American Association of Teachers of Arabic (AATA) aims to facilitate communication and cooperation between teachers of Arabic and to promote study, criticism, research and instruction in the field of Arabic language pedagogy, Arabic linguistics and Arabic literature. The information available here is a sampling of the materials available to AATA members. For information on joining, please see the “Membership” link on the right.

From the Editor of Al-‘Arabiyya

Al-`Arabiyya 2005-06 is in the final stages of production and requires only to be printed; volume 2007-08 will be mailed at the same time as 2005 - 2006. I anticipate that all four volumes will be available soon, with the 2009 volume close on their heels, as it too is in layout. 

Submissions continue to be quite healthy, with very exciting topics for the consideration of the Al-`Arabiyya Editorial Board. The 2010 volume already has several articles selected. Despite the horrific delays that the journal has suffered at my hands, I am excited that you will soon have these volumes in your hands to stimulate more discussion of a range of topics in our field.

Clarissa C. Burt, Ph.D.

Al-`Arabiyya Editor

From AATA’s Executive Director                              

Dear AATA Members,

It’s 2010 – have you renewed your AATA membership yet? If not, you can do so easily at the AATA website (http://aataweb.org/Default.aspx?pageID=11). Sign up online (via PayPal) or download the membership form and mail it to AATA with your payment. 

If you have already renewed, thank you. Your continued support is important to our organization. But don’t stop there. Please encourage your colleagues to join AATA, too. Feel free to share this issue of the AATA Newsletter and the website with them, especially if you think they are not aware of AATA.

Speaking of memberships, we are delighted to welcome Wayne State University as AATA’s newest Institutional Member! At $200 annually, Institutional Membership is a great way to let AATA members know about your institution and an important source of support for AATA. For more information about institutional membership, please write me at admin@aataweb.org.

And, although it doesn’t look much like spring from my office window, summer will be here before we know. Watch for the March issue of the AATA Newsletter, which will feature a list of summer Arabic language study programs in the US and elsewhere. Would you like your summer study program to appear in the March issue? Please send a brief (approximately 200 word) description of your program to me at admin@aataweb.org. The description should be in English and in a text file (preferably MS Word); we regret that AATA is not able to publish graphics of any kind.

Looking forward to hearing from you,

Elizabeth M. Bergman, Ph.D.

Executive Director

Although attention to education in the United States has tended to wax and wane depending on the political climate, we have now reached a critical time for education reform wherein the future of our country’s global economic success, national security, and quality of life will be a direct result of education decisions that are made today. Currently, we are in the midst of policy debates on how to use the enormous stimulus fund provided for education through the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) and the pending reauthorization of the federal education law, the Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965 (currently entitled No Child Left Behind). Because of these critical opportunities for change in education in the United States, it is vital to the future success of American students to ensure that they acquire global competency and skills for the 21st century.

Due to the increasingly global nature of today’s economy and job market and the technological advancements of global interconnection, it is more essential than ever that foreign language education play a significant role in the development of 21st century skills at all levels of education, together with science, technology, engineering, and mathematics. Foreign language and culture skills are paramount for today’s students to complete for successful careers in the federal government especially regarding diplomacy and national security, international business, and translation and interpretation, among many others. Despite this, foreign language instruction in K-12 schools in the United States has decreased during the last decade largely due to accountability and time constraints resulting from the No Child Left Behind legislation and overall funding limitations (Center for Applied Linguistics, 2008, unpublished data).

For these reasons, the Joint National Committee for Languages and the National Council for Languages and International Studies (JNCL-NCLIS) propose the following policy strategies in order to advance foreign language proficiency outcomes among all U.S. students, provide national coordination of language programs at all levels, and implement systemic solutions to make such proficiency outcomes a reality.

Throughout the United States government, provide a national framework and coordinating system for foreign language education that is overseen by a national advisor and coordinating council, such as provided for in Senator Daniel Akaka’s National Foreign Language Coordination Act of 2009 (S. 1010); and,

In the Department of Education, create a position and office for an Assistant Secretary of International and Foreign Language Education, who would oversee and direct foreign language and international programs within ED and also work in cooperation with a national foreign language advisor and other federal agency officials to fulfill national language objectives.

The need for systemic solutions that lead to increased and prolonged language study and aim to achieve high levels of proficiency:

Reaffirm the importance of foreign languages as a “core subject area” and a core area of knowledge in the reauthorization of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA), acknowledging that languages appear second on the core subjects list prepared by the Partnership for 21st Century Skills and fourth on the list of Goals 2000 standards in basic academic subjects;

Create and implement a national framework for sequenced and articulated preK-12 language programs, beginning at the elementary level and continuing progressively through higher education, that employ the national foreign language standards and valid and reliable assessments to measure proficiency outcomes;

Encourage content-based language instruction and immersion education, starting in elementary school and continuing through the baccalaureate and/or professional levels, including overseas study, to increase the number of college graduates with “professional proficiency” in two or more languages with attention to major world languages currently underrepresented in U.S. education as well; and,

Recognize the importance and benefits of early instruction in commonly taught languages as a foundation for students to gain competency in one world language and acquire language learning skills and provide later opportunities for study of less commonly taught and more difficult languages;

Increase and reinvest the amounts of sustained federal funding available for articulated foreign language programs and increase grant funding opportunities to assist schools with the startup costs associated with beginning new, innovative, and/or significantly improved language programs.

The need for targeted research into questions regarding foreign language education:

Provide funding for targeted research into questions, such as best practices (including, e.g. class size, time on task, use of target language), methodology, assessment techniques, teacher preparation, and the domestic and global effects of second language competency, that have been identified by language professionals as important to increasing the production and efficiency of language acquisition.

The need for more highly qualified, certified foreign language teachers:

Address and correct the shortage of highly-qualified language teachers by increasing the number of avenues by which teachers can demonstrate competency and become certified at all levels of education, and by voluntary standardization of this process across states;

Address and correct the current foreign language teacher shortage by providing scholarship funding, study abroad opportunities, and other incentives to foreign language students and professionally competent graduates with language proficiency to pursue credentials for language teaching careers; and, 

Increase funding and incentives for teacher professional development opportunities, including study abroad and language immersion experiences, to increase the number of highly qualified language teachers at all levels.

If we are able to achieve these goals through federal legislation and policies, the future workforce of the United States will be better equipped with the necessary communication and cultural skills to become active participants in a global society. Students will have the language resources they need to compete with their peers around the world for job opportunities and will also provide the United States with a cadre of individuals prepared to deal with national security, economic stability, effective diplomacy, and other critical issues of the 21st century.

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AATA Membership FAQs

How do I know if my membership is paid for 2009?     Please go to the AATA for “Current AATA Members – Update your membership information” (http://aataweb.org/Login.aspx?ReturnUrl=%2fmembers%2fDefault.aspx). That page asks you to log in, using your email address and a password you selected at the time of your membership. As soon as you log in, you will see your membership status. Please note that membership status is a new feature of the website – it will go live on Friday, 01 August.

I can’t log in. What should I do?    If you have forgotten your AATA membership password, please click on “Forgotten your password?” Your password will be sent to your email address. You may have moved recently, trying to log in with an email address that is different from the address you used when you joined AATA or last renewed your membership. If you can’t remember the email you used when you joined AATA or last renewed your membership, please contact the AATA Business office at info@aataweb.org for help.

How can I join AATA?    If you got this issue of the AATA Newsletter by email, a membership application is also attached. Complete the application, enclose your check for membership, and mail it to AATA with your ballot. If you prefer to use a credit card to pay for your membership, please go directly to (http://www.aataweb.org/shopping/Membership.aspx).

Supporting members of AATA

Sawsan Abbadi, University of Massachusetts

Mahmoud Al-Batal, University of Texas, Austin

Shlomo Alon

Mahdi Alosh, United States Military Academy

Aman Attieh, Swarthmore College

Maher Bahloul, American University of Sharjah

Austin Bell, Islamic American University

John Eisele, College of Wililam and Mary

Annie Higgins

Hisham Khalek, University of Minnesota

Gerald Lampe, NFLC

Jamal Mavrikios, Pacific Arabic Resources

Ernest McCarus, University of Michigan

Ra'ed Qasem

Aleya Rouchdy, Wayne State University

Karin Ryding, Georgetown University

Martha Schulte-Nafeh, University of Arizona

A SOUDI, University Of Pittsburgh

Please consider becoming a Supporting Member of AATA with a donation of at least $25. See the AATA Membership Application (download it at http://aataweb.org/Default.aspx?pageID=11for details.)

Remarks by Zeinab Taha, American University in Cairo

It is a true pleasure to speak in this celebration about a very dear person to me. Asking me to speak about Karin Ryding made me think of several hard but very productive years in my life. It made me remember details I had almost forgotten. Thinking of Karin for me is thinking of a story of struggle and success. In the early 90’s I entered Karin Ryding’s office for the first time and I asked her to give me the opportunity to work with her as a research assistant in partial fulfillment of my doctoral scholarship. It did not take her long before she assigned me to work with her and hence to start a very special and collegial relationship with her.

Karin took the risk and entrusted me with reviewing her work. I worked very hard and soon after we started working together she realized that she did not make a mistake by giving me the opportunity. This incident taught me a lot. It taught me that in academia it is very important that you give younger people the opportunity to show their potential and that it is your duty as a mentor to coach them, and follow up with their work. I know of many people who would not take the risk and would not entrust young ones with their work. But, Karin did that graciously and later, I was able to transfer this positive experience to my own work.            

I also took two courses with Karin through which I came to know her as a great teacher; someone who not only cares for her students but more importantly encourages them to excel in whatever areas they wanted to investigate. It was in her class on historiography of Arabic linguistics that I started an acquaintance with Ibn As-Sarraj; an acquaintance that developed very fast into a close relationship for three years and resulted in a dissertation on him and other earlier grammarians.               

Professor Karin Ryding was not only a teacher for me. She was a role model. I saw her chairing the Arabic department at Georgetown University, teaching graduate and undergraduate courses and doing original research on Al-Khalil Ibn Ahmad. I also saw the other side of her, the humane side. I saw Karin the very kind and honest person: Someone who likes people to progress in their lives and be happy.

I am very happy that Karin is being honored today. She certainly deserves the honor and I am proud to be speaking here on her behalf. I thank you Karin for all what you did to help me be a better student and a better person at work. I wish you many more years of good health and success in all your endeavors.

Remarks by Dilworth Parkinson, Brigham Young University

I am very pleased today to speak in honor of Dr. Karin Ryding, this year's recipient of AATA's Lifetime Achievement Award. Karin has been, and is, the consummmate professional. Through a series of important positions she has served her students, her university, her country, and her field with passion and ability. Karin received her B.A. at MIddlebury College, her M.A. from the American University of Beirut, and her Ph.D. from Georgetown University. (Reading this early part of her CV made me nostalgic for the pre-Lebanese civil war Middle East.) After teaching for a time at SAIS and Georgetown, she worked for six years as the Language Training Supervisor at the Foreign Service Institute, where she developed her ideas about a practical level of Arabic which would allow people to function on various levels, ideas which bore fruit in a number of publications.

After her State Department stint, Karin returned to Georgetown University and stayed there the remainder of her career. She served numerous terms as chair of the Arabic Department, head of the Eastern Mediterranean Languages section, and Dean of Interdisciplinary Studies. She also held the Sultan Qaboos bin Said Professorship of Arabic. I find this to be a remarkable level of administrative service, and quite unusual for a professor of Arabic.

In the profession she has served several terms as a member of the AATA Executive Board, and recently as President of AATA. She has served on numerous other boards, including AMIDEAST, the Georgetown University Press Arabic Publications Advisory Board, MLA committees, NCOLCTL, the Joint National Committee on Languages, and many, many others.

Dr. Ryding's interests are wide and varied, ranging from pedagogy to modern grammar, the medieval grammatical tradition, and even Arabic alchemy. Her publications include the extremely useful Reference Grammar of Modern Standard Arabic, her Formal Spoken Arabic courses, and a book and other publications on early medieval Arabic and the Arabic grammatical tradition. She has also been the series editor for Georgetown University Press' recent flurry of publications and republications of important texts on the Arabic language.

In short, Karin's record of achievement is remarkable and impressive, and we are deeply indebted to her both for her contributions to our field, and to her service to our organizations. On a personal note, I must state that when I first became active in this field, Karin made a point of reaching out to me and other young scholars, offering friendship and helpful advice. She has been a constant voice of reason and competence throughout our association in various organizations and meetings. She is a warm and helpful person, and has been such a stalwart in our field that I felt a little shocked when she told me last year that she was retiring. Things would not be the same.

In any case, I am very pleased to congratulate Dr. Karin Ryding on this Lifetime Achievement Award. I believe it is richly deserved. She has been a marvelous example of scholarship, teaching and service to our profession.

Contact Information for AATA