After-School Arabic Program

Early in 2003, the Center for Islamic and Arabic Studies teamed-up with the Language Acquisition Resource Center at San Diego State University, and members of the Arabic-speaking community in San Diego to establish an After-School Arabic Program. Since then, the program's expansion has been such that it now employs five teachers, offers instruction at three levels and has expanded to three sites in El Cajon, Chula Vista, and Clairemont.  Plans are currently underway to expand to a fourth site in North County.

Children ages 6 to 12 meet twice weekly with trained instructors for 90 minutes to study the Arabic language.  The students are from diverse backgrounds, some of them from families where Arabic is spoken at home, and others from families where it is not.  In addition, in cooperation with SDSU's Language Acquisition Resource Center, the program's teachers have held workshops for over 20 Arabic teachers, in order to improve the accessibility and quality of Arabic education.

This After-School Arabic Program is the only non-sectarian secular program of its kind in San Diego. For more information, please contact Mr. Norman Leonard at nleonard@projects.sdsu.edu.