PULLMAN-Students at Washington State University will have the opportunity to learn the Arabic language and culture starting the summer semester.
The eight-week class will start June 4 but enrollment is limited, said Saad Alshahrani, a doctoral student in the WSU Economics Department, will be the instructor of Arabic 101 during the summer semester. Alshahrani holds a master’s degree in statistics from WSU and a bachelor’s degree in mathematics and Arabic language from King Khalid University in Saudi Arabia. He has previous experience teaching Arabic and mathematics in his country.
He said that WSU students enrolled in his class will learn to write and speak Arabic, but also will learn history and culture of the Middle East.
“By the end of the semester I expect that students will be able to have basic reading and writing skills,” Alshahrani said. “But the emphasis for beginners is going to be on pronunciation and understanding basic conversations.”
The Department of Foreign Languages and Cultures hopes to make Arabic a minor, said Department Chair Eloy González. “We want to apply for a grant from the U.S. government to continue instruction of Arabic language at WSU,” González said.
“Saad talked to us and offered to teach about his culture and language,” he said. “He is very committed and I think this is a way for him to pay back what WSU has done for him. He has visited the University of Idaho’s Arabic tele-conferenced course and other WSU professors of less-commonly-taughtlanguages, and I believe he is prepared to conduct this class. To see
someone like this is inspiring; people making sacrifices to make ourstudents understand their culture… It’s admirable.”
The WSU Department of Foreign Languages and Cultures has grown in the last few years due to an increased interest in foreign languages among students. A course enrollment history from fall 2003 to spring 2006 shows enrollmentsincreased by over 31 percent during the period, with 1,856 students in the fall ‘06 semester and 1,585 students in spring ‘06. A tally of spring ‘07 shows 1,593 students enrolled in foreign language courses learning Spanish,French, Chinese, German, Italian,Latin, Japanese, Nez Perce (hosted by the DFLC) and Russian. The Chinese section in particular has grown substantially in the last few semesters, and next year WSU students will be able to enroll in a major in Chinese for the first time.
