Arabic Language institute at King Saud University, Saudi Arabia, is proud to launch the Interactive Arabic Project. The Interactive Arabic is a pioneering online Arabic Language project which provides a very rich environment equipped with advanced technologies. The purpose of the project is to help nonnative speakers interested in learning Arabic by offering complete Arabic lessons to be available for free on the internet.

The Interactive Arabic can be accessed from any part of the world. All what learners need is to complete the online registration process and start learning immediately. Arabic language programs, either official or private, can benefit from the project by having their students enroll online. They just need to register with their emails along with a created password, and they would be able to enjoy the experience of learning Arabic language online easily.

The Interactive Arabic is a self-learning project. Learners, therefore, are required to have a prior knowledge of the pronunciation and the written form of Arabic Alphabets. This is the only prerequisite before they can benefit from such a project.

:Focus

The Interactive Arabic project focuses on the Arabic language skills and elements. These include: vocabulary, structures, listening, speaking, reading and writing. In addition, the content demonstrates Arabic culture and some social aspects of everyday life. The aim is to help learners achieve basic communicative Arabic skills by exposing them to a communicative Arabic language.

The language used in the project is the contemporary Modern Standard Arabic. It is neither the old classic Arabic nor the colloquial ones, but the simple and clear Arabic, the language of education, press, and news TV stations such as Aljazeera, Al-Arabiya, and the like. In other words, a combination of using this project and watching these TV stations will more likely result in a better language competence.

:Content

The content of the Interactive Arabic project has been taken from the book: Arabic for the World , written by Hassan Alshamrani , and printed at King Saud University. The content has been modified to be appropriate to the environment of the computer and the internet. The process took about eight months with a considerable time and efforts to end up with such an interactive project.

The Interactive Arabic consists of twelve unites, including a variety of topics appropriate for beginners in Arabic. The topics cover various aspects of Arabic culture which are presented through situations involving daily life dialogues and conversations. These are the backbone of each unit in terms of common vocabulary and expressions, and grammatical structures.

:Lessons

Each unit includes seven lessons as follows:

Lesson One: Listening

(two to three conversations in the form of a video clip, which can be played, repeated, and paused by learners at their appropriate speed).

Lesson Two: Vocabulary

(a list of words and expressions appeared in the previous conversations. They are accompanied mostly by images illustrating the meaning, and followed by interactive vocabulary exercises).

Lesson Three: Grammatical Structures

(a summary of functional grammar appeared in the conversations, through using tables, colors, and different icons to help learners differentiate between masculine and feminine, and singular and plural ... etc. These are, then, followed by interactive structures exercises).

Lesson Four: Listening Comprehension

(short dialogues, followed by an exercise, including images where the learner chooses the right image that suites the dialogue. The learner can control and adjust the video to his appropriate speed. At the end of this lesson, the learner can follow a link to a supplementary material that contains the written dialogues and a sheet of the answer keys. The learner, accordingly, can listen, read, and review the answers at the same time).

Lesson Five: Speaking

(exercises containing examples of short dialogues and conversations, providing learners with some words or phrases to use in similar situations. This section also includes a chat room where learners can gather and talk about the topic of the unit or other related topics. Such conversations may be continued and carried on among learners throughout other internet programs since they share the same goal, communicating in Arabic).

Lesson Six: Reading

(this lesson varies from one unit to the other, starting with reading words and short phrases at the initial units to reading a short text at the following units. The short texts are accompanied by reading comprehension questions. This section also includes a reading model where the learner can listen to the text he has read and compare his reading to it).

Lesson Seven: Writing

(this section includes exercises such as: complete the words with the appropriate letters; to provide a practice on how some Arabic letters are written at the beginning, middle and end of the word. It also includes construction of sentences, rearrangement of words to become a sentence, and other writing exercises. This section also provides learners with a chat room to practice writing with their colleagues).

:Tests

The project also includes three tests. Each test is designed to be done at the completion of each four units, where each test contains 100 questions automatically corrected. Thus the total is 300 questions, needless to mention the dozens of questions and exercises distributed throughout the units.The tests are as follows:

• Test yourself (units: one to four)
• Test yourself (units: five to eight)
• Test yourself (units: nine to twelve)

:Appendixes

The project also includes three supplementary materials as follows:
• Listening comprehension (written and voice) and answers keys.
• A summary of expressions and vocabulary of all units.
• A summary of grammatical structures of all units,

:Facebook and Twitter

The Interactive Arabic project is available on Facebook and twitter where colleagues can meet and discuss. The following are the pages on both social networks.

In conclusion, I would like to extend my sincere thanks to Dr. Saad bin Ali Alkahtani, Dean of the Arabic Language Institute, and Dr. Saad bin Mohammed al-Qahtani , head of Language and Culture Department at the Institute. They gave me the confidence and enthusiasm to create this work. Their encouragement and follow-ups are appreciated. I also thank the team who made an extraordinary effort during eight months to implement the interactive Arabic project, led by Engineer Mohamed Sabry, who worked hard and did a great job. I would like also to thank Dr. Esam Abdullah Alwagait, Dean of the Deanship of e-Transactions and Communications, and Dr. Waleed Alsalih, Vice-Dean of the Deanship of e-Transactions and Communications, and Engineer Hamad Nassir Alqahtani, the Director of Portal & e-Service Dept, and Engineer Abdullah Mohammed Aldebas, the Deputy Director of Portal &Service Dept, and Engineer Hammad Ullah, for their continuous cooperation to improve this project.

Kindly, do not hesitate to provide us with any comments or suggestions to improve the project. Please send your comments to the following email address: InteractiveArabic@ksu.edu.sa

To register in interactive Arabic project please click here

Dr. Hassan Alshamrani
Head of the Interactive Arabic Project
Vice-Dean of Quality and Development
Associate Professor of Applied Linguistics
Arabic Language Institute, KSU, Saudi Arabia
InteractiveArabic@ksu.edu.sa