Combining Arabic with ceramics – a teacher’s story

Learning Arabic can be challenging, and many learners quickly lose motivation due to the complex alphabet with its varying dots and connections.

Keeping students interested can be difficult. Reginald Hefner, a teacher of Arabic, Modern Hebrew, Japanese and Mandarin, has found an innovative approach. He combines the Arabic alphabet with arts and crafts, resulting in students painting and firing their own mugs.

In this article, he explains how he came up with the idea and how teachers can adopt it.

How I came up with the idea

During the fall 2016 semester when I revived the teaching of Arabic at York College of Pennsylvania (YCP) after a long hiatus (so long that Arabic was forced out of the catalog of courses…), I spied a sign in Wolf Hall en route to my assigned classroom that said, “Ceramics Class Spring 2017,” which triggered an idea: combine a ceramics project with my Arabic 101 students learning to write Arabic script.

But, was it feasible?

I contacted YCP art professor William Thompson and asked him whether he might consider coming to my classroom next semester and teaching my beginning Arabic students how to make a simple cup or bowl on which they could write their names in Arabic script and have a near-permanent souvenir of their Arabic study that may well serve as a conversation piece in the future to spur interest in both Arabic and ceramics among perhaps even their grandkids one day.

I also mentioned to him that when I was in Spanish Club at Shippensburg University of Pennsylvania, we had made some ceramic calaveras (skulls) near El Día de Los Muertos (roughly the same time frame as Halloween in the United States), then painted them, and this was quite well attended and well received by the students who even made T-shirts with the same designs.

Shortly afterward, Professor Thompson responded that he thought it would be a great idea, that he was willing to do it, and he would work out the cost for the materials. He had a very reasonable quote of $8.00 per student for materials. So, at the end of the fall semester, I anticipated trying this out with my students that would go on to Arabic 102.

Meanwhile, Dr. Taylor, Chair of the English and Humanities Department (under which foreign languages fell), asked me whether I would consider teaching not only an Arabic 102 during the Spring semester 2017, but simultaneously offering Arabic 101 since my fall Arabic 101 class attracted 19 students. In short, “Yes!”

I need a room

“The best-laid plans of mice and men aft gang aglee…,” to paraphrase a line from Robert Burns’ Scottish 1785 poem To a Mouse.

When I received my class schedules for Spring 2017, I discovered that I was scheduled not only in a different building, but also in two different rooms on two different floors and that the art classes were scheduled for precisely the same times as my Arabic courses.

I also had a class starting from zero in Arabic and one that could write Arabic script, haltingly but write it nonetheless. I had wanted Arabic students to have class at least four days a week, preferably five days a week, but YCP would only schedule it for Tuesdays and Thursdays for 75 minutes each day. So, they cannot make the same advancements in skill as a lot of other beginning programs.

I contacted Professor Thompson about these issues in my control somewhat, and he suggested that my students come to Wolf Hall during his break, and he would give up his break time to teach them the art part later in the day after our regularly scheduled classes.

I agreed to this but told him that I would have to delay doing it until the mid-term so that the Arabic 101 students could finish learning all 112 forms necessary to write the Arabic alphabet of only 28 letters (they change form depending on their position in a word like shape-shifters).

At this point, I thought it prudent to run the idea past my supervisor Dr. Mary Boldt, who is a German professor, who, fortunately, thought it is a great idea that might work with other languages in the fall 2017 semester. She also had a question for me:

“How are you going to motivate YCP students to an additional class not in their schedule at a time late in the afternoon when most are no longer in classrooms or even on campus?”

A question of motivation

Good question, something about “aft gang aglee (often go awry)” came to mind.

Solution: Bonus points to be used on either the Mid-Term Examination or Final Examination!

Oops… Arabic 101 students won’t know all the alphabet and those letters outside the alphabet but necessary to write Arabic (e.g., تاء مربوطة and همزة) until after the Mid-Term examinations since we have only two 75-minute class periods per week.

Revised solution: differentiated strategy! Final bonus points for Arabic 101 and Mid-Term or Final Bonus points (their choice) for Arabic 102.

Now it begged another question: What about students who cannot come because of conflicts (either other classes, work, family, or sports activities – I had part of the wrestling team in my Arabic class)?

“… a simple cup or bowl on which beginning Arabic students could write their names in Arabic script and have a near-permanent souvenir of their Arabic study …”

Reginald Hefner about his idea to combine Arabic and ceramics

A question of timing

I resolved all this by sending a check for the full amount for all students in both 101 and 102 to participate, as neither Professor Thompson nor I wanted to wait until the fall semester; we wanted to do a trial run to iron out any problems (apart from those that had already cropped up).

Then, I told both Arabic 101 and Arabic 102 students about the option of doing the project and that if they chose to go to do the project, it would count as attendance in Arabic class since the art professor estimated that it would only take about five classes to learn the process, then they could return to Arabic class as it would take a while to fire all the ceramics in the kiln.

For those who could not go to the ceramics class because of conflicts, I would conduct reviews using games like Arabic Jeopardy constructed from categories like: names of food/beverages, Egyptian dialect words/expressions, numerals, writing Modern Standard Arabic (MSA) words, etc., or having them draw pictures of vocabulary words on artist sketch pads and having classmates guess and write the Arabic word on the black/white board.

To my utter surprise, some students asked whether they could both attend class AND attend the art project later in the day – “yes!”

A brief history of Islamic pottery

Islamic pottery has a rich history that began around 622 CE, coinciding with the rise of Islam. As Muslim armies expanded their territories, they encountered and absorbed various pottery traditions from regions such as Persia, Byzantium, Mesopotamia, and Egypt.

Early Islamic pottery was heavily influenced by these diverse cultures, resulting in a unique blend of styles and techniques. The use of geometric and plant-based decorations became prominent, as Islamic art generally avoided figurative representations due to religious beliefs. This period also saw the development of intricate tile work and the use of vibrant glazes, which became hallmarks of Islamic ceramics.

The Abbasid period (الخلافة العباسية), beginning in 750 CE, marked a significant evolution in Islamic pottery. The introduction of Chinese porcelain to the Abbasid court in Baghdad had a profound impact, inspiring local potters to experiment with new forms and techniques.

This era saw the creation of fine pottery with rich colors and elaborate designs, often featuring floral and geometric patterns. Islamic potters also began to produce lusterware, a type of pottery with a metallic glaze that shimmered like gold or silver. These innovations not only increased the aesthetic appeal of Islamic pottery but also influenced ceramic traditions in Europe and beyond.

Results and Outlook

During the first session, I attended myself in order to help mitigate any student hesitance owing to inhibitions, as they would see me making the same sort of mistakes they were making and it would allow me to check on attendance for those who elected to do the art project.

Attendance was overwhelmingly positive, I am happy to say. The students were really enjoying themselves and, again, to my surprise, some of the regular art students who volunteered to help my students had Arab backgrounds or family members who spoke Arabic, so they asked me to show them how to write their names in Arabic so that they too might put it on a piece of artwork for themselves.

Inadvertently (kismet?), I also stimulated interest in Arabic among art students who had not really thought about it before; I felt as though I were one of the Princes of Serendip — at least for a semester.

Why for only a semester?

Both the art professor and I were part-time, non-tenure track adjunct professors subject to the whims of a bureaucracy outside of our control that decided not to put the art course or Arabic on the Schedule of Classes from which students pick which classes they might like to take, then told others and the part-time adjuncts that students just were no longer interested in taking this art class or Arabic.

This happened particularly after the COVID shut-down of the university, but even now as of 2024 Arabic is still not being offered. Still, we proved the idea of an interdisciplinary approach feasible and I even took my Arabic students to a calligraphy exhibition at the Smithsonian Institute in Washington, D.C. on a Saturday after I became “certified” as an official university van driver.

On the way back, we stopped at an Arab restaurant. C’est la vie.