My First Class

I got to the first class early, but I wasn't nervous. As the other students came in the room, I was eager to learn why they wanted to learn Arabic. We all had an L1 in common, which made things easier. Even the teacher spoke English fluently.  She seemed a bit nervous and didn't smile a lot; she looked at her notes a lot. As a language teacher, that was something interesting to note.  I smile a ton, especially on the first day of class, but I'm as nervous as my students, I think. I also probably look at my notes a lot, but that display of nervousness undermines a person's authority.

Anyway, we reviewed some basic vocabulary, and then we were told to "use it" and "practice." It is really difficult to practice words in isolation. I would have appreciated a dialogue. Note to self...it is hard to teach words out of context...but that is something that I sometimes do in my own classroom.  Dialogues are reassuring and give a cultural framework to work with.

We also learned half of the alphabet and the color words. I was despairing a bit about how I was going to remember everything--pages and pages of vocabulary. 

The next week I tried to find time to study. I found a website with flashcards for practicing the color words, and I liked how the websites showed the colors. I found it more helpful to associate the color with the word in Arabic rather than with the word in English. My co-teacher is always discouraging me from suggesting that students write the translation of English words in their L1. She says that that encourages direct translation rather than thinking in the L2. She has a point. I've always thought of it as a time saver, especially since you can't draw a picture of every word in the English language. Maybe time to change my thoughts.

I had some cool moments on those websites when I realized I was starting to be able to decode in Arabic. I could attempt to read some words. That was really exciting and gratifying. What a wonderful little victory! I'm so glad the teacher included Arabic key words to go with the letters of the alphabet we learned.  It was really neat to practice decoding.

Another special moment was last week when I handed my students some reading about a bear cub. The drawing on the handout wasn't very clear on the photocopy. I asked the students if there were bears in their countries. Most of my students are from Saudi Arabia.  I heard them say "dub," bear in Arabic. That was my key words for the Arabic "d." I was so proud to say, "Yes. Dub. I just learned that in my Arabic class." 

So now my students know that I am on the same journey that they are on. I even told some of them how hard it was to learn something as basic as the colors. They quizzed me at the bookstore as we waited for our turn to buy books. I felt like such a dummy. I took going home and spending some time focused on studying, developing mnemonic devices to commit the colors to memory.

I can't wait for my second class to see what I learn, how I learn it, and how I feel about it.