The summer Exchange Program, a cooperation between the Ministry of Higher Education, Oman and the American Middle East Institute (Pittsburg)

The summer Exchange Program is a cooperation between the Ministry of Higher Education, Oman and the American Middle East Institute and University of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania). The program will take place in the coming summer starting on the 4th of June until the 19th of July 2012 (for approximately six weeks). The program will be conducted in both countries (America and Oman). It will start in Pittsburgh from the 4th of June until 24th of June, whereas from 26th until 19th of July, it will be in Oman.

The main objectives of the intended summer students’ exchange are:

• Introducing the Omani culture and teaching Arabic (focusing on promoting oral fluency and Omani dialect) to some American students
• introducing the American culture and familiarizing some Omani students to the American tertiary learning system are

The program is divided into three main parts: Arabic, English and the cultural programs for both of the Omani and American sides. The Arabic program is mainly based on promoting the oral fluency with a great focus on the Omani dialect. The English programme,  on the other hand, is mostly predicated on oral fluency and some academic skills, such as synthesizing and paraphrasing, quoting and referencing and efficient strategies in debating and interlocutors’ persuading and convincing.

There are 22 students from both the Omani and American sides (11 from each side), four tutors (2 Omani for the Arabic programme and 2 American tutors for the English one) and two administrators from both sides. Six Omani students are selected from the Colleges of Applied Sciences and five will be from SQU. One teacher has been selected from CAS and the other one is from SQU. The Omani programme’s coordinator is selected from the Ministry.