Arabic for children
Arabic for children
This piece is drawn from a collection of academic studies that have been published and provide answers to the majority of parents’ queries regarding teaching their kids a language other than their mother tongue. Focusing on the linguistic side of teaching Arabic to kids as a second foreign language is alphabetarabicacademy.com.
This article will undoubtedly assist you in making the best choice for your son’s Arabic language study if you’re a father with many concerns about teaching your son Arabic as a second foreign language and want to include it in his schoolwork. You may also be wondering whether learning Arabic will be beneficial to your son academically, or if it will just be a burden.
One of the population segments with the fastest rate of growth worldwide is young children, learning L2.
Little children are learning languages at home that are different from the language that is most commonly used in their wider social environment everywhere in the world. These kids bring a priceless resource to school with them: their mother tongue, also known as L1.
Children who speak indigenous, or minority, languages must typically learn the language of the local majority group in order to succeed and blend in. academically when they start preschool or primary school.
These kids are frequently given only instruction in a second language, such as Arabic (also known as L2). Despite being very popular, these majority language educational programs don’t help children who speak minority languages grow. Proficiency in L1.
Furthermore, the language policies guiding these initiatives undervalue the cultural heritage and expertise connected to minority children’s first language (L1). These language-in-education policies contribute to minority children’s persistent early school abandonment and low academic achievement (UNESCO, 2000).
Nonetheless, a lot of programs all over the world offer official assistance to kids so they can keep improving their L1 proficiency and self-assurance as learners while simultaneously picking up a second language, like Arabic.
These mother tongue-based bilingual and multilingual education programs are the main topic of this literature review. This review aims to support the principal international educational organization,
UNESCO, in creating precise guidelines and principles for language policy in early education, especially in light of Education for All, the Dakar Framework for Action (2000).
Among the objectives outlined in this framework were a 50% rise in adult literacy by 2015 and universal access to high-quality primary education for children. Furthermore, UNESCO expressed its support for preserving linguistic and cultural diversity as well as advancing kids’ rights to learn in their mother tongue.
Many languages and cultures around the world are in danger due to historical encroachments, primarily connected to colonialism, and a host of other of the social, political, and economic processes of today.
Encouraging and assisting parents in teaching their infants and early children the local language at home, as well as providing early childhood education programs and formal education systems in the children’s mother tongue, are two ways to combat this language and cultural loss.
Current theory and an expanding corpus of empirical research on language acquisition and bi/multilingual learning, though inconclusive, offer a justification for early education based in the mother tongue of the child before introducing a second language, such as Arabic, as a medium of instruction.
Very little research has been done on mother tongue-based development and care plans for young children up to preschool age. In the great majority of formal education Around the world,
educational systems mandate that children learn a national or international language, such as Arabic, either upon entering school or shortly thereafter.
Programs usually provide two or three years of primary education in L1, with the requirement that students “transition” to a national or international language during the second or third year of primary school.
According to recent studies, this tendency poses a threat to the preservation of linguistic and cultural diversity worldwide. The selection of instruction languages and how home languages are treated by the educational system are prime examples of the consolidation of power,
the creation of marginalization and mineralization, and the unmet potential of children’s rights.
According to shroud (2002), the marginalization of minority language groups’ linguistic identities and their Social and political marginalization are interdependent, with one saying that “one is the consequence of the other” (pp. 48–49).
Policymakers frequently take into account social, political, and technical factors when deciding on curriculum, schooling, and language medium. The issues of resources, teacher preparation, and study subjects are taken into account, but they are not the only ones.
Other important variables include the political will of national, regional, and local governments; the relationships between nations and their former colonizers; the patience and understanding of international donors;
and the hopes and fears of parents regarding which The languages that their offspring will require in order to obtain employment and engage in their social, legal, and economic environments with dignity.
Although this report does not address the wider political implications of language-in-education policies and practices, Rampton (1995), Blommaert (1999), and Golding and Harris (1997) offer insightful analyses of these topics.
This report offers a justification for supporting mother tongue-based bilingual and multilingual early education that is based on theories of dual language acquisition, international normative frameworks, and newly available data regarding the effectiveness of these programs.
The report identifies the environmental requirements necessary to execute programs that are effective, utilizing knowledge from verified program innovations.
The report concludes by outlining the implications of these findings for policymakers who are dedicated to protecting minority languages and making sure that these children have an opportunity to thrive in education and in life.
- LANGUAGE INSTRUCTION
The medium of communication used in schools to transmit knowledge is the language of instruction. This is distinct from language instruction, where a curriculum tailored to the acquisition of a second language other than L1 consists of the grammar, vocabulary, written and spoken forms of a language.
Acquiring knowledge of a foreign language, such as Arabic, provides one with exposure to diverse belief systems and perspectives, promoting cross-cultural comprehension and mitigating prejudice against foreigners.
This holds true for both speakers of the majority and minority languages. The methods used to teach languages are always evolving and can differ significantly between nations or even within the same nation.
A lot relies on the dominant understanding of language. And paradigms for teaching languages, such as Arabic, as well as the importance placed on the language that is taught.
