Visual Story Map

Our comprehensible aiding supplement- an alternative to the dreaded vocabulary list

Visual Story Map

Our comprehensible aiding supplement- an alternative to the dreaded vocabulary list

Feeling overwhelmed with learning a new language, especially Arabic, is a common experience for many language learners. It can be frustrating when you’re not making the progress you expected, or when the grammar and vocabulary seem too overwhelming. But don’t worry, it’s okay to feel this way, and there are ways to overcome it. Here are some tips that will help you out.

Take Control of Your Learning

Firstly, take control of your learning. It’s easy to rely on others to guide you through the process, but no one knows you better than yourself. You need to understand that your ability is not the same as everyone else’s. You might be a slower or faster learner, and it’s your job to manage your learning process. Take control of your learning by understanding your strengths and weaknesses, and create a learning plan that works for you.

Focus on Input

One of the most important things you can do when learning a new language like Arabic is to focus on input. An input-heavy approach means that you’re either reading or listening to something in Arabic at your level every day. The more you expose yourself to the language, the better. Your brain processes unfiltered information and acquires the language in a predictable order. It’s okay if you’re listening to something that is either above or below your level of understanding, as long as you can tolerate it and enjoy it. With time, your brain will process the language in a way that makes sense to you.

Trust Your Abilities

You have a unique language acquisition device in your brain that is a human superpower. You need to train yourself to believe that language acquisition is possible and natural. When you hit a wall in your learning process, have faith in your ability to work through it. Do more listening and reading, and you will eventually overcome the hurdle. It’s important to remember that everyone has struggles when learning a new language, but with time and practice, you will become more fluent.

Beware of the Monitor and Feeding Your Anxieties

Lastly, beware of the monitor and feeding your anxieties. The monitor is the part of your brain that likes to process information and check that it’s correct before you output it. This can slow down your learning process and hinder your fluency. To overcome this, reduce your output and keep your input going. Your input will produce natural output, and when that output feels natural to you, your brain is ready to produce without the filter. Try to avoid habits that feed into your anxieties, such as wanting to understand every word in a sentence. Focus on understanding the message as a whole and trust yourself to pick up new vocabulary and grammar along the way.

In summary, learning a new language like Arabic can be challenging, but it’s important to remember that it’s a process that takes time and effort. It’s essential to take control of your learning, focus on input, trust your abilities, and beware of the monitor and feeding your anxieties. Remember to enjoy the journey, and with dedication and practice, you will achieve fluency.

Visual Story Map

Our comprehensible aiding supplement- an alternative to the dreaded vocabulary list

What feeling do you get at the mention vocabulary lists? Boredom? Anxiety? Depression? Yep…me too!

Thankfully, there is a better way.

When it comes to learning a language, deep learning with meaning is more important than just memorisation. The latter leads to lots of mental translation, which is exhausting, boring and very different from language acquisition. Instead of relying solely on vocabulary lists, I encourage you to become a cultural observer and notice how language is used by native speakers.

But what does that mean exactly? It means immersing yourself in the language as much as possible. Watch movies and TV shows in your target language, read books and articles. And if you have access to a native speaker, make sure you speak to them. The more you expose yourself to the language, the more you’ll start to pick up on patterns and nuances that you wouldn’t get from a simple vocabulary list.

When you translate words from your native language to your target language, you’re not really learning the language. Instead, it’s important to focus on direct semantic meaning. This means understanding the meaning of words in context, rather than just memorizing their translations.

So how do you go about acquiring language naturally? My favourite way is regular daily input at a comfortable level. It’s important to find content that’s at the right level for you, so that you’re not overwhelmed or bored. Remember the mantra- comprehensible, compelling, rich and abundant input (also known as Optimal Input).

Give it a go! Try an input heavy approach with daily reading or listening for at least 3-6 months to see whether you benefit. I feel confident that you will experience the same progress and enjoyment I did.

Are you struggling to make progress with your Arabic language learning, no matter how much time and effort you put in? You’re not alone. Traditional methods may not be working for you, but there’s an approach that could change everything. Let’s explore how to achieve fluency in Arabic with comprehensible input.

What is Comprehensible Input?

Comprehensible input is the language that we understand when we listen or read. It’s the messages that we can comprehend, even if we don’t understand every single word. The key is to understand the overall meaning and gist of the message.

You may require some help in the form of Comprehension Aiding Supplementation.  These are the actions, gestures, pointing, drawings, etc, that can help you understand what is being said.  As long as you are not translating into your first language, the message is considered comprehensible.

Four Key Features For Optimal Input

To optimise your Arabic language learning, comprehensible input also needs to be:

1. Compelling

Compelling input is interesting and exciting enough to keep you, the learner, engaged. The content should be driving our motivation.  You should not have to be digging deep to tap into your inner long term goals, or other external sources of motivation.

2. Rich

The content should be rich in language, with enough language to explain what is incomprehensible. It’s important to avoid filtering out the language to isolate grammar and vocabulary.  So, set piece drills, exercises, made up conversations and text are all out.  Look for authentic input and reading.

3. Abundant

Abundant input refers to the amount of input that the learner needs to be exposed to every day. The more input, the better, and it’s important to aim for a little bit of input every day.

How to Implement Comprehensible Input

Here are some tips on how to incorporate comprehensible input into your Arabic language learning:

1. Find What You’re Interested In or Excited About

Find content that you enjoy, such as hobbies, places you like to visit, or anything that you’re interested in. It just has to extremely interesting or exciting.  Read about it, listen to a podcast, or watch a video in Arabic.  You need to get to a stage where you are enjoying it so much that you forget that it is in Arabic.

2. Tolerate a Little Bit of Noise

As a learner, you need to tolerate a certain amount of noise and not run to the dictionary at every opportunity. Instead, try to understand the overall message and gist of what’s being said or what’s been written.

You may have to choose input which has limited noise.  I tend to tolerate only 2% noise.  Think about how low that is- just 2 ambigious words every 100.  This means that I’m enjoying the input and doing a lot of it to get my i+1.  I call this my 98% rule.  You need to find out what your personal tolerance is and ensure that you’re consuming enough comprehensible input to stay engaged and motivated.

3. Include Arabic into Your Routine Every Day

Even if it’s just for a few minutes, include Arabic into your routine every day. It’s important to have plenty of input in your life.  If like me you have a low noise tolerance like I mentioned above, you have to make up for this with a huge volume of input.

4. Avoid the Temptation to Jump to the Next Level

Avoid the constant desire to get to the next level. The focus should be on doing small i+1 steps every day until you notice a big leap.  The commonest reason for quitting that I hear from fellow learners is that they “hit a wall” or that they reached a step too high to jump.  Also, remember that fluency is a numbers game.  You only become fluent by visiting words, phrases and expressions again and again and again.

Two-Year Plan for Fluency

If you can include comprehensible, interesting, and relevant input into your life every day for about two years, the evidence shows that you will become fluent in that time. The key is to ramp up the volume over time, aiming for about an hour of input every day.  This doesn’t have to be a straight hour, split it up if you need.  You’ll probably find you’re eventually doing more than an hour.

Conclusion

Comprehensible input is the secret to mastering Arabic fluency. It’s important to find what you’re interested in, tolerate a little bit of noise, include Arabic into your routine every day, and avoid the temptation to jump to the next level. If you can commit to a two-year plan of daily input, you will become a high intermediate to low advanced level learner and a competent self-teacher.

The journey may not always be easy, but you need to try to make it enjoyable and rewarding. Give comprehensible input a try and see how it can transform your Arabic language learning.

Have you ever tried to learn a language, only to struggle and give up? I know I have. For years, I made the same mistake when trying to learn Arabic, and it kept me from becoming fluent. But when I changed my approach, I was finally able to achieve my goal. In this article, I will share the lessons I learned and the strategies that can help you learn a language naturally.

Biggest Mistake

The biggest mistake I made when learning Arabic was trying to learn it consciously rather than subconsciously. I spent years studying grammar, memorizing vocabulary lists, and doing exercises, but I never made much progress in speaking the language fluently. It wasn’t until I started focusing on acquiring the language subconsciously that I began to see real progress.

Learning vs. Acquisition

One of the key ideas that helped me shift my mindset was to understand the difference between learning a language and acquiring it. Learning is the conscious, formal instruction that we typically receive in school or through language courses. Acquisition, on the other hand, happens subconsciously through natural communication and exposure to the language in a meaningful context. This means that we acquire vocabulary and grammar incidentally, through exposure to the language, rather than through memorization and study.

The Power of Input

Another important concept that helped me learn Arabic naturally was the power of input. Input refers to the language that we receive through listening and reading. It’s important to note that not all input is created equal. The input that is the most effective for language acquisition is comprehensible, contextualized, compelling, rich, and abundant.

Incidental Learning

Incidental learning is another crucial aspect of acquiring a language naturally. This refers to any learning that is unplanned or unintended. It develops while engaging in a task or activity and may also arise as a by-product of planned learning. This means that learners acquire vocabulary and grammar incidentally, by exposure to the language in a meaningful context, instead of through memorization and study. The hypothesis emphasizes the importance of immersion and exposure to authentic language in order to acquire a language in a meaningful way.

How to Apply These Concepts

So how can you apply these concepts to your own language learning journey? Here are some tips:

• Focus on acquiring the language subconsciously rather than learning it consciously.
• Seek out input that is comprehensible, contextualized, compelling, rich, and abundant.
• Engage in activities that allow for incidental learning and immersion in the language.
• Avoid forced output like verbal drills, which can be detrimental to language acquisition.
• Speak when you feel the need to, rather than trying to recall words in a forced scenario under pressure to perform.

Conclusion

Learning a language (including Arabic!!) naturally is a simple, effective, and enjoyable way to become fluent. By focusing on acquiring the language subconsciously, and seeking out comprehensible, contextualized, and compelling input, you can learn a language in a way that fits into your life and keeps the joy in learning. I hope these tips and lessons from my experience learning Arabic will help you on your own language learning journey.

It was only when I discovered the way I had been studying was actually interfering with my journey to fluency that I found the courage to oppose the standard method of teaching.

For the last 5 years, I have been doing NO vocabulary lists, NO drills, NO quizzes or testing, NO revision.  I have noticed, and more importantly, others have also noticed, that my Arabic has come on in leaps and bounds.  I feel more confident and don’t shun a challenge when a new video pops up on my feed in Arabic…actually, I relish it.  I think I have finally found joy in using Arabic

In my latest video, I discuss two opposing approaches- explicit learning which helps only accuracy, and implicit learning which builds fluency.  This is important to understand as you start the #100DaysOfArabic challenge. If you are not used to dealing with uncertainty you may feel nervous when you don’t keep stopping to check you understand every word. But this is an important hurdle to overcome to be able to progress towards fluency.

• Input (listening, reading) and Output (writing, speaking) skills have different purposes in language acquisition
• Listening and Reading are not equal
• Abundant input in the form of listening and reading eventually produces output naturally
• Anxiety is a major barrier to abundant listening input

The #100DaysOfArabic challenge is quite different to what most Arabic learners will be used to.  The aim is rapid and natural vocabulary acquisition, and therefore, fluency, as opposed to the usual focus on grammar, form and accuracy.

There is increasing evidence that the grammatical approach actually hinders language development, so our aim for the #100DaysOfArabic challenge is to get us back to the natural way of language acquisition, i.e., an abundance of compelling, rich, comprehensible input, which brings us joy and advances our communicative rather than technical competence.

We’ve released a new video on our YT channel which will, إن شاء الله, be the first of a few, visiting simple but important concepts before we start the challenge.

We start by getting you to rethink what you’ve been taught in school and elsewhere about the four skills.   I encourage you to focus on input skills, listening and reading, and encourage you to think of listening as your most important asset.  Together, let’s embark on an adventure to nurture it into a superpower.

• Weekly Story-Listening sessions
• Stories from Arab Heritage

In the spirit of the Hakawaatis, the engaging story tellers of the coffee shops of the Levant (الشام – Syria, Palestine, Jordan and surrounding region), the Hakawaati program is aimed at improving your vocabulary acquisition through sound principles of optimal input and comprehension aiding supplementation.  For more on the theory of this have a look at the Stories First Foundation website.

During the #100DaysOfArabic, join us twice a week for live stories with talented hakaawati Alaa Al-Khabbaz. Originally from Damascus, Alaa will immerse us in stories from his beloved Arabic heritage such as The Thousand and One Nights and Kalilah wa Dimnah. It’s more than just narration: Alaa uses gestures, illustrations, explanations and more – all techniques shown in linguistic studies to aid language acquisition.

The YouTube videos premiere as follows.  Join us to add your questions and comments for the Q&A at the end.  The session will then be posted on the channel and app.arabicworkshop.com.