Volume 03 - Issue 1

Article Examining instructional contexts and student beliefs in Arabic teacher recruitment

Authors
Back, Michele; Oulbeid, Brahim
Volume
Volume 03 - Issue 1
Date Issued
2022-11-01
Keywords
Teaching Arabic as a Foreign Language; diversification; decentering; colloquial Arabic; curriculum design
Publisher
University of Hawaii National Foreign Language Resource Center; (co-sponsored by American Association of University of Supervisors and Coordinators; Center for Advanced Research on Language Acquisition; Center for Educational Reources in Culture, Language, and Literacy; Center for Open Educational Resources and Language Learning; Open Language Resource Center; Second Language Teaching and Resource Center)
URI/DOI
/10125/69868
PDF
Citation
Back, M., & Oulbeid, B. (2022). Examining instructional contexts and student beliefs in Arabic teacher recruitment. Second Language Research & Practice, 3(1), 62–80. http://hdl.handle.net/10125/69868
Record Details
Full Record

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Abstract
Although enrollments in Arabic postsecondary programs increased substantially in the early 21st century, the lack of robust teacher training, combined with an ongoing decline in world language (WL) enrollments overall, has underscored the need for continued teacher recruitment in Arabic and other less commonly taught languages (LCTLs). In this exploratory study we evaluate student perceptions of WL teaching through the partial implementation of Arabic-language teacher recruitment modules based on ACTFL’s Educator Rising 2.0 initiative, as well as the role of instructors and instructional contexts in this implementation. Although survey findings did not show a significant increase in interest in becoming an Arabic teacher, interviews with the instructors and two focal students point to the importance of instructor context and student history in the success of teacher recruitment initiatives in Arabic classrooms. We conclude with recommendations for future research and LCTL teacher recruitment