Teaching Arabic at City St George’s, University of London gives me the opportunity to put into practice many of the ideas I explore in this blog: active learning, learner engagement, open educational resources and, above all, learning Arabic by using Arabic.
I teach complete beginners, so the first challenge is often the Arabic script itself. My aim is not simply to teach students about the alphabet, grammar or vocabulary, but to help them begin using Arabic from the earliest stages.
Students listen, recognise letters and sounds, build words, read short texts, practise with partners and use familiar language to communicate. The key question is not simply:
“What did we cover today?”
but:
“What can I do now that I could not do before?”
Another principle that shapes my teaching is:
The most important part of a language lesson is the practice of the language, not simply knowing about the language.
Instead of always explaining grammar first, I often ask students to notice examples, compare them, identify patterns and discuss what they think is happening. I call this:
Think first, then explain.
Textbooks provide useful structure, but I encourage students not to memorise every sentence. They should notice the pattern, understand how it works, and then make the Arabic their own by talking about their own family, work, interests or experiences.
Online teaching also gives us access to video, audio, interactive activities and Open Educational Resources. However, technology is only useful when students are actively doing something with it: predicting, noticing, discussing, deciding, remembering and producing Arabic.
My teaching therefore follows a simple progression:
Notice → Understand → Practise → Personalise → Communicate
Ultimately, my aim is to help students become increasingly confident users of Arabic, not simply learners who know facts about the language.
Learn it. Notice it. Practise it. Personalise it. Use it.
This version keeps the strongest ideas but is roughly half the length and should sit much more comfortably on your blog.
