AHMED FERHADI Ph.D. 1990, University of Michigan Professor Department of Middle Eastern and Islamic Studies 50 Washington Square South New York, NY 10012 tel: (212) 998-8883 fax: (212) 995-4689 e-mail: af3@nyu.edu

Language and linguistics have been inextricably intertwined with my research, education, teaching experience and publication. My particular focus has been on Second Language Acquisition, Sociolinguistics, and Language Testing. I am also interested in pedagogical applications of technology and Computer Assisted Language Learning (CALL).

My next research project is writing a computer program specifically designed to hone the language skills of non-native speakers of Arabic at the advanced level. It comprises authentic lectures on various topics conducted in Arabic by professors and scholars who are not language teachers. This project will contribute to redressing the paucity of materials and interactive tools that learners of Arabic at the advanced level encounter.

I have been educated at the University of Michigan, where I was awarded both a Ph.D. in Linguistics in 1990 and an M.A. in Teaching Arabic as a Foreign Language (TAFL) in 1988, and at the University of Edinburgh, UK, where I was awarded an M.S. in Applied Linguistics in 1979. Prior to those graduate degrees, I had completed my B.A. on yet another continent when I graduated from the College of Education at Baghdad University, Iraq.

My teaching experience beyond NYU has spanned the University of Michigan, Princeton University, Columbia University and Middlebury College in Vermont in addition to UAE University in al-Ain, Abu Dhabi as well as Salahuddin University and Suleimaniyya University in Iraqi Kurdistan. During my summer teaching in Middlebury in 1991, I introduced my method of using a camcorder to videotape students' presentations to subsequently view, discuss and evaluate their linguistic performance. This became a routine procedure at Middlebury afterwards.

I have been elected to the Executive Board of the Association of American Teachers of Arabic (AATA) for two terms (92-95 and 2000-2003). I also served as one of the nine testers in North America certified by the American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages (ACTFL) to conduct Oral Proficiency Interviews in the early 1990's.

BOOKS:

• The Kurdish Liberation Movements 1931-1961. Palgrave Macmillan, 2003
• Communication Skills from Theory to Practice. UAE University Press, 2003
• Honing Language Skills at the University Level (Books I and II). UAE University Press, 2002
• Teacher's Guide to "Honing Language Skills at the University Level (Books I and II). UAE University Press, 2002

ARTICLES:

• "Language Teaching and the Challenges of Globalization", Journal of the Emirates Center for Strategic Study and Research (ECSSR). Abu Dhabi, 2008
  
• "Teaching MSA before Colloquial", presented at the annual convention of Middle East Studies Association (MESA) and (AATA) in Montreal, Canada, November 2007 (forthcoming)
• "Teaching Culture While Teaching Arabic", in the proceedings of the conference on The Arabic Language & Culture, Inst. of Islamic and Arabic Studies in America. Virginia, 1999. (pp.85-92)
• "Incorporating Video in Teaching Arabic" in Al-Batal (ed.) The Teaching of Arabic as a Foreign Language: Issues & Directions, AATA Monograph #2, 1995
• "Clitics in Arbili Kurdish" in Investigating Arabic by R. Rammuny & D. Parkinson, ed. (Columbus, Ohio: Greyden Press, 1994)
• "The impact of adults (native/non-native) and children on the addressor", presented at the XXII TESOL Convention in Chicago, March 1988
• "Quantifiers in the Interlanguage of Kurds" in Papers in Applied Linguistics - Michigan, Vol.3, No.1, fall 1987

AWARDS:

• 2006 Top Language Services Award, US Department of State
• 2000/2001 Fulbright Scholar award to conduct research on Language Testing & Curriculum Design in the UAE
• 2000 Golden Award of Teaching, New York University
• 1995 Award of Excellence in Teaching, New York University
• 1994 Sole Nominee of the Faculty of Arts & Sciences, NYU for the Distinguished Teaching Award
• 1978/1979 British Council Scholar award to do postgraduate work in Applied Linguistics at Edinburgh University, U.K.

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