Towards Cultural Proficiency in Arabic 1

Towards Cultural Proficiency in Arabic1

Mahmoud A/-Batal Emory University (GA)

ABSTRACT The teaching of culture in the Arabic language curriculum has been sporadic, peripheral and overshadowed by a strong emphasis on developing grammatical competence in students. The literature of foreign language education, howevec reveals a continuously growing inteest in making culture an active component of the foreign language curriculum and provides ample techniques to help achieve this goal. Theptwent paper addmsses itse!fto the question of teaching culture in Arabic. Itspurpose is to I ) examine the current status of teaching culture in the Arabic language curriculum, 2) discuss a number of objectives for the teaching of culture in Arabic, 3) emmine means by which these cu/tura/ob- jectivescan befilfilled, and4) discussomeof thepar- ticular difficulties involved in teaching culture in Arabic. Thhispaperalso includesa number of mmples of the techniques that can be used to introduce culture teaching into the Arabic language classroom.

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Introduction In the past two decades, there has been a surge of

interest in developing the cultural content of the foreign language curricula. This interest has been reflected by the large body of foreign language literature devoted to the study of the target culture and its relevance to language teaching (Brooks, 6 and 7;

MahrnoudAI-Batal (Ph. D., University of Michigan) is Assis- tant Professor of Arabic at Emory University, Atlanta, GA.

Dodge, 8; Nostrand, 14; Seelye, 17; Lafayette, 11 and 12). The interest in the communicative and proficiency-based approaches to foreign language teaching in the 1980’s has also given the teaching of culture a tremendous boost. “The ability to com- municate in another language requires not only knowledge of the grammatical system of a language but knowledge of the patterns of living, acting, reac- ting, seeing, and explaining the world of the target country as well” (Galloway, cited in Omaggio, 16, p. 356). According to Omaggio, “the study of culture both as a topic in its own right and as it is embedded in language use, is an important aspect of language teaching that is oriented toward communicative proficien cy... The study of culture must be integrated with the study of language if students are to derive lasting benefits from their language-leaming experience” (16,

The importance of culture as a norm of proficiency in the foreign language was further brought into focus by including culture in the ACTFL Provisional Proficiency Guidelines (Higgs, 10, pp 225-6). These guidelines provided generic descriptions for the six different levels of proficiency, which ranged from the novice level to the native competence level (see Appen- dix I). These Cultural Guidelines, however, were the least well-developed of all the ACTFL Guidelines (Allen, 3, p. 149) and were dropped in the 1986 Revised Guidelines (Bymes and Canale, 5, pp 15-24). This is largely due to the numerous difficulties that are

pp 359-60).

Foreign Language Annals, 21, No. 5, 1988 443

444 FOREIGN LANGUAGE ANNALS - OCTOBER 1988

involved in the teaching of culture. Culture is a very vast notion encompassing many disciplines and is thus hard to define and to teach. Moreover, many teachers, as pointed out by Lange and Crawford-Lange, feel that their knowledge of the target culture is inadequate because of the limited exposure they have had to the culture (13). For these reasons culture seems to represent a serious challenge for many foreign language teachers. The complexities involved in teaching culture, however, should not deter us from trying to make culture an active component of our foreign language curricula.

The present paper will address itself to the question of teaching cultural proficiency in Arabic Its purpose is to 1) examine the current status of teaching culture in the Arabic language curricula, 2) discuss a number of objectives for the teaching of culture in Arabic, 3) propose means by which these cultural objectives can be fulfilled, and 4) discuss some of the particular difficulties involved in teaching culture in Arabic

The Current Status of Culture in the Arabic Curriculum

The teaching of culture in Arabic (as can be seen in our textbooks) has, at best, been sporadic, peripheral and lacking in systematization. The cultural content of our textbooks, especially at the elementary level, is limited and overshadowed by the heavy emphasis on structure and grammatical accuracy. Cultural knowledge has been regarded by most of us as something that our students acquire later on during their journey with the language The prevailing belief seenis to be that cultural knowledge is not directly related to language teaching but can be acquired through other content courses on Islam, Middle Eastern History, Arab Women, Islamic Civilization or by travelling to the Arab World where students can have a “hands-on” experience with the culture. Teachers of Arabic, in their views on culture teaching, seem to be influenced by a long-held assumption that the students who are taking Arabic are specializing in Middle Eastern Studies and thus will have the necessary exposure to the culture elsewhere.

W y e it may be true that a large number of students do get sufficient exposure to Arab culture outside the language classroom, there are also a number of students whose only exposure to Arab culture comes through their study of the language. Furthermore, there are many cultural aspects, such as the use of the various forms of address and polite expressions, that cannot be fully understood except through the language. Thus, the addition of the cultural component in the study of the language would make a signifi-

cant contribution to the overall development of a student’s proficiency.

Due to the weakness in the cultural content of our current Arabic curricula, many of our students spend a few years studying the language without developing an adequate understanding about the culture and without acquiring the minimum sensitivity required to function in the culture. It is not uncommon to see students of Arabic who are unable to name the different Arab countries and their capitals or who are unaware of the fact that Arab societies are not entirely homogeneous in their character. A student in an In- termediate Arabic class I was observing, for example, did not know that Pakistan is not an Arab country. Social etiquette is another cultural aspect that seems to be lacking in our students. I witnessed an instance of culturally insensitive behavior when I saw an ud- vunced student of Arabic in Cairo have a conversational exchange with a professor at Cairo University. That student was addressing the professor the same way in which she would address a peer student. Although her conversation with the professor was grammatically accurate, it was completely inap- propriate in cultural terms because of its informality.

These examples, as surprising as they may seem, should not be a reflection on our students and their cultural knowledge and interests, but rather are indica- tions of the deficiency of the cultural component of our language teaching programs. Developing the cultural component of our teaching, then, becomes a challenge which we all have to meet. This challenge is extremely demanding today, at a time when the Arabs and their culture have become victims of a process of misinformation. The perception of Arabs by a large number of Americans today has become engulfed in stereotypes such as the “oil-rich Arabs:’ the “camel jockeys:’ the “terrorists:’ the “Islamic fundamen- talists:’ and the people with the “guttural language!’ An effective way of countering these overgeneralized stereotypes would be to enhance the cultural content of our Arabic language programs in order to project the culture objectively, apart from any false stereotypes.

The deficiency of the cultural content of our Arabic programs and teaching materials should not be taken, however, as a suggestion that our Arabic textbooks are void of any cultural content, for many of them do in- deed provide some images of the culture.* However, these images are presented in the absence of a clear definition of cultural objectives and without any at- tempt to present the cultural materials in an organized fashion. In teaching grammar or vocabulary, for instance, we expect the students to reach a certain level

FOREIGN LANGUAGE ANNALS - OCTOBER 1988 445

of proficiency by the end of fmt year and a higher level by the second. We organize our materials according- ly and try to make sure that what is newly introduced is based on what the students already know. The same principle should be applied in teaching culture. This requires, however, that we first define our cultural objectives and think of ways by which these objectives can be integrated into our existing linguistic ones.

Defining Our Cultural Objectives A number of cultural goals have been proposed by

foreign language educators (Seelye, 17; Lafayette, 12). These goals can be adapted to Arabic and can serve as a working base from which we can start in defining our own cultural objectives. I have chosen the cultural goals set by Lafayette (12) as a broad framework within which cultural objectives can be defined for Arabic Lafayette‘s objectives are clearly stated and are com- prehensive in their coverage of the various cultural aspects required in a language program. In what follows, I will present eight out of Lafayette‘s twelve cultural objectives as they relate to Arabic3

1) The ability to recognize and/or interpret major geographical features of the Arab countries (eg., naming the different Arab countries and their capitals and major cities, weather patterns, demographic facts, etc).

2) The ability to recognize and/or interpret major historical events pertaining to the Arab World (eg., recognizing the different phases of Arab History, understanding the current political events, etc).

3) The ability to recognize and/or interpret major aesthetic monuments of the Arabic culture, including architecture, literature, and the arts (eg., be- ing acquainted with the many contributions Arabs have made to World Civilization).

4) The ability to recognize and/or interpret active everyday cultural patterns (eg., eating, shopping, ways of greeting people, entertainment, sports, music, etc).

5 ) The ability to recognize and/or interpret passive everyday cultural patterns (e.g., marriage customs, education, politics, etc).

6) The ability to act appropriately in everyday situations (eg., knowing how to offer others food, drink or cigarettes and the ability to use the appropriate forms of address in conversational ex- changes. This includes the ability to use terms such as hadmtuk (respectful form of address for “you”), yaa Ustaadh (sir), yaa madaam (madam), yuu akh (brother) and the ability to use the appropriate plural pronoun suffixes to show politeness and respect.

7) The ability to use appropriate common gestures (e.g., offering to shake hands when greeting

someone and maintaining appropriate physical distance with people).

8) The ability to evaluate the validity of generalizations about the Arab culture (eg., Arab women perform the role of housewives throughout the Arab World).

In addition to these eight objectives, I propose that the following two be added

1) The ability to recognize the main principles of Islam and the role it plays as a major component of Arab culture.

2) The ability to use the appropriate level of language, it., Modern Standard Arabic (fu&ua) or colloquial (Caammiyrah), depending on the conversational situation.

It should be noted here that these objectives represent the ultimate level of cultural proficiency we hope to develop in our students. The time frame required to achieve these goals will depend on the nature and the intensity of the individual programs, but I believe that theseobjectivescanbereachedinthreeacademicyears of Arabic instruction (with an average of six contact- hours per week).

The next task in defining our cultural objectives is to determine how these objectives can be approached and in what sequence they should be presented. We have to determine which objectives are to be dealt with at the early stages of instruction and which objectives are to be reserved for the later stages. These objectives can then be related to the five different levels of proficiency determined by the ACTFL Guidelines.

’khniques for ’&aching Culture A number of techniques have been proposed which

aim at integrating culture in class materials and activities. Among these techniques are the Culture Cap- sule, the Culture Cluster, the Culture Assimilator, the Audio-Motor Unit, and the Cultural Mini-Drama (see Lafayette, 12 and Omaggio, 16). In the following sec- tion I will present examples of how some of these techniques can be applied to the teaching of Arabic, thus enhancing the cultural content of our Arabic programs. These techniques can be extremely useful as supplemental materials that would complement most of the textbooks currently used in teaching Arabic

The first technique, the Culture Capsule, was developed by ’lhylor and Sorenson (18). The capsule is basically a short presentation (ten minutes) aimed at explaining a specific cultural difference between an American and a foreign custom. The presentation of the capsule utilizes a variety of visual aids and realia and is followed by a series of content-related questions. The capsules can be partially in English or in the


target language, depending on the level of students. An advantage of using these capsules is that they can be integrated with the teaching of other language skills such as reading, speaking and listening.

The concept of culture capsules can be easily introduced into our Arabic programs and can be sup- ported by a variety of audio and video presentations. Culture capsules can focus on both differences between American and Arab cultures and on aspects that are particular to Arab culture4 Appendices 11, I11 and IV present samples of cultural capsules used in an elementary Arabic class.

The first Capsule (Appendix 11) deals with the word AIIauh (God) in Arabic and the wide variety of expressions in which Allaah is included. The capsule is written in English and was presented to the students on the fiist day of class when the expression al-hamdu Ii- Allaah (thanks be to God) was introduced. The students were given time to read the capsule first and then the teacher made some comments on the importance of the word AIIaah in the culture and provided further comments on the expressions introduced and the situations in which they are used.

The second capsule (Appendix 111) deals with the names of the various Arab countries and their capitals. Students were given an exercise in which they had to match Arab countries with their capitals. The students were also given a blank map of the Arab World with a star in each country indicating the location of the capital. The students were divided into small groups and were asked to write on the map the name of the country and the name of the capital where the star was located. After finishing the activity, members of each group were asked to check their map with another group. This activity provided the students with cultural information and language practice.

The third capsule (Appendix IV) deals with the Qur’an and presents very brief notes on its organization and history. The capsule is written in Arabic and was presented as a reading activity. The students were given the text with a gloss fclr some of the new words introduced. The text was followed by a few questions aimed at checking students’ overall comprehension of the content. The teacher then provided detailed comments on some of the culturally-rich phrases that ap- peared in the text such as tduaIau (may He be exalted), which is one of the attributes of God Muslims use whenever the name of God is mentioned; SaIIaa AIIaahu CaIay-hi wa sallam, which is used whenever the name of the Prophet Muhammad is mentioned; and CaIayhiaI-saIaam, which appears after the name of one of the other prophets or angels is mentioned- as with the name of the Angel Gabriel in the text.

The second technique that can be used to introduce culture into the language classroom is the Culture Assimilator. The Assimilator was developed by a number of psychologists and w a s intended as an out- of-class technique to facilitate adjustment to another culture (Fiedler et al., 9). It provides students with a number of episodes of target culture behavior. Each episode describes a “critical incident” of crosscultural interaction where an American and a host national in- teract. After reading the episode, the student is provided with four possible explanations of the behavior of the host national. Each choice is accompanied by appropriate feedback (see examples in Seelye, 17).5

While the examples that I have seen for Culture Assimilators suggest that these assimilators be written in English and used outside the class, I believe that assimilators written in the target language can be used inside the class and can be very valuable in our efforts to integrate the teaching of culture into the teaching of language, especially at the intermediate and advanced levels. Appendix V presents an example of a Culture Assimilator Episode that was presented to second-year students. The episode depicts an instance of cultural behavior by an Arab guest that was misinterpreted by the American host. The American, an engineer who works in Egypt, invited an Arab friend and his wife for dinner at 7:30 p.m. The Arab guests arrived at 8:15, which caused the American hosts to be upset. The episode was presented to the students in the form of a short story and was followed by four different interpretations of the behavior of the Arab guests. After reading the story, the students were asked to choose the interpretation they thought could best explain the guests’ behavior. The choices provided were:

1) That they did not especially like to come to

2) That they had car trouble on their way. 3) That the guests were rude and inconsiderate. 4) That arriving late to an appointment is some-

thing acceptable in the Arab culture. Feedback was not provided in written form but was

done orally and was generated by the students themselves. The students were involved in a discussion among themselves in which they considered the plausibility of each of the four different interpretations. The largest part of the discussion was canied out in Arabic, thus providing the students with cultural in- sight and meaningful language practice. Because a number of students had been to the Arab World and others had Arab friends, the students could relate the discussion to their own cultural experiences. The role of the teacher was that of an informant providing

dinner.


information or feedback only when asked.

Potential Difficulties in Teaching Culture in Arabic Apart from the general difficulties involved in the

teaching of culture pointed out in the introduction of the present paper, there are a number of difficulties that are particular to Arabic.

The first difficulty pertains to the extensive cultural diversity that is found in the Arab World and that emanates from the geographic, ethnic, religious, political and socio-economic extremes that are found in Arab countries. Despite the common cultural characteristics that are found in the various Arab societies, there are sometimes extreme differences that make it difficult to talk about a homogeneous Arab culture. It would be difficult, for example, to draw one cultural generalization about the status of Arab women, given the sharp differences that exist between more traditional societies like Saudi Arabia and the Gulf States and the more westernized societies like Lebanon, Tunisia or Morocco. Likewise, it would be difficult to describe the daily shopping practices of people in the Arab World, given the different types of economies that range from a completely open economy like that of Lebanon to government- controlled economies like those in Egypt and Syria. This cultural diversity of the Arab World may make the teaching of culture more complicated and may discourage many of us from venturing into the cultural arena.

The second difficulty relates to the diglossic situation that prevails in the Arab World. The Arab countries share one common literary language, Modern Standard Arabic, which is used along with a large number of regional dialects in the various Arab countries. The difference between the standard language and the colloquials is substantial and has important bearing on the teaching of Arabic This diglossic situation poses some potential problems in teaching culture since many of the cultural elements are expressed by the colloquials and not by the standard language taught at most universities in the US. An example of this is the different forms of address that abound in the dialects but which are very limited in the standard language.

The third difficulty we may face is time. Arabic is a language that requires a long period of time to acquire. This fact, coupled with the limited time allowed for language study in regular academic programs, makes the achievement of an adequate level of overall proficiency in Arabic in two or three academic years a considerable task. The question then becomes one of how to make class time available for all these

cultural activities without further squeezing an already tight schedule and without sacrificing our "more im- mediate" linguistic objectives.

The difficulties, albeit real, should not hinder our efforts to develop the cultural content of the Arabic curriculum. The problem of cultural diversity can be partially dealt with by emphasizing the cultural manifestations that are common to all Arab societies, especially at the early stages of instruction. The study of the regional cultural features can be reserved for the more advanced levels or can be dealt with extensively when students undertake the study of particular Arabic dialects. The diglossic problem is a substantial one and cannot be completely resolved in the classroom. However, I believe that some colloquial elements that are common to most Arabic dialects should be incorporated in the teaching of Standard Arabic if we are to enrich the cultural component of our language programs. These elements include, for example, the different terms of address such as hadritak (you + respect), januabk (you + respect), yau ustaadh (teacher-form of address used with educated people), yuu madaam (madam), yuu ukh (brother-form of address used with people you do not know), expressions of politeness such as law samaht (if you please), min b&d amrak (with your permission), itfaddal (please-take this), AIIuuh yikhalliik (may God keep you), Allah Yiwadhak (may God protect you), and words like m&leesh (never mind), basiituh (it is nothing), maashii (it is o.k.), y&-nii (so-so; I mean), and shwuyyah (a little bit). The problem of finding time for the various cultural activities can be solved by integrating them within the other activities of reading, speaking and listening.

If we can all agree that the teaching (and learning) of culture is essential in Arabic, the next step will be to develop teaching materials that are more culturally oriented. In addition, the definition of proficiency in Arabic needs to be reexamined. A speaker of Arabic should not really be considered proficient without at least a minimal understanding of Arab culture.

NCYI'ES 'An earlier version of this paper was presented in

November 1987 at the Tkenty-First Annual Meeting of the Middle East Studies Association in Baltimore. 1 would like to thank the two anonymous Foreign Language Annals readers for their valuable comments.

=Elementary Modern Standard Arabic (1983) and In- termediate Modern Standard Arabic (1971) by Abboud, et al, for example, provide some cultural information on the status of Arab women, the system of education in the Arab World, Arab weddings, Arab family, and on some prominent Arab writers. Conversations in Modern Standard Arabic


(1984) by Baccouche and Azmi provides agood collection of courtesy expressions.

I have decided to leave out the three other objectives (No. 10, 11, and 12) since they seem to be implicitly included in the other eight. These three objectives are:

10) To value different peoples and societies. 11) To recognize and/or interpret the culture of foreign

language-related ethnic groups in the United States (cg., Latinos, Franco-Americans).

12) To recognize and/or interpret the culture of addi- tional countries that speak the foreign language (eg.. Canada, Haiti, Chile, Nicaragua).

‘Margaret Nydell’s Understanding Arabs provides good insights into Arab culture and can be utilized as a source for preparing culture capsules.

Seelye mentions that culture assimilators have been con- structed for the Arab countries, but my efforts to locate them have, thus far, been unfruitful.

REFERENCES 1. Abboud, Peter et al. Elementary Modern Standard

Ambic. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1983. 2. Allen, Roger. “Arabic Proficiency Guidelines:’ in

Charles Stansfield and Chip Harman, eds., ACTFL Ptujiciency Guidelines for the- Commonly Taught Languages. Washington, D.C.: Center for Applied Linguistics and ACTFL (1987):45-70.

3. Allen, Wendy W. “Toward Cultural ProficienM in Alice C. Ornaggio, ed., Pmjiciency, Curriculum, Ar- ticulatior The Tier fhat Bind. Middlebury, VT North- east Conference (1985): 137-66.

4. Baccouche, Belkam and Sanaa Azmi. Conversations in Modern StandamlAmbic. New Haven: Yale Univer- sity Press, 1984. Bymes, Heidi and Michael Canale. Defining and Developing Pmficiency Guidelines, Implementations and Concepts. Lincolnwood, IL.: National Tkxtbook Company, 1987.

6. Brooks, Nelson. “Teaching Culture in the Foreign Language Classroom!’ Foreign Language Annals 1

5 .

(1%8): 204-17.

7.

8.

9.

10.

11.

12.

13.

14.

15.

16.

17.

18.

. “Culture, A New Frontier!’ Foreign Language Annals 5 (1971): 54-61. Dodge, James W. (ed.) Other Words, Other Worlds: Language-in-Cultun?. Middlebury, vli Northeast Con- ference, 1972. Fiedler, Fred E., ‘krrence Mitchell and Hany Mandis. “The Culture Assimilator: An Approach to Cross- Cultural Thining!’ Journal of Applied Psychology 55

Higgs, Theodore (4.). Teaching for Pmjiciency, the Organizing Princ@le. Lincolnwood, IL.: National Rxt- book Company, 1985. Lafayet@ Robert C. and Renate A. Schulz. “Evaluating Cultural Learning’,’ in Robert C. Lafayetk ed., Cultuml Revolution inmreign Languages A Guide for Building theModern Curriculum. Lincolnwood, IL.: National Tkxtbook Company, 1975.

. Teaching Culture: Strategies and Tech- niques. Language in Education: Theory and Practice Series, 11. Washington, D.C.: Center for Applied Linguistics, 1978. Lange, Dale and Linda Crawford-Lange. “Doing the Unthinkable in the Second Language Classroom: A Process for the Integration of Language and C u l t u s in Theodore V. Higgs, ed., Evching for Ptujiciencx the Organizing Principle. Lincolnwood, IL.: National Textbook Company, (1985): 139-77. Nostrand, Howard L. “Empathy for a Second C u l t w in Gilbert Jarvis, ed., Responding to NewRealitie. Lin- colnwood, IL: National Textbook Company, (1974):

Nydd, Margatzt K. Understanding Arabs‘ A Guide for Westerners. Yarmouth, ME: Intercultural Press Inc, 1987. Omaggio, Alice C. Teaching Language in Context, Pmjiciency-Oriented Instruction Boston, MA. Heinle & Heinle Publishers, Inc., 1986. Seelye, H. Ned. Teaching Culture: Strategies for Inter- cultural Communication. Lincolnwood, IL.: National Textbook Company, 1976. lhylor, H. D m 1 and John L. Sorensen. “CultureCap- sules:’ Modern Language Journal 45 (1961): 350-4.

(1971): 95-102.

263-327.

SEE APPENDICES ON NEXT PAGES

FOREIGN LANGUAGE ANNALS - OCTOBER 1988 449 ~

APPENDIX I

ACTFL CULTURE PROFICIENCY GUIDELINES

Novice. Limited interaction. Behaves with considerateness. Is resourceful in nonverbal communication, but is unreliable in interpretation of nonverbal cues. Is limited in language, as indicated under the listening and speaking skills. Lacks generally the knowledge of culture patterns requisite for survival situations.

Intermediate. Survival competence. Can deal with familiar survival situations and in- teract with a culture bearer accustomed to foreigners. Uses behavior acquired for the purpose of greeting and leave-taking, expressing wants, asking directions, buying food, using transportation, tipping. Comprehends the response. Makes errors as the result of misunderstanding; miscommunicates, and misapplies assumptions about the culture.

Advanced. Limited social competence. Handles routine social situations successfully with a culture bearer accustomed to foreigners. Shows comprehension of common rules of etiquette, taboos and sensitivities, though home culture predominates. Can make polite requests, accept and refuse invitations, offer and receive gifts, apologize, make introduc- tions, telephone, purchase and bargain, do routine banking. Can discuss a few aspects of the home and the foreign country, such as general current events and policies, as well as a field of personal interest. Does not offend the culture bearer, but some important misunderstandings and miscommunications occur, in interaction with one unaccustomed to foreigners. Is not competent to take part in a formal meeting, or in a group situation where several persons are speaking informally at the same time.

Superior. Working social and professional competence. Can participate in almost all social situations and those within one vocation. Handles unfamiliar types of situations with ease and sensitivity, including some involving common taboos, or other emotionally charged subjects. Comprehends most nonverbal responses. Laughs at some culture-related humor. In productive skills, neither culture predominates; nevertheless, makes appropriate uses of cultural references and expressions. Generally distinguishes between a formal and informal register. Discusses abstract ideas relating the foreign to the native culture. Is generally limited, however, in handling abstractions. Minor inaccuracies occur in perception of mean- ing and in the expression of the intended representation, but do not resuit in serious misunderstanding, even by a culture bearer unaccustomed to foreigners.

Near-Native Competence, Full social and professional competence. Fits behavior to au- dience, and the culture of the target language dominates almost entirely. Has internalized the concept that culture is relative and is always on the lookout to do the appropriate thing. Can counsel, persuade, negotiate, represent a point of view, interpret for dignitaries, and describe and compare features of the two cultures. In such comparisons, can discuss geography, history, institutions, customs and behavior patterns, current events, and national policies. Perceives almost all unverbalized responses, and recognizes almost all allu- sions, including historical and literary commonplaces. Laughs at most culture-related humor. Controls a formal and informal register of behavior. Is inferior to the culture bearer only in background information related to the culture such as childhood experiences, detailed regional geography, and past events of significance.

Native Competence. Examinee is indistinguishable from a person brought up and educated in the culture.


APPENDIX I1 Sample Culture Capsule for the Elementary Level

The Word hl fAl1Jah) in Arabic

The word &I (Allaah) 'God' ir one of the moat frequently ured words in

Hodern Standard Arabic ar well ar in the variour Arabic dialect.. The word

ir ured in a wide variety of courtesy expresrions and rerponser like ~ A - . J I

fal-+mdu l i -Al laah) 'thankr be to Cod' which you have just learned. A phrare

with the word 'u

( i n S h a a ' ~ Allaah) 'if God willr.' Thir phrare is ured in a number of ritua-

tionr but erpecially when referring to events that will take place in the

future u in &I 'IS a!, l a i el+- f s c n a r a a k u n fbadan i n sbaa'a 111aah) 'we

will ree you tomorrow, God willing'. The ure of the phrare -1 '

reflectr a religious belief thet a11 act. of human beings are controlled by

God and cannot be accollplirhed without hir will. Below ir a ruple of the

exprerrionr which utilize the word 4 1 . 1) -1 FLfbisLi A l l a a h ) 'In the n u e of God'. This phrase is raid or

I Y 0 0

d , that you will conrtantly hear in the Arab World ir

8 , I /

>!

,. written before an action ir hegun (e.9. hefore reading the Qur'an,

before rtarting a meal, at the rtart of a letter). . 4 f

2) L L I I p L I +f f i i u a a n i Al lah) 'In the safety of Cod'. Used to bid

romeone tarewell.

3) &I ( A l l & &ak) 'nay God be with you'. Alro used to bid some-

one farewell.

4 ) d&*& h,'SI fal-baadu 1i-Allah a l - s a l a a m ) 'Thank. be to

God for your safety'. Ured when romeone comes back from 8 trip or

recoverr from an operation or IQ accident. , 8 ,

5) 4 1 9 ( I ra rama4r Allaah) 'Hay Cod forbid'. Ured when rome-

thing that ir underirable ir mentioned.

...&* bui'?"' 6) -3 frr+mtU A l l a d cJld..) 'Hay the mercy Of God be

on..'

mentioned.

Ured for condolence and when the name of e deceased person is

a , 0

7) CJL& lrhafaaka A11a.h) 'Hay God heal you'. Said to a sick per-

ron. I * / 0

8 ) d J L fbJ8rJkJ Allaah f i i k ) 'Hay God blear you'. Said in

rerponre to the pbrare m b r u u k 'congratulationr' . 9 ) h l := L. (ma. shaa'a Allaahl ' e a t God har willed'. Thir exprerrion

is ured to exprerr admiration or exclamation (e.9. for a beautiful

child, for a tell perron..etc.) J <$! ,. J

I O ) ~ U L , YI, '9 Y> J- Y ( l a a Pawla va 1aa q u w a t a ill . . bi-Allaah)

'there ir no strength or power without God'. Said during time3 of

I SP 8861 139QL30 - STVNNV B9VnDNVT N9IEMOd


APPENDIX IV Sample Culture Capsule for the Elementary Level

Read the following passage carefully then anmwer the questions:

Cave

Angel


APPENDIX V Sample Culture Assimilator Episode for the Intermediate Level

Towards Cultural Proficiency in Arabic 1

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