01/25/08

English was not the only language spoken at Baker University during interterm.

For the first three weeks in January more than 40 students learned the basics of a new language.

Professor Mahmoud Al-Kofahi, professor of physics, taught 20 students Arabic, and Ran Sivron, associate professor of physics and engineering program coordinator, taught 24 students Hebrew.

This was the first year Hebrew was offered and the second year for Arabic.

“You have to offer something unique for interterm,” Al-Kofahi said. “I found great interest among students for Arabic.”

Sivron shared a similar understanding.

“I think this is what interterm is all about,” he said. “Experiences that are very unique.”

Al-Kofahi had three goals to meet in the class. First, students learn to pronounce and recognize letters and sounds. Second, they learn to deal with sentence structure and third, learn grammar and some vocabulary.

“The main goal was to introduce the basic language to students,” Al-Kofahi said.

While the main purpose of both courses was to provide students with an understanding of the language there was another purpose.

“There was more for cultural impact than language impact,” Sivron said.

Among learning words and phrases, students received many lessons in culture through activities and videos to provide students with a cultural perspective.

“The course aims at giving students a start so they can continue learning on their own,” Al-Kofahi said.

Many students enjoyed learning about Arabic and Hebrew.

“Learning a different language is hard,” Brianna Watson, a freshman who took Hebrew, said. “It was fun speaking to each other in Hebrew in groups. We also learned a dance the last day.”

Al-Kofahi and Sivron both tried to provide interesting ways for the students to learn about the culture of the languages.

“Every day they would see two to three YouTube videos and occasionally a movie,” Sivron said.

Despite all the videos and music, students still had to learn the language.

“The course was heavily structured,” Sivron said. “I just tried to infuse it with culture.”

The professors realized the burden of trying to teach an entire language in two weeks.

“The course aims at giving students a start so they can continue learning,” Al-Kofahi said.