enta-7-call

Literature and Culture in a Changing Language Classroom

Re-examining the language-Culture relation in the Arabic Curricula

The European Network for Teaching Arabic  

In Collaboration with 

The School of Oriental and African Studies
University of London

Announce 

The Seventh Conference of the European Network for Teaching Arabic (ENTA-7) 

“Literature and Culture in a Changing Language Classroom”

Re-examining the language-Culture relation in Arabic Curricula

12 September 2025, SOAS, University of London

Call for abstracts 

In recent years, a profound change in the concept of education and its delivery has been taking place. Educational policies are shifting, and students’ profiles, backgrounds and expectations are changing. In a global environment where language teaching and learning face increasing pressure, many language programmes around the world have been re-examining and redesigning their content, learning outcomes and modes of delivery. In the particular case of Arabic, where the rich literary and sacred texts are inextricably bound to the language and are often what motivates learners to study Arabic in the first place, the question does arise as to the place that literature, culture and history can continue to occupy at the heart of Arabic language teaching. How can we incorporate literary texts and sociohistorical artefacts in the language classroom in productive ways that will enhance language skills as well as cultural literacy?

The symposium aims to bring together researchers and educators to reflect on these questions in the context of the rapidly changing educational landscape.

The conference invites submissions of abstracts for presentations, papers, workshops and panels on the theme of the conference.

Keynote Speaker

Professor Stefan Sperl, SOAS, University of London

Keynote address Title

TBA

Conference Themes

The conference encourages submissions on research that has implications on teaching and learning Arabic as a foreign language, and on teaching projects that are linked to research on the following areas: 

• Classical literature and heritage texts: their incorporation into modern curricula.
• Modern literary and cultural products: their incorporation into modern curricula.
• Arabic teaching and reduced-intensity curricula: how to deal with constraints on the ability to teach different literary genres as well as authentic texts.
• Arabic popular culture: with reference to its use in Arabic pedagogy across different levels of proficiency.
• Cinema and the Visual Arts: Arabic and optic regimes.
• History, Religion and Society: inclusion and impact.
• Content-Language Integrated Learning (CLIL) and the Arabic classroom.
• Measuring language development in a literature-integrated curriculum.

Abstracts are accepted in both English and Arabic for presentations (20 minutes), panels or workshops (90 minutes).  For submission guidelines, click here.

Important Dates 

Contact