MINOR IN ARABIC
The MENA Languages Program is excited to announce that we are now offering a Minor in Arabic, to students who wish to gain a high level of proficiency in Arabic.  Arabic is a very important language: with more than 300 million speakers word-wide, it is the fifth most-spoken language globally. It is also one of the six official languages of the United Nations and the United States government has deemed knowing Arabic as strategically important for the country.

The course work leading to the Minor in Arabic is carefully scaffolded along a set of overarching goals that inform the pedagogical tasks employed in each class:

• Goal one: to understand and interact with communities of different ethnicities and cultures 
• Goal two: to embrace diversity, equity, and inclusion
• Goal three: to speak Arabic at the advanced low level on the ACTFL Proficiency Scale
  

The Minor in Arabic requires 6 Arabic courses at the 200- and/or 300- level chosen from the various courses offered in the MENA Languages Program.

Professor Hanna Tzuker Seltzer has been awarded the 2023-2024 Council on Language Instruction Excellence in Language Teaching Award

Each year the Council on Language Instruction recognizes the accomplishments of a Northwestern faculty member with the Excellence in Language Teaching Award and Dr. Seltzer, who teaches Hebrew in our program, has been honored with the award this year.

 Dr. Seltzer is a deeply caring and passionate instructor. Her philosophical approach, treating all students with fairness, respect, dignity, and generosity, and fully including them in the teaching and learning process, guides Dr. Seltzer’s teaching every day. Starting her lessons with greeting all participants inquiring about everybody’s well-being during the first ten minutes and choosing pedagogical material that exposes her students to a multiplicity of narratives to give voice to minorities and minoritized groups representing and shaping the landscapes of Israeli culture are just some of the examples that permeate Dr. Seltzer’s teaching.  One student summed it up this way: “I loved the class structure. Every morning for about 10 minutes we would talk about our weekend/day in Hebrew and then spend the rest of class learning with our peers.” And another student said: “The class is such a warm and safe community, can't say enough good things!!"

Congratulations, Dr. Seltzer, from your colleagues and from your students!