The Center for Accelerated Language Acquisition at Middle Tennesese State University is offering an interesting and dynamic way for adults to learn Arabic.
 
The noncredit beginners Arabic course will meet from 4:30 to 6:30 p.m. beginning Thursday, Feb. 21, and run through Thursday, April 18, in Room 116 of the Paul H. Martin Honors Building on campus.
 
This class is both for students who are starting from scratch and those who already have learned the Arabic alphabet. Content will be a mixture of high-frequency vocabulary that will enable students to start expressing themselves in Arabic.
 
All the vocabulary and stories will be given in both forms: transliterated into the English alphabet for beginners and in Arabic characters for those who have studied them.
 
Ahmad Jeddeeni, a native Syrian who has taught Arabic at Damascus University and for one year at MTSU on a Fulbright Scholarship, will be the instructor. After teaching at the American embassy in Syria for two years, he has returned to MTSU.
 
Jeddeeni will use two methods: total physical response and teaching proficiency through reading and storytelling.
 
Using the first technique, students interact with the new vocabulary through hands-on activities. This vocabulary is then used through the second method by having students apply it to create stories with the teacher. The result is a less stressful internalization of the language and its grammar, much like the way a child learns to speak.
 
Tuition is $300 for the course. MTSU students will receive a 75 percent discount. MTSU faculty and staff and their family members will receive a 50 percent discount.
 
For more information, contact Shelley Thomas, of the department of foreign languages and literatures, at 615-898-5757 or shelley.thomas@mtsu.edu.

To register or to view videos of the techniques in practice, go to www.acceleratedacquisition.com.