December 13–14, 2024

Department of African and Ethiopian Studies
Asia-Africa Institute (AAI), University of Hamburg
Edmund-Siemers-Allee 1 (East Wing)
20146 Hamburg

Background

For over a century, Amharic has been taught as a foreign language at universities across Europe in cities such as Naples, Paris, Berlin, Hamburg, Warsaw, St. Petersburg, Moscow, and London. During this time, a variety of teaching materials have been prepared and used by the respective national institutions, including textbooks, bilingual dictionaries, grammars, conversation books, chrestomathies, and cultural and literary bilingual readers. These teaching materials vary in terms of socio-cultural content, grammar content, and vocabulary. They also transmit different levels of ability in achieving the four basic language skills of listening, speaking, reading, and writing. Despite these commendable efforts and a certain degree of mobility and exchange between researchers, teachers, and students of the Amharic language, there is only rudimentary inter-university cooperation between the Amharic-teaching units in European universities. In recent years, this issue has become evident when students have encountered significant difficulties during study abroad and Erasmus programs at partner institutions. Moreover, the challenge for students and teachers was highlighted during the inaugural International Summer School of the Amharic Language and Ethiopian Cultures (Bahir Dar University, September 13–27, 2022), which saw the participation of Amharic students from France, Germany, Israel, and Italy. Among the international teaching staff,  there was a general consensus that there is an urgent need to develop a common comparable scale and course content for evaluating students’ language competencies according to the already established Common European Framework of Reference (CERF) with its six levels from A1 to C2.

Objectives

The main objective of the intended workshop is to facilitate a broad discussion about the possibility of developing a common scale for measuring the Amharic competencies of learners. This includes the development of common topics and themes, the leveling of language skills and competencies (listening, speaking, reading, and writing) at the five levels (A1, A2, B1, B2, C1, and C2) according to the CEFR guidelines, as well as the allocation of study time for courses, i.e., how many ECTS should be obtained at first, second, and third-year Amharic courses.

Furthermore, the workshop will also address the following related issues:

• Developing common course syllabi, teaching, and learning materials for all levels of Amharic study
• Exploring possibilities for regular collaboration between language teachers, researchers, and IT specialists, including the organization of an annual Amharic Summer School
• Gathering ideas for preparing innovative teaching materials and formats, including specialized workbooks, vocabulary lists, learners’ dictionaries, learners’ grammars, digital learning resources and platforms, and more
• Making recommendations for the role and function of the Amharic writing system and the standardization of the Amharic orthography, including the transcription system
• Establishing a network of Amharic teachers and researchers to facilitate mobility and exchange programs, including the creation of a common scale for the examination and evaluation of Amharic students, and the development of an annual conference format for the organization of teaching Amharic for 2025–2030 and beyond.
• Proposing the establishment of an Amharic Language Academy–preferably at our partner institution, Bahir Dar University, Ethiopia–and possible cooperation with Amharic-teaching universities in America, China, and Russia.