Talk:
The Learning and Teaching of Arabic in a Changing World

Mahmoud Al-Batal
Professor, The American University of Beirut

17 Apr 2019 (Wed) 3:00-4:30pm
Room 4.36, Run Run Shaw Tower, Centennial Campus, HKU

The field of Arabic language teaching finds itself today in a world that is significantly different from the one it was in just twenty-five years ago. A multitude of global, social, cultural and pedagogical developments have presented the field with a set of new challenges and opportunities. Arabic programs worldwide and Arabic teachers everywhere must consider ways to accommodate these changes and utilize them as catalysts to transform the field’s visions and practices. This talk will consider the cultural changes that have impacted the field and will argue that, for the field to accommodate them, new perspectives and practices need to be developed and implemented.

Mahmoud Al-Batal is Professor of Arabic at the American University in Beirut. He holds a B.A. in Arabic Language and Literature from the Lebanese University in Beirut, and an M.A. and Ph.D. in Arabic Linguistics from the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor. He is coauthor of Al-Kitaab Arabic textbook series (with Kristen Brustad and Abbas Al-Tonsi) published by Georgetown University Press, and has published on various aspects of TAFL and Sociolinguistics. His most recent publication (2018) is an edited volume titled Arabic as One: Integrating Dialect in the Arabic Curriculum, published by Georgetown University Press.