Motivating Students of the Arabic Language

Place: Edep 

Attendees: EDEP and ISAR Staff 

Presenter biography: Dr. Kirk Belnap is an associate professor of Arabic in BYU’s Department of Asian and Near Eastern Languages and is director of the National Middle East Language Resource Center. Professor Belnap earned bachelor’s and master’s degrees from BYU Brigham Young University and completed his PhD in linguistics at the University of Pennsylvania. He has been teaching at BYU since 1988. His research interests include the teaching of Arabic as a second language, computer-assisted language learning, sociolinguistics, language attitudes and literacy, and the history of Arabic.

Workshop themes: 

1- Reasons and motivations to learn Arabic- mainly the love of learning and the desire to communicate with others as well future plans that depend on or require the learning of Arabic.

2- Learning a language differs from learning any other science because a new language is almost the reforging of a new person or a personal reidentification which can make the process of learning difficult initially. 

3- Strategies and methods that level up teachers’ performance personally and in general. 

4- Focusing on the student’s ability to self-learn, self-regulate, and concentrate. 

5- Ensuring students’ intellectual and psychological readiness, as well as the importance of continuous encouragement.