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Poor Arabic language curriculum, teaching plague ed system

 
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nomad soul



Joined: 31 Jan 2010
Posts: 11454
Location: The real world

PostPosted: Sat Apr 07, 2012 9:48 pm    Post subject: Poor Arabic language curriculum, teaching plague ed system Reply with quote

Poor Arabic language curriculum, teaching plague education system
By Iman Sherif, Gulf News | April 8, 2012
(Source: http://gulfnews.com/news/gulf/uae/education/poor-arabic-language-curriculum-teaching-plague-education-system-1.1005361 )

DUBAI---Why do Arab students grow up and graduate with poor knowledge of their own mother tongue? A concern has emerged in the past years about the future of the Arabic language and challenges learners are currently facing in assimilating the language.

Dr Mohammad Hasab Al Nabi, head of the Education Department at Al Hosn University, addressed the issue in his lecture "Challenges in learning Arabic Language in the 21st Century," at Sultan Bin Zayed Cultural and Media Centre. He attributed some of these challenges to many factors including curriculum and approaches in teaching and textbooks that do not compete with their modern counterparts in teaching languages like English or French. "The Arabic curriculum lacks systematisation and progression. It does not match students' ability to learn, nor take into consideration the interests of each phase of age in choosing literature," Al Nabi explained.

Additionally, Al Nabi highlighted the teachers' poor teaching skills and lack of interest in developing specialised Arabic teachers. "Arabic teachers are still adopting approaches based on memorisation that puts off the students' motivation in learning the language. These unattractive methods reduce the students' abilities in learning new lexis and create a resentful attitude towards the language," he said.

"Memorising and reciting without having the chance to reword, explain and analyse in his own words thwarts the student from learning new vocabulary and from learning the mechanism of the language, and limits the correct usage of lexis," he explained. Sadly this method of teaching is not only used by a majority of Arabic teachers, but also Islamic studies teachers, a subject where students could have strengthened their knowledge in Arabic.

The student-teacher relationship, in such an approach, prevents the students from asking questions about difficult expressions or words, so they tend to learn them without understanding their meaning � just for exams and forget it after that. Limiting vocabulary usage to theoretical explanation without linking it to real-life situations is another factor that contributes to students quickly forgetting what they learn. Additionally, the students find this approach boring and quickly lose attention and concentration.

Al Nabi further explained that not taking the students' learning differences into consideration, alongside their cultural differences, hobbies, interests and the individual care and attention they need, create in students an attitude of indifference towards learning, laziness or even frustration.

Absence of usage of the classical Arabic language in teaching increases the gap between the spoken language and the classical one. "This gap tells the students, indirectly, that classical language is not active, not valid any more and has little or no value. School activities like public speech and drama are done in spoken Arabic. Even at the university level, Arabic is not given prestige or importance," he said.

Al Nabi indicated that learning foreign languages and teaching most of the subjects at schools and universities in these languages, in addition to using these languages at work, played a decisive role in the attitude towards Arabic. "Globalisation and the wide use of a foreign language like English or French, especially in the GCC countries where there is a large number of expatriates, weakens people's trust in their own language. Additionally, they start to adopt expressions while speaking in their own language," he said.

Al Nabi believes that it is time to take action to save the Arabic language. He believes that knowing the role of culture will let Arabs deal with the language and the international cultures in the right way that will allow them to take their place in the global theatre without losing their identity or language. In addition to remedying the previous points, he believes that media should play a role using classical Arabic in press and broadcasting.

(End of article)
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veiledsentiments



Joined: 20 Feb 2003
Posts: 17644
Location: USA

PostPosted: Sun Apr 08, 2012 1:33 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

I think that they are fighting a losing battle... student after student... in Egypt, Oman, the UAE, Kuwait... all told me the same thing. That as bad as their writing was in English, it was better than their writing in Arabic.

The key sentence was this one IMHO:

Quote:
he believes that media should play a role using classical Arabic in press and broadcasting.

As long as the press, broadcasting, TV shows, movies, etc are not all using Classical Arabic, students will continue to see no use for it. There is also pressure coming from the side that says that writing should be in the language that they use to speak every day... and there was lots of buzz when some Egyptian books/novels came out in Egyptian dialect.

Each side has its merits... and language carries on as it pleases. Laughing Just as we grumble about the expansion of "text speak."

VS
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scot47



Joined: 10 Jan 2003
Posts: 15343

PostPosted: Sun Apr 08, 2012 1:35 pm    Post subject: KSA Reply with quote

I had the strange experience of being told that my spoken Arabic was better than that of the locals ! W4ell at least I do have some understanding of Modern Standard Arabic ! Locals often speak a dialect which is very localised.
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kucinggarong



Joined: 15 Apr 2012
Posts: 7
Location: Australia

PostPosted: Mon Apr 16, 2012 2:39 pm    Post subject: re Arabic speaking teachers Reply with quote

Hi all,

Is speaking Arabic an advantage in landing ME ESL jobs -My experience is teaching to indonesian L1 speakers and I find my knowledge of their L1 is good for beginner and lower intermediate learners but is a distraction for more advanced learners. However recruiters generally value local language ability in the ESL teacher. Is this the case in the ME.(question mark) - the keyboard here is incomplete! in other words will my MSA studies help in working in the ME!
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veiledsentiments



Joined: 20 Feb 2003
Posts: 17644
Location: USA

PostPosted: Mon Apr 16, 2012 2:54 pm    Post subject: Re: re Arabic speaking teachers Reply with quote

kucinggarong wrote:
Hi all,

Is speaking Arabic an advantage in landing ME ESL jobs -My experience is teaching to indonesian L1 speakers and I find my knowledge of their L1 is good for beginner and lower intermediate learners but is a distraction for more advanced learners. However recruiters generally value local language ability in the ESL teacher. Is this the case in the ME.(question mark) - the keyboard here is incomplete! in other words will my MSA studies help in working in the ME!

Short answer... probably not.

Education and experience are the keys.

VS
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johnslat



Joined: 21 Jan 2003
Posts: 13859
Location: Santa Fe, New Mexico, USA

PostPosted: Mon Apr 16, 2012 3:03 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Dear veiledsentiments,

Well, it probably would make it easier for your employer to cuss you Very Happy.

Regards,
John
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nomad soul



Joined: 31 Jan 2010
Posts: 11454
Location: The real world

PostPosted: Tue Apr 17, 2012 5:06 pm    Post subject: Re: re Arabic speaking teachers Reply with quote

kucinggarong wrote:
Is speaking Arabic an advantage in landing ME ESL jobs? In other words, will my MSA studies help in working in the ME!

If anything, your Arabic language skills should provide you with a good understanding of the types of English language issues Arabic L1s face. On a practical level (assuming you also speak at least one major Arabic dialect), you're more likely to adjust quicker and feel more independent in an Arabic-speaking country compared to those arriving teachers with no knowledge of the language.
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pink_islands



Joined: 16 Feb 2012
Posts: 15
Location: The world

PostPosted: Fri May 11, 2012 9:14 am    Post subject: 3rabi Reply with quote

Traditional arabic is 10000000000000000000% different than s3odi 3rabi or egyptian 3rabi. In fact, I cannot even understand Egyptians- what they speak IS NOT arabic - Traditional arabic is what is spoken on the news and in the quran. Otherwise u have 5leeji 3rabi(Khaleeji arabic) which is like kuwaiti, uae, Saudi-- and then u have egyptian arabic, lebanese arabic....

5leeji 3rabi is the closest sounding to the proper arabic...but it's not the same. For example, saudis will say " ana mabsoota" for I am happy(female) in standard arabic it should be " ana sa3da"(for female)

The article you posted is not surprising. I learned S3odi 3rabi on my own. But for the proper traditional arabic I had to go to school for it- Most arabs cannot teach it. They do not even know their own grammatical rules.

I think speaking arabic does help for teaching....I can relate to many saudis more using examples in arabic for English - For example arabs use the word 6weel= long and tall. So they say the class is 6weel that man is 6weel. However, it should be the class was long - that man is tall....It's helpful to know 3rabi when you are teaching....
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