Sonia Shiri

Director, Arabic Special Programs
Professor, Arabic

Marshall 443

520-626-7667
soniashiri@arizona.edu

Dr. Sonia Shiri is a Professor of Applied Linguistics, the Middle East Language Programs Coordinator, and the Director and PI/Co-PI of various externally funded and prestigious centers and programs serving Arabic and other languages at the University of Arizona. She is currently the Director of the Arabic Flagship Program, Project GO, the Center for Arabic Study Abroad (CASA), the Arabic Overseas Flagship Capstone Program and has served as co-Director of the Language Training Center since 2022. Her teaching and research interests & publications focus on Second Language Acquisition and Teaching with a focus on languages in contact, study abroad, program administration, and technology-oriented language learning. She is a faculty member of the Second Language Acquisition & Teaching (SLAT) Graduate Interdisciplinary Program. Dr. Shiri is committed to mentoring undergraduates, Graduate students, and professionals in language education and area studies and collaborates widely with partners across the U.S and abroad.  

Before joining MENAS, Dr. Sonia Shiri coordinated the Arabic Program at the University of California, Berkeley, taught Arabic at Oxford University where she was a Senior Fellow at St. Antony’s College, and held a Research Fellowship at the Center for Women and Gender at Stanford University. From 2009-2012, she acted as Senior Academic Director of the Critical Language Scholarship (CLS), overseeing curriculum development, program administration, and teacher training in Morocco, Tunisia, Egypt, Jordan, and Oman.  During 2002-2005, she served as the Academic and Outreach Coordinator for the Berkeley Language Center. 

In 2007, Dr. Sonia Shiri received UC Berkeley’s Faculty Award for Outstanding Mentorship of Graduate Student Instructors” then CALICO’s “Access to Language Education Award” in 2008. In 2017, she was a Fellow of the UA Academic Leadership Institute, was nominated in 2016 for the ACTFL Paul Pimsleur Award for Research in Foreign Language Education, and currently serves on the editorial board of the Foreign Language Annals and Critical Multilingualism Studies.

Dr. Sonia Shiri is currently the Director of the following programs and the PI for the related grants:

  1. The Arabic Overseas Flagship Capstone Program
  2. The Arizona Arabic Flagship Program 
  3. Project GO
  4. Qatar Foundation International (QFI) for the pre-collegiate Arabic Summer Jumpstart Program
  5. US Department of Education Fulbright-Hays Long-Term Group Projects Abroad for CASA Program in Jordan
  6. Fulbright Language Teaching Assistant Program, US Department of State 

 

FEATURED PUBLICATIONS

  • Shiri, S. (2023). Study Abroad from Home: Intercultural Communicative Competence Development in Immersive Virtual Environments. In R. Blake, Study Abroad during COVID and Beyond. Special Issue of L2 Journal.
  • Shao, S. Alharir, S., P. Satam, Shiri, S. and Mbarki, A. (2022). AI-based Arabic Language and Speech Tutor. Proceedings of the 19th IEEE/ACS International Conference on Computer Systems and Applications.
  • Shiri. S. & Mbarki, A. (2021, Open Educational Resource access July 2021). Level 2 Moroccan Arabic and Culture: An Advanced Multimedia Interactive eTextbook. University of Hawaii, Manoa: Language Flagship Tech Innovation Center. Instructional Technology by Flagship Tech Innovation Center. (14 lessons, 48 authentic videos clipped from Moroccan media, shows, etc.). 2018-2021 Grant by DLNSEO/IIE.
  • Shiri. S. & Mbarki, A. (2020, Open Educational Resource access July 2021). Level 1 Moroccan Arabic and Culture: A Beginning Multimedia Interactive eTextbook.  University of Hawaii, Manoa: LFTIC. Instructional Technology by Naiyi Fincham and Denis Tangiyev, Flagship Innovation Tech Center. (22 lessons, 66 authentic videos clipped from Moroccan media, shows, etc.). 2018-2021 Grant by DLNSEO/IIE.
  • Trentman, E. & Shiri, S. (2020). The Mutual Intelligibility of Arabic Dialects: Implications for the Arabic Classroom. Critical Multilingualism Studies, 8:1, 104-134.     https://cms.arizona.edu/index.php/multilingual/article/view/207
  • Shiri, S. (2018). Orchestrating Multimodal Protest and Subverting Banal Nationalism in the Linguistic Landscape of the Tunisian Revolution. In Mendel Y. & AlNajjar A. (Eds.), Language, Politics and Society in the Middle East: Essays in Honour of Yasir Suleiman (pp. 165-184). Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press. http://www.jstor.org/stable/10.3366/j.ctt1tqxb42.15
  • Shiri, S. and Joukhadar, C. (2017), Arabic Diglossic Speaking without Mixing: Practices and Outcomes from a Beginning Level. In Mahmoud Al-Batal (ed.), Arabic as One Language: Integrating Colloquial in the Arabic Curriculum. Georgetown University Press: Washington, DC. 
  • Shiri, S. (2015). Co-constructing Dissent in the Transient Linguistic Landscape: Multilingual Protest Signs of the Tunisian Revolution. In R. Rubdy and S. Ben Said (Eds.) Conflict, Exclusion and Dissent in the Linguistic Landscape. Palgrave Macmillan.  https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1057/9781137426284_12
  • Shiri, S. (2015), Intercultural Communicative Competence Development During and After Language Study Abroad: Insights from Arabic. Foreign Language Annals, 48: 541-569.   https://doi.org/10.1111/flan.12162
  • Shiri, S. (2015), The Homestay in Intensive Language Study Abroad: Social Networks, Language Socialization, and Developing Intercultural Competence. Foreign Language Annals, 48: 5–25.     https://doi.org/10.1111/flan.12127
  • Shiri, S. (2013), Learners' Attitudes toward Regional Dialects and Destination Preferences in Study Abroad. Foreign Language Annals, 46: 565–587. https://doi.org/10.1111/flan.12058
  • S’hiri, S. (2013; First Published 2002). ‘Speak Arabic Please!’: Tunisian Arabic Speakers’ Linguistic Accommodation to Middle Easterners.  In A. Rouchdy (Ed.), Language Contact and Language Conflict in Arabic Variations on a Sociolinguistic Theme. New York: Routledge Curzon Press.  Article here.
  • Blake, R. & Shiri, S. (2012) Online Arabic Language Learning: What happens after? L2 Journal, 4: 230-246.     https://doi.org/10.5070/L24212462

 

ARABIC PROGRAMS IN THE NEWS

Arabic Flagship Program

Center for Arabic Study Abroad (CASA)

Arabic Jumpstart Program