Arabic Language Assessments Part I: Teaching for Proficiency in the US Immersion Classroom

With the expansion of Arabic language programs across the US, UK and Europe, educators and their institutions are striving to strengthen methods for teaching and learning Arabic, just like any other global language. 

This episode discusses one of the proficiency and performance assessment techniques and language standards used in some US classrooms. Guests Rolla Elsaiary, Magnet Coordinator at Arabic Immersion Magnet School in Houston, Texas, and Amanda Minnillo, a Language Specialist at Avant MORE Learning, share their opinions on what's working and what needs changing in their contexts. 

References:

• QFI Can Do Statements for Dual Language Immersion Programs
• DLI Overview
• What Is CLIL? The Global Trend in Bilingual Education Explained
• Avant Assessment STAMP Teacher Power Up Guide 
• Avant STAMP™ 

Glossary of terms:

• ACTFL:  American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages
• AIMS:  Arabic Immersion Magnet School
• CLIL:  Content and Language Integrated Learning
• STAMP:  Standards-Based Measure of Proficiency

Contact information: We welcome comments or suggestions. Contact us at communications@qfi.org. 

Contact information

We welcome comments or suggestions. Contact us at communications@qfi.org.

Disclaimer: The views and opinions expressed by the hosts and guests are solely their own and do not reflect the views of QFI. QFI does not endorse any products or services mentioned.

QFI is an organization committed to advancing the value of teaching and learning Arabic as a global language. Visit our website to learn more, qfi.org.

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Transcript

Caroline Sibley: 0:04

Ahlan ya jamiyya’. Welcome to all things Arabic, a podcast that tackles the key issues for Arabic teachers and Arabic learners in primary and secondary schools outside the outer world, mainly in the US and Europe. It's produced by QFI and hosted by me, Caroline Sibley, or Ustadha Caroline, a former Arabic student turned teacher, living and teaching in North Carolina. In today's episode, we'll take a deep dive into proficiency assessments. We'll focus on Avants STAMP assessment, just one of the proficiency and performance tools available. We'll be discussing other ones in future episodes. With us today, we're honored to host Rolla Elsaiary and Amanda Haji Minnillo. Both of them have years of experience in the world language classroom, and have since moved into administrative teacher training and assessment development roles. They'll provide their insights on what's working, what needs addressing and how assessments are helping teachers here in the US, as well as what resources are out there for Arabic teachers. Let's start with Rolla. Can you tell us briefly about your background in teaching Arabic, and how you found yourself in the current role as magnet coordinator at AIMS?

Rolla Elsaiary: 1:23

Certainly as I started my career, well, I grew up as bilingual. And I understood how challenging it could be some times when I learn English and content in English while my native Arabic speaker. So Well, I grew up I traveled the world, I came to the US, I felt like it's my passion now to do a teaching career. So when I moved to teaching, and I found the opportunity for Arabic immersion, I joined there, and I've been teaching for five years. And eventually I came up to be the Magnet coordinator at the same school. And I'm enjoying it.

Caroline Sibley: 1:54

For our US and global audience who may not be familiar with language standards, and language standardization. Can you give us a brief overview of US based language standards and what tools you all use at the Arabic Immersion Magnet School or AIMS? And what you all use for assessments? So we won't be focused too long on the

Rolla Elsaiary: 2:13

Yeah, certainly, in AIMS we have different language assessments. And it has been progressing. So we, when we first started, we used like a teacher created assessments. And challenges, as I'm sure many of our listeners are actual we get together as a team, we sat down and we saw, we let's just start with letter recognition letter sounds and teachers of Arabic, and who are really seeking answers and then maybe high frequency words, and then the reading levels. Eventually we are building this of ACTFL, but we found out STAMP is really helpful for us when we started beginning of the year, solutions. However, for everyone to be on the same page, could and then end of the year, we would see the progression of the language. And I think it's really great tool to measure proficiency for students. you quickly outline some of the biggest challenges or obstacles in assessing Arabic proficiency for your learners at AIMS? Absolutely, it was before the lack of standardized testing, which is now we rely on stamp. And that's really helpful for us. I think one of the biggest challenge we have right now is sometimes lack of resources and incorporating that with assessing our students. The difference in proficiency levels within the same classroom in the same grade level is also an obstacle for the teachers and how to address and target differentiation for every student to make sure everyone has the opportunity to speak, listen, participate in the classroom as well. So that's one of the biggest things for the teachers and assessing them sometimes it's hard for them. So understanding the rubrics, and how to go into the these are the levels that I will need to assess on and this is how I can grade them maybe on it and this is where they start where they could be in. So really relying on the assessment of the rubric for step assessment that's really helped them it will tell them like what areas exactly they need to target to be able to take their students from here to there

Caroline Sibley: 4:12

to the next level of proficiency. Wonderful. In each of the four skills.

Rolla Elsaiary: 4:17

Yes, in the four domains. And I think we're the focus in our school is like more of interpretive, interpersonal and presentational to get a chance for the students to be able to speak and listen more. And eventually as they go up or integrate levels like third grade and up they start also incorporating like reading and writing as well.

Caroline Sibley: 4:34

Thank you for that overview of the challenges. So it sounds like teachers have access to really quality, rigorous and effective assessments through STAMP. How do you see the current assessment process reflecting and supporting teachers in their teaching effort?

Rolla Elsaiary: 4:53

Teachers know the assessments, they know how to assess their students. I would say maybe there's a missing link between looking into the rubrics and the 'Can Do' statements reflecting that in the actual practice teaching in the classroom is sometimes tough for them. I'm not sure exactly where is the gap. But certainly when we sit together as a team, I plan together and this is a 'Can Do' statement. This is the target levels we are targeting for our students. Let's reflect that on the lesson, the task, the activity, it helps us create more creative ideas and incorporate it in the classroom. But it's still a challenge for us.

Caroline Sibley: 5:30

Absolutely. It sounds like you're describing backwards design.

Rolla Elsaiary: 5:34

Absolutely. Yes. Yes, exactly. Okay.

Caroline Sibley: 5:37

Do you feel like backwards design is a technique that all language teachers know about have access to practice?

Rolla Elsaiary: 5:47

Backward design has been in books for education for years and years ago, and many teachers maybe learned about it, not just know about it, it's always sometimes forgettable. But when we always have to remind teachers and give them that this new strategies or tools to like, really plan with end goal in mind, it's helped them. Maybe the practice itself is harder than just saying it's so easy said than done. So we really need to maybe as administrators work with the teachers about how we can design it, how can we maybe just incorporate that in our workshops and everything and model that with the teachers that would help them to be able to design their own lessons as well?

Caroline Sibley: 6:27

What do you see as the positives of the current assessment tools, what's working?

Rolla Elsaiary: 6:33

I love the strength of rubric in STAMP. Every student will come out with their own rubric. Some students will be scored, for instance, to in speaking, but three and listening. So it will tell you exactly what they need to be able to move to the next level in their proficiency. And I feel like this is a great tool to be able to use it for the teachers will be able to use it to address that. We have one of the amazing teachers, they are able to she's able to integrate every speaking activity to all her students, irrespective of their proficiency levels. She knows exactly what questions she would ask the student and what answer and sentence term and support she would give to for them to speak up. And it really helps because it boosts the confidence of all learners, irrespective of their levels,

Caroline Sibley: 7:21

When they're able to reach that level of proficiency that they're aiming for. And they can feel that they've reached that level and they've met their goal. That's wonderful. So where do you feel like assessment tools could stand to grow or change?

Rolla Elsaiary: 7:36

I would say maybe dig deeper into the rubrics and see what can we do to support the teachers design lessons based on these rubrics to be able to grow? I think the assessments itself is good, it's reliable. It's valid has been tested by many researchers. And I'm very confident using stem for proficiency test. But looking into the performance test, maybe the assessments for every day, the formative assessments in particular, I think this is another thing we need to look into it. One of the things that maybe I was talking about it to QFI Institute and the AVANT about how can we translate the proficiency levels into numbers, into grades? And how can we build rubrics based of the proficiency level for every lesson, every task for the teachers to be able to grade their students accurately. There's always a gap between the grading between the language and the content. Looking into the proficiency levels, for instance, I have the like novice high they use simple sentences. If I would build a rubric on that, I would maybe just give some support to the teachers as like the it's from one to four, four is the highest level of the rubrics. That's where I want to see complete accurate simple sentences, that student will get a four if a student will maybe do simple sentences with repetitive learned vocabulary or memorized words. That maybe a three was little bit few errors, hidden there or mistakes, that can be a three. If they can do just like one sentence. barely did in one sentence, then maybe that's a two. If just vocabulary's memorized, that's a one. And based off that, we can transfer these rubric into a scorable grades and when I did this scorable grades I looked into each proficiency level there is a ceiling there's a floor and there's somewhere in the middle. Each one within the same proficiency level can be graded. For instance, we can do like 99, maybe 80s and 70s. But I would say having like a minimum and a maximum, and let the teachers work within the rubric it will definitely help them to be able to be more effective in rating their students. And I got this idea because I am like, right now I am an OPI certified tester as well, and just going through all these trainings is not an easy way to go. It's like a intense 12 weeks of training, and to be able to rate the students is not easy. Whatever it's a speaking conversation or even a writing piece, it takes a lot of efforts and a lot of time to be able to understand the proficiency levels. And I don't, I don't wonder why the teachers always struggle in that, it makes a lot of sense. So helping with rubrics on the proficiency level will definitely give them a better guidance about where to go from there.

Caroline Sibley: 10:27

But there's a lot of pushback against assessing sometimes in such a formal and standardized way. Because, you know, there's sometimes the worry that it might cause students to feel anxiety or like, they're only learning for the purpose of a test. But I don't think that STAMP is designed in that way to make students feel like that. And I think the way that they receive the rubric information, and the way that teachers use that information, to build them up, can do statement by can do statement towards proficiency. I think it's a very empowering method for teachers to do.

Rolla Elsaiary: 11:02

I do too. And I think the anxiety level, when you talk about anxiety in specific, I would say it's created more by the teacher, teachers person, it varies so much, some teachers got really anxious when it comes to testing coming up, and they want to prove that they are doing a good job. And that's fear, right? So just having these teachers talking about, oh, the test is coming, we have to prep for the test that builds an anxiety for the students, and that make them really worried about what they can do. I do remember a couple of students in middle school, they are amazing, phenomenal students. And they were saying, Oh, we're not getting enough. I don't think we're gonna do this. Like, why do you think you're not going to do this? You have been doing this since kindergarten, you're in seventh grade right now. I'm sure you can do my way better than I am expecting you to do. But other teachers who are really like very calm, I wouldn't say laid back. They're just calm. They are really, really chilled. And there's like supporting and positive energy in the classroom. Their students never felt anything. They were really happy about all that. So I felt like it's more of how the teacher feels transfers to the classroom. It's not about the assessment itself. In our school, that's the students has been assessed all the time. There's benchmark, there's diagnostic assessments, there's thar assessments, the state exam, there's so many assessment they're going through, it's really depends on how the teachers delivered that to the students.

Caroline Sibley: 12:24

So Rolla. I know you've spent part of your life living in the UK, that growing up, you're educated in British school system in Egypt. Are there any methods from Europe or from the UK, that you think US based Arabic teachers could learn to better teach the language?

Rolla Elsaiary: 12:44

Yes, absolutely. Right now I'm doing my dissertation about STAMP, and I'm incorporating Arabic as the language about how to learn content through language, because I believe this is the most effective way of learning language is to really to look into real life situations. So I've came across in my research is about the CLIL method, which is Content Language Integrated Learning. And it's a European based method. And it's been tested and used by many European Scandinavian countries, as well as France, and maybe a lot more that I don't know about. But it has been very effective by teaching content, language through the content. For instance, I would say science itself is having its own language. There's Brown and Ryoo research article talking about how can we teach students science as a language. So teaching science through the lens of Arabic language is not going to be as difficult as people can think of. For instance, in our school, we are supposed to be teaching as an immersion. So a lot of pushback we get sometimes from the teachers that is that "how can we teach like photosynthesis in Arabic? How can we teach hypothesis in Arabic?" I was like, Okay, well, this is not an everyday language for a student to talk to a child was eight years old, tell them what is photosynthesis? They don't know what's photosynthesis in English. So teaching and introducing that in Arabic, that would definitely also going to be okay, if we can teach them in English. And then why would do we teach them this way? Why don't we just tell them how radish grows. And then this is a real life experience, they can look around them explore a story that talks about people raising the farm, how they can help their father, for instance, children of the father or the or the parents to grow up growing some plants and vegetables. And from there, they will be able to use this real life experience, to be able to understand what is a plant life cycle, what is photosynthesis and make maybe an experiment. So I feel like this is one of the most effective ways you're using content, language, and getting at what we call it phenomena based instruction, you're using a real life experiences through storylines to be able to incorporate that. .

Caroline Sibley: 14:56

It sounds very inspiring. I'm definitely curious to learn more. More about the CLIL method. So I'll end with one final question. How do you see students impacted by assessments on their journey of language learning?

Rolla Elsaiary: 15:12

We have a lot of students have that intrinsic motivation to learn a lot more. So just giving them their assessments. And to be honest, pretty much I would say it's impacted, the impact I saw clearly in the middle school students, the older students, when they see the rubrics, they'd be able to understand and read it. Oh, is this where I am right now? I want to be there. So it really created the intrinsic motivation for students to grow and learn more about the language. And really, I would say language is not just like a language to learn, read, write and speak. It grows 21st century skills, it gives them the opportunity to be global minded, and given the opportunity to be, as you said, long life learners, and it create careers in their lives, as well as opportunities that they will never thought about, they can travel the world. So that growing passion and the culture they understand and learn about it really helped them to move along.

Caroline Sibley: 16:05

We just heard from Rolla about how teachers and administrators are using assessments. Let's now hear from Amanda Haji Minnillo, who works for avant more learning to find out what goes into formulating these assessments we use. And just to say QFI, works closely with Avant MORE learning, which develops and trains teachers how to use the STAMP assessments in their schools to measure Arabic language proficiency. Let's start by finding out how Amanda got into this line of work.

Amanda H. Minillo: 16:35

So I actually used to teach high school French. And I did that for about nine years. And then I went to work at the district as an instructional coach, for K through 12, programs of immersion and world language. With that, we did a lot of performance based practices, things that drove to proficiency, collecting data, and all of that, and I just really wanted to provide people across the country the opportunities for professional learning that we had in my district. So I joined the Avant MORE Learning team to do so and to just travel and provide professional learning for people who teach languages.

Caroline Sibley: 17:17

As a language teacher, myself, I have had the incredible opportunity to take professional development with you over the past two summers at the QFI sponsored Arabic Immersion Institute. We always have a lot of fun.

Amanda H. Minillo: 17:31

We do, and I'm so glad that I've gotten to connect with you and the Arabic teachers through it.

Caroline Sibley: 17:36

Amanda, for our US and global audience members who may not be as familiar with language assessments, can you tell us the role that Avant MORE Learning or Avant for short plays in creating accurate and rigorous assessment tools for teachers of Arabic?

Amanda H. Minillo: 17:53

Absolutely. So at Avant Assessments, we provide a proficiency test. And so that is different from performance. Performance is what we're doing in the classroom, is in a controlled environment. The teacher knows what the language the students have, and the teacher knows the content that they're teaching. So at a AVANT Assessment, we provide a proficiency assessment. So with that, we actually offer assessments to figure out what are kids transferring from what they're learning in the classroom into real world settings.

Caroline Sibley: 18:25

Yes. And I think that's great. Because, you know, as a language teacher, myself, as a former language teacher, you know, really our goal is to equip our students with tools in the language, that then they can step outside of the classroom, and connect with their own local communities connect with other students in their own school, who might be speakers of the language, and, you know, connect more with global communities around the world. So our next question might be a little simple, but I know many teachers are wondering what exactly goes into the process of making Arabic assessments? Can you tell us your secret sauce?

Amanda H. Minillo: 19:08

Absolutely. And I wish I could take credit for creating the assessments. I did not personally do that. But we have a phenomenal team who specialize in assessment production. And so they are very well versed in what is reliable and effective assessments. Part of that process is really identifying real world purposes and context for students to assess in. So that's like one of the things with the proficiency assessment, you can't really teach to it because we really want to see can the students take what they know and transfer it into an unknown situation? So with that we have the real world context, because it's a proficiency assessment and not a knowledge assessment, creating opportunities for students to use the language. But also, they're such a phenomenal team where they test out some sample items and see based off of students responses, is the item itself effective, do students need a certain background knowledge in order to be successful? Because we don't want background knowledge or cultural expectations to inhibit students language proficiency. So really evaluating each test item to make sure that it really is showing their true proficiency in their linguistic abilities and not necessarily content abilities.

Caroline Sibley: 20:31

Amanda, could you quickly outline some of the biggest challenges or obstacles in assessing Arabic from your end, the magical folks behind assessment creation?

Amanda H. Minillo: 20:42

So and this isn't unique to Arabic, but for all of the languages we offer, it is constantly monitoring and ensuring that our raters are being effective. So they go through a very rigorous process of getting trained, but then there's constant self assessment and evaluation to ensure that we are writing effectively and adhering to the rubric, we also try to ensure that we're providing timely feedback. And so there's a lot that goes into just ensuring that we are being as reliable as possible. raters are students samples, when students take the test, they will go and 20% of the samples actually get pulled at random to go through a second rating to ensure that we are being reliable across our raters.

Caroline Sibley: 21:29

Yes, I love that. And I also really love that you all have been so thoughtful in creating your rubrics, and sharing that rubric creation with teachers, and in your role traveling to meet teachers, and teaching them how to use those rubrics to then inform their proficiency-based instruction in class. Right, you know, even though we can't necessarily teach to a test, we can't, you know, you can take Driver's Ed lessons online, but until you actually get in that car, and you drive the car in the real world, and that duck is walking across the road, you're not in that real world context. But I really love that Avant focuses not only on the quality of their assessments, and how closely that is aligned with real world language proficiency. And you all reach across the table to work with teachers, and teach them how to be autonomous in building that proficiency through performance-based instruction in their classroom. You really have got both both ends of the equation.

Amanda H. Minillo: 22:39

Absolutely. And teachers I truly believe are the people who I mean, they're the frontlines, right. They're the people who are bringing this beautiful language to students, and bringing about global minded citizens, I believe when we think about the language classrooms, they are the leaders in equity. And so I just, it's my privilege to be part of that journey and support teachers along the way, because what we do in the classroom truly matters, and building proficient language learners.

Caroline Sibley: 23:09

Absolutely. I am right there with you. Based on teacher feedback, what's working well with the assessments?

Amanda H. Minillo: 23:19

So I think what teachers—because again, I also use the STAMP assessment as a teacher. And so I think what teachers really enjoy is that at the end of the assessment, teachers have access to the data that their classroom or their individual students are able to do. They are able to pull student samples. So I can see what if my student got a Novice-High, I can click and I can actually see what they produce as a product. And so you're able to use that for coaching students, for providing feedback to them. But not just that we have so many resources. So yes, a teacher who gives STAMP can collect the data at the end, and it shows an individual powerup guide for each student. So it'll say, "In Listening, you're scoring a Novice-Mid, this is what you can do to score better." And so we take the burden off of the teacher of providing that feedback and talking through proficiency in a way that student—it's in student language. And so I do believe that they appreciate that. As a teacher who used it, I also appreciated that our powerup feedback guide is free. It's a resource that even if you don't give STAMP, you can use that as—you can use that feedback in the classroom. And so you can print it off, and students can see, "Okay, if I'm scoring Novice-Mid, this is what I can do." So it celebrates what they're able to do first, and say, "Hey, let's try this out. Try to do these things and see if we can power up your language." So I think the fact that it's not simply providing data, but providing actionable steps that can be taken back for the student and the classroom teacher on monitoring what we—and adapting to the needs of our students.

Caroline Sibley: 24:59

Absolutely. And that powerup guide is available in Arabic, I have seen it, very exciting to have that incredibly useful and strong resource for all the Arabic language teachers out there. Also based on teacher feedback, it sounds like there's a lot that's going really well, is there any place that the Avant Assessments could stand to grow?

Amanda H. Minillo: 25:25

So I think it goes back again to we are constantly trying to stay up to date. And this is a, we're in a continuous growth mindset. And I think that that's really important for all companies. So we constantly are reevaluating, we're going back and looking at questions that are on the assessment and seeing Okay, is it most effectively measuring student language production, is it most relevant with the current times and really using those real world resources, so just keeping the assessment fresh up to date and relevant to students abilities. And we do offer two different types of assessments. So we have the STAMP for E, which is elementary, or the STAMP E. And then we also have the STAMP for S, which is for sixth—seventh through 12th graders. And so we really tried to make sure that each one of those are relevant also to the age of the students taking the assessment.

Caroline Sibley: 26:21

Yes, I think that's definitely been one of the biggest challenges I—and maybe you can relate. But as a language teacher, I think we often find ourselves at any age and stage for a learner, like I started teaching at the high school level, I did move down to teach first and second grade, and now I teach college, right, because they're all language learners. And sometimes it can be a bit of a challenge when the assessment content reflects an 18-year-old, but it's the only assessment content that you have. And it just doesn't feel appropriate to give that to a seven-year-old. You know, even if it's beginner language, the content has to be appropriate. So that's amazing to hear that you all really focused on keeping that fresh. In your role as a professional learning specialist, what do you do to support teachers in learning how to lock in and teach effectively towards proficiency?

Amanda H. Minillo: 27:19

So in my role, I specialize in methodology, so an effective instruction, but my particular wheelhouse is. I enjoy sharing activities that spark joy in students. So it's going to be strategies that are not only research based, but also just build that community in the classroom where students can feel safe to take risks with the language, which, again, what you do in the classroom matters. So ultimately looking at how can we build activities in the classroom that are going to encourage proficiency in the language.

Caroline Sibley: 27:53

Right, and if students are, are working on building up that courage in the language to take risks in the classroom, we know that the minute they step into the unknown world, it will take a lot of courage and risk taking in the language as well. So it's amazing that you're working on building the interpersonal skills, alongside the linguistic and the culture and the content skills.

Amanda H. Minillo: 28:16

Absolutely. And we also do so depending on the needs of the school, we consult with the district and what not. So I also lead proficiency rating. So how do we rate students on the scale from novice low to advanced, low or mid? And I also help teams figure out how to do such work in their schools. So we don't want to just say, well, here's proficiency rating, but how can you take it into your practice with actionable steps that you can implement the next day?

Caroline Sibley: 28:49

So Amanda, I'll end with one last question. Nearly everyone involved in the production of this podcast and most of our viewers truly desire to see Arabic taught along with all other world languages. Our goal is to create positive language learning experiences for students so positive that they become lifelong Arabic speakers and learners. How do you see assessments working to support the study and teaching of Arabic in the US and abroad? Because I think you guys are starting to expand outside the US.

Amanda H. Minillo: 29:24

So first of all, I do want to say thank you, I like I may get choked up thanking you guys for this. But as an Arab American, I grew up in the South. So it was just a very different environment. People didn't really know what a Lebanese person was. So I think the first thing is to recognize like what you are doing matters, and it's a huge thing. It's like changing the world for little Amanda's across the world. And so little Amanda Hajis are so thankful. So that's why I so truly enjoy working with the Arabic teachers because I think it's making a huge difference in terms of equity. In terms of assessment, I think that what we need to recognize is back in the day when I was in school, these programs didn't exist. So the first thing we should do with the assessments is be able to celebrate what these kids are able to do. Like these kids are speaking Arabic, they are embracing the culture, they are embracing the people. So first using that to celebrate and advocate for our programs, and say this is—students can learn Arabic! Because I think some people get intimidated by it; they see a different alphabet, and they get intimidated and say, "No look, like look at what our kids are doing." So I think that's the the big push. And so advocating, not simply like—of course advocating with legislation and saying, "Look, this is what they're doing," but then we can advocate at the state to create benchmarks by looking at our data and saying this is what we expect a kindergarten or a third grade or a 12th grader to do. And so building those benchmarks and using the assessments to build more cohesiveness across the country and create more programs.

Caroline Sibley: 31:10

Absolutely that standardization, kind of the crystallization of, if a school is interested in starting Arabic, they know what steps they need to take, they have access to the resources. And you know, it's about finding teachers and community of learners that are interested and keen to learn this new language. But there's really a there's a clear path forward for them in terms of building an Arabic language program. And for students to be able to have access to either, you know, maybe Arabic is completely new for them. Or maybe there's like a personal connection to it. And that is something that allows the students to feel incredibly seen and heard and celebrated alongside of their peers and they didn't have that opportunity before.

Amanda H. Minillo: 31:57

Absolutely, yes.

Caroline Sibley: 31:58

Well, thank you so much. I completely appreciate you taking the time today. And we are inspired by all the work that you do. And hopefully we'll have you back on the podcast soon.

Amanda H. Minillo: 32:10

I hope so.

Caroline Sibley: 32:11

Shukran, Ma'salaama!

Amanda H. Minillo: 32:12

Ma'salaama!

Caroline Sibley: 32:14

And thank you to Rolla Elsaiary who joined me for the first half of the podcast. It was fascinating to your thoughts on assessment and teaching towards Arabic language proficiency. Shukran jazeelan for joining us in today's episode of All Things Arabic. This podcast was made possible by QFI, Qatar Foundation International, a US based organization that helps make the teaching and learning of Arabic as accessible and professional as other world languages. Join me next time when we find out about language evaluation in the UK and Germany. Subscribe, like, share this podcast. Please do let your colleagues and friends know about it. And head over to the QFI website to learn more about opportunities and resources available to language educators and students. Ma'salaama!