It's been a month and a half since I arrived in Rabat, and things have settled into something I can call "normal". So for those of you wondering just what it is exactly that I'm doing here, this is a "typical" week looks like. On Sunday night, usually late because she is one very busy woman, I will get a "programme" of classes to visit or other activities connected to the university from my advisor. There are no classes being offered this semester that are about the pedagogy of teaching a second language (as I had hoped when I developed the project), but Hafida has done a superior job of making sure that I am getting to see a variety of situations in which students are learning French for the first time at the university level, getting support for French language mastery that didn't occur for one reason or another in their high schools, or using French to pursue masters and doctoral degrees because that is the language of instruction in their field even though not a first language for them. Sometimes, I'm in a French literature class, along with all the spring semester students studying to become French teachers. So in a typical week, I will attend about 4-6 hours of classes at Université Mohammed V. Here is a shot of my advisor doing something called a Soutence d'Habilitation à Diriger des Recherches. In essence, it's a doctoral defense for a person who already holds a doctorate, but must publicly display evidence of her work and accomplishments over a period of years to show continued professional growth. (The jury gave her highest honors after their deliberation. She is an impressive individual.) I take 6 hours or so weekly of French tutoring. I am working with a woman from Strasbourg, France who lives here now, and we just talk. This helps me with my accent and (most especially) improving the way that I use French locutions rather than simply expressing an idea in the way an American would, but using French words. Here's an example: you can say "je voudrais vous demander une question" ("I would like to ask you a question, ") and it makes sense in French, but a native speaker would not word it like that. More probably he would use the verb "proposer" instead of "demander". So my French gets better the more of those French-ish constructions that I work into my conversation. There's also stuff like inserting the right kinds of fillers and emotion words-- expressions like "well," "like," '''wow!" and "sooo..." in English ---and I'm attempting to learn better French body language. I spend about 10 hours weekly in Moroccan Arabic classes. At first, I was just learning some functional vocabulary for getting around in a city where Standard Arabic is the one official language, some people speak French, some speak English (and these at various rates of fluency), some speak a Berber language like Amarigh, and EVERYONE speaks the unwritten form of Moroccan Arabic called Darija. So I've been working on my Darija, and then we slid into the Standard Arabic alphabet so that I can read things here. Now I've learned the verb tenses and I'm working on actual conversation. This is hard for me because there are so many sounds that are just ridiculously hard for me to make (and even hear), so my tutor Adil is a saint. He also teaches me a whole lot about Moroccan culture. We meet in a restaurant or cafe for our sessions. I try to get to at least one school visit per week, observing the way that education is happening in middle and high schools. This past week, instead of visiting a school, I attended a conference of the Moroccan Association of Teachers of English (MATE). The conference was really interesting because the attendees (except for me, the language officer from the American Embassy and the language officer from the British Embassy) were supervisors of English teachers throughout the country, and it was informative to get their perspectives on what is happening in education. The conference was entitled "Reforming Teacher Education and Training in Times of Change". The presentations were about providing education to 21st Century learners, and highlighting (just like in the US) that skills, methods, benchmarks, and goals are in a period of fast and vast change. It was really helpful to me to see how our challenges are really so similar in the US and in Morocco, and I made a lot of contacts with people who can arrange for me to visit second-language classrooms in other parts of the country. I really was overwhelmed by how welcoming and helpful the MATE people are. I also typically walk or tram-ride quite a bit around Rabat, which allows for some high-quality people-watching and is constantly fascinating. I check in every week or so at the MACECE office (Fulbright administrators) to chat with Ahlam (my liaison) and Dr Miller (the director) who are always full of great advice, information, and suggestions. There is a wonderful library there of books about Morocco that is a great resource. In the evenings sometimes I do something social with friends I've met here, or return home to study (sometimes, haha!), watch the sun set over the ocean, deal with on-going issues with my hot water supply, immerse in French language TV (now that I have the proper satellite dish), and write blog entries or check what's happening in the US via Facebook. And the weekends are for going on "toots!"
4 Comments
Gladys Murray
3/27/2017 01:20:46 pm
Enjoyed your new blog. So envious of your experience. Hope you had a great visit with your son.Just think of all the progress you have made in such a short time. Enjoy!
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Marcie
3/29/2017 03:32:40 am
More coming on the trip with Alex, but it is taking a long time to sort through the thousands of photos that I took!!!!
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Rita
3/28/2017 07:11:59 pm
Wow. Super cool you went to a conference. Who were the speakers?
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Marcie
3/29/2017 03:30:38 am
Rita, the speakers were both university professors and people whose job is the overseeing of English (which is a third or fourth language) instruction in public schools in various regions of the country. They all talked about how the vision of the public school mission is changing; competency vs standards-based assessment; the requirements for 21st century learners; text-centered vs student-centered instruction; and the place of the English language in a globalized world. So you can see, it's a lot like what you'd hear at a professional conference in the US!
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Marcie StutzmanTeacher, Researcher, Adventurer, Explorer; Maybe crazy; Possibly too old for this Archives
October 2018
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