The Utah Arabic K-12 Teacher Association, in collaboration with the National Middle East Language Resource Center at Brigham Young University, has been awarded a $25,000 grant by the Qatar Foundation International.
The Utah Arabic Teacher Association was formed five years ago and is one of only a few such organizations in the nation. The main objectives of the project are to groom talent through providing further training to Utah teachers that will produce a cadre of experts capable of leading the field and producing curriculum and teaching materials; to create a repository of materials produced by teachers of K-12 Arabic nationwide; and to create a sense of community among teachers of Arabic in the United States and beyond.
“This grant will make it possible to create an Arabic K-12 curriculum that will be made available online for teachers nationwide,” said Maggie Nassif, NMELRC administrative director.
The National Middle East Language Resource Center was created in 2002 to focus on increasing and improving opportunities for learning the languages of the Middle East. Funded by the U.S. Department of Education, it represents a consortium of language experts from more than 20 universities. BYU professor Kirk Belnap serves as NMELRC director.
For more information on NMELRC projects, visit www.nmelrc.org.
Writer: Preston Wittwer
