Browsing by Subject "Arabic studies"
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Item A new understanding of heritage : a case study of non-Arab Muslims in the Arabic classroom(2011-08) Husen, Anita Amber; Al-Batal, Mahmoud; Brustad, KristenFor decades, the heritage language learner has been the topic of research in the field of second language acquisition for commonly taught languages such as Spanish. However, in the field of Arabic second language acquisition, little research has been done on this learning community. This report seeks to fill this gap in scholarship by reporting the survey results of religious heritage language learners of Arabic, defined as non-Arab Muslim students. This report analyzes a qualitative survey of fourteen religious heritage students of Arabic. The analysis helps characterize this community with regards to trends in previous exposure to Arabic before enrolling in university courses, motivations for learning Arabic and shifts in motivations, attitudes and preferences towards teachers, and the effect their studies has had on their personal spirituality and perceptions about their spirituality. Each section of this report presents suggestions for further research and implications on teaching and learning. Finally, I propose suggestions for curriculum development based on the results of the survey. Given the geopolitical importance of the Middle East and the prevalence of misperceptions about the region amongst Americans, competence in Arab cultural literacies is especially timely and critically urgent. A closer look at religious heritage students of Arabic can help educators strategize the teaching of cultural literacy. For instance, religious heritage students can help their peers learn about Islam and the religious significance of Arabic. At the same time, religious heritage students in particular may benefit most from being taught about the religious diversity of the Arab world and other aspects of the rich Arab cultures to which they may not previously been exposed. By re-envisioning the role of religious heritage learners of Arabic, the hope is that educators can create curricula that effectively and efficiently convey cultural literacy to all students in the Arabic language classroom. The study of religious heritage also has potential for targeted improvement of pedagogical praxis for teaching the four skills of speaking, listening, reading and writing to these students.Item The sheikh of Princeton : Philip Hitti and the tides of history(2015-05) Brodski, Yehonathan; Di-Capua, Yoav, 1970-; Hsu, Madeleine; Donner, Fred; Garfield, Seth; Karam, JohnWhen Princeton University launched an Oriental Department in 1927, the school broke convention in two ways. Firstly, it sought to focus on Arabic and Islamic Studies, making the department the first center in the world devoted to these subjects. Secondly, the scholar chosen as the intellectual architect of the department was Philip Hitti (1886-1978), a native of the “Orient.” Less than a dozen Orient-born faculty had secured professorships in Western universities. None enjoyed institutional support as would Hitti. Born in Lebanon to Christian-Maronite parents, neither of whom enjoyed formal education, Hitti was the first native Arabic-speaker to earn a PhD in a university in the West (Columbia 1915). Before joining Princeton, Hitti headed New York's Cosmopolitan Club (1915-1920), the largest organization for foreign college and university students in the country. Princeton’s hiring of Hitti meant that a native Arabic-speaker would take the lead in developing Arabic and Islamic Studies in Western academia. Hitti subsequently became the most widely-circulating Orientalist of his time—as well as the most circulating Arabic writer until around 1960. Only Hitti’s compatriot and correspondent, Lebanon-born and immigrant-to-America Gibran Khalil Gibran (1883- 1931), supplanted Hitti in book-sales in the 1960s, thanks to Gibran's 1923 The Prophet. At Princeton, Hitti welcomed Kings, Presidents, Prime Ministers, Ambassadors, US Senators, a Shah and an Emperor, as well as ministers of education from around the world. Capital and technology from the Americas regularly flowed through Hitti to the Middle East. Hitti headed the 1915-founded Near East Foundation, which raised hundreds of millions of dollars for relief efforts in the Levant beginning in WWI. Hitti also exported the Arabic linotype printing press from the US internationally (1929), energizing an already fermenting Arabic printing revolution. Yet what happened to the memory of Philip Hitti? This dissertation illuminates why Hitti has been forgotten-- and why he should be remembered.