Priming Your Arabic Conversations

Right from their first lesson, our students are eager to get speaking Arabic. We get it. So were we when we started our Arabic degrees. But, to be honest, speaking is quite often a tricky area to practice, especially if you’re not studying in an Arabic-speaking country.

We all know the pitfalls — we learn a few basic phrases and then end up reeling them out every time we try to speak the language, never leaving our comfort zone. Soon our speaking time becomes like groundhog day and we’re repeating the same “How are yous” and “I’m fine thankyous” again and again, inevitably arriving at a frustrating dead-end.

How to solve this problem? Well, you have to get creative. There are lots of ways to push yourself past those plateaus, even if you’re not able to travel to the Arab world.

One such way is to prime your practice conversations. This gives you time to think outside the box and nudge yourself towards using an adventurous phrase here and there.

In our Ihsan Arabic lessons, we often encourage students to pair up and use this approach:

First work separately. Both write your own short list of questions you’d like to ask your partner in a bubble in the centre of the page.

Write a range of possible answers in little bubbles around this list. Sift through your notes and try writing down some interesting phrases that you haven’t mastered yet.

Start the speaking exercise with your partner. It’s fine to glance down at your word bubbles every now and then. This should enrich the conversation, prompting you and your partner to leave your comfort zones and explore new vocabulary.

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