Report on NMERLC Arabic Summits
NMELRC held two Arabic study abroad summits in the Middle East in the summer of 2008. The meeting in Amman was held in May and the meeting in Cairo in July. These meetings addressed the challenges and opportunities that the recent interest in Arabic has presented Study Abroad programs in the Middle East.With over 25,000 post-secondary American students currently studying Arabic and more public schools offering it at the K-12 level, Arabic study abroad programs are overwhelmed. As a result, NMELRC brought stakeholders together in Jordan and in Egypt to discuss ways to improve collaboration between stateside and abroad programs.
The meeting in Amman was held on May 14th and attended by representatives of major Jordanian universities and language institutions. Also among the participants were representatives of American and international educational entities. The participants, led by NMELRC Director Kirk Belnap and Ray Clifford, President of ACTFL, seemed especially keen on working with NMELRC to adopt appropriate assessment tools, better understand students' needs and fine-tune their offerings accordingly.
The second meeting was held on July 9th, 2008 in Cairo. Mahmoud Al-Batal, Associate Director of NMELRC, and Maggie Nassif, Administrative Director, led a group discussion with 34 Arabic teachers, program directors and education experts at a full day meeting co-sponsored by the Fulbright Commission in Egypt and BYU's Kennedy Center for International Studies. The Cairo group was similarly taken by the benefits of using NMELRC online tests. The group proposed a list of recommendations and formed a committee that is based in Cairo and led by local educators to oversee the possibilities of carrying out recommendations.