Successful Teaching Strategies: Findings from a Case Study of Middle School African Americans Learning Arabic

Abstract

A six month case study of ten African American Middle School students in an inner‐city school setting provided the data for the article. Successful strategies were based on theories of discovery learning and synergistic learning styles. The classroom allowed for free physical movement, bonding and multisensorial activities. Students were incorporated into planning lessons and activities, as well as in teaching. Students visited sites in the community where they used the language in real life situations. Contrary to previous research findings on L1 L2 transfer, the study showed that the students' L1, (African American English), facilitated the learning of Arabic.

Connecting With Communities of Learners and Speakers: Integrative Ideals, Experiences, and Motivations of Successful Black Second Language Learners

“…An area of particular interest to the investigators was issues of first language (L1) transfer in student acquisition of Arabic. While other researchers had previously theorized that native fluency in AAVE (and the linguistic deficit assumed therein) would negatively affect L2 learning, Moore and English () found no such hindrance. All the students mastered Arabic script very easily, including a boy who could not write cursive in his own native English.…”

“…Unfortunately, with the exception of Moore and English's () 6‐month ethnographic case study of 10 black male adolescents studying Arabic at a public middle school, research in this area is almost nonexistent. Their investigation examined classroom video recordings, field notes, student and instructor journals, and the observable results of exploratory teaching methods to identify the contributing factors and pedagogical strategies that most influenced positive student academic performance and best supported students' language learning processes.…”

Diversity and Inclusion of Sociopolitical Issues in Foreign Language Classrooms: An Exploratory Survey

“…Davis (19921, in summarizing such a recommendation, argued that a feeling of alienation could be prevented by an inclusion of instructional materials focusing on the contributions made to the target culture by members of one's own cultural heritage. The effectiveness of incorporating the learners' culture in pedagogy was suggested by a study of African American learners of Arabic in an inner-city middle school (Moore Q English, 1998).…”

Racialized Identities in Second Language Learning

“…With the exception of Moore and English's (1998) six-month ethnographic case study of ten black male adolescents studying Arabic at a public middle school, my pilot project exploration of the ideals, motivations, and experiences of blacks who succeeded in language learning (Anya, 2011) and Calhoun's (2012) interviews with African Americans discussing racialized identities in multilingualism, published research that takes a close look at black student experiences in language classrooms is nearly nonexistent. In a rare case of an extended, in-depth qualitative study focused exclusively on black students, Moore and English (1998) examined classroom video recordings, field notes, student and instructor journals, and the observable results of exploratory teaching methods to identify the contributing factors and pedagogical strategies that best supported their language learning.…”