I know that is difficult for a program like this--other offices on campus handle registration and payment. Still, every program should do a "walk-through" of their entire process from the client's point of view. Don't let your potential students/clients give up because they can't find the information they want or the payment process is too complicated.

10. Stay in touch. Giulia's knowledge of Arabic went from zero to 100 in eight short weeks. Her interest in Arabic and the Arab-speaking world went through the same transformation. Now what? How can SILMW stay in touch with its students, provide them with interesting information, sustain their learning even after the class is over? This is important because Giulia will want to take the intermediate level in a future summer. The other students might do the same. But out of sight, out of mind. I have found that my Facebook Group for my students ("like it" if you want!) is a great way to stay in touch with students who might take another course with me, or even alums who might someday donate their time or money to my programs. During the summer, especially, I like to post music videos, fun pictures, comics, links to articles, all kinds of little things that keep Spanish on their minds.

So that's it. Ten things I learned about Spanish programs from my daughter's Arabic course. And I learned this because I had an insider's look at the student's experience. These ideas didn't come from sitting around the table at a faculty meeting. And they didn't come from a student survey. I'm not saying that surveys aren't important, but they don't always ask the "right" questions. And my daughter wouldn't have been able to articulate everything that I just stated above. I brought my experiences as a language educator and as a parent together and was rewarded with really important insights into how to enhance our students' engagement in our courses, increase their learning, and attract even more students.

And I'm certainly not advocating that we have "taco dinners" and pass around sombreros for our students to wear. We can do these things with intellectual rigor.

Congratulations to Ercan Balci and the Illinois Department of Linguistics for providing such a wonderful learning experience for Giulia--and for me!

This blog post was originally published on the Spanish & Illinois Blog on August 24, 2013.

10 Things an Arabic Course Taught Me about Spanish Programs

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Immigration, Colonialism and Maghrebi Arabic in France

by Morgan Hollie,
edited by Zsuzsanna Fagyal-Le Mentec

Morgan Hollie was a Global Studies major at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, majoring in Biology and minoring in French, when she wrote this blog entry in the EUC sponsored ‘Language and Minorities in Europe’ course in the spring of 2013. Zsuzsanna Fagyal-Le Mentec is an Associate Professor at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

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    “Maghrebi Arabic refers to the languages spoken in France by people whose family 
originates in the Maghreb," writes Dominique Caubet, Professor at INALCO in Paris, in a 2004 
paper (reference below). In other words: it is a type of Arabic spoken in France by immigrants 
and their descents that are originally from a region of Africa, called Maghreb (see the following 
map). Rather than calling it an immigrant language, however, the famous report The Languages of France, compiled for the French government by the linguistic historian Bernard Cerquiglini in 1999 called this type of Arabic a “non-territorial language."


  Other languages, such as Berber, Armenian, Yiddish, and Romani, have also received the same label in the 1999 report, meaning that these are languages that originated outside of France and have been spoken and transmitted by residents and citizens of France for several generations. This variety of Arabic in France shows a lot of different influences (words and expressions) coming from different countries or regions of the Maghreb” (Caubet).

  As Arabic is an umbrella term for a language with many distinct, often unintelligible dialects, it is important to distinguish that components of Maghrebi Arabic originate from part of North Africa comprised of Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia and Libya. Maghrebi Arabic is the most widely spoken and transmitted variety of Arabic in France, a reality that reflects the nation’s colonial history.

  Morocco, Algeria, and Tunisia all have long colonial histories with France, achieving their national independence in 1956, 1962 and 1957, respectively. French colonial exploits in these areas were marked by the promotion of colonized lands in North Africa as the “other,” which would later develop into the paradigm known as Orientalism. The concept of Orientalism typifies Middle Eastern and North African cultures as barbaric and undeveloped through a lens that likewise characterizes Western ideals as standard and proper. Such ideas of cultural inferiority served as justification for European imperial exploits in lands they previously held no claim to. The concept of cultural inequality combined with the notion of the Middle East as the Orient allowed for the construction of a cultural other whose exploitation was marketed as both fiscally beneficial to the colonizing state as well as necessary to civilize the natives that were perceived largely to be barbarians. (Said, 1979, 92).

  This attitude towards the Middle East and Islamic peoples continued throughout the twentieth century and was mostly spurred by Europeans until the onset of World War II. It is shorty after this time, after the former North African colonies realized their independence that an influx of North African immigrants begin to make their way to France, bringing with them their mother tongue that yielded, over the long run, Maghrebi Arabic.

  Having such a language in a country where immigrants started arriving many decades ago means that the language is still transmitted today. So, how many speakers of Maghrebi Arabic are there in France?

  There is no simple answer to this question. France country’s census has been notorious to not collect information about racial or ethnic origins, including mother tongue. A 1951 law and its 1978 version, more adapted to the digital age, explicitly forbade collecting and storing public statistics on French citizens’ ethnic/racial origins, political, philosophical or religious view and opinions. Therefore, it remains difficult to estimate how many Arabic speakers are in France altogether, which also complicates the challenge of assessing the needs of various ethnicities in France.

  However, there have been changes recently in ethnic polling in France. The 1978 law created an independent commission that oversees matters of discrimination in many domains of the media and information, called the CNIL (Commission Nationale de L’Informatique et des Libertés). Since 2011, with permission from this commission, it is possible to collect, analyze, and publish information about ethnic origins of French people if the poll or the study is concise and guarantees the strict anonymity of its respondents. Thanks to this special permission, results from studies like the TeO (Trajectory and Origins) project, headed by a team of social scientists, were published recently. When it comes to immigrant populations in France, it appears that in 2008, out of the 8.4% of France’s population that was of immigrant origin, 35% had at least one parent, but often two, born in the Maghreb. This could be, in principle, good news for the transmission of Maghrebi Arabic and could explain how this variety of Arabic could be transmitted by families. Caubet estimates in 2004 that “between 2.8 and 3.5 million people in France [are] originating from the three countries." She cites a study from 2002 that looked into language minority transmission in a small number of French families and estimated that a little less than 1.2 million speakers “received Arabic from their parents."

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  Despite the high numbers of Maghrebi Arabic speakers in France, the language receives no official recognition at the state level. The optional test in ‘arabe dialectal’ at the all-important Baccalauréat (high school exit exam) was first transformed from an oral exam into a written exam – not exactly favoring a spoken language – and then terminated in just a few months in 1999.

  Another important point is that Maghrebi Arabic is spoken by a segment of the French population with relatively little influence and a great deal of social stigma. At the constitutional level, the only language recognized by the French government is French. There have been efforts on the part of representatives for regional minority and immigrant language to amend article 2 of the constitution, which states “the language of the Republic shall be French” (French Constitution, Art. 2), to recognize minority languages as well, and some concessions have been obtained. By and large, however, even today, immigrants from the Maghreb must content with monocultural social convictions and enforcement of French as the national language (EBLUL France).

It is difficult not to see in this situation remnants of French cultural superiority that are a heritage of the French colonial assimilationist model. French efforts to “assimilate colonial subjects through French language and culture” have had a lasting effect on attitudes towards immigrants in France today (Bleich, 2005, p.174). They had repercussions on language attitudes, as well. Because of the pressure to self-incorporate with what is thought of as French national culture, members of the Maghrebi immigrant community often experience shame of their mother tongue. “Codeswitching is very common in these bilingual communities...” (Extra, Gorter) and is often perceived negatively. “How can these attitudes be described? Is it “lack of self-esteem” or only linguistic insecurity? D. Caubet asks, as well. “What is certain is that the lack of valorisation of the family language and culture can lead to serious disturbances.” Nonetheless, “never has arabe maghrébin been written so intensively, by millions and in latin script, both in the Maghreb and in Europe”, she argues, which might eventually help the status of language.

  One can only agree with the expert: “The future will tell…”

References

Bleich, E. (2005) The Legacies of History? Colonization and Immigrant Integration in Britain and 

  France. Theory and Society, 34, 171-195.

Breuil-Genier, P., Borrel, C., Lhommeau, B. 2011. « Les immigrés, les descendants d’immigrés et 

  leurs enfants », In Vu d’ensemble : portrait de la population, France, portrait social. Edition 2010, 

  http://www.insee.fr/fr/themes/document.asp?reg_id=0&id=3099.

Caubet, D. (2004). “About the Transmission of Maghrebi Arabic in France”. In Language and 

  (Im)migration in France, Latin America, and the United States: Sociolinguistic Perspectives, 

  Rep. N.P: University of Texas, 

  http://www.utexas.edu/cola/insts/france-ut/_files/pdf/resources/caubet.pdf.

Cerquiglini, B. (1999) Les Langues de la France, Rapport aux ministres de l’Education nationale et de 

  la Culture, (2003) Les Langues de France, Paris, PUF.

Constitution of October 4, 1958. French National Assembly. French National Assembly, n.d. 

  Web. 31 March 2013.

Extra, G., Gorter, D. The Other Languages of Europe: Demographic, Sociolinguistic, and 

  Educational Perspectives. Clevedon, U.K.: Multilingual Matter, 2001. Print.

Said, E. (1979). Orientalism. New York: Vintage. 

Immigration, Colonialism and Maghrebi Arabic in France

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L'Armée Révolutionnaire Bretonne et la Langue Breton

by Audrey Thompson

Audrey Thompson is an undergraduate student at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, majoring in French and Political Science. She wrote this blog entry on the Briton nationalist movement and the Briton language in France in the EUC sponsored ‘Language and Minorities in Europe’ (FR 418) course in the spring of 2013.

L'Armée Révolutionnaire Bretonne: Il y a toujours des citoyens d'aujourd'hui qui croient que la Bretagne devrait être indépendante de la France et que la langue bretonne devraient être autorisés à refleurir dans la société. Il y a beaucoup de groupes avec cet objectif - comme l'Armée Révolutionnaire Bretonne. Ce groupe a été fondé en 1971 sous la section armée du Front de Libération Breton - un groupe politique non violent avec l'objectif de libérer la Bretagne de la France (Breton Revolutionary Army).

Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Breton_nationalism

Une partie de leur manifeste stipule que « notre combat est d'abord celui de nos compatriotes bretons ... pour la défense de notre langue et de notre culture » (Pike, John). En 1974, l'ARB a commencé leur première manifestation violente et pendant les trente années suivantes, l'ARB - aussi appelé Emgann (le mot breton pour le combat) - revendiqué la responsabilité de plus de deux cents attaques.  Dans une entrevue en 1999 avec un journal basque, l'ARB fait connaître leur position et leurs objectifs clairs en France en libérant cette déclaration : « La France n'est pas une dictature, mais il n'est pas non plus la démocratie complète en Bretagne. Lorsque la constitution française reconnaît l'existence … la langue bretonne, les conditions d'un véritable débat démocratique seront réunis. Une lutte armée nous semble le seul moyen efficace pour obtenir ces conditions » (Breton Revolutionary Army).  Alors que les protestations et les attaques terroristes de l'ARB étaient en grande partie non mortelle pour les humains, il y a eu des victimes.

L’histoire:  Breton a été introduit dans la région française dans le cinquième ou le sixième siècle.

Depuis qu'il a été unifié sous le gouvernement français en 1524, la Bretagne s'est battu pour l'indépendance. Au cours du XVIIIe siècle, à parler breton a été interdite en France et dans les régions qui entourent la France et aussi les citoyens du Bretagne ont perdu leur autonomie.   Cependant, en 1928, le savant Roparz Hemon a mené une enquête et il a conclu que près de 1,2 millions de personnes utilisaient le breton toujours comme leur langue principale à communiquer dans la maison et au travail (Breton Language). Malheureusement, dans la société moderne, seulement environ 500000 personnes peuvent comprendre et de parler la langue. La loi Deixonne de 1951 a créé une présence minimale pour les langues régionales dans le domaine de l'éducation publique. Cette loi permet qu'une heure par semaine de cours en Bretagne - et seulement si les enseignants étaient prêts à enseigner à la classe sans être payée (World Directory). Heureusement, il y a maintenant des écoles d'immersion et les programmes complets d'éducation bilingue en cours de création en France afin de s'assurer que la langue ne s'éteint pas. Il existe des programmes de radio et de télévision qui sont réalisées entièrement en breton et certains signes et des publicités dans la langue, mais les gens qui parlent breton dans leurs maisons sont en baisse constante.

Source: http://breizhjournal.wordpress.com/tag/nationalisme-breton/

Les problèmes sur ce siècle: Sur 19 avril 2000, un McDonald à Dinan – une ville bretonne – a été bombardée, ce qui a entraîné dans la mort d'une serveuse. L'ARB a publié un commentaire dans Le Journal du dimanche dans laquelle ils ont nié toute participation à l'attaque mortelle. Même si l'ARB a nié l'attaque contre cette McDonalds, ils ont pris le crédit pour d'autres attentats à McDonalds différente de travers la France (Three Breton Separatists). Cependant, cinq membres présumés de l'ARB ont été arrêtés en relation avec l'attentat meurtrier, y compris le porte-parole de l'ARB (Five Arrested Over McDonald’s Bombing).  La dynamite qui a été utilisée dans l'explosion a été traquée à une cargaison de cinq tonneaux qui a été volé plus tôt cette année par l'ETA - un mouvement séparatiste basque et ruelle connue de l'ARB.

Qu'est-ce qui est à venir: Alors, quel est le but de l'Armée Révolutionnaire Bretonne ? Sont-ils combattants de la liberté qui poursuivent un parcours de la liberté et de l'autonomie complète pour la Bretagne et la langue bretonne contre le gouvernement français, ou sont-ils des terroristes qui tuent inutilement ? D'un côté, jusqu'à ce que la mort accidentelle de la serveuse de McDonalds en 2000, les seules morts causés par d'autres l'ARB étaient la mort de deux membres de l'ARB qui tentaient de désamorcer une bombe qui a mis la vie des autres composantes civiles innocentes en danger. D'un autre côté, en utilisant la violence pour faire une déclaration ou de prouver un point est généralement contre-productif. Le Ministre de l'Intérieur de la France a conclu que l'ARB « ne n'hésite pas à mettre la vie humaine en danger et ils devront être vigoureusement condamné » (Jr., Donald). En voulant l'autonomie de la culture bretonne et la langue est un objectif admirable, mais ce prix est seulement pour le combat ?

Source: http://breizhjournal.wordpress.com/tag/nationalisme-breton/

Les langues minoritaires françaises: Il existe de nombreuses autres langues qui sont parlées en France en plus du français et du breton. Cependant, la plupart de ces langues n'ont pas de groupes terroristes bombardant les lieux publics pour essayer d'obtenir la reconnaissance et les droits internationaux. Alsacien, arabe et languedocien sont aussi des langues en France qui sont des langues minoritaires. Mais ces groupes linguistiques n'ont pas plus grand nombre manifestants violents pour protéger leur langue. Dans le même temps, ces langues et beaucoup d'autres sont toujours parlées en France. Cette information crée la question: Est-ce que la violence est un instrument utile dans la lutte pour la reconnaissance d'une langue ?
 
Works Cited/Bibliography

"Breton language". Encyclopedia Britannica. Encyclopedia Britannica Online.  Encyclopedia Britannica Inc., 2013. Web. 18 Mar. 2013 <http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/78972/Breton-language>.

"Breton Revolutionary Army (ARB)." National Consortium for the Study of Terrorism and Responses to Terrorism. University of Maryland, n.d. Web. 20 Mar. 2013.

"Breton Separatists Deny Bombing of McDonald's." The New York Times 30 Apr. 2000: 4. Print.

"Five Arrested over McDonald's Bombing." BBC News. BBC, 05 Feb. 2000. Web. 20 Mar. 2013.

Jr., Donald G. Mcneil. "French McDonald's Bombed; Breton Terrorists Suspected." The New York Times. The New York Times, 20 Apr. 2000. Web. 20 Mar. 2013.

Pike, John. "Military." Breton Revolutionary Army (BRA)Armee Republicaine Bretonne (ARB)Armee Revolutionnaire Bretonne [ARB]EMGANN [Combat]Front De La Liberation De La Bretagne [FLB]. Global Security, n.d. Web. 20 Mar. 2013.

"Three Breton Separatists Investigated in Bombing." The New York Times 8 May 2000: 4. Print.

"World Directory of Minorities and Indigenous Peoples." Minority Rights Group International : France : Breton. Minority Rights Group International, n.d. Web. 20 Mar. 2013.

"1 Killed in Bomb Blast at McDonald's in France." Los Angeles Times. Los Angeles Times, 20 Apr. 2000. Web. 20 Mar. 2013.

La media pour ce blog:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WQlv8tWANJ4
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k6GyMHyOk8w
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Bretagne_historic_location_map.svg

L'Armée Révolutionnaire Bretonne et la Langue Breton

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