An Announcement

Copyright © 2010 Aleya Rouchdy, All Rights Reserved


From: ibrahim hasan
Date: 2011/12/2
رابطة اللغة العربية Arabic Language Association
cairolinguists


الأساتذة والأستاذات باحثي وباحثات اللغة العربية، تحية طيبة وبعد،

فهذه دعوة لكل من هو مهتم بمجال البحث في اللغة العربية من منظور معاصر،
أعني وفقاً لنظريات اللغة الحديثة والمعاصرة، للمشاركة في فعاليات رابطة
اللغة العربية (Arabic Language Association).
وهذه الرابطة ليست الآن سوى فكرة تبادرت إلى ذهني لما هو ملاحظ من نقص
شديد في المراجع والأبحاث الخاصة بمعالجة اللغة العربية من وجهة نظر
الإتجاهات والنظريات المعاصرة. أو لعل الأمر كله لعدم العلم بوجود مثل
هذه الدراسات والمراجع. لذا رأيت أن أشارككم فكرة الرابطة التي تجمع
المهتمين بشأن البحث في اللغة العربية لمشاركة الأفكار وعقد المناقشات
ونشر الدراسات والعمل في فريق أساسه التعاون وليس المنافسة.
خلفيتي - وكذلك أعتقدها خلفية المهتمين بالفكرة إلى الآن وهم 5 - هي
اللغة الإنجليزية، وإن كنت قد بدأت الإشتغال باللغة العربية - خاصة في
مجال حوسبة اللغة - منذ قرابة 5 سنوات. لذا كان من الضروري مخاطبة أهل
اللغة العربية ليشاركونا أهتمامنا بمجال البحث في اللغة العربية إنطلاقاً
من مسئولية كل باحث في مجال اللغة ومتحدث باللغة العربية نحو اللغة
العربية.

ننتظر مشاركتكم،

إبراهيم


Dear all,

As I started working on bilingual research - targeting both Arabic and
English - almost 5 years ago, I put my hands on my research problems and
resource shortage in Arabic, particularly from a modern and
state-of-the-art perspective. I became very much interested in studying
Arabic and developing resources for it.

My background is English, but languages have a lot in common - universals -
and I am doing my best to get the specifics of Arabic. Also, I know that
many researchers have serious research projects, and they do have this same
concern for Arabic, if not more.

So, I thought it might be a good idea that we all work together in a
co-operative (not competitive) teams. And, a while ago, I started thinking
about calling for something we can call Arabic Language Association where
we meet, work and publish together. The focus of this association is the
state-of-the-art research in Arabic, particularly the research areas where
researchers do not go frequently. Researchers from both Arabic and English
departments who are interested in improving the Arabic language research
caliber are welcome.

All I have is the idea, and I wanted to share it with you. So, your input
is highly appreciated. We can start the association work, in case some of
you are interested, as one of the committees of the Cairo Linguists Group.
Or we can start it in any other form you might suggest. As I mentioned I
just have the idea, and I have the belief that putting it up will help
improve it a lot.

All educated linguistics researchers have a responsibility towards Arabic
which they must assume. Status quo, alas, says that we have not assumed
this responsibility as should be; at least we researchers in Egypt. And for
sure researchers from the globe are welcome.

Look forward to hearing from you!

Regards,

Ibrahim Saleh

p.s. I have my masters in computational linguistics from Georgetown
University, and I am currently working on my PhD in theoretical linguistics.

American Association of Teacher of Arabic (AATA) Annual Meeting

Copyright © 2010 Aleya Rouchdy, All Rights Reserved

AATA is sponsoring a panel during the annual meeting of the Middle East Studies Association (MESA) in Washington DC on December 3, 2011. The panel’s title is: “Bridging the Gap between FuSHaa and the Arabic Dialects in the Teaching of Arabic as a Foreign Language.”

This perennial debate among teachers of Arabic about the diglossic nature of the language and of its teaching as a foreign language will never be settled. Teachers of Arabic have different views, different perceptions, different linguistic approaches, and different experiences in teaching the language. Such variation ought to lead to healthy debates.

Unfortunately I will not be able to attend this year’s AATA meeting. It is a topic I would have liked to report and commented on in my blog. As an alternative I decided to add a post to introduce the authors and the titles of their papers. Anyone interested in the papers should contact the authors. I will.

The papers are;

Abdallah Chekayri, El Akhawayn University: “Intercultural Communication in Arabic as a Foreign language.”

Naima Boussofara, University of Kansas: “A New Integrative Textbook Generation.”

Ahmed Kabel, Al Akhawayn University: Teaching Arabic as a Foreign Language: Problematizing the Standard/Colloquial Divide.”

Munther Younes, Cornell University: “Educated Spoken Arabic: A Solution to the Problem of the Colloquial in the Arabic Classroom?”