Most of us have probably seen the video of a broadcaster walking around the market, meeting a group of children and asking them about the picture of a turtle. What is this? They reply, “Recite,” “What is its name in Arabic?” but they don’t know. He continues showing different pictures of a crocodile and says, “Alligator,” but they don’t know it. The broadcaster then says, “What a waste of Arabic.” In another scene, the broadcaster walks in the street and asks young people, “Can you speak Classical Arabic for a minute?” They hear a strange, muddled language distorted by colloquial Arabic. What is the reason for this weakness and why has Classical Arabic become alien to its people? Let us put the subject under the microscope of research and analyze it from the beginning.
In a phenomenon that Arab mothers have observed, the language of communication with their children has become English. Perhaps they believe, as many other fathers believe, that in order to make their children more prepared to learn and communicate with modern sciences, they should speak to them in English and start teaching the language very early while they are infants so that the little ones master it, which will reflect positively on their achievement in the later stages of education. This, in their opinion, will make them more intelligent and outpace their peers who did not learn it at a young age. Perhaps the parents rely on previous experiences in this, as they know that language acquisition at the age of three is rapid, and that the child who learns it at this age has a correct pronunciation style and sound articulation. This is a scientific fact, as the verbal and phonetic field begins to form at the age of three years , and the little ones will be able to pronounce the letters correctly, unlike those who are late in learning it and find it difficult; The ideal period for language acquisition is between three and five years of age , as young children have a tremendous ability to quickly pick up language sounds and grammatical rules, while the matter becomes more difficult between the ages of eight and ten, and this is scientifically true.
Perhaps these parents do not know that the Arabic language has seventeen articulation points, extending from the nose to the throat. This is a wider range than any other language in the world, enabling an Arabic speaker to pronounce any other language later on. For example, if a child learns English first, it will be difficult for him to pronounce sounds such as ha, ta, dad, and others. Conversely, if he starts with Arabic, it will be easy for him to pronounce any other language. Therefore, it is important that the child is not exposed to a second language before he is able to express himself in his mother tongue, pronounce most of its sounds, and have a basic foundation upon which to build new languages. This should not be before the age of three or four. There is still the opportunity to learn a new language, or even new languages, later in his life. This is what the scholar Chomsky pointed out when he stated that “school educational programs that adopt the method of teaching in the mother tongue and then in a second foreign language have proven remarkably successful in many regions of the world, and they have achieved significant positive results, whether on the psychological, social, or educational levels for the child. In addition, they help the child employ the abilities and skills he has acquired in his mother tongue in learning a second language later on.”
Another danger that a number of educators and linguistic experts have warned against is parents speaking to their children in a language other than their mother tongue in the early years of life. Studies have proven that this behavior does not provide the child with any benefit for many psychological and emotional reasons. On the contrary, it may harm him, leading to linguistic interference in the child's mind and causing confusion in the formation of his identity and affiliations, which affects his social and emotional development. Research continues, day after day, to emphasize the necessity of parents communicating with the child in their original language, or what is called the mother tongue . It is the best because it is the language of thinking and feeling, and most importantly, it defines their identity and expresses their feelings towards the child, which facilitates his acquisition and mastery of it and opens the first linguistic file in his brain, which is filled with feelings, which raises his self-esteem and connects him to his identity and belonging to his society and the culture of his country.
The linguistic environment surrounding the child - home, kindergarten, and society - plays a major role in the child's level of language growth and development. Those in charge of the child in this environment must realize the necessity of the child's mastery of his mother tongue well in the first years of his life. On the one hand, and on the other hand, there are many challenges facing the Arab child, which requires establishing his relationship with classical Arabic early on. He listens to and deals with more than twenty-eight colloquial Arabic dialects that are the spoken language at home, kindergarten, and on screens. As for the language of writing and reading in school, and what is called the academic language, it is the twenty-ninth language. In addition to other foreign languages that he may have to study, studies on assessing the level of children around the world in mastering and understanding the language have proven that Western children have a much greater chance of mastering the language than their Arab peers, because they speak and hear the same words from birth until school. In English, the mother tongue is no different from the academic language, as water itself is water that he hears from birth and writes in school. Thus, their linguistic stock is larger and stronger, as it is unified, exceeding 16,000 words before they enter primary school. As for our Arab children, it is difficult for them to master the language, as their poor colloquial linguistic stock does not exceed 3,000 words, so water alone (water, mey, meyyah…), so what about classical Arabic? How much do you expect their stock to be?
In a 2007 Harvard University journal article on preschoolers' vocabulary, author Laura Pablo points out that a growing body of applied research shows that building a sophisticated vocabulary at an early age is key to increasing reading success and narrowing the academic achievement gap in school. Since language development during the first three years of a child's life is the most profound, it is a crucial time to expose them to as much as possible of words and books, to provide the greatest possible vocabulary base for language development. If a child does not learn to speak and listen to academic language from an early age, along with developing an understanding of the meaning of words and stories, they will struggle to learn to read when they enter elementary school.
Andrew Biemiller, professor emeritus at the University of Toronto and author of Words Worth Teaching, says that to ensure a child excels and overcome the difficulties they may face while learning to read, we must ensure they acquire at least 6,000 words in the academic language they will be learning. Research has shown that children whose vocabulary does not exceed 4,000 words are at risk of learning difficulties, while those who excel are those who have a vocabulary exceeding 8,000 words and find it easier to acquire more words and learn grammar faster. The doctor explains that a year has 48 weeks, and there is enough time for parents and teachers to teach a child 16 to 24 words per week through conversation with the child, reading stories, or discussing the words they have acquired while watching a program, to build this vocabulary in the first six years before entering school.
In our Islamic history, a child aged 3-6 would go to a kuttab and memorize the Quran, with which he would acquire 50,000 words, which is a large linguistic vocabulary. Then, at the age of 6-7, he would memorize the Hadith and study a thousand verses from Ibn Malik’s Two Thousand Poems, not to mention the sophisticated grammatical models and rules of classical Arabic that he deals with and his linguistic memory is embroidered with jewels that elevate his level of expression. This is what makes him reverent when hearing Quranic verses and savor Arabic poetry and enjoy listening to it. If this is not within everyone’s reach at the present time and this opportunity is not available to all Arab children, we do not disagree that we have reached a completely unsatisfactory result. We have wasted the best period of the child’s life to learn the language. If he misses this great gain, then it is at least that we work to remove the alienation between him and it . We read him stories, interpret the chapters of the Quran and Hadiths, and allocate time to speak or listen to classical Arabic, even if it is through a television program or a game in an electronic application . Increasing the number of classical vocabulary for our children is a duty to protect our great language and build bridges of communication with its descendants before it is important For their academic success
Arabic is still the language of education in our country and is taught by students in international schools.