Interactive Multimedia Dialogue for Introductory Arabic as a Foreign
Language
Dr. Nimat Hafez Barazangi, Feminist,
Gender, and Sexuality Studies Program , Principal Curriculum and Research
Investigator
Mr. Stephen Masiclat, Ex-Director, The Noyes Lodge Language Learning Center
Dr. Ghaida Rebdawi, Director of Software Division, Electronic Department, Higher Institute of Applied Sciences and Technology, Damascus, Syria
Mr. Daniel Robert Allen, Undergraduate Student, Electrical Engineering
In Consultation with
Dr. James P. Lantolf, Center for Advanced Language Proficiency Education and
Research (CALPER),
The Pennsylvania State University
Dr. Munther A. Younes, Senior Lecturer of Arabic Language, Department of Near Eastern Studies, Cornell University
Richard Feldman, Director of Language Resource Center at Cornell University
Sponsored by
The Consortium for Language Teaching and Learning
Fulbright Scholarship
For inquiries and copyright information contact:
Dr. Nimat Hafez Barazangi, Visiting Research Fellow
Feminist, Gender, and Sexuality Studies
Cornell University, 391 Uris Hall
Ithaca, New York, 14853, USA
nhb2@cornell.edu
This program, available in a prototype, uses the spatial and thematic metaphor of a home in Damascus, Syria, and a classroom at
Damascus University to access the learner to myriad learning experiences in a contextually-based Arabic language learning situations.
Learners will be exposed to interactions, characters, and scenarios, utilizing available text, sound and video to understand the two stories in
the prototype, and eventually develop their own story (s) using the same Arabic structures and vocabulary.
The prototype was developed using interactive multimedia techniques in a Macintosh environment. It is intended to introduce beginners to
Arabic communicative patterns that indirectly induce conscious learning of, and the use of grammatical and literary skills. Levantine spoken
Arabic is intertwined with Modern Standard Arabic in oral and written forms.
The goal of the program is to facilitate learners' adjustment to the new learning environment, namely learning with Arabic, not only
linguistically, but conceptually. Obviously, this approach also introduces a non-conventional method of language teaching and learning,
in addition to the fact that it relies on computer-based, learner-centered processes. The significance of this approach is that learners are
able to integrate their prior and newly acquired knowledge and skills into new content areas, be it Arabic language and literature or any other
subject area and communication needs.
This Prototype Program is currently under testing and evaluation. For further
understanding of the nature of the entire curriculum design, the learning process
and the resaerch aspect of the program , and the other developed modules, you
may read the following four references, which, including the CD (ARACD01), are
available at Noyes Language Lab. You may also access the PDF files of some of
these references at http://www.eself-learning-arabic.cornell.edu
1. Brazangi, Nimat Hafez et al., 1997. (in Arabic) Nizam Hasoubi Li-Al-Ta'llum: Tatbiiq 'Ala Al-LLugha Al-'Arabiyah (Computerized Curriculum System: An Application to Arabic Language Learning) in Al-Taqqaddum Al-'Ilmi, Journal of the Kuwait Foundation for the Advancement of Sciences, No 20, October-December, 1997: 44-53.
2. Barazangi, Nimat Hafez et al., 1998. Arabic Language Learning: A Module of A Research-Based Computerized Curriculum. Proceedings of the 6th International Conference and Exhibition on Multilingual Computing (ICEMCO). Cambridge, England (April 17-18,1998).
3. Rebdawi, Ghayda, Safa Haddad & Nimat Hafez Barazangi, 1998. (in Arabic) Al-Hasoub Wa-Ta'llum Al-LLugha Al-'Arabiyah Lighayr al-Mukhtaseen Bi-al-Tariqa al-Tawasuliyah (Computer and Interactive Arabic Language Learning for Non-specialists) Al-Taqqaddum Al-'Ilmi, Journal of the Kuwait Foundation for the Advancement of Sciences, No 24, October-December, 1998: 52-59.
4. Barazangi, Nimat Hafez, et al. Arabic Self-Learning: A Module of A Research-Based Computerized Curriculum in Al- Arabiyya. A Journal of the American Association of Teachers of Arabic (Winter, 1999) vo.32: 23-65.
Please write to the Language Center Dirctor, Dick Feldman to have him set a station for you to view the Interactive Module for Arabic-Self Leraning as a Foreign Language. Also, look for the Module for the self-learning of Arabic for natives, non-specialists (coming soon).
We would like to thank Valerie Bailey and Peter Aoukar for participating in the video.
We would also like to thank the Arabic classes of Summer 1994, the Fall 1994-95, and Fall 1996-97 for participating in the research.
Last modified on 15, June 2007
Dr. Nimat Hafez Barazangi nhb2@cornell.edu
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