Group Publishes Nation's First Arabic Standards

The teaching of Arabic has received a boost with the first-ever publication of standards for teaching the language in U.S. schools.

The Alexandria, Va.,-based American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages released July 17 a tome of standards for teaching 11 foreign languages that includes what students from kindergarten through college should know and be able to do in Modern Standard Arabic, the language used for formal interactions in the Arab world.

“When you are a new teacher or teacher with no real guidelines, you feel as if you fell into a tub of molasses,” said Dora Johnson, a program associate for the Center for Applied Linguistics, in Washington, who was born in Lebanon and is a native speaker of Arabic. Ms. Johnson coordinated the writing...