Teachers of Arabic in the U.S.

The Initiative for Multilingual Studies explored the experiences and perspectives of K–12 Arabic language teachers in the United States through a research project funded by the Qatar Foundation International. The project examined how teachers’ professional identities and critical language awareness shape their orientations toward Modern Standard Arabic and Arabic dialects and influence their approaches to multidialectal teaching. It ran from January 2022 through July 2023.

The research team members are Dr. Lourdes Ortega and Dr. Hina Ashraf (Principal Investigators) and doctoral students Rima Elabdali and Saurav Goswami. The project’s findings contribute to a growing body of research on Arabic language education and have informed the development of professional development resources for primary and secondary teachers of Arabic in the United States.

Dr. Lourdes Ortega
Dr. Hina Ashraf
Rima Elabdali
Saurav Goswami

Report and Resources

Final project report

The Final Report brings together the findings of the project, offering insights into the professional identities, critical language awareness, and pedagogical practices of Arabic language teachers in U.S. K–12 settings. Drawing on a nationwide survey and in-depth interviews, it examines teachers’ perspectives on Modern Standard Arabic, Arabic dialects, and multidialectal teaching, and highlights implications for teacher professional development. The findings also informed the design of the project’s professional development modules, available below.

Download the Final Report

Critical language awareness in Arabic language teaching: Five modules for professional development

The findings from this study informed the design of five modules created for the purpose of educator development. The modules are designed for an audience of teachers of Arabic working with K-12 students (any context, any level).

Each module can be used alone. If you want to use them all, they are numbered one through five to suggest a beneficial sequence.

Download the modules:

Module 1: How do teachers explain Arabic as one language with many varieties to students?
Module 2: Reflecting on the diversity of student backgrounds in Arabic language classrooms
Module 3: How does your identity impact your teaching?
Module 4: Language ideology
Module 5: Integrating materials

The evolving needs of Arabic language teachers in U.S. K-12 education (white paper)

The team at the Initiative for Multilingual Studies synthesized the existing literature on Arabic language teachers and explored their evolving needs in U.S. K-12 education. You can read and download the paper here.

Grant Publications

OASIS summaries of 15 Arabic Studies

The team at the Initiative for Multilingual Studies identified and summarized 15 peer-reviewed studies that focus on Arabic language teaching. The 15 accessible summaries can be useful tools for teachers to learn about current research on Arabic language teaching and can be used for teacher professional development. You can read and download the summaries from the list below. Visit OASIS database to access more research summaries in language studies.

  1. Translanguaging in support of MSA learning: The case of an Arabic community/heritage school (Abourehab & Azaz, 2020)
  2. Using a spoken variety alongside MSA fosters pragmatic development in L2 Arabic study abroad (Al Masaeed, 2022)
  3. Integrating Arabic dialects in classroom instruction fosters L2 sociolinguistic competence (Nassif & Al Masaeed, 2020)
  4. How do Emirati teachers of Arabic address multilingualism and self-regulation in secondary classrooms? (Tang & Calafato, 2021)
  5. Language contact during a semester of study abroad drives Arabic oral competence (Trentman, 2017) 
  6. Teacher resistance to written translanguaging in storybooks for Arabic-English bilingual children (Al-Bataineh & Gallagher, 2021)
  7. What can an exceptionally good nonnative speaker of Arabic tell us about the critical period? (Ioup et al., 1994)
  8. Advanced oral proficiency in L2 Arabic: Successes and challenges of a nonnative-speaking Arabic teacher (Samimy, 2008)
  9. Using an Arabic language corpus to promote learner self-correction (Zaki, 2021)
  10. Teaching with use of the L1 can be more effective than L2-only teaching in beginning-level French and Arabic instruction (Brown, 2021)
  11. Attitudes towards different Arabic dialects and their speakers matter in interdialectal communication in the U.S. (Chakrani, 2015)
  12. Students’ views on Arabic dialect learning after two months of intensive study abroad (Shiri, 2013)
  13. Bilingual pedagogical strategies used by three teachers with bilingual Arabic-Hebrew kindergartners (Schwartz & Asli, 2014)
  14. Translanguaging in Arabic and English: Insights from two Emirati university students (Palfreyman & Al-Bataineh, 2018)
  15. Teachers’ experiences while teaching Arabic in K-12 schools in Israel (Saada & Gross, 2019)