Nashville Public Schools To Start Arabic Classes, As Soon As They Find Arabic Teachers

Some schools in Nashville will be offering a new foreign language next fall: Arabic. The idea is to teach students a relevant world language, as well as to engage those who already speak Arabic at home.

But first, the district needs to find three qualified teachers — and that might be the hardest part of implementing this new program. Only one Tennessee college offers teacher certifications in Arabic, according to the state’s education department: Johnson University, which is a private Christian school in Knoxville.

Because of the limited supply of Arabic teachers, the district is open to hiring people who have worked in other professions but could become easily certified.

“We have good interpreters already,” says Jill Petty, director of humanities at Metro Nashville Public Schools. “We have a lot of native speakers in the area.”

In fact, it was the high number of native speakers that helped propel the school to create this program. About 3,200 students in Nashville schools speak Arabic as their primary language, but many of them can’t actually read or write it, Petty says. They’ve grown up with it, but have never been formally trained.

“So our goal is, they’ll leave high school being literate in two languages,” Petty says. “There will be so many job opportunities [that are] opened up.”

The district has had a similar “heritage” program for native Spanish speakers, says Metro schools spokesman Joe Bass.

The Arabic program will only be offered at three high schools — Antioch, Cane Ridge and Overton — and three middle schools that feed into those. All six schools are located in south Nashville, where the Arabic-speaking population is largest. For students who speak only English, these schools will also offer a beginning Arabic class.