Teaching Arabic to expat children must be creative

I spent the last week in conversation with several Arabic teachers and educational experts, trying to understand the gap in teaching and learning Arabic, what causes it and what we can do collectively to bridge it.

One thing we all unanimously agreed upon was that Arabic was not taken seriously enough. While children learn elements of Arabic in school, its practical application is limited. “My main challenge is that children are not as interested in Arabic as in other subjects. They don’t take it seriously,” says Amenodin D. Khalid from The Philippines School. Like him, every teacher I spoke to was in agreement. While teaching a language not native to students is challenging enough, teachers of Arabic are also faced with fighting the disinterest in learning the language.

Students need to find usefulness in what they are learning. If what they have learnt remains merely in a textbook for the purpose of passing an exam, learning cannot progress. “Communicating in Arabic is vital to learning the language. Writing and reading is one part but the most important thing is to encourage children to speak the language, says a teacher from Ajman Indian School. “ Everything else will follow.” Says a teacher from the Ajman Indian School. The Head of Department in Dubai Modern High School. Abdul Ghafoor Chhachhar, head of department, Dubai Modern High School, agrees. “We try to focus on activity based learning. I always try to make Arabic relatable by linking it to a social context. I also try to give my students a chance to express more freely what they have learnt through the language.”

Joanne Seymour, a British national who speaks Arabic fluently and currently works in the education sector and is inspirational in her research on how to make Arabic fun in the classroom, says, “We need to change the linguistic landscape by extending the experience of Arabic outside the classroom. What expatriate parents and learners currently miss altogether is the opportunity to learn a foreign language. It is unfortunate that the current perception is to ignore this opportunity and perhaps even treat it as ‘unnecessary’

Some schools do think out of the box but what is required is sustained effort. I know when my daughter started learning Arabic, she was introduced to the language through Arabic cartoons and songs and this was wonderful. She loved it. Her interest in Arabic made me interested and we learnt together. However, as she progressed to Grade 1 and 2, learning became more serious and with that, the challenge to sustain that much-treasured initial interest became so much harder. Innovative methods need to be followed up on and seen all the way through.

One of the most successful ways is to make learning a language fun, and keep interest in it alive, is to relate it to everyday activities. An some of the teachers I spoke to did just that. “I set up a food festival where children were invited to bring different types of food and they each had to speak a few words about it,” says Yasmeen Hamdan, former Head of Arabic at the Pakistan Education Academy. “I also set up a facebook page where my students could find interesting phrases and words and we could communicate in Arabic. This helped open up the curriculum and gave them a chance to apply what they learnt in class. It also motivated them to look outside the classroom for help urging them to make the effort.

“I believe the more the exposure to Arabic, the more familiar students will become with it. And the more familiar they are with it, the more likely they are to communicate through it.”

Hajar Essam M. Ali, teacher at the German International School, Dubai, says, “I organised the school assembly in Arabic and gave children the opportunity to talk, present, recite poems and even sing in Arabic. It is was such a great success that I can’t wait to have our next one. “I am constantly reinventing and modifying the curriculum to meet students’ needs and interests,” he says. “I also use different tools, materials and language games and encourage project work so that can have a hands-on approach to learning,” he says.

Some schools have gone so far as to introduce incentivised schemes that encourage more usage of the language. I was struck particularly by the ‘speak more pay less’ canteen offer. It’s simple, but so much fun. Students who placed an order in Arabic were given a discount. How cool!

Yet, while many are doing much, more needs to be done. Schools, for one, need to be extremely careful about choosing the right teachers. While a good teacher can really nurture the love for learning in a child, one who isn’t qualified and trained can take away all interest almost immediately. “Knowing Arabic doesn’t mean that you can teach it,” says Yasmeen Hamdan. “Teaching requires a different skill set altogether. And teaching Arabic to non-native speakers needs special training.”

It is unarguable that the right teacher for a subject can make the difference between real learning and rote learning but these teachers also need support in terms of resources. “We are constantly trying to adopt innovative methods in the classroom but it’s not easy to find resources that really work and often we are limited to creating them ourselves,” says Hajar Essam. “I think fun and games in the classroom that bring about learning will really get students’ attention and will help sustain their interest as well.”

While the right answers are not to be immediately found, the good is that we know we have reached a stage where we have started asking the questions. Awareness is slowly paving the way for innovation, and educational authorities, schools and teachers are now focusing on how to make learning a means rather than an end. Change is around the corner. All we have to do is claim greet it with an open mind.

(Maria Menezes is a creative writer based in Dubai. Having spent over 15 years in advertising, she now focuses on creating educational resources for

children. She also conducts workshops for children, parents and teachers that focus on using creative methods to stimulate learning and helping kids find the best in them. She has created an app, a first learning resource that focuses on making Arabic fun and exciting for kids, parents and

teachers called ‘Something Fishy About Arabic’.

■■The app is available on the itunes store and can be used on the iphone/ipad and ipod touch.You can connect with her on www.facebook.com/somethingfishyaboutarabic and www.somethingfishyaboutarabic.com)