Ghassan Zakaria is an instructor of Arabic for non-native speakers with over 21 years of teaching experience. For more than two decades, he has been a faculty member in the Department of Linguistics and Asian/Middle Eastern Languages at San Diego State University, where he continues to serve today. He also currently teaches Arabic at Cuyamaca College and Palomar College.
In addition to his teaching roles, Ghassan Zakaria has worked with the Language Acquisition Resource Center (LARC) at SDSU, taught Arabic online for National University, and contributed to curriculum development for the University of Maryland and other institutions. In recognition of his outstanding contributions to Arabic language education, he was named Faculty of the Year by the College of Arts and Letters at SDSU in 2013. In 2023, he received the Excellence in Teaching Award from the same college and was also honored as the Most Influential Faculty Member by SDSU’s College of Professional Studies and Fine Arts.
Throughout his career, Ghassan Zakaria has taught Arabic at all proficiency levels, from elementary to distinguished-level learners. His course offerings have included Modern Standard Arabic, Levantine dialect, Conversational Arabic, Arabic Culture and Civilization, and Arabic for Native Speakers. He has also developed comprehensive instructional materials and proficiency-based assessments aligned with ILR levels 0+ to 3+, used at SDSU and the University of Maryland.
Beyond the classroom, he has delivered numerous professional development workshops and lectures on topics such as contextualized grammar instruction, working with heritage learners, Arabic diglossia, and the impact of globalization on Arab societies. He also served as the coordinator of the California Area International Language Network, leading initiatives to support Less Commonly Taught Languages.