Making Arabic simpler for nursery classes
Arabic language, like English and French, is one of the teaching subjects in the curriculum of pre-basic, basic and post-basic levels of education in Nigeria. Although English language due to factors that relate to Nigeria’s colonial history is the country’s lingua franca, English and French languages are without doubts foreign to the culture of the […]
Arabic language, like English and French, is one of the teaching subjects in the curriculum of pre-basic, basic and post-basic levels of education in Nigeria. Although English language due to factors that relate to Nigeria’s colonial history is the country’s lingua franca, English and French languages are without doubts foreign to the culture of the Nigerian people. Arabic language on the other hand is part of the culture of Muslims in Nigeria and therefore cannot be considered alien. More importantly is the fact that Arabic is the mother tongue of the Shuwa Arabs, an ethnic community in Borno State of Nigeria, by which means Arabic becomes an indigenous language in the country. Yet, Arabic has not received the attention it deserves from government since its inclusion in the school curriculum especially at the foundation level of the country’s educational system.
One of the basic challenges which Arabic language as a teaching subject had to contend with in the past six to seven decades is the non-availability of instructional materials. Even where there are text books, their contents reveal that they were specifically prepared for use in middle and upper basic classes. Only few of such books are available for use in post-basic (senior secondary) classes; and none at all at the pre-basic level. Many of these books (except few) create some teaching and learning crises as they were originally prepared for use by learners whose mother tongue is Arabic and whose culture (including habitat and way of life) differ from that which obtains in a non-Arab country like Nigeria. Such books have little consideration for learners to whom Arabic is a second or third language.
Of course, the steps used in teaching Arabic to speakers of the language differ from those adopted when learners are non-speakers. Another dimension to existing challenges is that many of those who author books for teaching and learning Arabic as a language in schools are people who neither specialized in Arabic language at any level of their career nor studied relevant areas of education (including educational psychology, theories of learning, and language teaching approaches) which knowledge are vital in preparing instructional materials for teaching the subject.
Individual Arabic teacher, today, uses the book he/she finds convenient for the syllabus since no books (as far as I know) have yet been produced in accordance with existing curriculum. The Arabic language curriculum for basic education classes as developed and prepared by the Nigerian Educational Research and Development Council (NERDC) only came in to being in 2007. NERDC is the only government agency responsible for developing curriculum for basic and senior secondary classes in the country.
It is encouraging that specialists in Arabic language are beginning to pay attention to producing instructional materials for teaching the subject not only at the basic and post basic levels but also at the pre-basic level. The indigenous pioneer effort by Dr. Abdur-Rahman Ahmad Al-Imaam to produce text books for teaching and learning Arabic at Nursery and pre-Nursery classes is therefore commendable.
The Book:
The book in its series consists of three course books: (1) Modern Arabic for Pre-Nursery; (2) Modern Arabic for Nursery one, and (3) Modern Arabic for Nursery two. Each of the three books has been classified for a specific age of learners, marked on the book cover. While the pre-Nursery book is for Age-3, the books for Nursery one and two have been prepared for Age-4 and Age-5 respectively. The books have glossy covers beautifully designed in colours with Arabic alphabets, numbers, words and pictures. The books are clearly labeled with the class and age for which they have been prepared. Each of the three books which begin with a foreword in Arabic has an ISBN identification number, publisher’s address and year of publication. A combined English translation of the preface and “About the Book” is provided on the back cover of the three books.
The lessons in each of the books are adequately illustrated with pictures. The printing is very legible and all writings, like the pictures in them, are in variety of colours. The size of the alphabets, numbers and pictures are big and proportionate to the age of the targeted young learners as required of printed instructional materials at this level of education. About 90% of the illustrations on the books are photographs and not artistic impressions of the items which names are being taught. Exercises have been provided at the end of every lesson to drill the learner on specific language skills.
The author did well to follow a sequential order in the teaching of Arabic alphabets; providing the picture of an item which first letter of the word corresponds to the alphabet being taught in a particular lesson. For instance, the first lesson in the pre-Nursery book is on the first Arabic alphabet “alif” which is illustrated with the picture of “asad” (meaning “lion” in English). One unique feature of the books is that at no stage did the author employ the use of English transliteration to teach the pronunciation of any Arabic alphabet or word. The best and most functional method approach to teaching or learning a language, so far, is to teach or learn it through the use of the same language as medium of instruction.
Another exclusive feature of this particular series is the author’s recognition of each of the four skills (listening, reading, speaking and writing) taught in the acquisition of any given language. These skills have sequentially been arranged in the various lessons contained in the books. The author took time to state in behavioral terms the objectives which each of the book is expected to achieve. While the pre-nursery book consists of 50 pages, there are 77 and 60 pages respectively for Nursery one and two books. Nursery-two book which is for age-5 concludes with a 4-page children’s dictionary of Arabic vocabularies illustrated with pictures.
Conclusion:
While noting the fact that only the Glorious Qur’an qualifies to be called a perfect Book, the author of this series of modern Arabic course has attempted to develop and produce Arabic text books that, in my modest judgment, could be considered standard. The books are amazingly free from typographical errors and technical inaccuracies. It is indeed a good attempt at encouraging the teaching and learning of Arabic language especially in a country like Nigeria where most learners are non-speakers. I call on others who possess requisite knowledge to emulate this author by taking up similar challenges at the basic, post-basic and tertiary levels of our educational system.
Ndagi is of the Linguistics Department of the University of Abuja.