Madam I am Masood-ur Rehman, newly appointed teacher.

For Arabic
language and O levels Islamic Studies. Mam as a student I request you
please read all my this document.
Im really enjoying the School environment under your kind supervision.
Yesterday we discussed that how we teach Arabic as a foreign language, and
you suggested very important and useful methods.

Important aspects of Yesterdays meeting suggested by you:

1-Its very important to divide students according to their beginning,
intermediate and advance level.
2-We have to teach them some basic grammar rules.
3-We Muslims reading The Holy Quran without understanding of its saying.
Most of us focusing on only recitation and feel very happy that we completed
3 or 4 times in a month. But our goal is to teach them Arabic in a way that
they Know and comprehend the meaning, its saying, its teachings.
4-Teacher should not teach them by using alternate language. The medium
of teaching should be only Arabic.
Now with due respect Mam I want to share my language
teaching experience with you as a student. And in the beginning of this discussion I
accept that there are possibilities of having flaws in my suggestions. But the
practices, methods and approaches which Im going to discuss are processed and
suggested by experts of Linguistics that how to teach language in influenced way.
Before suggesting something I want to introduce my qualification and teaching
background.
Madam I got 3 masters, 1- in Comparative Religion, 2- in Arabic Language,
3- Masters in Education (curriculum development, Planning and policy, School
administration, Educational Research, Educational psychology).
Now Im doing M.Phil in Education (curriculum development, Educational planning
and policy) I studied Arabic language under supervision of expert Egyptian Teachers
and I have also experience of teaching Arabic language to Chinese and Pakistani
students.
Actually I was observing that in The Science School the required approach to
teach Language was not meeting the requirements which are suggested by
linguistics. Before yesterdays meeting I was planning that how to approach you to

discuss these problems and issues. After yesterdays meeting most of these issues
solved by you. Mam I appreciate your planning for language studies. I was also

confused that the scheme of work we suggested by our coordinator is only for basic
level students so what about level 2 and Level 3.
Now Mam I want to share briefly methods of teaching language.
Methods of language teaching include:

1) Grammar-translation approach
2) Direct approach
3) Reading approach
4) Audio-lingual method
5) Community language learning
6) Suggestopedia
7) The silent way
8) Total physical response
9) The natural way
10) Communicative language teaching

Grammar-Translation Approach

In this method, classes are taught in the students' mother tongue, with
little active use of the target language.
Vocabulary is taught in the form of isolated word lists.
Elaborate explanations of grammar are always provided.
Grammar instruction provides the rules for putting words together;
instruction focuses on the form and inflection of words.
Little attention is paid to the content of texts.
Drills are exercises in translating disconnected sentences from the
target language into the mother tongue, and vice versa.
Little or no attention is given to pronunciation.

Direct Approach
This approach was developed initially as a reaction to the grammartranslation approach in an attempt to integrate more use of the target
language in instruction.
Lessons begin with a dialogue using a modern conversational style in
the target language.
Material is first presented orally with actions or pictures.
The mother tongue is NEVER used. There is no translation.
The preferred type of exercise is a series of questions in the target
language based on the dialogue or an anecdotal narrative.
Questions are answered in the target language.
Grammar is taught inductively--rules are generalized from the practice
and experience with the target language.
Verbs are used first and systematically conjugated much later after
some oral mastery of the target language.
Advanced students read literature for comprehension and pleasure.
Literary texts are not analyzed grammatically.
The culture associated with the target language is also taught
inductively.
Culture is considered an important aspect of learning the language.
Reading Approach
The approach is mostly for people who do not travel abroad for whom
reading is the one usable skill in a foreign language.
The priority in studying the target language is first, reading ability and
second, current and/or historical knowledge of the country where the
target language is spoken.
Only the grammar necessary for reading comprehension and fluency is
taught.
Minimal attention is paid to pronunciation or gaining conversational
skills in the target language.
From the beginning, a great amount of reading is done in L2.

 The vocabulary of the early reading passages and texts is strictly

controlled for difficulty.
Vocabulary is expanded as quickly as possible, since the acquisition of
vocabulary is considered more important that grammatical skill.
Translation reappears in this approach as a respectable classroom
procedure related to comprehension of the written text.
Audio-lingual Method
This method is based on the principles of behavior psychology.
It adapted many of the principles and procedures of the Direct Method,
in part as a reaction to the lack of speaking skills of the Reading
Approach.
New material is presented in the form of a dialogue.
Based on the principle that language learning is habit formation, the
method fosters dependence on mimicry, memorization of set phrases
and over-learning.
Structures are sequenced and taught one at a time. Structural patterns
are taught using repetitive drills.
Little or no grammatical explanations are provided; grammar is taught
inductively. Skills are sequenced: Listening, speaking, reading and
writing are developed in order.
Vocabulary is strictly limited and learned in context.
The Silent Way
This method begins by using a set of colored wooden rods and verbal
commands in order to achieve the following:
1) To avoid the use of the vernacular.
2) To create simple linguistic situations that remain under the complete
control of the teacher.
3) To pass on to the learners the responsibility for the utterances of the
descriptions of the objects shown or the actions performed.
4) To let the teacher concentrate on what the students say and how
they are saying it, drawing their attention to the differences in
pronunciation and the flow of words.

So its very important for a language teacher that he have to know

these language teaching methodologies and its applications. And
language teacher have to take one appropriate method according to
the mind level, Grade, available resources, environment and students
mother language.
Mam our Egyptian language teachers used these different
methodologies according to the mind level of students. Mostly they
emerged first two (grammar translation and direct) methodologies.
Means in the beginning (level 1) they focused on vocabulary and basic
grammar. And they completely avoided use of English or any other
language except Arabic. They used sketches, Pictures, body language,
and too much use of audio video aids etc.
Now Mam I want to share very important
characteristic of these language teaching methodologies which should
be consider according to experts. And this aspect is use of special
language lab because language lab creates a learning environment
much more effective than traditional classrooms enhancing the
capabilities of students and allowing a high degree of immersion and
attention to diversity. A language laboratory encourages the
participation and integration of the students in the different exercises
and this is reflected, for example, in the time it takes to students to
speak in another language during class. In a traditional class of 45
minutes the percentage of time spent by students to speak in the
language they are studying is 2.2% while in a language laboratory
classroom the percentage of time spent reaches nearly 24%. It is also
necessary to note that these figures might be higher depending on the
exercises taking place in the class. And also might be higher when we
use Arabic historical Films and cartoons.
For example I play a video clip of five minutes and ask students listen
and write those sentences which you are understanding from video
clip. If they are not able to write sentences they can pick vocabulary
which they understood. Mam this is only one exercise and method. We
have much more methods to enhance effective learning.
Mam Given these figures it is obvious that language labs offer a
number of advantages over traditional teaching systems, allow several
students to talk and interact at the same time, you can record all these
interventions, send different exercises to different groups of students,
work with multimedia, etc.
In addition, the use of the language lab allows students to have access
to the information quickly and easily developing many types of

classroom exercises, personalizing the learning process, encouraging

creativity, innovation and training.
So Mam if we have special language lab only for language students like
other science and computer labs we have in school then we can boost
up quickly language teaching and learning environment. And I
personally learnt effectively by such kind of language Labs.
So its humble request to think about installation of such kind of Lab
only for language students if possible. And I am attaching 2 books
please madam review them. These books are using direct
teaching method without using any other language.
Now Mam I want to close this discussion. All these words are from core of my
heart and as a student of you. I dont know that should I have right to say all
these suggestions or not. May be I am wrong. Please Mam give me feedback.
And Mam with due respect can I stay in touch with you or not? I have
lot of suggestions and ideas circulating in my mind related to administration
and curriculum. And these are not only words I will do practically. I want to do
something for this School, for teacher for students. Im available 24 hours for
school. Because Mam by your kindness Im appointed here and you gave me
honor and respect. And I dont want to fall behind this honor and respect. You
can give me some task more than teaching. Inshallah I will not disappoint
you.
Waiting for your kind response.
By
Masood Ur-Rehman
Cell:
03005584360