“I believe the department needs to expand as soon as possible,” says Adham Khalifa ‘23 in reference to the Arabic language department at Connecticut College. In reality, the department does not even exist. Arabic Studies at Conn is a program under the Department of Classics, Arabic, and Jewish Studies. Unlike many other offered languages such as French or German, Arabic Studies does not have its own department and there is no possible major for the language. Khalifa, the current Arabic language tutor, laments the size of the program. He notes that there are students who love Arabic, who take all four semesters offered in the language instruction, but are then left without any direction or further course opportunities at the college to continue to learn more. “I just feel so sad because [these students] are so skilled with something, but what can they do?”
While the program was never as large as some other foreign languages at the college, Khalifa has seen the Arabic Studies program struggle significantly in the past year. With the stressors of the COVID-19 pandemic and the recent sabbatical of the Arabic professor, Waed Athamneh, it was a genuine concern of Khalifa’s that the already small program would shrink further. The preservation of the Arabic language courses during this time has been a happy success in Khalifa’s opinion.
In his freshman year, Khalifa chose to take Spanish as his foreign language and was amazed by the range of opportunities available in the Department of Hispanic Studies. Courses were offered on history, culture, and linguistics with specializations for different Hispanic regions of the world taught in English, Spanish, or both. In comparison, Arabic Studies has only minimal course offerings. The presence of Arabic at Connecticut College can be ignored. The Arabic “department” does not demand attention and many students are able to spend a full four years at the college without ever learning much of anything about the program. In Khalifa’s words, “you can let the department be invisible.” Whether students take a Spanish course or not, they are likely exposed to an event or social media announcement about the existence of the department on campus.
The basic four courses of language instruction, ARA 101 through 202, are available, but there are little to no equivalent opportunities currently available to students to continue their language studies beyond those. For Arabic, this is particularly unfortunate. In formal communications and academic settings, like at Connecticut College, Modern Standard Arabic (MSA) is used. However, MSA is not a regional native language for any Arabic speakers. This means that once students complete ARA 202, they understand a form of Arabic that people do not usually speak, and are left without additional ways to learn one of the 25 dialects Arabic speakers would actually use.
Khalifa has shared some ideas for potential opportunities to add to the program to make this increasingly useful language possible for students at Conn. First, regional focus courses like those offered in Hispanic and East Asian Studies, would enrich the Arabic Studies program. The many various regions of the Arab world have unique histories and cultures, which could be offered in English, Arabic, or both, making involvement in the program possible without stressing the commitment of enrolling in a complex foreign language. Additionally, an option for independent language study for credit would be beneficial for Arabic language learners in Khalifa’s opinion. With Arabic’s dialectal variability, allowing students to continue to learn beyond four semesters of MSA would be crucial if students wished to be able to communicate with Arabic speakers outside the formal classroom environment. An alternative option to offering traditional independent study would be a loosely-structured advanced Arabic dialect course where students would be able to enroll all together but split themselves into smaller groups by the dialect of their choice with the oversight of a professor. They would be able to spend the semester learning their chosen dialect together while meeting checkpoints relative to their respective dialect choices.
Though there are not currently as many opportunities as are open to those interested in other languages, students interested in Arabic have the opportunity to attend the language lunches at Walter Commons at 12:00 PM every Wednesday. The lunches are open to all students, regardless of whether they have any knowledge of the language. It is one way to become acquainted with a language of interest and its program without having to be dedicated to the courses. Khalifa has faith in the possibility of a thriving Arabic department for the college in the future. He hopes the college will work to provide more opportunities for students to learn about Arab cultures without necessitating that they enroll in the Arabic language courses to do so. He believes the department could grow if there were greater investments for independent study and an increased presence on social media.
Growth in the Arabic Studies program at Connecticut College is possible. As an Arabic language student myself, I am only hoping I will be able to continue my studies through the four semesters of the language presently offered, butI am wary of hoping for much beyond that. I want to be able to speak Arabic, but can Conn support that the same way they support students learning other foreign languages? Is the program as invisible to the college as it is to the students?
