Solving the Troubles with Teaching Arabic

U.S. and Arabic institutions could improve cooperation and create significant growth in the numbers of American students studying in the Arabic world, according to a new white paper just out from the Institute on International Education and the Hollings Center.

The paper, “Expanding U.S. Study Abroad in the Arab World: Challenges and Opportunities," was released at the IIE Best Practices Conference in New York on Thursday.

IIE and Hollings Center authors said American institutions sent no more than 2,200 students to Arabic countries in 2006-2007 — less that 1 percent of all U.S. students who went abroad that year. More than half of those who did go to the Arabic world studied in Egypt.

By comparison, 138,000 American students traveled to Europe in 2006-2007.

The paper’s authors note some hopeful signs for increases in Arabic study abroad: There’s been a 127 percent increase in the numbers of American students pursuing Arabic-language courses since 2002, accompanied by a 43 percent increase in student travel to the Arabic world since 2004.

To promote even further increases, the paper calls for:

• Preparing an expanded inventory to include all institutions in the region.
  
• Creating an organization of like-minded Arab world institutions to address issues of common concern, including academic quality, credit transfers, and institutional collaboration.
• Expanding Arabic teacher training and development of supplemental teaching materials.
  
• Awarding study abroad scholarships for U.S. students to study at any institution in the region.
  
• Organizing U.S. campus study tours for underrepresented Arab-world institutions.
  
• Sustaining ongoing dialogue between U.S. and Arab-world participants on the issues at workshops and seminars.