How to Teach Arabic at Homeschool

The Arabic language is one of the most beautiful languages on the planet. Yet, many people see it as one of the most challenging languages to learn for a variety of reasons, including the following:

• Arabic contains a total of 28 letters.
• It has difficult-to-pronounce sounds.
• Arabic grammar rules and verb conjugations are complicated.

1) What is the source of the problem?

Anyone who hears or reads about the misconceptions surrounding the Arabic language must pause and consider whether the fault is with the Arabic language itself or how it is taught.

In truth, like any other language, Arabic has four abilities that any learner must acquire when studying it: listening, speaking, reading, and writing.

Some educators begin teaching reading and writing skills in early childhood and limit children's exposure to spoken Arabic to a few words here and there, believing that exposure to Arabic at this age will delay their mastery of their mother tongue. 

This strategy is challenging and ineffective; children who are taught this manner frequently have excellent reading and writing abilities but need better listening and speaking skills.

Other educators who became aware of the problem with the preceding method chose to approach the problem from a different angle, introducing the four language skills at the same time through a cumulative curriculum that is intended to make the child master the Arabic language around the age of 18, or when they finish high school, as the curriculums we see on the market these days. The teachers at LiveXP use a different approach to teaching Arabic. Private Arabic lessons (https://livexp.com/skills/arabic) can supplement your independent home study.

This approach was a superior alternative to the previous one, but the results were still disappointing; relatively few pupils learned Arabic with this method for two reasons:

These curricula are not taught using a functional communicative approach in which children learn via immersion, allowing them to discover the beauty of the Arabic language and fall in love with it.

There needs to be more competent Arabic instructors who can interact with the students in Arabic, following the proper grammatical rules throughout the school day; most of them explain the lessons to the children in English or Arabic dialects.

2) What is the answer?

The most significant way to learn Arabic is through immersion, ina which the student is completely immersed in the Arabic language for many hours (at least 12 hours each week).

Learning via immersion may be accomplished in a variety of convenient methods, some of which are included below:

Immersion at home with native-speaking parents who solely speak Arabic to the youngster. This strategy is ideal for parents, even if one parent communicates with the child in Arabic and the other says another language. I know a lot of parents who have used this strategy with their children with great success.

Immersion at home for non-native parents, in which they practice Arabic with their kids via enjoyable and creative activities such as (play, arts and crafts, singing, short films, field excursions, etc....). Several educational Arabic materials are available to non-native parents to assist and guide them through teaching Arabic to their kids.

Children are introduced to the alphabet in fun and creative ways during an Arabic immersion program. When they reach the age of 5 or 6 (depending on the child's readiness for reading and writing), it is simple for the educator to teach them how to read and write the language they already love and connect with. 

Why should we begin with Arabic so early?

To use the children's innate aptitude for language acquisition, ingrained in them at a young age.

We should begin using the immersion approach in preschool, and the sooner, the better; some children are ready at 30 months, while others are not.

The science underlying this procedure is as follows:

After age six, a scientist called Lemberg (1967) observed that this intrinsic talent begins to fade, and brain programming shifts from learning languages to absorbing knowledge.

Dr. Dannan says that learning after the age of six involves more work from the learner since he needs a teacher to explain the language norms to him, and he will need to practice applying those rules for a more extended time. 

3) In conclusion

Arabic is one of the world's easiest languages. The majority of individuals found it challenging because of our method of teaching it.

The only method to conserve and strengthen the Arabic language is to begin in early infancy, with the assistance of skilled and trained instructors and a solid immersion program that includes a relevant context directly tied to the child's environment. It makes no difference if this program is carried out at home or a school; the essential thing is to be consistent, to have patience and endurance, and to offer it to the kid in a joyful and relevant environment.