The Role of Individuals and Institutions in Creating the Cultural Environment Necessary to Teach Arabic as a Foreign Language

Many of those who undertake the task of teaching a foreign language are aware of the huge differences between what they do and what the teachers of a native language do. The former ones obviously know the specificity of their field, which requires them to have qualifications ranging from abstract intuition to knowledge generated by basic rules. What many miss, however, is that culture is the main difference that must be the center of attention of those who assume the responsibilities of this field. This is due to the fact that the teacher of a native language is able to start immediately the educational process, based on a cultural background that influences the language and is influenced by it. In that sense, he is more fortunate than his counterpart who has to work hard to bridge that gap between the specific culture of the student and the target language, out of a deep conviction of the dialectical relationship between language and culture. To what extent, however, will the teacher of a foreign language succeed in his endeavor? A teacher who acquires the conviction mentioned above is often able to assume some of the details of the educational process, but is unable to put it in its proper context without the concerted efforts of the surrounding individuals and institutions. Hence the present study which deals with the role of individuals and institutions in creating a cultural environment guiding the students as well as stimulating them, and also showing how to communicate with these entities in order to seek their help in the field of language teaching, which seems not at all part of their goal but in fact is very close.