Hawiyah, A Milestone Project: Maintaining Arabic as a Heritage Language in the USA, Flipping CELTA as a Teaching Approach

Abstract

Even though Arabic is the seventh-most frequently spoken language in the United States, it has been unsuccessful in gaining Heritage status since its Americanization process in the late 60s (Naff, 1983, Bale, 2010). Moreover, there has been no systematic approach to teaching Arabic at the institutional and communal levels. For decades, learning Arabic in weekend schools was primarily based on the Grammar-Translation method with little success in raising proficiency levels of spoken Arabic. This presentation outlines my project, The Hawiyah (Identity) Milestone Project, which addresses the need for a research-based approach to Arabic as a second language, the pedagogical challenges, the mobilization of Arabic educators and communities, and the raising of Arabic to the status of a Heritage Language in the United States. This research shows that a combination of CELTA and the Flipped Classroom model not only increases language proficiency and cultural understanding, but it supports the development of Arabic as a Heritage Language in the United States.