The teaching of Arabic in the UK: past, present and future James Dickins Professor of Arabic University of Leeds

History of Arabic teaching Sir Thomas Adams Chair of Arabic, established by University of Cambridge as adjunct to Theology in 1632 (Sir Thomas Adams first incumbent). In Scotland, Arabic teaching at University of Edinburgh goes back over 250 years. Up to the middle of the 20 th century, Arabic was taught in British universities as a Classical language. The 20 th century saw growth in interest in Arabic colloquial dialects, partly driven by British colonial administration in Aden, Palestine, Sudan, etc. Colloquial Arabic was not part of undergraduate Arabic degrees. In latter part of 20thcentury, Modern Standard Arabic, and to some extent colloquial Arabic, became established alongside Classical Arabic as an undergraduate degree element. By end of 20 th century, Arabic began to be taught in schools.

Development of Arabic teaching 19 th century: no real textbooks – works such as Wright’s compendious Grammar of the Arabic language (1859/1975) were the only textbook- like material. Up to 1960s: grammar-translation method, e.g: – Introduction to modern literary Arabic (Cowan 1958) – A new Arabic grammar of the written language (Haywood and Nahmad, 1962). Each chapter deals with one or more grammatical points; written practice is provided by translation sentences from and into Arabic. Late 1960s: influence of audiolingual method – Elementary modern Standard Arabic (Abboud et al. 1968). Chapters organised around a basic text; wide variety of exercises, including oral and aural exercises. Prevalence of substitution drills. 1990s onwards: communicative-oriented approaches, e.g. – Mastering Arabic (Whightwick and Gaafar, 1990). – Al-Kitaab fii Ta’allum Al-‘Arabiyya: Part 1 (Brustad et al. 2004). Both Elementary modern Standard Arabic and the more recent communicatively-oriented works maintain a strong formal grammatical element. Given the complexity of Arabic morphology in particular, it is difficult to see how this could be avoided. The most recent textbooks include online as well as video materials. Most textbooks are aimed at ab initio learners. Advanced textbooks include: – Standard Arabic: an advanced course (Dickins and Watson, 1999). – Al-Kitaab fii Ta’allum Al-‘Arabiyya: Part 2 (Brustad et al. 2005) and Part 3 (Brustad et al. 2007), which are fully integrated with Part 1.

Colloquial Arabic teaching Courses in colloquial Arabic dialects have been produced for many decades, initially mainly by academic publishers for colonial authorities. Since the 1980s in particular, mainstream publishers have begun to publish colloquial courses. One of the major challenges for Arabic teaching is whether and how to integrate the teaching of Standard Arabic with colloquial. Some very recent textbooks integrate the teaching of Standard and colloquial Arabic, e.g: – Arabiyyat al-Naas (3 vols.) (Yunes et al. 2013)

British universities teaching undergraduate Arabic degrees St. Andrews Edinburgh Durham Leeds Manchester UCLAN Oxford Cambridge SOAS (University of London) Exeter

Students of Arabic at British Universities Experienced language learners, typically those who view the study of Arabic as a new challenge leading on from their school studies of modern European languages. People with an interest in Islam (including some converts), or with an interest in the societies of the Middle East, who view the learning of Arabic as essential to their future progress in these other areas. People who have developed an interest in Arabic through having spent time in the Arab world, either as children of expatriates (typically in Saudi Arabia or the Gulf), or as adults working in Arab countries. Students of Arab background. Students of non-Arab Islamic backgrounds, particularly from British Pakistani, Indian or Bangladeshi communities.

Teaching of Arabic in British schools Alcantara Report: The teaching of Arabic language and culture in UK schools. Dec. 2013/March 2015: primary schools teach Arabic, the majority independent Muslim schools 207 secondary schools (c. 4% of all secondary schools) teach Arabic, the majority independent Muslim schools – Only a few schools with relatively large Arabic GCSE numbers offer Arabic as a modern languages option. Most schools teach Modern Standard Arabic and 9 also teach Qur’anic Arabic. 3 teach Qu’ranic Arabic but not MSA. 1 school teaches dialect – Egyptian – alongside MSA and Qu’ranic Arabic. Teachers are most commonly Arabic specialists trained in the UK or to a lesser extent abroad. 86 supplementary schools teach Arabic – All schools teach Modern Standard Arabic and 5 also teach Qu’ranic Arabic. Only one also teaches an Arabic dialect. In most schools Arabic is taught as a separate timetabled subject. Half of the schools prepare students for GCSE exams, and 4 for A level. With the growth of Arabic in schools, there is a challenge to produce pedagogically sound materials aimed at school students.

Future of Arabic teaching Different types: Classical (including Qur’anic), Modern Standard and Colloquial Arabic – teaching methods – integration of types in teaching Different levels: universities, schools, etc. – different textbooks – integration between secondary and tertiary levels; undergraduate degrees for students with advanced Arabic Promotion of Arabic at schools and universities – Cf. current British Council-funded project researching the teaching of Arabic in British schools and universities which a number of participants in today’s event are involved in.

Thank you! All questions welcome