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Towards Cultural Proficiency in Arabic 1
Author(s) -
AlBatal Mahmoud
Publication year - 1988
Publication title -
foreign language annals
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.258
H-Index - 49
eISSN - 1944-9720
pISSN - 0015-718X
DOI - 10.1111/j.1944-9720.1988.tb01093.x
Subject(s) - curriculum , arabic , foreign language , semitic languages , linguistics , language education , cultural competence , teaching method , component (thermodynamics) , target culture , mathematics education , pedagogy , sociology , computer science , psychology , philosophy , physics , thermodynamics
The teaching of culture in the Arabic language curriculum has been sporadic, peripheral and overshadowed by a strong emphasis on developing grammatical competence in students. The literature of foreign language education, however, reveals a continuously growing interest in making culture an active component of the foreign language curriculum and provides ample techniques to help achieve this goal. The present paper addresses itself to the question of teaching culture in Arabic. Its purpose is to 1) examine the current status of teaching culture in the Arabic language curriculum, 2) discuss a number of objectives for the teaching of culture in Arabic, 3) examine means by which these cultural objectives can be fulfilled, and 4) discuss some of the particular difficulties involved in teaching culture in A rabic. This paper also includes a number of examples of the techniques that can be used to introduce culture teaching into the Arabic language classroom.