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| 1. Once I have Skype, which of course I do, how do I know what time to be waiting to talk and who the teacher is going to be? |
| ** Once you register in the speaking course, you are sent passwords to the Speaking course. When you log on to the course, you are asked to specify the times of day and the days that are convenient for you to talk. The teacher will call you at the appointed time. We will specify the SKYPE name of the teacher on the "Classroom" page. |
| 2. At the appointed time, do I contact the teacher, or will he or she contact me? |
| ** At the appointed time, you should log on to the course, and also to SKYPE. The teacher will be logged on to the course and to SKYPE. The teacher will contact you by SKYPE. Then, the teacher will click on a button that is found on teacher's accounts to specify that the session has started. At the end of the session, the teacher will click on that button to specify that the session has ended. You will be able to find those hours on the details page of the session. |
| 3. Do I need to open a new session too, or will the teacher's opening it open it for me as well? |
| ** The teacher opens and closes the sessions. When he/she does that the time is recorded on the student's account too for future reference. |
| 4. Will I have the same teacher every time? It seems like I could do something more systematic if the teacher never changed, but speaking with different people would be beneficial too. |
| ** You should specify your preferences to us in the "Personal Prefernces" area. Let us know if you prefer to have one or more teachers. You can change your mind as you progress into the course. For example if you started with a teacher and ran out of topics with him/her, it is possible to request another one. We will take your requests into consideration within the limitations of the availability of our teachers. |
| 5. Can the teacher access the text I'm studying in my lessons so he/she can look at what I don't understand? If we have to be logged in to Speaking: ECA, can we look at another lesson? I mean, does it bother you for us to be double- logged-in to AA? |
| ** The teacher is given a list of courses that the student is registered in. The teacher can access those courses and is encouraged to discuss them with the student. Students and teachers can be doubled logged in at AA as this is for the learners' benefit. If you are studying Arabic 101 and you wish to discuss the topics there and practice speaking, then of course you should be able to do that. That applies to all other courses at Arab Academy. The Speaking course is a great companion for other courses and is not meant to be the sole source of studying. |
| 6. I signed up for ECA because I need to work on it more than MSA, but I wonder if I made the right decision? I can barely exchange pleasantries and say I want to go to Alexandria in ECA - how can I possibly discuss the politics of Iraqi archers competing in the U.S. via ECA? Is MSA forbidden since I'm in the ECA course? |
| ** Modern Standard Arabic is not forbidden but it is not encouraged. If we do not specify the register you wish to use, how will the teacher know what he is supposed to focus on with the student? If you are weak in colloquial, then that is good reason for taking the course. It will be the teacher's job to help you overcome those weaknesses. Pages with activities on colloquial are given on the speaking course. Those pages are chosen with the teacher and they will be there for you to work on with him/her. The teacher will prepare sheets for the student to help him/her improve the language he wishes to focus on. Again, it is better for the teacher and the student to have one language register under focus in order to avoid confusion. |
| 7. Are there grades in this class? If so, what is the basis for assessment? (Just the notes, or what I say and how much or little I understand? Attendance?) |
| ** Grades are based on attendance, active participation and productivity. Grades are also based on the level of improvement of the learner. That is something that the teacher will indicate. A student who comes to class with topics and questions gets a higher grade than a student who does not come to class prepared. You can check the evaluation criteria from a link in the classroom page. |
| 8. When you mention recording in the course explanation, do you mean that every conversation will be recorded? What a terrifying thought! |
| ** No, we will not record all the conversations. We would like to be able to do that, but we still do not have the technology for that. It would be good to have a record of the student's speaking skills over time. By recording we mean a written summary of what took place at each session. |
| 9. Is it going to be self-evident how to post my notes on the conversation once I'm actually talking to the teacher? |
| ** You need to click on "All Session" and then from there click on "Add" under the column of "Students' Comments". Make sure you are adding comments to the session on the right day. We expect you to jot down whatever you feel was important about today's conversation. You can also write down the topics/lessons/reading material that you worked on. You might also like to write the areas that you would like to work on in the future so that the teacher would prepare material on them. |
| 10. What is the procedure if we can't talk at the appointed time for whatever technical or personal reasons? Do we just lose that session, or can we make it up? On the other hand, if the teacher doesn't show up, are you going to make up the session or not? I don't have a strong opinion about this either way as I think what you are offering is quite generous, but I have to understand the rules before I can do something as far out of my comfort zone as this is. |
| ** Student not showing up: If the student does not show
up, there will be no make up sessions. However, if the student requires
to change his schedule, that could be arranged. Those courses are "live"
and therefore any change in time needs to be run by the administration in
order to avoid conflict with the teacher's other classes or sessions. ** Teacher not showing up: If the teacher was unable to show up for any reason, he/she will be replaced by another one. If for some reason that was not possible, then there will be a make up session. ** Public Holidays: The teachers will not be working on Egypt's public holidays, but will be working on public holidays of other countries. The official day off of Arab Academy are Fridays of every week. |
| 11. To what degree do you see this as an opportunity to chat vs. an opportunity to ask questions about things we don't understand? Does the teacher drive the conversation, or does the student? I mean, do I have to think of 50 minutes' worth of things to say ? (because it scares me to imagine that). |
| ** I see it as an opportunity to chat. I also see it
as an opportunity to ask questions related to the lessons studied at the
Arab Academy's online courses. You will find a table with information on:
"How the class time is to be used" at the classroom page of the
speaking course. The timing given to each activity reflects its relative
importance. If the student wishes to make changes to that, it should be
written in his/her notes or requests for changes. This is an issue that can be discussed with the teacher, but such discussions need to be recorded for further reference. By recorded I mean written down in the notes area. |
| 12. Which are the days that we don't talk? |
| ** Select the days you wish to talk on from the Personal Preferences area. We do not talk on Fridays and on public holidays in Egypt. When there is a public holiday, the teacher will inform you. |
| 13. My comprehension of Modern Standard Arabic is approaching advanced level (I finished Al Kitaab part 2); however, I am not that strong in speaking it. I am more comfortable speaking in the Levantine dialect. Would it be possible to have the instructor speak to me in MSA and I would reply in Levantine? Or would that not work? |
| *** That is exactly why we are offering this course. We know that all learners, even advanced ones, did not get a sufficient chance to practice speaking. We have 2 courses: one is Speaking in MSA, and the other is Speaking in colloquial. You should register for the MSA speaking course. The instructor will speak to you in MSA. You can reply in Levantine at the beginning and hopefully with time, you will gain enough confidence in oral MSA and would start responding in it. I understand that this is your objective: you wish to improve your oral MSA skills. |
| 14. I noticed from your website that for the subject matter of the phone calls, you indicate it is best to discuss what you are studying in other Arab Academy courses. However, I am not enrolled in any Arab Academy courses at the moment, as I am taking some informal lessons with an instructor here in New York, and am doing some studying on my own. Given that, how would my chats with your instructor work? Would he or she be equipped with prepared material to discuss with me in order to lead the discussion and sustain our conversation for the 50 minutes? |
| *** You do not need to be a student at Arab Academy to register for a Speaking course. Teachers come up with enough talking points. The speaking sessions have content of their own. The instructor will certainly be able to come up with enough material for discussions. Time flies by actually. |
| 15. Do you have to start at the beginning of a month - Dec. 1, Jan 1., etc., or can you start anytime and have the month begin from the time you sign up? |
| *** You do not have to start at the beginning of a month. You can start anytime and the month will begin from the day you sign on. |
| 16. I have never used an internet phone connection before. How is the quality? What is the name of the connection service that you use? |
| *** We are using SKYPE. The quality of the connection is excellent. Just make sure to have a reasonably good headset with a microphone. Inexpensive ones in the $10 range do the job quite well. |
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