Rasha Soliman
Lecturer in Arabic Language and Linguistics, Admissions and Recruitment Tutor, Study-abroad Coordinator and Access to Leeds Tutor for Arabic, Islamic and Middle Eastern Studies (AIMES) | School of Languages, Cultures and Societies | University of Leeds | LS2 9JT | Leeds
In an ever-changing and a competitive world, language learners need to be aware of the diversity of the languages they are learning in order to succeed in a variety of communicative contexts. Linguistic variation is an inevitable aspect of every language which leads to questioning the concepts of mono-lingualism and the notion of the 'Native Speaker' (NS). In the last two decades, linguists and language teachers started to have a broader view of the language form they choose to teach. An example of this broader view of how languages are used is the concept of English as a Lingua Franca (ELF) which views English language teaching in a more globalised way rather than limiting it to one variety of English. Although ELF has been researched, discussed and encouraged in the field of ELT, still the resources and approaches on how to introduce language variation is quite limited (Davies & Patsko, 2013).
In the field of Arabic language teaching, the diversity is much greater than in most languages. This is due to the diglossic nature of Arabic as well as the vast geographical area in which Arabic dialectal varieties are spoken. Therefore, students of Arabic find themselves in communicative contexts that require broad understanding of different Arabic varieties spoken and written around the world. While it is unpractical to teach different varieties, raising awareness of the variation is plausible and can aid their comprehension of different forms (Soliman, 2015) and therefore enhances their communicative skills. Raising awareness of linguistic and dialectal variation is also in line with the focus on plurilingualism highlighted in the new CEFR volume (Council of Europe, 2018). This talk will present work-in-progress which looks at how to integrate awareness of Arabic variation into the syllabus taught at University level. Variation awareness and comprehension are integrated in almost every lesson as an additional language skill in which students are introduced to phonological, morphological, lexical and syntactic diversity after they are taught a linguistic element in the standard variety of Arabic. This starts with the basics of how certain Arabic phonemes are pronounced differently in different regions and extends to more complex morpho-syntactic elements. In these lessons, variation is introduced explicitly through presentations of linguistic rules and implicitly by getting learners to infer the extent of variability through listening and reading activities. The talk will give practical examples from Arabic but the principles and techniques can be applied to other languages as well.
التنوع والتعدد اللغوي في مجال تدريس اللغة العربية أكبر بكثير من معظم اللغات. يعود ذلك إلى طبيعة الازدواجية اللغوية في العربية بالتحديد إضافةً إلى المساحة الجغرافية الواسعة التي تشمل لهجات متعددة. لهذه الأسباب ، يجد طلاب اللغة العربية أنفسهم في سياقات التواصل التي تتطلب فهمًا واسعًا للهجات العربية المختلفة المنطوقة والمكتوبة في جميع أنحاء العالم. على الرغم من أنه من غير العملي تدريس لهجات مختلفة ، إلا أنه من المستطاع زيادة الوعي بهذا التباين لمساعدة المتعلمين على الوصول لمستوى أفضل من فهم لهجات متعددة (سليمان ، 2015) وبالتالي يعزز مهاراتهم في التواصل. يتماشى إذكاء الوعي بالتباين اللغوي مع التركيز على التعددية اللغوية الموضحة في مجلد CEFR الجديد (المجلس الأوروبي ، 2018). ستقدم هذه الورقة العلمية موضوع كيفية دمج الوعي بالتعدد والتباين اللغوي في العربية في المنهج الذي يدرس على مستوى الجامعة. يتم هذا الدمج في كل درس تقريبًا كمهارة لغوية إضافية يتم من خلالها تعريف الطلاب بالتنوع الصوتي والمورفولوجي والمعجمي والنحوي بعد تدريسهم عنصرًا لغويًا معين في الفصحى. يبدأ هذا الدمج بأساسيات كيفية نطق بعض الأصوات العربية بشكل مختلف في مناطق مختلفة ويمتد إلى عناصر لغوية أكثر تعقيدًا. في هذه الدروس ، يتم تقديم الاختلاف بشكل مباشر من خلال العروض التقديمية للقواعد اللغوية وبشكل ضمني عن طريق حث المتعلمين على استنتاج مدى التباين من خلال أنشطة الاستماع والقراءة. يقدم الحديث أمثلة عملية من اللغة العربية ، لكن يمكن تطبيق هذه المبادئ والتقنيات على لغات أخرى أيضًا.
References:
- Davies, K. S., & Patsko, L. (2013). How to teach English as a lingua franca (ELF). Voices Magazine, 2017, from https://www.britishcouncil.org/voices-magazine/how-teach-english-lingua-franca-elf
- Soliman, R. (2015). Arabic Cross-dialectal Conversations with Implications for the Teaching of Arabic as a Second Language. University of Leeds, Leeds.
Dr Rasha Soliman is a Lecturer in Arabic Language and Linguistics at the University of Leeds. She started her career in Teaching Arabic as a Second Language (TASL) in 1995. She has a Postgraduate Certificate in Teaching Second Languages and an MA in Applied Linguistics from the University of Southern Queensland in Australia. Her PhD is in Arabic Applied Linguistics which she obtained from the University of Leeds in 2014. After working at the International Language Institute (ILI) in Heliopolis – Egypt for a number of years, she joined the University of Manchester in the UK as a Lector in Arabic then was appointed as a Senior Language Tutor in Arabic in 2008 before she joined the University of Leeds in 2015. Her current research and scholarship interests include sociolinguistics, language variation in the Arabic classroom, Teacher training, approaches to grammar teaching and the application of the Common European Framework of Reference (CEFR) to TASL.