Welcome to Arabalicous, a website for teachers and students of Arabic

                 





Mr Taoufiq Cherkaoui 
Lead Practitioner of Modern Languages and Assessment for Learning           
Education Consultant and Teacher Trainer for the University of Cambridge International Examinations CIE         
Principal Examiner, Edexcel Pearson
Language Advisor to the British Council
email: arabalicious@yahoo.com
Please join our Arabalicious Facebook Group for more ideas and resources.

Arabic is one of the oldest and most fascinating languages in the world.  Arabic is not just about learning a language but it is also about learning and embracing a rich and interesting culture.  Arabic is fun to learn, the language, the alphabet (squiggly lines and dots), the history, the culture, the people, the food, the arts, the music, the festivals, the literature are all guaranteed to take you on a wonderful journey of discovery, fun and excitement.  
Arabic is the official language of over 20 countries and there are well over 300 million native speakers of Arabic.  Arabic is also an official language of the United Nations, the Arab League and the African Union.  In addition to the millions of native speakers, many more millions know Arabic as a foreign language.
 Arabic language is the main unifying feature among Arab Muslims, Arab Christians and Arab Jews; it is a Semitic language originating from Arabia.  Modern Standard Arabic (Fus'haa) is the standard and literary variety of Arabic used in writing, current media and in most formal speech.  Modern Standard Arabic (MSA) carries more prestige and recognition and as a result lessons in this website use MSA. Colloquial Arabic (Darija) has many varieties across the Arab World.  Some of the colloquial varieties in North Africa, particularly in Morocco and Algeria, are almost incomprehensible to an Arabic speaker from the Levant or the Gulf because they carry some Berber, French and Spanish words with them.
Arabic has 28 letters, some for sounds that don’t exist in English.  Learning to pronounce these can be quite tricky and cause for much hilarity but great fun and students love it. One of my students said ‘Arabic is a punch in the throat.  When speaking Arabic your brain discovers muscles in the throat that it never knew existed.’  I say Arabic language is brain workout because the brain is forced to work harder when learning Arabic than most other languages.

My name is Taoufiq Cherkaoui and I am interested in current research and theory relating to teaching and learning, innovation in education, and all aspects of classroom discourse, especially feedback and the interaction that takes place in the class between teachers and learners in a range of contexts and situations.
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I have created this website for Arabic language teachers and students. In this website you will find teaching resources in all four skills, web resources and schemes of work from KS2 to KS5. There may be some errors and typos in some of the materials.  If you come across these, urge your students to find them for a reward. This website is a work in progress, so please keep checking for regular updates. 


Enjoy the website and keep visiting,
Mr Taoufiq Cherkaoui
arabalicious@yahoo.com

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New resources: 

Arabic Pictionary Vocabulary Book
A gift for your learners, they can write the topic titles and label the pictures as they study them.  
Generic language sheet 
A good resource for speaking and writing activities.
Activity Book for beginners 
This is an activity book for Arabic beginners. There are many resources to support activities in the book in the 'Primary Resources' section of the website. 
Arabic GCSE Speaking Book This GCSE speaking book is a good resource to Arabic GCSE students and candidates.  
Writing for beginners A useful activity booklet to teach Arabic alphabet. 
Generic language sheet A good resource for speaking and writing activities
Speaking and prompts 
Birthday and wedding party
Book and film review
Clothes and fashion
Email about good news
Special event at school
Family and friends
Hobbies and activities in all three tenses
A holiday resort
The Internet
My town and area
Jobs education and future career
Sports leisure and work
Sports day at school
Sports
Summer camp
Tourism
Tourism in the Arab World
An unforgettable family holiday
My favourite book/film
Generic language and grammar activities
Useful language
Grammar

British Council and 8th Annual Conference for Arabic Language and Culture 23rd March.

The conference was organised by the Qatar Foundation and British Council. As expected, the conference was a success and was attended by over two hundred Arabic educators and professionals from across the UK and the US.

The day included  workshops on how to introduce the learning of Arabic, professional development sessions, classroom tips, innovation in education and sessions on up to date teaching and learning strategies.  It was also a chance to network with other Arabic teachers, professionals and organisations.

Included is my presentation for the conference, I hope you find some of the ideas useful for your learners. I am sorry the presentation was altered and some slides were deleted as the PPT was too big to upload on the website. 
Mr Taoufiq Cherkaoui British Council Presentation P1
Mr Taoufiq Cherkaoui British Council Presentation P2
Mr Taoufiq Cherkaoui British Council Presentation P3
Mr Taoufiq Cherkaoui British Council Presentation P4
Mr Taoufiq Cherkaoui British Council Presentation P5
Mr Taoufiq Cherkaoui British Council Presentation P6
Mr Taoufiq Cherkaoui British Council Presentation P7
Mr Taoufiq Cherkaoui British Council Presentation P8

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Edexcel Pearson Vacancies

_Edexcel is part of Pearson UK, a unique education company. We currently have a number of opportunities for GCSE Arabic teachers to mark GCSE Arabic examinations this summer.
Examiners mark candidates’ responses in accordance with a pre-defined mark scheme. Most subjects will be marked online, which allows our examiners the flexibility of working from home.
For more information and to apply, please visit:
https://home.edexcelgateway.com/pages/job_search_view.aspx?jobId=323

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Certificate of Higher Education in Islamic Studies

The Islamic Studies programme is aimed at those students who are interested in starting their Higher Education on a part-time basis and who would benefit from the support available from the Lifelong Learning Centre.  This Certificate in Higher Education is equivalent to the first year of a full time degree. The Certificate is 2 years part-time and is taught at the University of Leeds campus on Wednesday afternoons.
On successful completion of the Certificate, students can progress to the BA Islamic Studies in the Department of Arabic and Middle Eastern Studies. They will join the second year of the Programme and graduate with an honours degree after two further years of full-time study.
For further information please click on the University of Leeds logo.

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