{"id":49233,"date":"2017-11-28T10:55:12","date_gmt":"2017-11-28T15:55:12","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/?p=49233"},"modified":"2022-09-28T13:30:48","modified_gmt":"2022-09-28T17:30:48","slug":"teaching-of-english-propels-budding-partnership-between-wright-state-and-university-of-babylon","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/2017\/11\/28\/teaching-of-english-propels-budding-partnership-between-wright-state-and-university-of-babylon\/","title":{"rendered":"Teaching of English propels budding partnership between Wright State and University of Babylon"},"content":{"rendered":"
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From left: Thomas Fenton, assistant director of Wright State\u2019s LEAP program; Qasim Al-Azzawi, director of the University of Babylon\u2019s English-language center; Amjed Alshalah, an assistant teacher at Babylon; and Asaad Janabi, lecturer of linguistics at Babylon (Photo by Erin Pence)<\/p><\/div>\n

A partnership between Wright State University and the University of Babylon in Iraq centering on the teaching of English is getting off the ground thanks to funding from an international nonprofit organization.<\/p>\n

Babylon, a key kingdom in ancient Mesopotamia, has been a cultural asset to Iraq since the creation of the modern Iraqi government in 1920. The University of Babylon, 60 miles south of Baghdad, has about 10,000 students and consists of 20 colleges within three compounds.<\/p>\n

The University of Babylon wants to model teaching at its English-language center after that of Wright State\u2019s Learning English for Academic and Professional Purposes (LEAP) Intensive English Program<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe long-term goal is to create and sustain a partnership between our institutions where we can promote all kinds of faculty and student exchange research projects,\u201d said Thomas Fenton, assistant director of LEAP.<\/p>\n

Several faculty members from Babylon recently spent three weeks at Wright State to learn the core components needed for their English-language center to begin teaching courses similar to those of LEAP.<\/p>\n

\u201cI can\u2019t tell you how impressed I am with their knowledge, their capacity to learn and to engage with our program,\u201d Fenton said.<\/p>\n

The LEAP program provides full-time and part-time English instruction and helps non-native speakers develop the linguistic, academic and social skills they need to be successful. And Wright State\u2019s Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages (TESOL) program helps international students learn how to teach English.<\/p>\n

\u201cWright State was not chosen randomly,\u201d said Asaad Janabi, lecturer of linguistics at Babylon.<\/p>\n

Amjed Alshalah, an assistant teacher at Babylon, said he is eager to adopt LEAP methods and approaches, which follow the latest curriculum.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe way of teaching here is so nice,\u201d he said. \u201cThe teacher and student interaction is brilliant.\u201d<\/p>\n

While at Wright State, the Iraqi educators observed LEAP and TESOL classes and attended a TESOL conference. They met students and faculty, wrote curriculum, toured campus libraries and met with officials at the international office and the Center for Teaching and Learning, which provides technologies, techniques and training to optimize student learning. The educators also worked on a series of webinars they plan to share with their colleagues in Iraq.<\/p>\n

The project received a seed grant from the International Research and Exchanges Board and support from the U.S. Higher Education Partnership Program and the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad.<\/p>\n

The English-language center at Babylon was established in 2009 and has been developing its programs since then.<\/p>\n

\u201cPeople come from all areas of Iraq to attend the center, to be part of the training courses as well as to have the official certificates of English-language levels,\u201d said Qasim Al-Azzawi, director of the center.<\/p>\n

The Iraqi educators said their students want to master English so they can better participate in international conferences and study abroad. Learning English from native speakers is one goal, and the partnership will create opportunities from Wright State students to go to Babylon and vice versa.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is great for us,\u201d said Al-Azzawi.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The University of Babylon wants to model teaching at its English-language center after that of Wright State\u2019s Learning English for Academic and Professional Purposes (LEAP) Intensive English Program. Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":17,"featured_media":49236,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[722,725,4863,2046,747,715],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-49233","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-academics","category-home-news-sidebar","category-humanities-and-cultural-studies","category-international-students","category-liberal-arts","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/49233","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/17"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=49233"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/49233\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":49241,"href":"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/49233\/revisions\/49241"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/49236"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=49233"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=49233"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=49233"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}