[Mahmoud Azaz]

Dear Colleagues:  My name is Mahmoud Azaz. I am honored and excited to have been nominated for the Applied Linguistics Executive Committee (LSL) at the Modern Language Association (MLA). I am an associate professor of Arabic and Second Language Acquisition & Pedagogy at the University of Arizona. I am also a Distinguished Fellow at the University of Arizona Center for University Education Scholarship. I am the current Arabic Sector Head at the American Association of University Supervisors, Coordinators, and Directors of Language Programs (AAUSC). I offer Arabic and SLA courses at the graduate and undergraduate levels.    I am interested in second/foreign language teaching and learning from linguistic and sociocultural perspectives. I have published extensively in these two areas in applied linguistics journals such as International Journal of Applied Linguistics, Modern Language Journal, Second Language Research, Foreign Language Annals, System, and Linguistic Approaches to Bilingualism, Journal of Multilingual and Multicultural Development, Intercultural Communication Education, among others. I am currently completing a contracted book with Routledge Press on Arabic second acquisition and pedagogy. Also, I edited the 34th volume of Perspectives on Arabic Linguistics with John Benjamins, and co-authored a textbook on Egyptian Arabic with Georgetown University Press. I’m currently co-editing a special issue on multilingualism in the context of Arabic as a multidialectal language.  Throughout my career for ten years, I have been active at the national level. I have attended and presented at the MLA, AAAL, ACTFL and SLRF conferences. Particularly, throughout my role at the AAUSC, I have organized panels on transformative learning paradigms in Arabic and other multidialectal languages.  As a representative of applied linguistics of Arabic and other similar languages, I would work with the colleagues towards two goals. First, I would encourage those applying to MLA panels on Arabic and other similar languages to focus on a multidialectal approach that recognizes how speakers’ linguistic repertoires shift through time and with experience. Also, I would organize two panels in my term at the MLA to open discussions on a global vision of Arabic Studies that bring to the changing nature of Arabic and applied linguistics pedagogy to the forefront. Focus will be given to the implications of migration to language pedagogy.  I am happy to have been nominated to serve on this Forum’s Executive Committee. Please find a brief statement below. I would be happy to answer any questions should you have them.

 

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