Why Arabic Storytelling Are So Important When Learn Arabic

Trying to learn a new language for the first time can be difficult. It usually involves staring at a textbook or listening to a piece of Arabic audio until you’ve memorized the vocabulary. Learning basic words is the easy part, but understanding different tenses and conversational techniques is a lot trickier. This is where stories come into play.

Since we were children, stories have been used to help us learn. They not only make the learning process more enjoyable and engaging, but also provide more context.

How does storytelling apply to Learn Arabic

If a story was written for you in the language you were trying to learn, such as Arabic, and you had it translated, everything would be put into context for you.

Let’s say you were struggling to learn the different tenses. If you read a story that was written first in the present tense, then in the past tense, you’d clearly be able to see and understand the differences as you’re reading them.

As Steve Kaufman discusses in this YouTube video, the basic concepts and structures that we want to say are typically the same across all languages. The issues that you will face when learning will be the same, no matter what the language is. For example, you’re going to have to deal with different nouns, adjectives, tenses, probabilities and prepositions. Fundamentally, you will have to learn these in every language you learn.

A story can be written by a native speaker and then translated so that you can understand it completely. If you then go onto learn a brand-new language, you can have the story written again so that you can see how everything translates.

Typically, the story will translate into your language the same. But as different regions have distinct cultures, some things may have to be altered. Stories written in certain languages will likely have a cultural bias and so when translated, they will need to be localised (e.g. changing the names of the characters from Peter to Pierre if you’re learning French).

The structure of the story is key if you want it to be a useful learning experience. The stories written don’t have to be short, around 10 sentences will suffice.

The story should describe someone doing something and be written in different tenses and points of view (e.g. in the first person and then the second person). You could also create questions based on the story for you to answer afterwards. Doing this will create repetition and will give you the chance to practice responding.

A useful learning technique is to Google the common difficulties people face with the language you are learning. You should then get the writer of your story to include them in the writing to help you learn.

Why else is storytelling so useful?

Storytelling creates familiarity, as you are just focussing on a few set characters and following what they’re doing. You’re also going to see the same words pop-up throughout which adds to this sense of familiarity, and be exposed to new verbs and adjectives that you may not have seen in context if it wasn’t for the story.

Stories stick with us. If you were put on the spot, you would likely be able to describe the plot of at least one story you’ve read. You may not remember the exact words on the page, but you will have created a representative and memorable image in your head. This can be applied when using stories to learn a language.

London Arabic are here to help

If you’re interested in learning Arabic or want to develop your language skills further, you can look at our online Arabic courses here.