1
CONTENTS
1. Introduction------------------------------------------------------2
2. Learning context------------------------------------------------3
3. Teaching context-----------------------------------------------6
4. Teacher’s notes--------------------------------------------------6
5. Rationale for the task-------------------------------------------7
6. Language and learning assumptions--------------------------8
7. Adapting the task for another set of learners----------------9
8. Conclusion-------------------------------------------------------12
9. References-------------------------------------------------------13
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1. Introduction:
This paper will concern with designing a teaching vocabulary task for adult English L1
(first language) learners of Arabic. Its main interest will be teaching some aspects of the
address system, namely the basic members of a Saudi family. The teaching will take
place in Arabic Language Institute in King Saud University in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. I
chose to teach vocabulary because of my belief that words are essential part in learning
foreign languages. Learners do not have good grammar or good pronunciation will be
still able to communicate with native speaker as long as they have good component of
vocabulary.
This paper will observe the processes of designing a vocabulary task. In detail, it
will begin with describe the environment where this task will take place, i.e. the learning
and teaching context respectively. It will move then to mention the teacher’s notes.
Moreover, the rationale for the task will be considered. The language and learning
assumptions will be mentioned. Finally, the possibility of adapting this task to another set
of learners will be considered. Posters will be made as part of the this task.
2. Learning context:
It is important to give an overall idea about the environment that the task will take place
in order to understand the rationale for the task. The Arabic language institute is one of
four institutes in Saudi universities, which are concerned with teaching Arabic as a
foreign language. It has four departments: the department of language and culture, the
department of teacher training, the department of teacher preparation and the department
of research.
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However, the department of language and culture, where the task will take place,
will be the main concern in this paper (so the other departments will not be mentioned).
This department is responsible for preparing students linguistically for two purposes.
Firstly, to be able to communicate with native speakers in the society. Secondly, to be
able to read and write in Arabic as well as to continue the first degree at university. This
means that teaching in the department will concentrate on all language skills in order for
the students to achieve a good level of proficiency. Moreover, the department has six
levels: elementary, pre-intermediate, intermediate, higher intermediate, advance, very
advance. In addition, students spend one academic term (the academic year in Saudi has
two terms only; each term is fourteen weeks in length) for each level. This means that the
average of the students to complete the study at the department is three years. Student
study five days a week, five hours a day.
Students study several courses in each level. These courses cover mainly all the
aspects of the linguistic skills. For each course there is a book which is usually used by
the teachers. These books are prepared by the teachers in the institute who are applied
linguists or specialists in teaching foreign languages. They are divided to cover all skills.
The main gaols for the department is to prepare students to learn general Arabic, i.e.
Arabic alphabet, writing system, reading, listening, vocabulary and grammar. Therefore,
students study materials such as Arabic for life, vocabulary, reading, oral comprehension
and written comprehension. In general, the department concentrates on both
communicative and academic styles. In lower levels, the students are taught more about
situations that they encounter in everyday life. In the higher levels (last three levels) the
style of teaching turns to be more academic. All the students have to sit three exams: two
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during the term and one at the end. In order to move to the next higher level, they have to
pass overall the exams.
The students who will be taught are all male. However, there is a separate part in
the institute which is concerned with female and run by female teachers. the students are
divided into classes; each class has between twelve to fifteen students. They, however, to
be accepted to study at the institute, have to obtain what is equal to the High School
Certificate in Saudi Arabia. The age of the students normally ranges from 18 to 25. Most
of them are interested in learning Arabic for religious and cultural purposes, i.e. to read
and understand the Quran (the holy book of Moslems), Arabic literature and modern and
classical Arabic books. Some of them aim to continue their study in Arabic language or
Islamic studies. Finally, They are from different nationalities from all over the world:
Asia, Africa, Europe and the USA.
The language, which are taught, is standard Arabic. The term “Standard Arabic”
(SA henceforward) is used to refer to the language variety used throughout the Arab
World in written communications such as books, newspapers and in broadcasting and
formal speeches. Also it is the language of the study in universities in the univesities of
the Arab world. Although people in Riyadh, the capital city of Saudi, speak a dialect of
SA, most of them, specially educated people, can understand the SA because they study it
at schools and it is the language of writing and reading. This situation of diglossia causes
problems to the students because they need to practice the SA outside the classroom in
order to acquire it. Therefore, it is important to any task to involve the students as much
as possible in speaking situations in order to help them to cover these problems specially
in the first levels.
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This task will be design for British students whose their parents are Asian
immigrants, specially Indians, Bangalis and Pakistanis. They came to the institute to
study Arabic in order to continue the first degree in Arabic study in order to read the
Quran and to after finishing from the department. They are ten students and the average
of their age is 20 years. Furthermore, they spend one term as elementary students learning
the Arabic alphabet and the writing system of Arabic, some basic words and the basic
rules of grammar such as the word order in Arabic. They are now in pre-intermediate
level and they spend three weeks in this level. They are learning more vocabulary and
grammar during this level. They started to take lessons in oral and guided comprehension
and simplified dictation.
All the ten students are motivated, since they are adults and they came to study
Arabic with full desire, i.e. they are not forced to learn Arabic. They hope to be able to
read the Quran frequently and understand it if they listen to it. In addition, they want to
read more about the Arabic and Islamic culture. It is important for them to learn the
writing system and recognise how the words is written in Arabic, because they are going
to sit written exams in their current and future studies.
In the light of this, I chose to teach them some words about family members in
Arabic, because cultures are usually differ in this issue and it is important for foreign
students
to know these differences in order not to find themselves in impressed
situations with native speakers. Moreover, it is a very rich subject in the Arabic and
Islamic tradition. They will certainly encounter these words a lot in the holy Quran,
books, newspapers and Arabic literature. They also will mostly need to write about some
aspects of family in the Arabic and Islamic concept which has different meaning from
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other cultures. In order to do all of this successfully, they need to learn a lot about this
subject, but as a starting point they may be need to learn the members of family and this
task will concentrate on the main members and the differences between Arabic and
English in those members.
3. Teacher’ notes

Objectives:
The aims of this task are:
i. To teach some new Arabic words to adult English native speakers, who are in preintermediate level.
ii. To introduce words related to // ‘Family’. They are:
// ‘father’, // ‘mother’, // ‘brother’, // ‘sister’,
// ‘grandfather’, // ‘grandmother’, // ‘uncle (the brother
of the father)’ /t/ ‘aunt’ (the sister of the father)’, /a/ ‘uncle’ (the
brother of the mother), // ‘ aunt’ (the sister of the mother), //
‘son’ and // ‘daughter’.
iii. To explain the meaning.
iv. To introduce the correct pronunciation.
v. To introduce the Arabic script of them.

What the teacher need:
(a) Poster A.
(b) Poster B.
(c) A copy of the passage C.
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(d) Cards containing the new words.
(e) Sticky tape.

What the students need:
(a) A copy of poster B below.
(b) A copy of the passage C below.
(c) A copy of activity D below.
(d) Pens and notebooks.

Time:
The time is 50 minutes (which is usually one normal class).

Task steps:

Step 1 (0-5mins): hang poster A and discuss with the students the questions in A.
Try to elicit from them some ideas about the persons in the picture. Help them and
write every word they say in the black board.

Step 2 (5-20mins): hang poster B beside poster A and ask the students to look at
the vocabulary on B. Pronounce them with pointing at the picture and ask the
students to repeat after you. For example, when you say the word //
“father” you point at the young man in the picture. Then explain them briefly.
Give each one a copy of this poster and ask them to put the words in pairs.

Step 3 (20-35): give the students 5 minutes to read the passage in C silently and
then read it loudly once. Then ask them if there is any new words they do not
know and explain them briefly. Then ask them to fill in the gap.

Step 4 (35-50mins): write each word you want to teach in a separated card. Stick
one card (using the sticky tape) on the back of each student. Be sure that the
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students do not see the word stocked on their backs. Divide them into pairs. Ask
each one to describe the word stocked on his colleague’s back respectively. In
order to find out the word, The students can also ask their colleagues some
questions such as is it name for man or woman? Is it for child or adult? Does he or
she have children? and so on.

Step 5: ask the students to do activity D as homework. If there is any remaining
time, ask them to begin writing at least one sentence in the calssroom.
4. Rationale for the task
The picture is used in step 1 in order to try to attract the attention of the students. The
questions in the top of the picture are used to stimulate the students to interact with the
lesson. It is important for the start to be successful, because it is the scale that tell the
teacher whether the lesson will be interesting or boring. Allen (1983: 12) suggests that
“vocabulary lessons for the first stage of English instruction use pictures for showing
many meanings”. The picture has been used is for typical Saudi family with the
traditional cloths. This is important to show the students that Arabic has different culture
from British, which prepare them to the fact that there is also a difference in the names of
family members between the two languages.
Step 2 competes the first one in that it connect between three verbs: see, listen and
speak. It is more likely for the students to pick up the meaning of the words when they
hear it, see its meaning and pronounce it. In addition, it is more easy for the teacher to
explain the meaning of the words by using the picture than to explain them by their
definitionsor by using miming. For instance, the teacher can point at the boys and the
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young man in order to explain the words // ‘father’ and // ‘son’. In the
same way, he or she can explain most of the rest of the words. It is important at this step
to indicate that Arabic differs from English in the fact that it has differentiates between
the brothers of the father and the brothers of the mother by giving them different names
as shown above, while English does not. The same can be said about the sisters of both of
the parents.
Step 3 introduces the words in context. The text has been chosen easy to be read
more quickly. It does not contain complicated or long sentences in order for both the
teacher and the students to concentrate as much as possible on the new words, so the
teacher can save time. This reflects the belief that “written texts are often one of the
major sources through which language learners meet new vocabulary” Gairns and
Redman (1986: 115). This is because they have many advantages of contestualising new
language items for learners (same reference). In this task particularly, the text is very
important because, in general, the new words that this task introduces are usually used in
the possessive form in both English and Arabic (cf. // ‘my father’, /
atii/ ‘my grandmother’…etc). therefore, it is important for the teacher to asses
on this point when he reads or explain the words. To some extent, this step also gives the
students chance to pronounce the new words individually and to ask the teacher if they do
not make it perfectly. This, of course, depends on the time that they have.
Step 4 introduces kind of games in this task. From my experience in learning
English in Britain, I found that games play a crucial role in helping students to remember
words and, more important, to take the chance to understand as well as to use them
naturally. This is because students during the game do need to speak, ask and answer
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questions naturally. Moreover, for weak students, games provide them by great chance to
be helped by good students. So, the teacher has to take this point in mind when dividing
the students in pairs. Another advantage of gyms in learning languages is to soften the
processes of learning a language especially in this situation, where Arabic, the target
language, differs from English, the first language, in several things such as: culture, script
(write to left) and some sounds that English do not have (such as // in /a/: voiceless
pharyngeal fricative). Edge (1993) assess on the importance of gyms saying “the most
serious of adults can become completely absorbed in co-operating with colleagues in
order to win a game”.
Finally, step 5 is optional, since the students are in pre-intermediate level and they
certainly had a very good basic introduction of the writing system in the first level.
Furthermore, the dictation lesson, which is separated from vocabulary lesson can help in
this point. However, it is important for the teacher to find time to do this step or to
encourage the students and follow them to do it at home in order to cover all the four
skills that students need all of them under their purposes of learning Arabic as shown
above.
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5. Language and language learning assumptions
6. Adapting the task for a different set of learners or teaching context.
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 1
A.   :
1) 



ah,
 ?
2) 




ah?  ?
3) 


? ?
1
You can find full translation to English after the end of this task.


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B.    ,
    
:












C. 


,    
:

.



  .    
 .    
 ,    .
      





.



.


   ,  
 _______ 

.     
 _________
  .  
  _______  

 ,    .
 ______ 
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  ______ 
  _______ 
D. 











.
,
   .
Family members
A. Discuss in pairs:
1) What do you think the picture down is about?
2) Do you have big or small family? How many?
3) Is family important in one’s life? Why?



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B. Look at the following words and try to put them in pairs:
mother
aunt(the sister of the father) son
mother)
daughter
sister
grandfather
aunt(the sister of the mother)
brother
uncle (the brother of the
uncle(the
brother
Father
of
the
father)
grandmother
C. Now read the following passage, then fill in the gap below:
My name is Jamal. I have a small and happy family. My father is a teacher and my mother is a
housewife. I have also my old brother Mohammad and my young sister Fedaa. We spend one day
with our relatives every week in my grandfather and grandmother farm. My uncle (the brother of
my father) Ahmed and my ant (the sister of my father) Muna come. We see also my uncle (the
brother of my mother) Saad and my ant (the sister of my mother) Sara. We spend good time playing
with their sons and daughters. When we come back home, we sleep directly because we are much
tiered.
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Muna is Jamal’s _______
Jamal’s ant(the sister of Jamal’s father) is ______
Jamal has one old ______
Sara is Jamal’s ______
Fedaa is Jamal’s _______
Ahmed is Jamal’s ______
D. Write three to five sentences about a day you spent with your family
members. If you don’t remember you can imagine.