Learning and teaching modern arabic for english speakers
Released on = January 30, 2007, 3:44 am
Press Release Author = dakir/DILAP
Industry = Education
Press Release Summary = Our conception of the Arabic language and culture is strictly secular and merely didactic.
Press Release Body = Teaching Arabic in Europe and America
In Europe, and in France in particular, research in the teaching of language has enabled teachers of Arabic to adapt and benefit from the most advanced teaching techniques. Although it is not easy to define linguistically what constitutes modern Arabic today, there are uses of contemporary Arabic one must take into account in an Arabic course: writing is no longer restricted to books, it has long been fully integrated into daily life, especially in administrative use, but also by all the forms of modern media, including newspapers, the Internet, advertisements, street signs, storefronts and other public sources of information.
Written Arabic is becoming more and more a language of communication and of business (meetings, debates, and audio-visual presentations thanks satellite networks). Thus, mastery of spoken Arabic is a major component of proficiency today (even if it remains incomplete without sufficient knowledge of the register of the dialect.)
To teach Arabic as a living foreign language necessitates giving special attention to spoken Arabic and its special phonetic characteristics. Trying to learn Arabic without sustained speaking practice is impossible. Similar attention must be given to writing to assure mastery of a new alphabet and the development of the skills necessary for switching between reading and writing. Practicing reading and writing without constant reversion to short vowels, which are used less and less in contemporary Arabic, is essential.
The reasons why we feel attracted to a foreign language are always quite personal; they depend on our own story and on our own background. Learning a language may at first sight look complex, demanding and time consuming.
That is why Dilap has come up with the idea of having several points of entry to the language, called gates. Each of these gates will embody one main motivation. The gates make it possible to learn the language in different ways, none of them necessarily being a full approach to it but still remaining both fast and concrete ways to apprehend it. In that way the Great Gate to the Arabic language for a beginner would be our comprehensive teaching method called "Al-Manhaj" which will teach the learner the basics in grammar, spelling, phonetics, writing and vocabulary. Yet for those attracted to the mysteries of Arabic writing...
Web Site = http://www.dilap.eu
Contact Details = Didactiques Langues Publications BP 25 91801 Brunoy Cedex France