Arabic language in the United States

Harvard was the first American college to offer Semitic languages, including Hebrew, Chaldaic, and Syriac in 1640, and later added Arabic between 1654 and 1672.

[citation needed] In the 19th century, the focus on Arabic education gradually transitioned from theological motivations to philological interests.

By the end of the 19th century, there were sixteen major departments of Semitics in the United States, with Arabic being offered in various colleges and seminaries.

Therefore, the federal government, with the assistance of the American Council of Learned Societies (ACLS), tried to mobilize linguistic experts to create educational materials for numerous languages and dialects, as well as established programs such as the Army Specialized Training Program (ASTP) for intensive language training.

[citation needed] The enduring impact of this national effort resulted in providing language proficiency to a large number of individuals, many of whom later became educators, government officials, or businessmen dealing with the regions they were trained for.

[3] This impacts their teaching strategies, and affects the motivation for students to learn Arabic knowing that they have to be careful when speaking it in public.

[citation needed] Arabic's increasing significance in the United States is showcased by the continuing growth of its speaker base.

Arabic has more than 1.35 million speakers in the United States, making it the sixth most common language spoken in the country and catering to almost 0.5% of the U.S.

[12][13] The 2000 U.S. census reported 1.2 million Arab Americans, with significant population concentrations in metropolitan areas such as Los Angeles, Detroit, New York, Chicago, and Washington, DC.

However, another research found varying degrees of multilingual proficiency in the Detroit area and deduced that Arabic continues to play a vital role for all in the community.

From a study involving many notable universities, motivation for learning the language was diverse and ranged from "literature and culture", "wanting to travel/live in the Middle East," "to talk with Arabs," to "research of original sources".

[15] Classes were offered in multiple vartieties of Arabic, including MSA, Classical/Qur’anic, Egyptian, Gulf, Iraqi, Levantine, Moroccan, Sudanese, and Syrian.

Nevertheless, the Arabic language is still spoken by a great number of heritage speakers and is regarded as a symbol of ethnic or religious identity by many.

[1][16] In the early years of the 2020s, an increase in heritage speakers enrolled in Arabic language lessons at universities has been observed.