Arabic for Non-Native Speakers (AFL) Program:
AFL is compatible with modern technological requirements, which enable it to respond to new web browsers, and use it on computers, tablets, and mobile phones.
The following is a brief academic and technical description of the AFL program, followed by a presentation of the program’s advantages.
First: Academic and Technical Description:
The AFL program consists of three main levels: beginner, intermediate, and advanced. Each has three sub-levels: lowest, middle, and highest, that means nine sub-levels for the entire program, and the duration of each level is five weeks if the course is intensive, or ten weeks if the course is not intensive.
The student is admitted to one of the levels based on the result of the placement test provided by the new student upon registration in the program, in the event that he has previous knowledge of the Arabic language.
The AFL program includes:
1- Academic content that has the following advantages:
- Author under the supervision of highly experienced and qualified specialists in the field of teaching Arabic to non-native speakers, and the content is based on the American ACTFL- 2012 standards. • Designed according to the latest educational strategies.
- Developed electronically in an interactive way, and in accordance with SCORM / APX standards and others.
- Intended for browsing and use on modern web browsers, and on all mobile devices, including mobile phones.
- Provided with multimedia, graphics and animation.
- Provided with continuous evaluation feedback through the learning management system.
- Supported by training expansions and language laboratories
2- The electronic / information infrastructure:
Which is characterized by the following:
- An electronic platform compatible with international standards.
- Basic and applied software for e-learning and virtual environment.
- Automated Student Affairs Program.
- Self-learning program, exams, and follow-up.
- Learning Management System.
- Continuous update and upgrade.
- Ongoing technical support.
3- Implementation of the learning / educational process with its basic and supportive aspects:
It is characterized by the following:
- An innovative learning / educational model for the self-led learning process, and education led by the teacher.
- Synchronous sessions, support sessions.
- Asynchronous sessions.
- Events, functions.
- Exams, tests.
- Academic and technical support.
- Teachers with specialized experience in the field of teaching Arabic for native speakers, and non-native speakers.
- Academic management, comprehensive quality control.
- A comprehensive academic guide to all components of the learning / educational process.
- A guide for the student.
- A workspace for every student, and every teacher with the appropriate agenda.
- Nucleus of the placement exam question bank; updatable and enrichable.
- The nucleus of the bank of questions for achievement exams.
- The possibility of practical training in one of the Arab countries.
:Virtual Learning Model
The virtual learning/teaching model shown in Figure (1) shows the set of information works that make up the virtual environment, and their activities in the project subject of this presentation, based on the following:
- The virtual education model is the most advanced type within the e-learning patterns.
- The multiplicity of possibilities of learning/educational information models, and their varying degree of complexity in proportion to the services they can perform.
- The specifics of the program of teaching Arabic to non-native speakers, which are summarized in the need to achieve the following services and objectives:
1- Increasing the yield of the learning/educational process and its outcomes.
2- Multiple patterns of the learning process, and their integration.
3- Adopting a methodology for learning languages based on a modern educational design of mastering the achievement process, and analytical / synthetic thinking.
4- Enriching the content with multimedia, animation, images, sound, simple or complex interactions, and modeling and simulation processes.
5- Achieve multi-pattern interactive communication.
6- Deepening the accurate and detailed understanding of the educational content in the mind of the student.
7- Compatibility with international standardization systems, appropriate for virtual education, which provide the possibilities of generalizing and standardizing use, information exchange, and benefiting from intensive practical experiences gained at the global level.
Specifications of the advanced technological platform; which has been established for virtual learning / teaching purposes, and the experience of administrative and technical staff in managing and operating it.
The virtual environment in this model provides an interactive, multi-directional achievement process among students, professors, administration and all components.
Due to the importance and distinction of interactive communication to be achieved in this learning/educational model, the model provided enables the completion of different interactions appropriate to both self-led learning and supervisor-led learning.
Second: Advantages of the program
The Arabic Language Teaching System (ALS) has advantages that make it an advanced and unique system in this field, and these advantages are:
1- The system provided allows the advantage of education at any time and any place, through the developed virtual platform, where there is no need for the student to attend physically in a university or institute, which reflects positively on both students and the academy.
2- The content is compliant with the standard of the American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages (ACTFL), which is composed of academics with deep experience in the field, and developed by specialized educational designers. This is why the content is one of the best programs for teaching Arabic to non-native speakers in the Arab world.
3- The developed content is compatible with (SCORM) and (APX) standards, which ensures that the content is played on all systems compatible with this standard, and also ensures the availability of student performance follow-up and monitoring information. And the compatibility process is constantly being developed by issuing updated versions of the content that are compatible with the latest standards.
4- The developed content is completely based on interactions and multimedia elements, such as sounds, images, videos, feedback exercises, educational games, and modern techniques in writing, as well as in verbal and audio exercises, which facilitates the learning process, and turns it into an enjoyable process.
5- The implemented learning / educational model is an innovative and creative model because it includes two basic components: self-guided learning, and teacher-led education, which includes: developed content, synchronous sessions, asynchronous sessions, events and functions, exams, and academic support, as well as technical support.
6- The innovative learning / educational model is based on the latest distinguished technical tools, such as the virtual classroom system, the educational process management system, the examination system, and the student information management system, where the use of these systems adds additional features to the program that enable tracking the development of students, and communicating with them in a simplified interactive way.
7- Additional features, such as: providing the possibility of practical training in one of the Arab countries to practice the Arabic language in the real practical environment, and providing the opportunity to learn the colloquial Syrian dialect.
8- The effectiveness of the quality control process, and its management at all stages of building and operating the system.
Registration and Cost
This pioneering program, with its many advantages, is available to you today, dear student, as shown in the following table