Spoken Arabic for children who want to talk to family, not pass an exam. Taught through conversation from the first lesson rather than through grammar tables.
Most of our students here have the same story: grandparents who speak Arabic, a child who understands a little and answers in English, and a family who would like that to change before the chance goes.
What is covered
- Greetings, introductions and everyday politeness
- Family, home, food, school and daily routine vocabulary
- Asking and answering simple questions
- Numbers, days, months and telling the time
- Building short sentences and holding a basic exchange
Which Arabic
We teach Modern Standard Arabic as the foundation, since it is what your child will meet in writing and in the Quran. Where a family speaks a particular dialect at home, our teachers can introduce common differences so a child is not confused when speaking to grandparents.
This is worth being clear about, because it is the question families most often get wrong when choosing a course. Standard Arabic is understood everywhere and is the right foundation for reading. It is also not quite what anyone speaks at home, so a child taught only standard forms can find a conversation with relatives harder than expected.
Our approach is to build on the standard and layer the family's dialect on top: the greetings, the common verbs, and the handful of words that differ most. Tell us which dialect matters and the teacher will work it in from the start.
How we teach it
The teacher speaks Arabic and explains in English, with the balance shifting as the child gains confidence. Children are asked to speak in every lesson, because listening alone does not produce speakers.
The Arabic starts at a level the child can follow and rises deliberately. A lesson that is entirely in Arabic from week one produces a child who has switched off, and a lesson that is mostly in English produces a child who never has to try.
Mistakes are corrected lightly and often not at all in the moment. A child who is stopped every time they get an ending wrong stops volunteering, and a child who stops volunteering stops learning to speak.
Speaking from the first lesson
Every lesson has the child talking for a meaningful part of it. Not repeating, talking, which is a different and harder thing.
- Answering questions about their own day rather than about a textbook family
- Asking the teacher questions, which is the part children find hardest and need most
- Describing pictures, which removes the need for translation entirely
- Short role plays: a shop, a phone call, meeting someone new
- Recapping the last lesson in Arabic, badly, without help
The willingness to speak badly is the actual skill being built. Children who wait until they can say something correctly do not speak, and the ones who make progress are usually not the ones with the best memory.
Who it suits
Children from around age six. No prior Arabic is needed, though a child who knows the alphabet will progress faster.
It suits three groups in particular. Children with Arabic speaking relatives they cannot talk to. Children who hear Arabic at home and understand it but always reply in English. And children learning to read the Quran who want the language to feel like a living thing rather than a subject.
Children who already understand a good deal without speaking often move very quickly, because the comprehension is already built and only the production is missing. Progress in that case can look sudden.
Reading alongside speaking
Speaking and reading are separate skills and neither one produces the other. A child can speak comfortably and be unable to read a word, and plenty of children read the Quran fluently without understanding any of it.
Most families do both. Children who need the script take Arabic alphabet for kids first or alongside, and those who want to read properly move on to Arabic reading and writing. Where the goal is the Quran specifically, Arabic for non-native speakers covers the ground in a different order.
How long it takes
Simple exchanges, greetings and questions about the day, come within three to four months at two lessons a week. Holding a short conversation with a relative usually takes a year, and being comfortable rather than merely able takes longer than that.
Children with Arabic spoken around them at home are faster by a wide margin, sometimes by a factor of two, because the lesson is topping up something that is being reinforced daily.
What the first six months covers
Months one and two
Greetings, names, ages, family members, and answering simple questions about themselves. By the end of this stage a child can be introduced to an Arabic speaking relative and manage the first minute of the conversation without help.
Months three and four
Daily routine, food, school, likes and dislikes, and the numbers. This is the point at which children start producing sentences they were not taught, which is the first real sign the language is being built rather than memorised.
Months five and six
Past and future, asking rather than only answering, and short exchanges that go somewhere. Conversations stop being a series of questions from an adult and start being a conversation.
How progress is measured
By whether a child can handle an unrehearsed exchange, not by vocabulary tested in isolation. A teacher who asks something slightly off topic and gets a sensible answer has learned more about the child's Arabic than any test would show.
Parents get a short monthly summary covering what the child can now say unprompted, what they understand but cannot yet produce, and a suggested phrase to use at home. What a straight answer on progress looks like is set out in our note on tracking progress.
What parents can do
This is the course where home makes the most difference, and the most useful things are small.
- Use the Arabic you have. Even a few phrases used consistently do more than none used perfectly
- Let them speak to relatives. A short call with a grandparent is worth several lessons
- Do not translate for them. The pause where a child works it out is the learning
- Do not correct in front of others. Confidence is the fragile part here, not vocabulary
- Put Arabic in the background. Cartoons, songs, anything. Passive exposure is free
Families who speak no Arabic at all should not feel this rules them out. It slows things a little and the lessons carry the load, as our note on starting with no Arabic explains.
What a lesson looks like
- Two or three minutes of conversation about the week, in Arabic, from the first lesson onwards
- New vocabulary introduced in context rather than as a list
- A structured activity using it: a role play, a description, a game
- Free speaking, where the child leads and errors are noted rather than corrected
- A short target for the week, usually a phrase to actually use with someone
Common difficulties
Understanding but not answering
Extremely common in children who hear Arabic at home. The route through is lowering the stakes rather than raising the pressure, and accepting mixed sentences for a while.
Shyness with relatives
Children will often speak happily to a teacher and freeze with a grandparent. Short, frequent calls with a low bar work better than an occasional long visit where they are put on the spot.
Forgetting between lessons
Vocabulary that is never used outside the lesson does not stick. This is why the weekly target is always something to say to a real person rather than something to memorise.
Standard Arabic sounding formal
Children sometimes notice that what they are taught is not quite how their family speaks. We explain the difference honestly rather than glossing over it, and add the dialect forms they will actually hear.
Common questions
Can my child learn the dialect only?
Yes, if that is genuinely the goal. It is quicker for family conversation and less useful for reading, so most families choose a mix. Tell us the priority and the teacher will weight the course accordingly.
Does this help with Quran lessons?
Indirectly and considerably. A child who thinks of Arabic as a language people speak approaches recitation differently. For meaning specifically, Quranic Arabic for kids is the more direct route.
Is six too young?
No. Young children are usually the best at this and the least self conscious about mistakes, which is most of the battle. Our note on what age a child can start gives the general position.
Can siblings share a lesson?
For conversation it can work well, since two children can talk to each other. See our note on lessons for more than one child.
How often should lessons be?
Twice a week is the standard for speaking, since language needs frequency more than length. See our lesson frequency guidance.
What does it cost?
Per lesson, with sibling discounts, and the first lesson is free. Current figures are in our lesson pricing note.
Starting
The first lesson is free and is mostly conversation, so you will see straight away how your child responds to being spoken to in Arabic. That reaction tells us more about where to start than any assessment would. See how our lessons work.