Rihab Mohamed
Author and publisher
BSc. MSc. Architecture
Teaching Arabic in UK schools course, SOAS, University of London
About Us
Welcome to “Fun Arabic learning” which was initially developed as an enjoyable hobby. A Tremendous effort went into developing, piloting and revising the materials. Our dream was to contribute to making Arabic learning easy and fun in the UK, where we are based and in other similar environments.
It started in 2000 when I was looking for suitable materials to teach my classes in Northamptonshire Arabic School. I was the founder and organizer of the school and felt responsible for delivering an efficient and enjoyable learning experience.
I started to design teaching materials and worksheets to complement the available text books, which gradually developed into a series - Fun Arabic Course. My skills from my architectural background, management experience and software design knowledge were great help in visualizing, planning and delivering quality teaching materials.
Ways to enhance the Arabic teaching practices were explored with many teachers with extensive experience in teaching Arabic in UK. Teacher Zainab Osman - Liverpool, took on the mission of editing, revising and piloting Fun Arabic Learning. Sincere thanks to everybody who took part in revising and piloting the books.
I used the books to teach my classes in many main stream schools and had the opportunity to develop and update them further.
Our Vision
Arabic is the official language of more than 22 different countries and many children in UK are taught Arabic in main stream schools, supplementary schools or other settings. As well as offering educational materials, we hope to see further improvement in the following areas:
Enhance Students’ perception of learning
Most children are passionate about learning Arabic, but all too often they come to view this as a difficult and a boring process, as a result valuable time and resources are not used to their utmost capacity. Some of the reasons are:
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Most of the teachers have been educated in different Arabic-speaking countries. This attracts a wide range of materials and teaching approaches within our Arabic classes. The teaching style and resources may conflict with the style used in UK schools.
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Different Arabic-speaking countries have different accents and local dialects, which results in different spoken dialects in classrooms.
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This reflects adversely on long-term planning and continuity in learning between classes and between schools. Children having to change teachers or schools encounter very different approaches and classroom environment which hinder their education.
Raise the standard of Arabic teaching practise
Teachers are often competent in Arabic and very keen in teaching; many of them have pursued further training and developed their own activities and enhancement to the courses they teach. However, many teachers found the Arabic teaching practise unsystematic and needs promotion of:
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Raising awareness of the need for enhanced classroom environments.
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Raising awareness of the need for unified and systematic approaches to teachings, planning for lessons and preparing a scheme of work.
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Encouraging Arabic schools & teachers to participate in languages conferences and exhibitions.
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Facilitation of teachers training to gain recognised qualifications.
Develop standard guide lines for
“Spoken Language in classrooms”
We recommend that Simple Modern standard Arabic should be spoken in all classrooms and not local dialects, as:
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Different spoken local dialects of teachers’ confuse students who are just starting to learn.
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Many words used in local dialects are not correct and cannot be used for writing.
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Simple Modern standard Arabic is written and spoken in all media from news to children’s cartoons and understood by everybody.
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When Simple Modern standard Arabic is spoken in classroom, it enhances learning and makes it easier for students when they change schools.
Develop standards for teaching and assessment
Develop standards for teaching and assessment at different levels sets clear objectives for learning. It facilitates assessing the student’s progress and levels achieved which is essential for students, parents and teachers.