An Interview with Professor Amy Weinberg: Learning Other Languages

Michael Shaughnessy

Eastern New Mexico University
Portales, New Mexico

1)      Professor Weinberg, how did you first get started in teaching other languages?

My actual background is as a computer scientist. I have worked extensively on machine translation, particularly of Chinese and Arabic to English.

My academic colleagues in the Flagship have varied backgrounds. For the Persian Flagship,  Ahmad Karimi, who is the academic director of the Persian Flagship is a literary theorist and critic. Dr. Ali Abasi and Nahal Akbari are second language education specialists and Dr. Abbas Moussavi is an applied linguist with specialization in assessment and testing.  On the Arabic side, Dr. Alaa Elgibali, the Arabic academic director is a distinguished linguist, and Dr. Natalie Anischenkova is a literary theorist and critic. We also have the support of several lecturers with many years of experience in pedagogy relevant  to their respective languages

2)      What is so novel about your program at the University of Maryland?

Our program is novel in several respects. At the undergraduate level, while there are many universities that have courses in Arabic or Persian, UMD is one of small number that offers either a major or a minor in these languages and cultures. We have a rich offering of language, literature and culture courses including courses that are team-taught by a language specialist and an expert in the content area ( for example a media specialist will assist in a course on Iranian media to be taught next fall).

In addition, we can offer many advantages to students who participate in our Flagship programs. The Language Flagship is a government funded program whose aim is to train students to a professional level of language proficiency or skill. The Flagship has programs in many languages across the country. Students at UMD are admitted to our Flagships after introductory language study. The program is distinctive in that it targets students who would like to use either Arabic or Persian in a professional capacity, so we have students who combine language study with majors ranging from international relations, to political science and journalism, and to computer science and engineering. 

Funds from the flagship allow us to offer these students up to 4 hours a week of one-on one instruction with a peer (native speaking student) tutor in addition to classroom work and cultural activities. We also offer scholarships for study for up to a year in our sister programs in Alexandria or Damascus (Arabic) or Dushanbe (Persian).

  At the graduate level, we offer certificates and masters of professional studies in Arabic and Persian. As in traditional programs, graduate students come with prior knowledge of Persian or Arabic. Unlike traditional programs, we focus on training students to use the language of choice in professional settings. This influences the student body and the curriculum.

Again we have a focus on content that improves language skill to the professional level, and focuses on cultural or political knowledge needed to operate as a professional.

3)      Now, tell us about the Farsi language itself. What is distinctive about it ?

I am going to ask my colleague, Ali Abasi to answer this. 

From Dr, Abasi:

Persian is distinctive in its origin in comparison to other major official languages in the Middle East (Arabic, Hebrew, & Turkish): it is a member of the Indo-European family of languages. Indo-European is one of the most widely spoken and diverse families of languages in the world today. It includes, among others, the Indic languages (Sanskrit, Hindi, Marathi, etc.), the Romance languages (Spanish, French, Latin, etc.), the Slavic languages (Russian, Polish, etc.), the Germanic languages (English, German, Swedish, etc.), the Celtic languages, Baltic languages, Greek, Armenian, and Albanian. There are many grammatical similarities between Persian and other Indo-European languages which appear to facilitate its acquisition for those who speak an Indo-European language including English.

Persian is also distinctive in its geographic spread: It is the official language of Iran, Tajikistan, Afghanistan (in addition to Pashto, which is an Iranian language as well), and it is also spoken by a significant portion of the population in the other Central Asian state of Uzbekistan. There are also sizable populations in the Arabic-speaking states on the rim of the Persian Gulf who speak Persian. After Arabic, Persian is considered the second most important language of the Muslim world.

And some occasionally make the distinctive mistake of referring to the language as Farsi !!

4)      Now, why is Arabic so important in today’s world?

      We need to understand cultures in the Middle east and we need to be able to co-operate with people from this part of the world.  US business and government cannot hire enough multilingual professionals and so we are losing about $2 billion dollars. Equally important, and what’s behind the President’s promise is the chance to learn something about yourself by studying people who see things differently from you. This can’t be done “in translation”. If you want read original sources you need to speak the language, and there is no substitute for one-on one interaction.

5)      Are there opportunities to actually travel to these countries?

   As I said, Flagship students have the opportunity in many cases for funded travel to Egypt, Syria, or Tajikistan where we run very intensive overseas options that we can carefully dovetail with our domestic offerings. Our university is also dedicated to fulfilling our “Presdent’s Promise” which aims to give all of a students a special extracurricular experience that “offers the opportunity for extraordinary personal growth”.

International experiences are an essential part of this program, so the university has many resources to aid in overseas study. ( see http://www.presidentspromise.umd.edu/home.cfm).

6)      What about the internet- is the web used to enhance the learning of these languages?

Very much so. The web is used as a source of authentic, content based materials. Students use the web, as well as multimedia language content which we subscribe to as part of their lessons, and as a source of data for reports ( which they can execute in the relevant language).

7)      Do you have a web site where people can get more information?

The best places to start are:

http://www.languages.umd.edu/arabic/

http://www.languages.umd.edu/persian/

For information on the national flagship program, go to:

http://www.thelanguageflagship.org/