For the first time in a long time, Arabic language will be taught on the WSU Pullman campus, and the new instructor is brimming with enthusiasm.
“I have a plan in my mind,” said Saad Alshahrani, a 24-year-old native of Tendaha, in the Abha region of Saudia Arabia. “I’m going to make it like a combined class,” he said. Not only will students learn elementary Modern Standard Arabic, but they’ll learn it within the cultural context of the Arab world.
In addition to classroom lessons that incorporate a multimedia approach, Alshahrani has recruited a handful of students from Saudi Arabia to meet several times a week with language learners outside of class for conversation, perhaps dinner or a movie – an informal cultural exchange that will go both ways.
“Always my plan is to make people understand,” Alshahrani says, a huge smile lighting his face as he shows the four-page syllabus he has created for the class.
Increased contact
A few years ago it would have been difficult to find those Saudi students at WSU to help with the class, but not anymore.
When Abdullah bin Abdul Aziz became king in 2005, he stepped up efforts to send more Saudi students to the United States for higher education. In 2006 King Abdullah and President George W. Bush signed an agreement to allow up to 5,000 students from Saudi Arabia to attend U.S. universities for a year, primarily to improve their English language skills.
Alshahrani, who will receive his master’s degree in statistics in May and is continuing work on a doctoral degree in economics, came to WSU on a different program. Still, he has become – both officially and in practice – the contact person for those Saudis who arrived after him.
“He’s a leader; it’s who he is,” said Pamela Duran, director of WSU’s Intensive American Language Center.
Rapid progress
Alshahrani spent two semesters in the IALC program, working his way steadily – and rapidly -from level three to level six, which is the top level and the one necessary for graduate studies.
Even after leaving the language program to begin his doctoral studies in economics, Alshahrani has continued his association with the language center.
“Talk about someone setting a positive example!” Duran said. Alshahrani volunteers to help in all sorts of ways, she said, from translating for students trying to find childcare to picking up students from the airport to proofreading research papers.
“He’s a special person,” said Jeannie Bagby, an instructor at the language center. “He really wants to share his culture with others.”
Not only did Alshahrani pick up English quickly, she said, but he seemed to also absorb the pedagogy that goes along with teaching a language. After reading his syllabus, Bagby said, “What I noticed is how much he learned from us.”
Keen to teach
But, before arriving at WSU Alshahrani already had an undergraduate degree from Teachers College in Abha, Saudi Arabia, with a major in math and a minor in Arabic languages, and he had taught Arabic before.
That was part of what impressed Eloy Gonzalez, head of the department of foreign languages and cultures.
Other people have offered to teach Arabic, Gonzalez said, but besides the money issue -there’s always a money issue – there was the matter of whether the person had the skill to do it.
“Every test I gave him, every hurdle, everything I threw his way, he did what I asked and more,” Gonzalez said. So, the money issue is being handled by offering the class during the summer, when the class will be self-supporting. By mid-April 18 students were enrolled in the summer class and a fall class already was filled with 25 students. Gonzalez said he is working to find ongoing funding for classes.
Arabic is the primary language of more than 20 countries in the world, Gonzalez said, and the U.S. can’t afford not to understand that language and that culture.
Robert Staab, who teaches Middle Eastern history at WSU, agrees. He hasn’t yet met Alshahrani, but has been promoting the Arabic language course to all of his students.
“The best way to understand culture is through language,” said Staab. “If you understand how people talk,” he said, “you begin to understand how they think.”
