Teaching philosophy
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Every type of teaching philosophy is grounded in the kind of personality, qualification, and
training the instructor has. My philosophy stems from my deep conviction that the quality
of teaching can be better sustained if it is the product of interaction between one’s
research activities and the content of one’s courses.
My research, which draws on the insights of cognitive science in general and cognitive
linguistics and the conceptual theory of metaphor in particular, has had a great impact not
only on the content of my teachings but also on the enhancement and better
understanding of how learning comes to take place in the mind of the learner. Cognitive
science typically taught me that memory is one of the most important cognitive abilities,
but not the only resourceful cognitive ability that students should rely upon to learn; they
certainly need to think, and think in such a way that they can reflect upon various issues
related to their life as human beings, their life as a citizen within their own country, and
their possible life in any other country in the world. One of the important issues that they
need to think about is language, but with special reference to their own language or
language variety. In particular, metaphor as a cognitive tool tends to play a big role as a
facilitating device in my teaching methodology as well as a subject-matter of course
material.
The interaction between research and course work cannot work efficiently without
accommodating the students’ needs, simplifying theory, and adapting it to their needs. My
courses interact with my research by being a kind of fodder for my research, which
investigates problems and difficulties arising from and through either what I teach the
students or the learning difficulties that they might experience independently of what
they are taught. In such a way, a maximal use is made of theory to resolve learning
problems and difficulties and a maximal use is made of practical learning difficulties and
problems to verify the extent to which theory and practice are in harmony with one
another.
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Course title: Comparative Culture
Course code: Najd 307
Course level: Five
Academic year: 1431-1432H
Academic term: Second semester
Room: 1008
Instructor: Professor Zouheir A. Maalej
Office number: 2127
Office hours: Sunday (8-10) and Wednesday (9-12)
Office landline: 14697015
Email: [email protected]
Website: http://faculty.ksu.edu.sa/zmaalej
Comparative Cultures aims to introduce
students to:
 the view of culture as cultural models
 the interface between language, thought,
and culture
 the importance of comparing cultures
without falling into stereotypes and
unwarranted bias
 the implications of comparing cultures for
translation
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The course introduces students to comparative
culture, with special reference to the (Saudi)
Arabic and American events and time-related
issues. In particular, the course compares and
contrasts conceptualizations of these events and
time-related issues in both languages and
cultures, drawing information from the way they
are structured through metaphor. To do so, the
course adopts some of the insights of cognitive
science such as the entailments of metaphoric
thought, the embodiment of the mind and
thought, and the importance of the sociocultural context.
Basically, class work consists of a set of
PowerPoint seminars based on the course outline
below.
 To complement their course notes, students are
expected to contribute to the course by doing
research at home and submitting it to the class
for thinking and analysis in terms of the theory
developed by the course.
 The testing procedure will involve a set of
practical questions reflecting knowledge of the
theoretical issues dealt with in the course.
 The evaluation system will include: (i) two midterm exams (40%), (ii) student portfolio and class
participation (20%), and (iii) final exam (40%).
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Regular attendance is crucial to grapple with
course contents.
 Absence beyond the percentage ALLOWED by
King Saud University's internal regulations will
AUTOMATICALLY be sanctioned by DEBARRING
students from exams.
 All sorts of excuses will NOT be ADMITTED except
in extreme cases of medical treatment under
presentation of a medical certificate duly signed
by public competent authorities.
 Accordingly, there will be NO MAKE UP exam,
unless students showed medical evidence.
Students WILL NOT be accepted for TWO makeup exams.
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Comparative Culture CODOR
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WEEK 1: Culture, cultural relativism, and language relativism
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WEEK 2: Metaphor and related issues
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WEEK 3: Time in American English and Arabic
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WEEK 4: States and changes in American English and Arabic
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WEEK 5: Progress test preparation
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WEEK 6: Progress test 1
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WEEK 7: Progress test correction
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WEEK 8: Causes in American English and Arabic
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WEEK 9: Actions in American English and Arabic
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WEEK 10: Difficulties in American English and Arabic
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WEEK 11: Purposes in American English and Arabic
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WEEK 12: Progress test preparation
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WEEK 13: Progress test 2
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WEEK 14: Progress test correction
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Bridging the Cultural Gap in Language Teaching (pp. 5-7). Cambridge: CUP.
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Kaplan, R. B. (1986). Culture and the written language. In J. M. Valdes (Ed.),
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Kövecses, Z. (2005). Metaphor in culture: Universality and variation. Cambridge:
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