Students interested in learning a second language may take a free Arabic class this semester. The class runs from 6 to 8:40 p.m. Wednesdays, beginning Feb. 17, in Stabler Hall, Room 304. The non-credit class is open to the public.

The Middle Eastern and Islamic Studies Program has offered non-credit Arabic classes for several years. In the future, for-credit classes in Arabic will be offered for the first time to UALR students through a partnership with the Department of International and Second Languages.

Dr. Abeer El-Anwar, an English as a Second Language (ESL) instructor, will teach the free beginner course this semester. She also will offer for-credit Elementary Arabic I and Elementary Arabic II in the fall.

“I believe this partnership and weaving language and multicultural understanding into the curriculum will establish avenues conducive to UALR’s commitment to ‘educating tomorrow’s global citizen,’” El-Anwar said.

El-Anwar is a distinguished linguist who specializes in translation studies and ESL. She is a native speaker of Arabic with a doctorate in linguistics from Ain Shams University in Cairo, Egypt, who has taught various ESL and translation courses from 1999 until 2005. She joined UALR in 2007.

Students who are taking the non-credit class this semester will be asked to purchase the workbook, “Alif Baa: Introduction to Arabic Letters and Sounds” by Kristen Brustad and Mahmoud Al-Bbatal.

For information and registration, contact Jessica Young at jlyoung1@ualr.edu or 501.569.3272.