Challenges of Teaching Arabic to Non-Arabic Speakers at Canadian Universities

Abstract

The Arabic language has achieved widespread prominence across the globe, ranking as the fourth most spoken language in the world, after English, Chinese, and Hindi, with more than half a billion speakers.  Discussing Arabic naturally leads to a discussion of Arab culture, an attractive combination that has encouraged large numbers of non-Arabic speakers to study the language. This has prompted many universities in North America in general and Canada in particular (including the University of Montreal and the University of Quebec in Montreal) to offer classes in Arabic language and culture. However, teaching Arabic to non-Arabic speakers in Canadian universities poses several challenges to both teachers and learners, including linguistic challenges, socio-cultural obstacles, issues related cultural competence challenges in curricula design, and difficulties in teaching Arabic literature. This paper attempts to highlight these challenges in order to come up with a set of recommendations revolving around the two main elements in teaching Arabic to non-Arabic speakers: the teacher and learner, with the aim of improving the learning experience, by overcoming the challenges through focusing on objectives, curricula, teaching methods, and evaluation.