History

ArabicOnline is an EU funded project for Arabic that brings together expertise from the worlds of publishing, technology and language learning.

ArabicOnline is suitable for all learners, regardless of their educational background. The pedagogical approach caters for academic and non-academic learners.

Arabic Online was originally developed with support from the European Commission’s Lifelong Leqrning Programme. The online Arabic programme fulfils the European Commission’s policy objective of making educational resources accessible to everyone and not just to the academically gifted.

Partnership with the British Council

2016

Working together with the British Council, the ArabicOnline team will be developing a new course for British schools.

Ministry of Education in Oman

2016

ArabicOnline started working together with the Ministry of Education in Oman to provide new and updated Arabic language learning resources for non-native speakers of Arabic.

Digital certification for Arabic

2014

The team developed a Level A2 test of Modern Standard Arabic.

Winner of the European Language Label Award

2013

The European Language Label is an award from the European Commission that encourages new initiatives in the field of teaching and learning languages, rewarding new techniques in language teaching, spreading the knowledge of their existence and thereby promoting good practice.

The EU judge’s report after reviewing ArabicOnline contained the following comment.

‘I was impressed by the carefully planned pedagogical structure which seeks to unpick the language through interaction with role plays based on practical situations. As they work through each unit, the learner is encouraged to delve deeper and deeper into the elements of each role play, through study of the vocabulary, sound patterns, Arabic script and the grammar underpinning the language.’

Project complete and then translated

2012

The project was officially completed and versions made available in English, German, Italian, Portuguese and Lithuanian.

We continued to improve and develop the course, making it available on iPad devices. We then developed extra resources such as ‘A Guide to Writing Arabic’, vocabulary trainers, downloads and we also now have an active Facebook page where we share news.

ArabicOnline launched in TechHub, London

2011

We launched ArabicOnline at TechHub in London. Participants attended from universities, schools and government institutions.

Project funded by the European Union

2009

ArabicOnline began as an EU funded project for Arabic by the European Union’s Lifelong Learning Programme. Our mission was to dispel the myth that Arabic was a difficult language to learn and prove that the language was indeed accessible to all learners – regardless of their language learning biography – by making it available in a pedagogically up-to-date course.

We brought together a consortium of developers, linguists and Arabists and developed a comprehensive course of Modern Standard Arabic, which was based on the CEF, geared to an internationally recognised standard and suitable for a wide variety of target groups.