It will not be strange to see your child speak fluent, classical Arabic in that same way as his Arab forefathers. We offer you this service by establishing this Kindergarten; the first of its kind to teach children the classical Arabic language. This idea has been successfully tried and tested in Syria , Kuwait , and Saudi Arabia. In these countries, highly trained teachers spoke to children in classical Arabic all day long.

Solving the problem of teaching the classical language:

during the KG stage, the child's great instinctive capability to learn languages before the age of six will be exploited to the full. (S)He will be directed to learn the classical Arabic before his capability begins to weaken after the age of six.

THE SOLUTION FROM A THEORITICAL POINT OF VIEW:

Psycho-linguists such as Chomsky, Ervin and Linberg have discovered during the last forty years that the child is born with a huge capability of acquiring many, different languages. This capability directs him towards a creative and instinctive discovery of all linguistic rules, and thus he correctly applies these rules. This concludes in mastering two or maybe three languages at the same time.

Linberg concluded that this capability begins to vanish after the age of six. Mind programming biologically changes from learning languages to learning knowledge. We can say that the pre-six phase is devoted to language acquiring while the mind becomes ready for knowledge learning after the age of six.

As a result, the child should devote his time to learning knowledge after the age of six, having already learnt and mastered two or three languages before the age of six.

On the other hand, language learning becomes much harder for the child after the age of six. From that age, he needs a teacher to explain the rules of the new language to him. The child also needs a lot of time to be trained on how to apply such rules expecting some practical mistakes corrected by the teacher; this operation is made by the child's mind instinctively on his own before the age of six.

Thus, we can say that there are two ways that one can learn a language:

The first method is to learn it before the age of six where the child instinctively discovers and applies the rules of the language with no prior knowledge.

The second method is to learn it after the age of six. This is known as the conscious (knowledge) method where the language rules must be revealed and explained to the learner using training tools and practice methods.

When comparing the two methods, we notice the following:

1- The languages learned via the first method is called the mother tongue, while the other method is called description.

2- The first method requires no effort while the second requires a lot.

3- In the first method there is a combination between language and emotions through which the speaker can give an accurate expression of his feelings. In the second method, language remains second in rank as a means of emotional expression. It rarely reaches the rank of the first language in this concern .

4- The meaning and impact of words are exactly perceived in the first language. It completely matches what the speaker or writer wants to say, this advantage is not found –to the samedegree- in the second language.

5- The first language could be completely mastered by all its grammatical and morphological details, while in the second one a lower standard of accuracy is usually required.

6- The beauty and eloquence of the first language is spontaneously tasted and enjoyed with no need of an explanation. However, such beauty and eloquence needs to be explained and highlightedlosing much of its value.

7- In the first method the child should not be directed to learn anything except the language, while in the second method he needs much more time knowing that he has many other subjects to learn.

8- The first language negatively affects the learning of the second language in what concerns the linguistic syntax andknowledge concepts.

9- The first method enables the child to learn more than one language in the same time without suffering, while he cannot achieve this after the age of six.

THE SITUATION of the Arab Student IN LIGHT OF THE THEORITICAL BASIS:

The Arab student joins school after mastering the colloquial language. (S)He mastered this in his peak when he could have easily acquired other nguages as well.

This means that he has already acquired the language by which he should learn various kinds of knowledge. Unfortunately, he gets embarrassed finding the language used to gain knowledge is not the same as the one he mastered. In fact, a totally different one that he has to learn and master so as to understand the other subjects . The student finds himself in a critical situation as he , by the age of six, has already lost most of his intellectual capability to learn languages. The only choice he has is to learn school subjects via a language medium that he has not already mastered.

If we compare the student in the Arab world with an English speaking student, for example, we find that the Arab student has to learn the school subjects and its language at the same time! Things get even worse for this poor student. Why? Because the language used in his/ her school lessons is the colloquial Arabic language. The student never deals with classical Arabic except when he reads or writes.

This situation is far from ideal for the teacher as well, since he explains subjects in the colloquial Arabic language because he does not know the classical language! This is also done to make sure that the students have actually understood the subject.

Meanwhile, the student has no choice but to study these books which are written in classical Arabic.

This student in the Arab world is also asked to pass the exams in classical Arabic! This mess results in the teacher permanently complaining about students' poor performance.

In the meantime, students continue to suffer from the difficulty of the Arabic language and the subjects written in it.

SOME OTHER CONSEQUENT SERIOUS REFLECTIONS MAY BE DETAILED AS FOLLOWS:

1- The student has the subjects explained to him in colloquial Arabic. When he refers to the book he hardly understands what is written, so he seeks the help of a private teacher to re-explain the subject to him.

2- After the student properly understands the subjects, he faces another problem in the exams. What is this? When he is asked to answer in classical Arabic what he has understood, he can only do this by memorizing the subject and repeating what he has learnt. Did (s)he understand anything? No. Did he actually learn anything? No. It is virtually impossible to memorize the whole book. Hence, he chooses to learn some selected sections.

3-A state of educational retardation occurs due to the big difference between the classical language he finds in the school books and the colloquial one which he speaks.

4- This student, as a result of all that, begins to develop negative attitudes towards his studies and his books. He ignores it and throws it away after the exam with no desire for any future benefit.

5- The Arab student hardly develops an interest in reading written Arabic books. May book publishers consequently complain that they print a small number of books, no more than three thousand copies (for example), with a minor exception: namely school and university books.

6- This student may also lose interest in reading books written in foreign languages.

7- People will begin to think that the Arab world is not a very literate nation.

8- Arab teachers and students' may begin to think that the Arabic language is a difficult one.

9- Due to memorizing subjects without understanding, the student's logic and cognitive advancement may become very limited. This will seriously affect his ability to estimate matters, an expected failure to solve problems in a way that benefits the individual or his nation.

10- One of the worst end results will be the hatred of the Arabic language and this is a disaster waiting to destroy the Arab world.

THE PRACTICAL APPLICATION OF THE SOLUTION:

According to the problem analysis stated above, we conclude that the solution is to exploit the child’s instinctive capability to provide them with the classical Arabic during the school day.

As mentioned before, these ideas have been put into practice with great success.

The following kindergartens are a list of some of the success stories:

1-KUWAIT ARABIC KINDERGARTEN:

Established on 17/9/1988 in Kuwait.

Aiming to instinctively provide children with classical Arabic. Dr. Abdullah Ad – Dannan, the pioneer of this approach, trained the teachers to be fluent when using the classical Arabic language during the school day. The idea achieved great success. Within six months, children began to speak classical Arabic. More than forty press and news reports have been written about this kindergarten.

2- AL AZHAR ARABIC KINDERGARTEN: DAMASCUS, SYRIA:

Established on 17 / 10 / 1992 with the same aims as above.

The idea also achieved unexpected success, as in Kuwait.

To date, more than fifty education experts and researchers from Syria, Jordan, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Libya, Morocco, UK and USA have visited this KG, writing down their impressions.

They have been convinced of this idea, its success and the need to spread it far and wide.

It has been proven that children have managed to master the classical Arabic language as well as the colloquial one. The first being learned in school and the other learnt outside it.

It is worth mentioning that the Syrian Women General Union decided to teach classical Arabic language in all its affiliate 300 kindergartens, supervised by 1200 teachers.

Arab and Syrian media were very interested in the idea and it was transmitted via local and satellite TV channels.

Newspapers and magazines reported it and interviews with the kindergarten owner were broadcasted via radio stations.

THE IMPORTANCE OF MASTERING THE ARABIC LANGUAGE IN THE PRIMARY STAGE:

Now we get to know that most of the educational problems facing students during their educational career are caused by students’ inadequate fluency of the Arabic language in the primary stage.

Hence, we can conclude that mastering the Arabic language during this stage will achieve the following:

1- Save time by decreasing the Arabic language lessons.

2- Exploiting this extra time in teaching maths, computers and foreign languages .

3- Raising a generation loving knowledge and research, based on the pure Arabic language, eager to spread it.

4- Spreading the love of the Arabic language, tasting its beauty and eloquence.

The Arabic lessons can be devoted to reading, developing the abilities to literal criticism through the thematic discussion of novels, poems and other literal texts.

5- Achieve high levels of self-study. This will result from students' complete understanding of what they read.

6- Students will no longer need to memorize summaries, using books instead, study them with deep concentration and make their own summaries.

7- Reducing the university years of study from four to three years.