Makda Weatherspoon is a Visiting Senior Lecturer of Arabic from Cornell University. She will be teaching "Media Arabic", "Lights! Camera! Arabic", and an introductory course called "Gateway to Arabic" in the Department of Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations (NELC) during the 2021-2022 academic year.
Professor Weatherspoon's teaching philosophy is based on the belief that learning Arabic should be enjoyable and something to look forward to. Moreover, the content material should be relevant to the student, effective in yielding tangible results from the very beginning, and helpful in promoting communicative competence within and outside the classroom.
Professor Weatherspoon has over ten years of experience in the field of Teaching Arabic as a Foreign Language (TAFL) with expertise in curriculum design. She is the recipient of the 2020-2021 "Sophie Washburn French Instructorship Award" in recognition of excellence in language instruction. In addition, she is the co-author of the Arabiyyat al-Naas textbook series (elementary and intermediate levels). Other academic interests include Second Language Acquisition, Corpus Linguistics, utilizing films as a tool for teaching language and culture, and integrating new technologies into language teaching.