Job Discussion Forums

[bulgogiboy]

Have any teachers in Saudi had any success learning Arabic via Rosetta Stone online/CD-Rom? I tried a Rosetta demo Arabic CD this morning and it seemed pretty good, but I'm not that convinced about the reading/writing part of it.

Is the Arabic alphabet very difficult to learn? The script looks indecipherable!

[spiral78]

I think the research on Rosetta Stone and similar products is that they can work OK for raw beginners, but lose effectiveness once a very basic foundation has been established.

Could still be useful for a while!

[veiledsentiments]

I am perhaps NOT the best to advise on learning Arabic as I spent little time in formal classes or self-study... beyond getting the basics for survival in a place like Egypt where you really need to know a bit. (Once in the Gulf, I rarely used it)

I found learning the script was too daunting when what I really wanted was to be able to shop and deal with taxis and such. I did teach myself the alphabet and sounds, but on my own. What I found was that after a couple of years, if I saw a word that I knew in Arabic like... chicken... I would recognize the Arabic written on the side of a delivery truck. I think that is rather how children learn their first language.

It all depends on your language goals...

VS

[Bebsi]

Well, Bulgogiboy, it all depends on what exactly you want to use Rosetta Stone for.

It is essentially designed to teach the very basics of a language at communicative level, to serve the purposes for which VS learned Arabic, i.e. going to the shop, getting a taxi etc. This means learning how to speak and listen, not read & write.

If you want to learn a language for academic purposes, however, RS will not come close to serving your purposes. It's not designed to. For that, you will need formal classes & appropriate course-books. This really applies to any language.

Basically, what would you use RS for with a bunch of Saudi students?

[dutchman]

As far as I know, Rosetta Stone teaches Modern Standard Arabic. If you are learning Arabic specifically for your Saudi students, it might be a better idea to buy "Colloquial Arabic of the Gulf" by Clive Holes:

http://www.routledge.com/books/details/9780415432283/

[veiledsentiments]

Why would you want to learn Arabic for your "students"? You are one of their only sources to use English, so it is crucial to you use only English with them. As far as studying Arabic to assist your teaching, you are better off looking at comparative analysis of the two languages and you don't need to know much Arabic for that to be useful. I actually used my fellow teachers who were Arabic speakers to learn about that until I could take the course that was available in my MA program at AUCairo.

VS

[dutchman]

According to the existing SLA literature, a judicious use of the L1 can be very powerful at times, even if students' exposure to the target language is restricted to the classroom learning only. I am not suggesting to heavily rely on it, but if you speak your students' first language, sometimes you can scaffold their learning more efficiently.

I believe there are far more advantages of using L1 judiciously than avoiding it at all costs. For example, it can allow you more time to focus on language practice if you give certain instructions & explanations in their own language. But I do respect your view, and acknowledge that there are many others who are of the same opinion as you.

[sheikh yer money-maker]

I fall on the side of comparative analysis and the use of L1 to lower affective barriers. I note that my Arabic learners are visually more relaxed/motivated when I begin an assessment with "Bis'millah".

The use of Arabic is NOT for pedagogy, but for commentary.

[veiledsentiments]

Of course. I used Arabic all the time in my classroom, but only for the humor or to respond to normal greetings. Besides after a couple years, insha'Allah, mash'Allah, and il'hamdulillah come naturally. And because I am able to speak Arabic with a strong Egyptian accent, the students found it hysterically funny. I can sound like the TV soap operas... especially the mother in the program nagging her children.

But one never had to have taken a course to use what I did in class.

VS