The ALTD has 32 qualified teachers who are specialists in the field of teaching Arabic as a second and foreign language to speakers of other languages. All of the teachers at the ALTD regularly participate in training courses as well as frequent workshops led by international experts in the field of teaching Arabic to speakers of other languages. Such courses and workshops are often conducted in cooperation with renowned American institutes and universities, like Ohio State University, in order to stay up to date with modern pedagogical methodology in the field of language teaching. The ALTD administration is working to increase the number of native Syrian graduates who are specialists in the field of teaching Arabic to speakers of other languages. This increase in staff will help meet the needs of the ever-growing number of foreign students who desire to study Arabic at the ALTD.

The ALTD is one of the main departments of the Higher Language Institute at the University of Damascus. The ALTD is near the departments of literature, dentistry, medicine, and pharmacy, in the Campus of Humanities (known as “Al Adaab”) on Fayez Mansour Street, Al Mazzeh Highway in the western part of Damascus. You can reach the ALTD easily using public or private transportation (micro-buses or taxis) from anywhere in Damascus.

The ALTD’s location, near the above-mentioned departments, provides students with a great opportunity to learn about Syrian social life through communicating and interacting with their Syrian and non-Syrian classmates from other departments of Higher Language Institute and university. Moreover, students use Arabic to communicate, which adds another benefit to studying at the ALTD.

The ALTD is equipped with modern technology. For example, the ALTD has:

• Two state of the art language labs
• An internet lab with 20 modern computers.
• An audio/visual lab that has 20 separate viewing stations. The lab has a video library containing carefully selected videos to assist students in their studies. Students are welcome to use the video lab during its working hours.
• A library that offers a wide variety of books pertaining to many fields and subjects, such as social studies, history, and literature. The library also offers a collection of simplified stories, dictionaries, periodicals and daily newspapers in English and Arabic. Students have access to the library during its working hours.