The head of the Riyadh-based Princess Nora University stressed the need to teach Arabic to children at an early age, so as to strengthen the language’s role in the region.
Huda bint Mohammad Al-Ameel, the university’s dean, also pointed out that Arabic is the language of Islam and part of the Saudi culture and heritage. It is the symbol of the country’s identity and a medium of communication in the Arab nation.
Al-Ameel was addressing the “Arabic Language Forum and the Child: Challenges and Experiments” at the university premises as part of the Al-Jazeerah Research Chair for modern linguistic studies at the university.
Underlining the importance of the Arabic language as the lingua franca of the Arab world, the dean emphasized the need for proficiency in it, as it is facing fierce competition with other languages that are used in contemporary science and technology.
“Our support for the Arabic language has two sides; the first side is academic, we are keen to improve the quality of what we produce, especially in scientific fields. The other side of it is the interest in supporting Arab children’s language to ensure fluency in their mother tongue,” Al-Ameel explained during her dissertation.
According to the academic, today’s children are the seeds of tomorrow and the ones who will carry the responsibility of keeping the language alive.
“To serve the Arabic language is everyone’s duty as it is the Holy Qur’an’s language and source of the wealth knowledge that brought Arabs in a high position in the world,” said Al-Jazeerah’s chief, Khaled Al-Malik.
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