Ahlan, Arabic lovers! Today I am going to tell you about the Report of the Committee for the Modernization of the Arabic Language Teaching. The Title that the committee chose to name their report is “Arabic for Life الــعــربــيــة لــغــة حــيــاة“. It symbolizes the importance of teaching and learning Arabic both to native Arabic speakers and non-natives.

Dr Farouk El-Baz hands the report to Sheikh Mohammad

    On Monday 13^th. May, 2013 Sheikh Mohammad Bin Rashid Al-Maktoum  الــشــيــخ مــحــمــد بــن راشــد آل مــكــتــوم ; vice President and Prime Minister of the United Arab Emirates and Mayor of Dubai, received the Report on the Modernization of the Arabic Language Teaching. A year earlier, Sheikh Mohammad had directed to form a committee that included some elite figures from academia, education, media and politics. The main goal of the committee was to set a vision to reinforcing the status of the Arabic language in order to make the country a center of excellence for Arabic as a tool to enhance the national identity of upcoming generations. The report was based on a realistic study of the status quo of the teaching of Arabic, the methodologies used and the challenges that face its teaching and learning. The report ends with some suggestions and recommendations on the best practices for teaching and learning Arabic.

    Members of the Committee:

• Dr Farouk El-Baz, Director of the Center for Remote Sensing, Boston University.
• Dr Ahmad El-Tayeb, Grand Imam of Al-Azhar.
• Dr Abdel-Salam Al-Majali, Chairman of the Islamic World Academy of Sciences.
• Dr Hassan Al-Shaf’ie, Chairman of the Academy of the Arabic Language, Cairo.
• Farouk Shousha, Egyptian scholar and poet.
• Dr Yasser Suliman, Professor of Modern Arabic Studies, Cambridge University.
• Dr Rounak Hosny, Head of the Department of the Arabic Language Studies and Translation, American University in Sharjah.
• Dr Muhsin Al-Ramli, Professor at the Madrid campus of Saint Louis University.
• Dr Fatmah Al-Breeky, Head of the Arabic Language, United Arab Emirates University.
• Dr Munira Al-Ghadeer, Head of the High Studies and Research Center, Hamad University.
• Dr Parween Habib, Bahrinin poet and researcher.
• Dr Naif Al-Mutawa, Founder and manager of the Tashkeel Media Group.
• Dr William Graham, Arabic Language Professor and Head of the Middle Eastern Studies Program, Harvard University.
• Dr Obaid Al-Muhairi, Executive Director of the Institute of the Arabic Language, Zayed University.

In tomorrow’s post – En Sha’a Allah – I will summarize the report. Stay tuned!

You can download the full report in Arabic here. 

***** 

To Be Continued … 

Peace  ســَــلام /Salam/