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A local reporter who has perhaps never been overseas will be awed at meeting a person who makes her life among the foreigners.

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Overseas, English teacher is a pioneer

Thursday, August 13, 2009
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
By Carole Gilbert Brown

Walk the streets of the United Arab Emirates and you'll notice a variety of foreign languages and local dialects.

But go into a bank, store, restaurant or mall and you'll hear English. Street signs are in both Arabic and English, too.

"English is widely used in any transaction. Even the locals will speak English when they speak to the shopkeepers," says 1995 Mt. Lebanon High School graduate Rachel Lange, who has done her part to improve the use of the language in the UAE by composing a 150-page workbook for college-bound students.

In the Emirates, 12th-graders planning to further their education must pass an English proficiency examination. The students study the language for 10 years before taking the test.

As an English teacher employed by UAE University the last five years, Ms. Lange started compiling an-all English workbook on her own after noticing a need for independent preparation to augment course study. Last year, she took the concept to higher education officials, who liked the idea so much that they paid her to complete it during her summer vacation. Since that time, it has been distributed free to12th-graders, and has been used as a textbook in some schools, too.

It is titled "Common English Proficiency Assessment Challenge," and subtitled as the official CEPA English test preparation book. Forty thousand copies of the workbook were printed. A CD-ROM and practice tests are included with the book.

Divided into 10 weekly study units, the workbook tests English knowledge, as well as provides a variety of instruction, including reading, grammar, vocabulary and comprehension.

Each unit has an essay on trendy topics, such as "Chocolate: The New Flavor of Health," Muhammad Ali, windsurfing, the invention of the neon sign and dinosaurs. After reading the essays, students must answer numerous multiple-choice questions about content, word use and grammar, as well as employ critical thinking skills to compose their own essays.

For example, in the chocolate unit, students are asked to respond to the question of whether chocolate should be banned in school cafeterias as has been done in other countries.

""The book asks students to apply what they've learned. I tried to link their likely interests to little bits of Western culture," Ms. Lange said.

An answer key is provided at the back of the book and there are diversions such as crossword puzzles, too.

Thanks to a bachelor's degree in fine arts earned in 1999 from Alfred University in New York, Ms. Lange also designed the workbook, which is highlighted with color and photographs.

More recently, she has written an internal writing textbook in collaboration with some other teachers at the UAE University and hopes to do more freelance material development in the educational field.

Ms. Lange has lived and taught in Al Ain, also known as UAE's Garden City, in the emirate of Abu Dhabi since September 2004. Before that, she lived in Germany and Poland. While earning her master's degree in applied linguistics from the University of Pittsburgh, she taught English to foreign students.

"I've always been interested in different cultures," she said, while visiting recently with her parents, Rich and Kathy Lange of Mt. Lebanon.

Besides its beauty, Ms. Lange finds the unique mix of old and modern, simplicity and opulence in the UAE a beckoning attraction. For example, while Emeratis dress modestly in traditional garb in public as a sign of respect, they wear whatever they want in their family compounds.

http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/09225/990387-55.stm