Oxford High School has introduced Arabic as a new class option for students. This is the first high school Arabic program offered in the state of Miss. The class is taught by Dr. Yasmine Sedeek, who is an accomplished educator with the Arabic Language Flagship Program at the University of Mississippi.
Since 1980 the population of Arabic speaking people in the United States has grown 580%. According to the National Immigrant Women’s Advocacy Project (NIWAP) Library, Arabic is one of the most spoken foreign languages in Miss.
“Teaching Arabic or teaching a language is teaching a culture as well,” Sedeek said. “I have to present culture in everything, from our greeting, to our behavior in class, and everything else. The culture is a main part of the classroom.”
Oxford houses a large Arab community with the university currently holding one out of three Arabic Flagship programs across the nation. Whether students are heritage speakers or not, they are truly immersed into the culture by incorporating interactive elements like events within the Arabic community or bringing traditional foods into the classroom.
“I have some heritage speakers and some students who have never been exposed to Arabic before,” Sedeek said. “Bringing authentic material to the class is very important. I want my students to feel the culture and live the culture at the same time. We have Arabic culture events, meet with the Arabic community here in Oxford, and have something like the Festival of Nations that introduces different Arabic countries with their traditions and songs. It helps them to have a better understanding of the culture.”
Many assume that Arabic is a difficult language to learn because of its different writing system, directionality, alphabet, and structure in comparison to English. Due to Sedeek’s educational experience, she knows how to connect language with culture. Her teaching techniques focus on supporting the students and exposing them to the cultural aspects of the Arab community inside and outside of school.
“It’s considered a hard language, but if you try, it’s really not hard,” student Aisha Gul said. “We play games, we bring cultural food, and Dr. Sedeek is planning a trip to the school kitchen, so she can show us how to make cultural food. It’s a fun class.”
Some students take the class in an effort to connect and better communicate with friends and family members who speak the language. Freshman Reem Radwan took Arabic last fall in order to improve her skills conversationally.
“My parents are both from Egypt,” Radwan said. “I was really looking forward to communicating with more common words that I could start using in the house, so I could be more connected with them and other people in the Arabic community.”
Prior to the addition of the program at OHS, specialized online platforms were the only Arabic learning options offered to high school students in Miss. Many high schools may have formed clubs or other foreign language initiatives, but none in Miss. offer Arabic as an official course students can take during the school day.
“I am really proud that Oxford made that accomplishment,” Radwan said. “It’ll bring a bunch of diversity and hopefully it will influence more schools to offer more languages and be more diverse with their classes.”
Adding a third language course to the Oxford School District not only expands the class options, but the diversity as well. OHS has the honor of being the first in the state to offer Arabic as a language. Many hope that other schools will begin to take the initiative and include Arabic in their curriculum as well.
“I’m lucky to be the first [high school] Arabic teacher in Miss.,” Sedeek said. “At the same time, I feel very responsible to bridge the Arabic language with the English American community, and in bridging that culture as well.”
