World Literacy Day: UAE finds ways to improve children’s Arabic reading

Moza Al Ali loves to read in Arabic but her appetite for the language is unusual for someone her age.

At seven years old she began to collect the popular children’s magazine Atfal 999.

Now 13, she has turned to Manga, a Japanese-style comic that is written in English, after failing to find any interesting material in her native tongue.

“I think most of Arab books are all the love stuff,” said Moza, a Year 7 pupil at Emirati National School. “I don’t like love stuff. I want to read exciting Arabic stuff that makes me want to see what’s next.”

Moza’s interest in Arabic is unusual. Emiratis of her generation are struggling with literacy in their native language.

This Saturday is World Literacy Day. In one way, literacy in the UAE is a success story. Only 27 per cent of men and nine per cent for women could read in 1970, a year before the country’s formation.

Today, the country enjoys a literacy rate exceeding 90 per cent but is a victim of its own success. Emirati children are growing up fluent in English but struggling with fluency in Arabic reading.

“We look at the reading scores and we’re not doing very well,” says Dr Hanada Thomure, endowed professor for Arabic language at Zayed University.

“I know the UAE is the best in the Arab world but that’s still below the international average. We’re not really getting it with literacy.”

The UAE ranked 40 out of 50 countries in the 2016 Progress International Reading Literacy Study with a score of 450.

More than 16,471 pupils aged nine and 10 from public and private schools took the test, which occurs once every five years.

The UAE was the top participating Arab country but it has a long way to go to reach its 2021 target of ranking in the top 20 countries in the Programme for International Student Assessment, and the top 15 nations in Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study by 2021.

Arabic’s formal form, fusha, is universal across the Arab world and widely understood. But pupils struggle to gain literacy in a language to which they generally have little exposure outside the classroom.

More immersion in fusha and better teacher training are needed, Dr Thomure said.

“There is no such thing as a difficult or easy language,” she said. “Languages need immersion. They need the right techniques and styles to be taught.”

Dr Thomure is a government consultant and has reviewed the national Arabic curriculums in Jordan and Morocco, and worked with the Ministry of Education since last year to develop a national literacy strategy.

Her work resulted in a sixmonth pilot project at five elementary schools in Dubai with Year 1 to 3 teachers, which saw a marked improvement in children’s reading fluency.

“There is no magic in the formula,” Dr Thomure said. “You train them well, you change perceptions and they will do a better job.”

In Ras Al Khaimah, a pilot at two boys’ schools in which pupils were given large and spaced letters and two extra classes a week, found that Year 1 pupils almost doubled their reading speed from 12 to 23 words a minute.

The project by the Sheikh Saqr bin Saud Al Qasimi Foundation for Policy Research will be extended to several public schools throughout this academic year.

Saudi Arabia also recently began working on a national literacy strategy as part of its 2030 Vision.

Morocco has completely reformed its Arabic curriculum in the last three years, introducing an emphasis on phonetics and learning through storytelling and rhymes.

Dr Thomure was part of the pilot programme at 90 schools that has been launched across Morocco.

Moza’s sentiments echoed those shared by linguists and educational experts.

“I don’t like Arabic because it’s boring,” she said. “I would make Arabic classes more fun. We can read in a way that’s fun.”

The UAE is the best in the Arab world but that’s still below the international average DR HANADA THOMURE Professor of Arabic at Zayed University