Pedagogy as bountiful giving: L2 Arabic for adult learners beyond formal education

This article examines the nature of Arabic as a second language (L2) pedagogy in the context of language beyond the formal curriculum. Although such non-curricular teaching of Arabic in offline and online settings is available in many countries including Australia, Canada, UK and USA, it has not received much research attention. The present pedagogical inquiry is based on a free Arabic class for Muslim adults in a major Australian city which is taught by an autodidactic teacher who is an IT professional and attended by students who are also professionals or academics or PhD researchers. Based on data from class observation and teaching recordings and teacher interviews, I describe multiple creative features of the pedagogy that support its theorizing as a holistic, passionate and generous act of giving. The teacher’s teaching practice demonstrates what an Islamically informed and inspired pedagogy looks like, how it manifests in practice, and what potential outcomes it may have in the context of language beyond the formal setting. Emerging from the classroom-based research is a hybrid pedagogical mode that combines the spiritual and the secular, the physical and the technological/virtual, and the Western and the Eastern traditions in teaching and learning engagement. The gift pedagogy builds the class as a community and promotes participant wellbeing and identity reinforcement. As language teaching and learning increasingly take place outside formal, mainstream and fee-paying contexts, this research can enrich readers’ understanding of L2 pedagogy in changing contexts and times.