AY 2007-2008 Projects - Near East and North Africa

Country                       Yemen
City                              Aden/Khormaksar/Abyan/Tor al-Baha
Host Institution           University of Aden/AMIDEAST

Project Description
EL Fellow’s teaching duties will include two components: one at the University of Aden and the second at AMIDEAST. At the University of Aden, the EL Fellow will teach EFL classes to first or second year students for 10 hours per week. The EL Fellow will be based at the Aden University Faculty of Education in Khormaksar, where s/he will teach 6 hours per week. Once a week, the EL Fellow will teach for 4 hours at either/both the Abyan Faculty of Education, a 45-minute trip from Khormaksar and/or Tor al-Baha, a 90-minute trip. This distantly-located, rural, peripheral Faculty of Education has never benefited from a native-speaker instructor and this form of sustained outreach will add a new dimension to the instruction there and assure regular and direct USG outreach to populations outside Yemen’s major centers of Sanaa and Aden. Host institution will provide weekly transport to and from the Faculty. At AMIDEAST Aden, the EL Fellow will be tasked with teaching one class (2 hours per day, 5 days per week) of Access students. An important component of the Access program is transmitting cultural information and values to enrolled students. The EL Fellow should be able to perform these objectives well. In performing these duties, the EL Fellow will obtain further, varied classroom experience under the guidance of AMIDEAST Aden's Academic and Teacher Coordinators. In total, the EL Fellow will be in class for a maximum of 20 contact hours per week at Aden University and AMIDEAST. However, in practice because of breaks, holidays, and exams during some periods, the EL Fellow will be in class from zero to 10 hours per week. In addition to in-class contact hours, the EL Fellow program encourages additional participation by EL Fellows in activities such as holding workshops, providing training, and developing curricular materials. In order to both maximize the EL Fellow’s professional experience while in Aden and to utilize his/her talents in the most effective way possible during his/her time in Yemen, s/he will engage in the following professional activities (it is estimated that these additional duties will necessitate an additional ten to twenty hours per week): the EL Fellow will organize one in-service workshop during his/her tenure in Aden for the Faculties of Education in Khormaksar and Abyan. The workshop content will focus on teaching methodology, theory, and practice for Aden University and AMIDEAST instructors. The purpose of this workshop will be to enhance the level of EL teaching in Aden and in the southern Yemeni governorates by introducing pedagogical concepts with which these teachers and future teachers may not have been previously acquainted. Additionally, this workshop will incorporate aspects of American culture and American professional practices. At both AMIDEAST and the University, the EL Fellow will also disseminate information about and encourage students and faculty members to apply for U.S.-government-sponsored exchange programs, including the the Fulbright Scholarship, Fulbright Language Teaching grants, and the MEPI Student Leader Program. At AMIDEAST, the EL Fellow will also obtain experience giving and receiving regular feedback through regular in-class observations and evaluations and formal and informal teacher meeting. Further, the EL Fellow will be tasked with helping coordinate out-of-class cultural activities for Access students at AMIDEAST Aden. Once during each six-week session at AMIDEAST, all Access students are required to take part in a cultural activity, which may include (but is not limited to) films, community service work, or career days. The EL Fellow will assist in the planning and coordination of these activities in close consultation with AMIDEAST Aden Access Program Coordinator. Involvement in this program will greatly expand the scope and extent of EL Fellow outreach activities in Aden. Occasionally the EL Fellow will also participate in conversation hours with the Access students in order to conduct outreach with as many Access students as possible during their time in Aden.
           
Project Objectives
The proposed program will facilitate cooperation between important institutions and programs in the region, including Embassy Sanaa, the Regional English Language Officer (based in Cairo), Aden University, AMIDEAST Yemen, the Access Microscholarship Program, other U.S.-government scholarship programs, and workshops by ECA-funded EL specialists. This cooperation has been occurring on a regular basis since the first EL Fellow arrived in Aden in 2004, and has continued and expanded in the past two years. Such programmatic activity is especially important in Aden, which was the capital of the former Marxist state known as the People's Democratic Republic of Yemen (PDRY). Until PDRY unified in 1990 with the Yemen Arab Republic, Americans and most Westerners were not permitted entrance into PDRY. Accordingly, an entire generation was not exposed to Western concepts, values, or democratic ideals. Given this historical experience and with an interest in developing the emerging economies the south of Yemen, both younger and older generations are interested in learning about the West and about Americans and American culture. EL Fellows have helped ensure an American presence in the growing and significant educational sector of this region. Additionally, educational programs that focus on English language training have been shown to have tremendous impact on people's perceptions and beliefs. In particular, the expansion of the Access Microscholarship program and its management by AMIDEAST in Yemen has permitted EL Fellows to augment their professional duties by conducting outreach with a unique and important group of Yemeni school-age students that would not otherwise be served via a traditional ELFP placement. In sum, the in-class teaching, the outreaches, and the Access training will provide the EL Fellow and U.S. State Department by extension, with numerous and varied opportunities to engage Yemeni citizens from a variety of age groups and socioeconomic backgrounds.

About the Host Institution
University of Aden
The second-oldest institution of higher learning in Yemen, Aden University was established in 1975 in what was then the capital of South Yemen. It includes 17 faculties (which are somewhat akin to departments in U.S. universities), and ten research centers. Enrollments currently exceed 22,000 students per year. The EL Fellow will be based at the main Faculty of Education in Khormaksar, with outreach to a satellite faculty of education in Abyan (located in the town of Zingibar).

AMIDEAST
American non-governmental organization that delivers a variety of educational services, including English language training, professional training, testing, educational advising, scholarship administration (including the USGs Access Microscholarship program), and other forms of outreach and training. AMIDEAST has had an official presence in Yemen since 1981 and has been operating since 1998 in Aden.