Teaching grammar orally through Colloquial Arabic – report of an experiment - Rachael Harris, University of Cambridge

In our first year Arabic BA course we have been experimenting with teaching grammatical structures first orally in ECA, then in MSA, within a structural syllabus based very loosely on Al Kitaab Part 1. Examples of ECA structures are presented in communicative contexts and students first repeat then manipulate them. Explanation in English follows, and is also provided in writing, then students practise intensively through drilling as a group or in pairs, other oral exercises, and brief interactions. The structure is further reinforced through listening, and oral translation into ECA. The same structure is then studied comparatively in fully vowelled MSA through matching exercises or analysing a text, and practised through oral drills, written exercises, and finally free writing. This approach has several advantages: practice is far quicker orally than in writing; structures are practised intensively in class, leaving less for students to absorb independently; learning to speak first helps reading; students practise accuracy in spontaneous speech, then have time, with writing, for contrastive reflection and grammatical precision in MSA. At the end of the year the students had more fluent, grammatically accurate and wide-ranging command of ECA than previous students, and wrote MSA more correctly and effectively, with a wider range of grammar and vocabulary in both. Their aural and written comprehension was improved and they were less confused between the two varieties. Overall they had a far better feel for and command of the language.

University of Leeds

3/28/2017 7:36:14 AM