Scuola Dottorale di Ateneo Graduate School Dottorato di ricerca in Studi sull’Asia e sull’Africa Ciclo 29 Anno di discussione 2017 TEACHING ARABIC AS A FOREIGN LANGUAGE Origins, Developments and Current Directions Settore scientifico disciplinare di afferenza: L-OR/12 Tesi di Dottorato di Andrea Facchin, matricola 808568 Coordinatore del Dottorato Supervisore del Dottorando Prof. Federico Squarcini Prof.ssa Antonella Ghersetti TEACHING ARABIC AS A FOREIGN LANGUAGE Origins, Developments and Current Directions Supervisor: Professor Antonella Ghersetti Ph.D. Candidate: Andrea Facchin CONTENTS Acknowledgments page II List of Abbreviations III Arab World Map IV Introduction 1 Rationale of the Study 9 Area Approach 13 Models for Language Education and Arabic 15 Language 15 Arabic 18 Arabic Language Learning and Teaching 21 Analytical Categories for Teaching Arabic as a Foreign Language 29 The Historical Background 40 1. The Early Period 44 2. Open Doors 56 3. The Birth of a New Branch 64 4. Growth (1970s) 73 5. Development (1980s) 96 6. New Challenges (1990s) 128 7. In the 21st Century (2000-2015) 161 AnneXes 176 8. Scales of Levels and Guidelines 177 9. Assessment, Evaluation and Testing 182 10. Certification 187 Conclusions 190 List of Events 194 Tables 198 Glossary 205 Arabic Proficiency Test 244 References 254 Index 284 I ACKNOWLEDGMENTS I would like to express my gratefulness to Professor Antonella Ghersetti, my thesis supervisor and guide during this marvellous path that is Ph.D., for she read, carefully commented and gave me useful advice on research work. A special thanks also goes to the thesis reviewers Professor Jan Jaap de Ruiter of TilBurg University and Professor Indalecio Lozano Cámara of Universidad de Granada, who read the study and provided positive and enriching considerations on the whole work and therefore gave me the opportunity to implement and improve it in the near future. Informal readers of the thesis must also Be mentioned, for they provided good help, which I have appreciated a lot. Among them, my wife, Carolina, for she not only came with precise notes on the passages that I handed her, But also for giving me unconditional support, always and at any time. Then my family, Both my parents and parents-in-law, who encouraged me in these last months of hard work. Their experience and attentive observation of life inspired me. Last But not least, I should thank other special people that I met either along the path or during research periods abroad, in Tunisia, the Netherlands, Finland, Egypt, Canada, the United AraB Emirates and the United States. These people listened to me and my passionate speeches on the teaching of AraBic as a foreign language in such interested ways that they directly (or indirectly) gave me strength to pursue my oBjectives and continue my research. These people are Anneke de Graaf and the expert group of AraBic language at Cito Netherlands: Azzedine AhBout, Karim Laaraj, Fadil Azzarouali, Ali Liazid, Professor Geert Borg of Twente University and Monique Bernards of the School of AbBasid Studies. To them I should add Professors Ida Zilio Grandi, Francesco Grande, Massimo Khairallah, Graziano Serragiotto, Fabio Caon, Paolo Balboni of Ca’ Foscari University Venice, Professor Amel ArBi of Bourguiba School in Tunis and the exceptional staff met at Université de Tunis El Manar (Faculté de Science Humaines) and Université Zitouna of Tunis; the organizers of “Le CECRL et la didactique de l’araBe” conference held at Université du Québec à Montréal in October 2014; the young researchers that presented at Jil Jadid 2016 at the University of Texas at Austin and my Ph.D. colleagues. II LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS AATA American Association of Teachers of Arabic ABEGS Arab Bureau of Education for the Gulf States ACTFL American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages AFL Arabic as a Foreign Language ALECSO Arab League Educational Cultural and Scientific Organization ALLT Arabic Language Learning and Teaching APT Arabic Proficiency Test ASL Arabic as a Second Language AUC American University in Cairo CEFR Common European Framework of Reference for languages CoE Council of Europe FL Foreign Language FLT Foreign Language Teaching H Anno Hegirae HL Heritage Language IBLV Institut Bourguiba des Langues Vivantes ISESCO Islamic Educational Scientific and Cultural Organization IUA International University of Africa L1 First Language, mother tongue L2 Second Language MSA Modern Standard Arabic SL Second Language TAFL Teaching Arabic as a Foreign Language TASL Teaching Arabic as a Second Language UNESCO United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization WFAIIS World Federation of Arab Islamic International School III Figure 1: Map of the Arab World with the most important Institutes and conferences in the field of Teaching Arabic as Foreign Language Instituto de Estudios Islámicos Madrid Symposium (1959) ArabeLE 2009 ArabeLE 2012 Bourguiba School (1964) Meeting of Tunis (1991) Rabat Symposium (1980) TAFL Division (1970s) TAFL Centre (1982) Maʿhad al-Muntasiriyah Yarmouk Language Center (1979) Kuwait Symposium (1981) Symposium of Cairo (1978) AUC TAFL Master (1979) Symposium of Doha (1981) QU TAFL Center (1986) Doha TAFL Conference (2016) Medina Symposium (1981) Maʿhad al-Riyāḍ (1974) Riyadh Symposium (1978) Arabic Language Teaching Institute (1981) Maʿhad Umm al-Qurà (1975) Conference of Riyadh (2009) Maʿhad Mauritania (1997) Maʿhad al-Ḫarṭūm (1974) Khartoum Symposia (1980, 1981, 1982) International University of Africa Institute (1994) Symposium of Khartoum (2000) Meeting of Khartoum (2003) v INTRODUCTION The study concentrates on the genesis and developments of the discipline called Teaching Arabic as a Foreign Language (TAFL) within the Arab world between 1958 and 2015. As a consequence, the goal of the research is to outline a historical review of the development of the teaching of Arabic as a foreign language from its beginning until the present day. Even though the research is mostly focused on the investigation of the last four decades of the 20th century and the first fifteen years of the current one, a general overview of the previous period is given in order to allow the reader to understand the historical context of nowadays trends. The most influential scholars and significant works that contributed to the development of the discipline are taken into account. Furthermore, approaches, trends, methods and methodologies used in the field are analyzed, together with the narration of the main historical events that affected the Middle Eastern region. Many scholars tried to describe the origins of TAFL (e.g. Mekki 1966; Nasr 1978; Souissi 1979; Altoma 1980; Muhammad Ahmad 1980; Badawi 1992; Alosaili 2002; Versteegh 2006; Ryding 2013, etc.). Generally, these scholars pointed out that the teaching of Arabic to foreigners was a matter of foreigners themselves, namely non-Arabs. For instance, Mekki (1966) began to narrate the birth of TAFL in Toledo, at the School of Translators, where Arabic was taught during the 12th century. However, after the 1960s onwards TAFL began to raise Arab scholars’ research interests within the Arab world. For example, in 1978 the Lebanese scholar Raja Tawfiq Nasr decided to write a personal response to a felt need by teachers of Arabic as a foreign language that he sensed in the Middle East, East Africa, North Africa, Europe, the United Kingdom and the United States (cf. Nasr 1978). The work was preceded and followed by many other significant contributions; not only, the first institutes dedicated to this new born branch were created in various Arab countries like Tunisia, Sudan, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Jordan. As previously stated, the focus of the present research is therefore to describe the origins, developments and current directions of a subject that started as a branch of applied linguistics and then developed into a full-fledged discipline. As previously clarified, the time span considered goes between 1958 and 2015, even though a quick overview on the previous 1 period is provided. With respect to the geographical area taken into consideration, the study aims to examine debates, scholarly productions and activities on TAFL of the whole Arab world, with special attention to three strategic countries for the history of the discipline. These countries are: Tunisia, Egypt and Saudi Arabia. Nonetheless, the study does not exclude those significant contributions on TAFL that were produced outside this geographical area. In particular, the researches and debates on TAFL taken into account include also in this order: North America, Europe, South-East Asia and South America. The development of Teaching Arabic as a Foreign Language is analyzed through various perspectives: geographical, historical and contextual. However, if the historical perspective is directly visible in the arrangement of the chapters, where the § Historical Background chapters are categorized and named according to a chronological division, the geographical and contextual perspectives have not such a textual visibility and are dealt with within the single chapter. For example, on the geographical scale, the debates that generated within the various Arab countries national boundaries (e.g. Tunisia, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Sudan) and their differences are examined and considered across the text of every chapter. While in Tunisia and Saudi Arabia TAFL showed secular and religious orientations respectively, in Sudan the discussion on TAFL was characterized since its dawn by a mixture of subjects