Learning Arabic is Mission Impossible for Foreign Students in Kuwait
Posted on: Friday, 16 May 2008, 15:00 CDT
By Juney Thomas, Kuwait Times
May 16--Their textbooks are brand-new, with glossy pages and colorful pictures. Another school year has started, and students earnestly recite their Arabic lessons as their teacher looks on. For most of these kids, the learning of Arabic will end when the class bell sounds. As they open books for the next class, most will forget much of what they just learned and, despite years of Arabic, they won't remember more than a handful of words after they graduate.
Arabic is a compulsory course for most foreign schools in Kuwait. Expatriate students studying in Kuwait can spend up to ten years learning Arabic. However, poor teaching methods, outdated and inappropriate textbooks, lack of exercises in listening to and speaking the dialect and little usage of the language in the real world hinder fluency.
A failure to learn
For non-Kuwaiti students, the ordeal begins as early as second grade. Seven year olds are taught alif, baa, taa -- both written and sounds. But as they progress, many students will neglect Arabic homework and classes for what they deem more important subjects like history, math and science. Few students make the leap from knowing the alphabet to building vocabulary to structuring sentences and acquiring conversational skills.
Consequently, students end up with only the most basic understanding of Arabic, can barely read, have a limited vocabulary and almost no ability to speak , listen or comprehend the language. Many foreign students in Kuwait point to poor textbooks as the main hurdle to Arabic understanding.
These textbooks are written with native Arabic speaking students in mind," says Nitya, a high school senior at the Indian Community School. "It does not focus on word and sentence formation which is a crucial step between learning the alphabets and reading.
Teacher limitations also translate into a failure to learn. Arabic is typically taught by Arab teachers, many of whom have a limited understanding of English. But in foreign schools, English is the primary language of instruction and few students can communicate with an Arabic-only speaking teacher.
Arabic classes were better when we had a teacher who could speak English well," said Melanie, an ex-student of the Senior Girls branch of the Indian Community School. Melanie had an Indian teacher until the fourth grade when an Arab instructor who could barely speak English took over. Kids in the class would repeat what the Arab teacher said but had little understanding of her basic instructions. Students also mentioned that Arab teachers who became frustrated because of the inability to communicate with students were especially prone to violent classroom behavior, which made students even more weary of having to take Arabic lessons.
Teach me, please!
As for teaching methods, students complain that they spend class time in simple recitation. They learn to recite, not to understand. Many students can recite entire lessons without missing a word, but can't answer simple conversational questions.
Non-Arab students also do not see any importance to the study of Arabic, as they don't need to use the language outside of the classroom. Exams are often a group effort, with answers passed around the exam hall.
Muslim students tend to do better and learn more, mostly because they are exposed to Arabic through religious training and at home. In schools where there the student population is a mix of Arabic and other language speaking students, the situation is slightly better. Non-Arab kids are more likely to pick up Arabic dialects as they interact more frequently with Arab friends and classmates.
We have two kinds of Arabic books, one for the foreigners and the other for native Arabic speakers. The classes for the former user simplified textbooks with translations," says Thomas, a student of the Kuwait National English School.
Failure to apply
Teachers argue that non-Arab kids don't pick up Arabic because they do not interact in the language outside of the one hour in class each day. They say students need to be encouraged to interact more with the Arabic media since it will give them practice and help build vocabulary. Teachers also point out that non-Arab students don't get the added advantage of learning the language at home from parents and siblings and thus their learning is more limited.
But when asked, students across the spectrum of foreign schools say that Arabic is relegated to the lowest priority by both teachers and students. "They don't teach us properly in class," says a student at the Jabriya Indian School. "Exams are a joke where your grade depends on how much your neighbor knows, and to top it all, no one cares!
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Source: Kuwait Times
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