Increase of Arabic Speakers in the U.S. Foreseen

The Qatar Foundation International or QFI has recently awarded MMLA or the Middlebury-Monterey Language Academy grant to ensure that more Arabic speakers are available in the United States in the near future.

The grant will provide scholarships to students as well as travel allowances for this year’s summer classes at the Arabic Academy at Green Mountain College located in Poultney, Vermont. The language immersion program will last for four weeks and is available to students in high school who are interested in learning the Arabic language and culture. The program will be based on the famed world language curriculum of the Language School of Middlebury College.

The Middlebury-Monterey Language Academy (MMLA), which is run by the Middlebury Interactive Languages and the Qatar Foundation International will be working together to ensure that there will be an increase of Arabic speakers in the U.S. The U.S. Department of State has defined Arabic as a critical language. At the moment only about 1% of all students in high school taking foreign language lessons are enrolled in Arabic language classes.

Scholarship

The school already offers immersion classes in Arabic, which is one of the 10 languages being taught at Middlebury, but with the partnership, it will accelerate the language learning and increase the number of students who are able to access the program. The full scholarship includes tuition fees, board and lodging and travel cost. Interested high school students should qualify for the financial help and must pursue their studies in the Arabic language after their participation in the four-week immersion program. QFI on the other hand had already provided full scholarships to 33 students to attend the MMLA Arabic Academy for the past three years.

The school is encouraging students from low-income families to apply early. The deadline for application is on March 31. Classes will start on June 21 and end on July 16.

Unique opportunity and program

The Language School of Middlebury was founded in 1915 and started by providing German language lessons. It currently has 10 language schools that offer undergraduate language programs, graduate programs in 5 languages and a Doctor of Modern Languages (D.M.L.) degree, which is currently offered only at the Middlebury Language Schools.

The language immersion program of the MMLA has been developed and fine-tuned for 100 years. Critical to the program is their unique requirement – students who will be participating in the scholarship program at the Arabic Academy must take the Middlebury Language Pledge®. It is a formal commitment from the students to only write, read and speak Arabic during the intensive summer course. It is especially designed to integrate not only language lessons but also real-world contexts and authentic activities that are unique to the Arab culture into one fun yet exhaustive learning program.

Activities include daily lessons five days a week, an afternoon club, Middle Eastern cooking, recitation of the Qur’an, evening prep work, talks on politics and art, movie nights and communal dining.

Over 90% of the students beginning to take the language immersion programs at the academy earned at least on level on the ACTFL (American Council for the Teaching of Foreign Languages) performance scale, according to a recent review of the MMLA language course. This is equivalent to one full academic year of receiving language instructions in the traditional manner.

Image credit: Arabic letters fa `ain and lam, by Hakeem.gadi under Public Domain License.