Quality British Education in Saudi Arabia

Arabic

An Introduction to the Arab world

Every day, network television and newspapers talk about Arabs, their culture, religion and politics. Students need to learn about the culture in which they live so that they can make sense of all this information - what better place to start than the classroom?

Teaching about the Arab world is a fantastic task.

Media represents Arabs with a pejorative image i.e. Sheikhs with a few women walking behind him, camel caravan in the desert, belly dancers and veiled women, terrorist acts, militant manifestation of Islamic fundamentalism. These phenomena evoke an image of a fanatic backward people.
Teaching Arabic in DBGS is divided into four sections:

1. Culture
2. Language for non native speakers
3. Arabic for Arabic native speakers
4. IGCSE program

Culture

The Arab world is not the same as the Middle East
The term Middle East” refers to an important region which also includes the non Arab countries of Turkey, Iran, Afghanistan and Pakistan. Nor is the Arab World the same as the Muslim World. Although, close to ninety percent of all Arabs are Muslims (followers of Islamic religion) many Arabs are Christians, and Jews.
Culture includes the ideas, customs, interaction, conflicts, arts, crafts and technologies of people who claim a common identity.

Language for non native speakers - themes

Greetings
Directions
Cities
Houses
Food
Shopping
Numbers
Clothes
Colours
Schools
Families
Songs
Dances

Arabic for Arabic native speakers

DBGS believes that the process of learning and enhancing students’ native language enables them to successfully communicate in Arabic and enrich their cultural identity.
According to that, the Foreign language courses offered by DBGS aim at enabling the student to communicate in the target language by providing training in

1. Listening
2. Reading
3. Writing

This program is delivered as an after school activity four times a week for a period of one hour.

Arabic GCSE - The EDEXCEL Programme

This course is designed specifically for students studying Arabic as a second language (Native and non native speakers). The examination is accepted as an additional qualification by the majority of Universities.

The three areas of assessment are:

1. Listening and responding: the student will be expected to demonstrate the ability to understand and convey information, and to communicate effectively and appropriately.

2. Reading and responding: the student will be expected to demonstrate the ability to convey information, and to communicate effectively and appropriately.

3. Writing: student will be expected to write about experiences, expressing what is felt and what is imagined, order and present facts, ideas and opinions.

As with any language, the teaching programme is geared to develop skills in the three areas of listening, reading and writing. A wide range of strategies will be used to develop these skills including audio presentations.