Schools urged to teach more Arabic earlier, as pupils lag
Schools should set aside more time for Arabic language classes and return to basic grammar tests to support struggling pupils, an education summit has heard.
Researchers said pupils were finishing school with poor Arabic speaking and writing skills, leading to a generation of young Arabs not fluent in their mother tongue.
“Research shows that Arabic students are not performing as well,” said Prof Helen Abadzi, an education specialist at the World Bank for 27 years.
“For many, their reading of Arabic is a little slower than reading English.”
Experts and teachers at the Gulf Comparative Education Society symposium yesterday spoke of the crucial need to teach children Arabic from Grade 1.
“Time must be spent in class to regularly practice reading and language comprehension skills so these become automatic,” said Prof Abadzi, who is also at the University of Texas at Arlington.
“They should systematically learn Arabic grammatical patterns to understand texts instantly.”
The government announced last year that Arabic-language education would be given greater importance in private schools, with better teacher training and a revised curriculum.
This was done to ensure the language survives, especially as more Emiratis attend private schools.
Prof Abadzi said that one reason Arab nations score lower in international test assessment scores is because of the visual complexities of Arabic script and a limited command of grammar.
The Sheikh Saud bin Saqr Al Qasimi Foundation for Policy Research, which organised the forum, has developed a textbook to increase reading speed with large, spaced letters, individual symbols and combinations.
“Arabic letters may take a few seconds longer to recognise compared to scripts such as English,” Prof Abadzi said.
“Finding a pattern becomes more complicated in Arabic and this slows the reading speed for young learners.
“Inaccurate reading overloads their memory and negatively affects responses.
“There is a need to constantly practise. When the reading speed and accuracy are higher in the early grades, critical thinking becomes possible because students have time to link various concepts.
“The bigger the gaps in reading, the more gaps there will be in understanding and comprehension in later years. Quick visual and linguistic processing speed is required to comprehend large volumes of text.”
Pupils in Gulf countries are able to read single sentences by the end of Grade 1, while those internationally read full-page stories, a 2016 study by the UN children’s fund found.
This gap continues to widen with students in the Gulf reading texts of 200 to 300 words by Grade 4 compared to those abroad who can handle 800 to 1,000 words.
Rigorous, daily reading in Grades 1 and 2, teaching one letter at a time, extra practice for difficult letter combinations, and increasing the size and space of letters and texts are necessary, Prof Abadzi said.
As part of a pilot programme in a public school in RAK, two sections of Grade 1 pupils received two extra classes of reading a week over three months.
The pupils with lower performance doubled the number of letters they could read from 12 to 23 a minute and the number of words rose from 6.4 to 11.
“The students we worked with who knew the least made the biggest improvements,” Prof Abadzi said. “Students need to process information without any effort. The challenge is for Arab students to also read 1,000-word passages at the start of Grade 4.”
Pupils in Dubai private schools, between Grades 1 and 9, are already taught Arabic about four times a week for 45 minutes lesson. But the quality of teaching and practising outside of the classroom is also crucial.
Khalaf Al Abri, assistant professor of education policy at Oman’s Sultan Qaboos University, stressed the need for integration.
“Our students show intelligence when they study abroad,” Mr Al Abri said. “Then they perform well like other students but when they are here the whole context changes. Why?
“We need to bring improvements to the system. We need co-operation and partnership to overcome the issue. When there is work done in schools, there is no support from families and parents,” he said.
“Sometimes we publish research results but there is no support from policymakers to take the findings forward. So everyone needs to be focused – not just the education sector and schools but the government, society, families and individual students.”
Kaltham Kenaid, head of research at Dubai’s Knowledge and Human Development Authority, said it was important to regularly put Arabic language and Islamic Studies teachers through tests and interviews.
“We try to use positive psychology and don’t focus on the weakness but on their strengths. The focus must be on what will take us into the future,” Ms Kenaid said.
The authority has launched schemes over the past two years where teachers are given the task of setting targets, not schools, principals or regulators.
“There is a shift in teachers from being powerless to being in control,” said Amal Mousa, its senior data analyst.
“This is not theoretical. Teachers are learning because they are identifying what a class requires. It can be simple identifying letters, pronouncing words or a focus on creative writing.
“The teacher measures and reviews the progress of the class and shares this with other teachers. They become the engine. They are not passive but are energising the class with tools they have created.”
The bigger the gaps in reading, the more gaps there will be in understanding and comprehension later PROF HELEN ABADZI Education specialist