Reading Loss in Arabic Language During COVID-19 in the UAE and Proposed Solutions: The Perspectives of Primary-Grade Arabic Language Teachers

The COVID-19 pandemic caused significant disruptions in the field of education worldwide, including in the United Arab Emirates. Teachers and students had to adapt to remote learning and virtual classrooms, leading to various challenges in maintaining educational standards. The sudden transition to remote teaching could have a negative impact on students’ reading abilities, especially in the Arabic language. To gain insight into the unique challenges encountered by Arabic language teachers in the UAE, a survey was conducted to explore their assessment of teaching quality, student-teacher interaction, and learning outcomes amidst the COVID-19 pandemic. The results of the survey revealed a significant decline of student reading abilities and identified several major issues in online Arabic language teaching. These issues included limited interaction between students and teachers, challenges in monitoring students’ class participation and performance, and challenges in effectively assessing students’ reading skills. The results also demonstrated some other challenges faced by Arabic language teachers, including a lack of preparedness, a lack of subscription to relevant platforms, and a lack of resources for online learning. Several solutions to these challenges are proposed, including reevaluating the balance between depth and breadth in the curriculum, integrating language skills into the curriculum more effectively, providing more comprehensive teacher professional development, implementing student grouping strategies, utilizing retired and expert teachers in specific content areas, allocating time for interventions, and improving support from both teachers and parents to ensure the quality of online learning.

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