Teaching Ancient Egyptian Language in the Spanish Universities: experiences, reflections, and perspectives

Abstract

The teaching of the Ancient Egyptian language has received little attention as an object of reflection and debate in Egyptology. The case of Spanish universities, where it has been taught for a few decades in postgraduate degrees and extension courses, presents some peculiarities, which can be explained, among other reasons, by the late introduction of the discipline in academic institutions. In the case of the UAM, the Centro Superior de Estudios de Oriente Próximo y Egipto antiguos has been teaching it with good results for more than two decades from the ‘verbalist’ / ‘functionalist’ theory of the Egyptian language and approaches from the Cultural Linguistics, with a contextual approach and employing active methodologies of teaching. In addition to the difficulties posed by certain grammatical aspects -especially those relating to the verb- the main challenges facing the teaching of the Egyptian language include the implementation of the most recent advances in the subject and digitisation in the classroom, and its institutionalisation.