How to Teach Kids to Read Arabic

Once the Arabic alphabet is learned, reading will come easily.

Learning a new language at any age is a rewarding experience, but learning to speak, read and write another language as a child has enormous benefits. Learning a second or third language as a child offers the widest set of opportunities and benefits. The ability to learn to read Arabic may not be as difficult as you think. Once the letters of the Arabic alphabet have been learned, reading will come next. By encouraging daily practice, your children will be reading Arabic in no time.

Things You'll Need

• Paper
• Pencils
• Arabic alphabet
• Arabic word lists

Instructions

1. Teach children the Arabic alphabet. Just like with the ABC song in English, teaching the alphabet song in Arabic will help children memorize the different letters and increase familiarity with the way letters are pronounced.

2. Help with short vowel recognition; these vowels are fathah, dammath and kasrah. To help with identification, give the children rows of vowels and ask them to identify each. It is not necessary to teach the vowel sounds at this stage because each vowel sound is dependent upon the letter that is written below it.

3. Isolate each vowel. When the children are able to name the vowels, you can teach the sound of each vowel. Having the children write lines of the letters of the alphabet with the vowel over each letter will help them with identifying the sound that belongs with each combination.

4. When the short vowels have been learned, you can move on to teach sukoon in the same way. Again, when you integrate drills and writing practice, you help with familiarization as well as word identification based on the placement of the vowel.

5. Teach the three long vowels. These are fathah before alif, kasrah before yeah and dammah before wow. You will find drills are effective in teaching long vowels as well.

6. Teach children the gamariyyah (moon) letters with "al" and then teach the shamsiyyah (sun) letters with "al." Give the children words to practice that are prefixed with al. At this stage, the children should know enough to be able to read a number of words and phrases.

7. Encourage students to continue practicing. The more they practice and read, the stronger their word identification will become.

References

• Islamic Education Foundation: How Should Arabic Language Be Taught
• Pre K Smarties: Learn To Read Arabic Online
• Child and Me; How to Teach Your Kids Foreign Languages; Lisa Mirman; October 2007
• Language Stars: Benefits of Children Learning a Second Language at a Young Age

Resources

• Yemen Links: Arabic Resources
• Alkitab: Teach Arabic to Children