Learning a new language is always fun and it is more fun and challenging when you get an
opportunity to teach a foreign language. However, you will be burdened with the most
challenging question that a prospective teacher can face – where do you start and what skills are required?
If you are an Arabic Tutor or planning to relocate to an Arabic country to teach or wish to make a career in the Arabic language, then you must have all the essential skills like a pro. It will surely make a big difference in your life when you have all the essential skills of an Arabic tutor.
It is necessary to understand that there can be myriad reasons for a person to learn a foreign language, so a common approach will not yield results here. You must adopt a policy and a system as per the student’s quality and the purpose of learning the language.
Remember, Arabic is not an easy language to learn for any student. So it would help if you
exercised extreme patience as you need to teach the students everything about Arabic scripts, Arabic grammar, pronunciation, Arabic language used in business places, etc. Let us consider the essential skills of an Arabic teacher.
Flexibility
It is probably the most critical skill that an Arabic tutor must possess. He/she should be flexible to teach through various mediums. Nowadays, the students do not like scheduling his or her classes according to the institutes. So the flexibility of an Arabic tutor plays a massive role in this respect. A teacher should be flexible enough to teach a student online if the need arises and also in face.
Quality
Quality is another factor that can determine the success ratio of an Arabic teacher. The teacher must have all the essential qualities of teaching and must have a vision of serving the students’ teaching demands in a fuss-free manner.
Availability
The availability of the tutor matters a lot these days. If you are serious about teaching the Arabic language, you should have the flexibility to make yourself available according to the students’ convenience and desired schedule. Everybody is busy nowadays, and a reliable tutor will not have any qualms about rescheduling classes as per the learner’s convenience.
Experience
It is perhaps the most important quality that an Arabic tutor must imbibe to be successful. Some people are opposed to hiring a teacher who lacks experience. If you are new to teaching, you can gain some experience by teaching language institutes, teaching private students. They are not so demanding and even engaging in online teaching through any portal. Thanks to the Covid-19 pandemic, several online teaching platforms have opened up to facilitate students’ education. So it is a golden opportunity for a tutor to gain valuable teaching experience through online teaching platforms.
Compare profiles of different Arabic teachers.
The Arabic tutors are much in demand nowadays as many people move to the Middle East after taking up jobs. They do not need a University level proficiency, but, at the same time, they will not settle for a teacher whose profile does not create a lasting impression.
So it will be right for you if you can compare your profile with those of other Arabic teachers who are your colleagues or on the same teaching platform. It will help you to understand where you stand in comparison to peers. Since you will find out the grey areas, you can work hard to upgrade yourself and make yourself more worthy of the students.
One of the essential skills for an Arabic tutor is his/her willingness to identify the areas where he lacks expertise and then work on it to make himself at par with other tutors from the same genre.
Set a Good Price for your skills
Generally, a beginner is willing to pay a maximum of USD 20 for a beginner class of Arabic. Adult classes are a bit expensive, at USD 30 per hour. There is a huge demand for Arabic tutors nowadays, and the number of available teachers is not the same in every area. So it is an excellent time to get teaching assignments, but a useful skill for any Arabic tutor would include not being rigid about the payment.
Since these are challenging times due to the pandemic, a few students might ask for reduced rates. It will be foolish to turn them away; here is an opportunity to give your classes a discount and take them in. These good deeds usually spread through word of mouth, and the dissemination of this information will be more helpful than causing harm.
Open to learning
Lastly, every teacher, however experienced he or she is, should be open to learning. The world is a global village now, and every day numerous changes are taking place in every field, including education and teaching. A tutor must keep his mind open to these changes and adapt himself and his teaching methodology to be abreast of times.
He should be dedicated to his teaching goals and make an instant effort to clear the doubts that a student may have. A skillful Arabic tutor would deliver great content through a tailored approach and keep his eyes and ears open so that he never fails to learn a new concept.
A teacher who is available to learning usually proves to be a great educator and this is what every student of the Arabic language looks forward to.
If you are looking to build your career as an Arabic tutor, you must imbibe most of the essential skills discussed here. As a tutor, you should possess the ability to elevate your knowledge and make the Arabic language easy to understand and learn for the students.
Learning a language and teaching a language is not the same thing, they are poles apart. A good tutor would be able to teach in an effortless manner through patience, empathy, and dedication.
