Margot Lange M.A.

(1st Class Hons.) Applied Linguistics, Language Teaching and Learning; B.A., French and German; Grad. Cert. Editing.

I was enrolled in Arabic language courses, taught by Firas Al Shaer in 2014 and 2015. Each course was thirty-six hours long and the classes were held weekly. I attended on an ongoing basis for two years

As a qualified language teacher, myself, I needed to find a language teaching style that suited me and that reflected my own beliefs about language teaching and learning, based on my experience of language teaching over 35 years. Furthermore, as a language learner - I have learned four other languages - not only do I have an understanding of the theory of language acquisition, I also have extensive practical experience of learning languages, other than my mother tongue.

I was a complete beginner in Arabic and I found Firas’s teaching methods very compatible with my expectations and quickly felt at ease in his classes. Firas is a warm, kind and approachable person and the atmosphere in the classroom was always friendly and respectful and there was an element of fun, which made learning easier. Firas goes above and beyond in his quest to communicate Arabic to his students. He is passionate about teaching and really cares about his lessons and his students’ progress

Firas’s teaching is very well-organised, systematic and thorough. Firas utilises a communicative and functional teaching methodology in combination with his teaching of Arabic script. Firas incorporates a wide variety of communicative activities with pair and group tasks, so that we could practise our Arabic with classmates, giving us opportunities to use the language covered in class.

Each lesson is thematically structured, with homework and revision the following week. These themes include language one might need in situations every day with additional vocabulary to enable the student to expand on the basics. The revision element, built in to every lesson is very important and at no time does the student feel overwhelmed with too much content.

Firas also provided excellent notes and support materials that he had created for the class.

The classes were always well subscribed, but the numbers were kept small so that we were able to get sufficient attention from the teacher.

I thoroughly enjoyed my classes with Firas and I learned a lot. I was sad to leave them when I left Dubai. I would have no hesitation to recommend Arabic classes with Firas, who I believe is an excellent, dedicated and effective teacher.