In the Middle East
Yasir Suleiman
University of Edinburgh, Scotland
4:00 pm, Wednesday, April 19
*254 Van Hise Hall*
*Note change of room*
Abstract
The paper will examine language policies in the Arabic speaking world insofar as these relate to the native language and how it is deployed in school curricula. Building on a brief analysis of language policies from the past, the paper offers a critique of Arabic language reforms in the modern period, placing them in their historical and socio-political contexts. Taking a language ideology approach to these reforms, the paper will show how issues of continuity and change, tradition and modernity and the defence of the language against external enemies, real or imagines, play an important part in the success or otherwise of these reforms. Issues of identity and conflict will be factored into this discussion to show the complexity of language policy in action.
The second part of the paper will give an in-depth analysis of my work as Arabic Team Leader in the educational reforms in Qatar, stretching over two years. Starting in 2003, an internationally bench-marked set of Standards were developed for a cohort of newly established Independent Schools in Qatar, which has expanded from eighteen to forty schools in 2005. This was a pioneering step in Arabic language teaching in the Arab world. These standards were met with stiff opposition from practitioners and some elements in the media, who denied that Arabic language teaching needed reform of the kind the Standards Team was proposing. The paper will reflect on some of the ‘hot spots’ in this tug of war; it will also report on the implementation of the Standards in the schools.
The paper will place these issues in the political context prevailing at the time. The Standards project coincided with the War against Iraq and its subsequent occupation by the coalition forces. These cataclysmic events had an impact on the reception of the Standards in the schools and in society at large. In the end, strong political will from the highest echelons of the state ensured that the Standards project had to be judged on its own educational merits. Although there are many encouraging signs that the project has met with increasing enthusiasm among teachers and parents, the jury is still out and the picture is still evolving.
This series is free and open to the public. It is made possible with generous support from the UW-Madison College of Letters and Science Anonymous Fund.
For more information, contact Dianna Murphy at (608) 262-1575, diannamurphy@wisc.edu. |
