Ahlan, Arabic lovers! In my previous blog, I gave you a brief idea about the Arabic for Life العربية لغة حياة report that was issued by the Committee for the Modernization of the Arabic Language Teaching. I also presented the member of the committee that was formed under the patronage of Sheikh Mohammad Bin Rashid Al-Maktoum; vice president and Prime Minister of the United Arab Emirates. In today’s post, I am going to continue in part two and try to summarize the contents of the report as it was issued only in Arabic, (Download the full report in Arabic pdf format). All over the report, you will encounter some short articles written by some members of the committee. These articles discuss specific points and have a different font color and background.

    The report comes in 142 pdf pages. The front cover was designed by the artist Omar Armees عــمــر ارمــيــص . The report also has a link to its website underneath the third page. In the next pages, it has a brief statement that sheds some light on why the report was called for and then comes a list of all the members of the committee. Dr Farouk El-Baz was the chairman of the committee and writer of its preface. Page 8 is the contents page of the report and has the following topics:

• Page 10 – Introduction
• Page 18 – The Syllabus
• Page 52 – The Teacher
• Page 70 – The Culture of Reading
• Page 82 – The Role of Media in Supporting the Arabic Language Teaching and Learning
• Page 92 – Teaching Arabic to non Arabic speakers
• Page 106 – Appendix

1- The Introduction

     Arabic has a historical chance as it has become the focus of interest to many people who think that Arabic has the ability to develop and grow internationally. Hence, the committee advises to take the chance to present a modern vision that copes with the nature of the language and the surrounding atmosphere through benefiting from all that modern life offers, e.g. technology. The report adopts the slogan and title of “Arabic for Life”. The report also sheds some light on the major challenges that face the teaching and learning of Arabic and tries to find solutions that stem from the recommendations and results of the latest research studies.

2- The Syllabus

     The report states the importance of the school syllabus but also states the problems and disadvantages of having only one course book or a set of books. The Arabic language syllabus, like any other language syllabus, deals with the four language skills; speaking, listening, reading and writing. These skills are taught through prose and poetic texts that belong to different ages. Here, the report discusses the order of teaching classical texts of Arabic to early stage learners a thing which separates them from the modern life and language and builds barriers because of the difficulty level of these classical texts. The report issues a reverse-the-pyramid call. That is to start from the easier and then to the more difficult in higher levels when building the syllabus.

    The report also refers to the problems that most learners face when studying Arabic grammar as an important part of any syllabus. There is a common belief that the complaint that the Arabic language is boring is related to the difficulty of the grammar. The report suggests simple solutions to this problem through focusing on the goal of grammar which is meaning instead of the form and word endings.

* Next time – En Sha’a Allah – I will continue with Part 3 of the report. Stay tuned!

***** 

To Be Continued …  

Peace  ســَــلام /Salam/