How Language experts want Arabic to be taught to young students

Arabic language experts have welcomed a new policy to introduce the language in early childhood education but have called for more creative teaching methods. They also added that the effects of the programme should be keenly monitored and the entire Arabic curriculum should be changed to meet it.

Dr. Juwaeriah Siddiqui, who has done her doctoral thesis on the motivation of non-Arab learners to learn the language in the UAE, said it is a great step towards instilling positive motivation towards Arabic learning. “It will be important to study how these early learners between the ages of four and 6 years are met with higher level learning in the higher grades,” she said. “That means, if their basics are already set in place before 6 years of age, the learning curriculum should reflect that base knowledge and speak to higher order thinking in grade 1 and grade 2. Else, it will just be a repetition of learning the alphabet.”

She added she would be keen to see how the transition learning is supported without negatively impacting the Arabic learner’s overall language motivation.

A Canadian of Indian origin, Juwaeriah’s passion for the language grew in her adulthood. “I grew up in Saudi where Arabic is spoken very widely but I didn’t learn the language when I was a child,” she said. “It was only as an adult, after I moved to the UAE that I became motivated to learn the language.”

Last month, Dubai’s Knowledge and Human Development Authority (KHDA) introduced the policy that mandates Arabic language education for children from birth to six years at all private schools and early childhood centres in Dubai. This initiative is aimed to strengthen the use of Arabic language in schools and community.

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Arabic trainer and faculty at Skyline University Sharjah, Naseem Hamza called the initiative “the best idea ever” and said it could have a significant impact on youngsters. “There is no better way to teach Arabic in my opinion,” he said. “The earlier we start language education, the more results we get.

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Exploring new methods

Duaa Abdelhaleem Adly, a teacher at UAE-based Arabic language centre Natarabia, said that while the move was commendable, the curriculum needed to be reworked from its current format. “The curriculum is well designed but are often above the students’ level,” she said. “Too many activities sometimes keep students busy without real learning. Teaching it as a separate subject only and not as a native language, it limits the role of Arabic. When it’s not used in other subjects, students see it as useless. So the language needs to be integrated with the rest of the coursework.”

Naseem agreed that turning the medium of language into Arabic rather than teaching it just as a subject would greatly benefit students.

For the last eight years, Dr. Juwaeriah has been running an Arabic language play-based initiative for children between the ages of four and 12 years called Arabically. “My intention was to make Arabic functional and introduce it to children as a part of the everyday through authentic storybooks,” she said. “Over the years, I have found that the play-based method has been extremely beneficial in helping inculcate a love for the language in children.”

Naseem added that it was important for well-qualified teachers to be at the forefront of this new initiative. “Educators who know how to use modern technology and play-based learning should be employed so that they can make Arabic learning more fun,” he said.