Teaching Arabic Language - Towards a new beginning that stimulates creativity (original) (raw)
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The status of Arabic language teaching today
Education, Business and Society: Contemporary Middle Eastern Issues, 2008
Purpose -The purpose of this paper is to map out the status of Arabic language teaching as practiced in the Arab World today and to bring into focus the main issues that any improvement to that discipline would need to look at. Design/methodology/approach -A review of the current teaching practices and needs in the teaching of the Arabic language. Findings -Arabic language teaching practices remain teacher centered and bound to teaching the textbook and overlooking the importance of aligning the curriculum to instruction and assessment. Practical implications -The need is critical for writing national standards for the Arabic language in addition to establishing teacher colleges that offer quality pedagogical training all backed by sound research and generous funding Originality/value -To highlight the importance of teaching and seeing the Arabic language in a totally new light that preserves national identity yet embraces best teaching practices.
Status of Arabic Language Teaching Today
The status of Arabic language teaching today Hanada Taha‐Thomure Education, Business and Society: Contemporary Middle Eastern Issues 2008 1:3, 186-192 , 2008
Purpose -The purpose of this paper is to map out the status of Arabic language teaching as practiced in the Arab World today and to bring into focus the main issues that any improvement to that discipline would need to look at. Design/methodology/approach -A review of the current teaching practices and needs in the teaching of the Arabic language. Findings -Arabic language teaching practices remain teacher centered and bound to teaching the textbook and overlooking the importance of aligning the curriculum to instruction and assessment. Practical implications -The need is critical for writing national standards for the Arabic language in addition to establishing teacher colleges that offer quality pedagogical training all backed by sound research and generous funding Originality/value -To highlight the importance of teaching and seeing the Arabic language in a totally new light that preserves national identity yet embraces best teaching practices.
The Leeds Language Scholar 2020: Issue 6 Special issue on Arabic language teaching
Leeds Language Scholar Journal, 2020
Editorial This special issue of the Language Scholar is dedicated to Arabic language learning and teaching in Higher Education. The idea of this issue stemmed out of a growing interest in researching Arabic language pedagogy and an increasing number of scholarship projects that investigate Arabic learning and teaching from different perspectives. Such work was witnessed in two international conferences that took place in March 2017 at the University of Leeds, then in April 2019 in Kings College, University of London. The conferences aimed to bring together researchers, scholars and teachers who share the interests and expertise in Arabic language pedagogy and who indeed presented an impressive range of contemporary topics that are being researched in order to advance the field of Teaching Arabic as a Second Language (TASL). In 2019 conference, the call for papers for this issue was announced and it has been a delight for us to receive a number of very interesting topics from colleagues in the UK and abroad who all strive to tackle issues faced by Arabic teachers and learners and suggest ways to overcome challenges, to develop and to promote the learning of Arabic in Higher Education. This issue has six papers starting with Al-Hamad and Mohamed’s paper which builds on current research on error analysis with a focus on Arabic phonology and orthography. The paper presents interesting examples of phonological and orthographical errors made by 60 participants who are all English speakers studying Arabic in the UK and it showed an inclination to revert to the closest sounds to those in English language. The paper gives good insights to Arabic teachers when planning their teaching activities to support their students getting used to new phonological and orthographical systems. The second paper by Al Tubuly looks at the extent and range of cultural knowledge found in four common Arabic textbooks and shows that although these books dedicate some sections to present Arabic culture, they lack the focus on the deep culture that is needed for proper understanding of the Arabic speaking communities, their beliefs and lifestyles. The paper helps teachers to consider the missing elements of culture that they may need to supplement into their curriculums. The third paper by Durkawi and Mouazen is a timely topic that looks at the application of the Integrated Approach (IA) in teaching and gives a practical guide to Arabic teachers who plan to use the IA in their programmes. The authors in this paper share examples of good practice and the challenges that they faced in applying the IA at different proficiency levels as well as a number of positive outcomes that they observed. Our fourth paper by El Essawi also provides analysis of Arabic textbooks on how much they focus on communication strategies. This is a topic that received very little attention in the field of TASL as communication strategies are limitedly found and even non-existent in some textbooks as revealed in this paper. El Essawi’s paper concludes with pedagogical suggestions on how to incorporate communication strategies in classroom activities and teaching materials for the objectives of orientation, exposure and practice. The fifth paper here by Golfetto shifts the readers’ attention to the students as it investigates the learning experience of Arabic heritage learners. The study, which focused on heritage learners in Italian universities, presents an argument that supports the merging of heritage and non-heritage learning classes. It lists the benefits of merging them including the creation of a more homogenous and authentic learning environment that supports linguistic variation in the class and bridges learning gaps. Finally, the issue concludes with the sixth paper by Khalil providing a comparative linguistic description of Modern Standard Arabic and the Cairene dialect at phonological, lexical and grammatical levels with many examples from the two Arabic varieties. The paper is a useful reference to learners and teachers who incorporate linguistic variation in their programmes. It also provides a framework that can easily be followed by other researchers and scholars who wish to analyse other Arabic varieties. We are grateful to all our authors who shared here their scholarship and research work and made it available to a wide range of readers. We are also deeply thankful to our reviewers, in alphabetical order, Yolanda Cerda, James Dickins, Hanem El-Farahaty, Giorgia Ferrari, Kassem Wahba and Shahira Yacout, who dedicated their time, efforts and knowledge to review these papers and provide invaluable advice. Huge thanks go to the Language Scholar managers Irene Addison-Child and Milada Walkova who put a lot of efforts on checking papers, communication with authors and reviewers and putting all of this work together. We hope that this special issue will provide a good reference for many Arabic teachers and researchers who strive to advance the field of Arabic language pedagogy. Rasha Soliman (on behalf of the Language Scholar editorial team)
Education of Arabic Language Warrants Systematic Observation
Education of Arabic language in Eastern Africa warrants systematic observation so that goals of acquiring Arabic language in Eastern Africa can be consistently achievable. All round activities of Arabic language eclipsed only at the beginning of modern times as a result of giving no educational priority to Arabic language-arts. Such a non-productive psychological situation was exploited by various alternatives of intellectual programs that intervened in the progress of Arabic language-arts. Since some of these alternative programs were not basically founded for the cause of enhancing Arabic language-arts, the maintenance and preservation of Arabic language-arts were not their basic goals. Hence, it is important for Muslims today allover the world to learn from the world successful educational and research experiences in order to reactivate Arabic language status. The proper application of Arabic language-arts should be one of our leading short term aims. The goal is to revive all Arabic language activities. It is suggested to properly understand factors influencing the acquisition of Arabic language in our respective geographical regions. Then the application of valid and reliable research tools, methods and procedures will be feasible with systematically selected educational variables of Arabic language. This will provide a clear direction of research and smooth running of well directed Arabic language developments.
The Arabic Language: Challenges in the Modern World
International Journal for Cross-Disciplinary Subjects in Education, 2010
In the past few decades in the Arab World, Arabic became sidelined and deemed as 'non-useful,' and in the West it became a language associated with terrorism. But after decades of taking a back seat to dominant languages such as English, research shows that the Arabic language today is seemingly on the rebound.
Education and Linguistics Research, 2020
The aim of this study was to investigate and analyse teachers’ and students’ views towards using Arabic in teaching English in secondary schools in Oneizah Province, Saudi Arabia. The data were collected by means of two questionnaires: one for teachers and the other for students. The subjects were 43 teachers of English, 12 were female. 120 male students from four different secondary schools in Oneizah. The results of the study showed that Arabic language (The students’ mother tongue) could be used during English language lessons although teachers’ responses gave less support for using Arabic. Also, the results revealed that Arabic has positive roles to play in teaching English besides facilitating learning process. The recommendations emphasize and encourage teachers and supervisors to pay attention to their learners need in using their mother tongue. Moreover, Arabic language can be a means of facilitation not a hindrance so it can be used in many activities inside the classroom w...
Towards Enhancing the Status Quo of Arabic as a Foreign Language
ABSTRACT Arabic as Foreign Language (AFL) teachers and the parents of AFL students often complain that AFL students are not able to speak Arabic at an acceptable level even after years of studying the language in a formal educational setting. To search for possible reasons, an empirical study was conducted at an international school in Dubai to help highlight the status quo of the AFL curriculum and to suggest a constructive recommendation on how to improve AFL proficiency level.
Teaching English to Arabic-Speaking Students: Cultural and Linguistic Considerations
1993
Cultural and linguistic information useful to teachers of native Arabic-speakers in English as a Second Language (ESL) and bilingual education is offered. This includes background information on geographic, political, religious, and ethnic divisions, stereotypes commonly held by Arabs about Americans and American society, common stereotypes about Arabs, some Arab contributions to world culture, the role of Arabic and other languages in the Arab culture, and salient differences between Arabic and English, both linguistic and sociolinguistic. A brief bibl5ography is provided, and charts of the Arabic alphabet, according to position within words, are appended. (MSE)
Over the past decade the government of the United Arab Emirates has led several initiatives to revive and strengthen the Arabic language at the educational, cultural, and regulatory levels. These initiatives were influenced by popular narratives about the challenges to Arabic learners in the usage of their mother-tongue, the diluted presence of the Arabic language in public space, and the relative lack of macro-level language policies in the UAE and the Gulf region more broadly. The government initiatives have sought to bring about a revival of Arabic language discourse in the public, educational and policy spheres. Using a post-structuralist approach to the analysis of policy discourse, this study investigated the perceptions and problematizations of the recent Arabic language initiatives (ALI) of the UAE with a view to identifying the implications for the curriculum and pedagogy of the Arabic language. Data were gathered by means of 29 semi-structured interviews, following the ‘What’s the problem represented to be’ framework (WPR) proposed by Bacchi and Goodwin (2016b). A discourse-historical analysis (DHA) approach was then used in order to interrogate the underpinning concepts of the Arabic language policy which impact on teaching and learning. The findings suggest that the Arabic Language Initiatives of the UAE are political drivers that contributed to raising the profile of the Arabic language, yet they were not perceived to have filtered through the system sufficiently to affect learners’ pedagogical experiences in the language. The data reflects a perceived policy practice gap reflected in the absence of an Arabic language education policy and an ambiguous regulatory landscape. The implications of this research bring to the fore new pathways for the development of Arabic language policy, pedagogical practices and curriculum planning in the UAE. In addition, the study suggests implications for the agenda of Arabic teacher preparation and the Arabic language content in public and virtual space.