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Teacher guide

Edexcel GCSE Arabic revision for teachers

These activities are mapped to Edexcel GCSE Arabic 1AA0. Thirteen of them, one for each topic in the specification, fifteen to eighteen minutes each. The thing worth knowing before you set any of them is how the language appears on screen. Every vocabulary item is shown in Arabic with a romanisation in brackets beside it: يوم (yawm). That runs through all thirteen activities, and it is a deliberate trade. A student who is still slow with the script can do the work rather than stall on decoding it, and a student who reads fluently can ignore the brackets. What it does not do is build the fluency that only comes from reading unsupported script, because the exam will not hand them a romanisation.

This page lists what we actually have for Edexcel GCSE Arabic 1AA0. It is built from the live activities, so it is accurate on the day you read it.

The script, with a romanisation beside it

Every subject page on this site has to explain what its activities put in front of a student. For a language with a different writing system, that question comes before everything else.

Arabic appears in Arabic, and a romanisation appears next to it. Not one or the other, and not one activity in a friendlier form than the rest: all thirteen do it, in the vocabulary pairing, in the gap-fills and in the questions.

That choice cuts both ways, so it is worth being direct about both.

What it buys. A student four months into Year 10, still sounding out letters, can revise the vocabulary for "Daily Life" without the script being the obstacle. Decoding and remembering are different problems, and separating them means a slow reader can still make progress on the words.

What it costs. The exam gives no romanisation. A student who has only ever met a word with the crutch attached has not practised the thing the paper will ask for, which is reading Arabic unsupported. These activities are for the vocabulary and the meaning. The script fluency has to come from somewhere else, and it is worth setting them alongside script-only reading rather than instead of it.

What is not here at all

A language course is not only reading and writing. Students have to understand the language spoken at them and produce it aloud, and there is nothing on this page for either.

That is not an oversight in the Arabic content. DoRevision has no audio interaction of any kind, in any subject, so an activity that plays a recording or listens to a student is not something we can currently build. Everything here is read on a screen and answered on a screen.

If you are planning revision across a course, plan for this page to carry vocabulary and written work, and for listening and speaking to be entirely yours.

One activity per topic

The specification is five themes divided into thirteen topics, and there is exactly one activity for each of them. Nothing is better covered than anything else, and nothing is missing.

That evenness makes it easy to place: a topic finishes in class, its activity goes home that week. It also means this is one pass over the course rather than a bank you can keep drawing on. A student who works through all thirteen has used everything here.

What the activities ask students to do

Vocabulary pairing is in all thirteen, which is the right centre of gravity for a language at this level. Around it sit gap-fills, ordering tasks, multiple choice and short written responses.

Eight of the thirteen ask the student to produce written Arabic rather than only recognise it, which is the harder and more useful thing. Two put a short passage on screen and ask the student to work on it directly.

The three activities embedded below are playable here without an account.

Finding the right one

The lists below group by classroom use, worked out from what each activity contains. For a subject where the useful pattern is little and often rather than a long session before the exam, independent revision students actually keep doing covers what makes that stick. The activities themselves, with the recall goal spelled out, are described in ready-to-run revision activities, and at fifteen to eighteen minutes each they also fit the slots described in 15-minute GCSE revision activities.

To put several in front of one class in order, build a sprint. Everything else we have, by subject and board, is on the revision pages.

What this page does not do

Nothing for listening or speaking. No audio exists on this site, so a substantial part of the course is untouched.

No unsupported script reading. The romanisation is always there, which helps a struggling reader and does not build exam-condition fluency.

One activity per topic, so it is a single pass rather than something a student can return to repeatedly.

It does not track anything, so there is no completion list to check.

Every live Arabic activity for Edexcel

13 activities, all mapped to Pearson Edexcel GCSE (9-1) Arabic (1AA0).

Good for mock preparation (1)

See all 13, by topic

Try it with your class

Edexcel Arabic 15 minutes

Daily Life

14 steps, 9 interactive, 7 activity types.

Best used for
Starter Independent study Intervention
  • Starter: Short enough to open a lesson and still leave time to teach.
  • Independent study: Explains before it asks, so a student can work alone.
  • Intervention: Mostly questions, so it finds the gap quickly.

Try one question

Which word means "he eats"?

Edexcel Arabic 16 minutes

What School Is Like

14 steps, 10 interactive, 7 activity types.

Best used for
Homework Intervention
  • Homework: Set it as a link. It marks itself.
  • Intervention: Mostly questions, so it finds the gap quickly.

Try one question

Which Arabic word means 'a teacher'?

Edexcel Arabic 15 minutes

Environmental Issues

13 steps, 8 interactive, 8 activity types.

Best used for
Starter Homework Independent study
  • Starter: Short enough to open a lesson and still leave time to teach.
  • Homework: Set it as a link. It marks itself.
  • Independent study: Explains before it asks, so a student can work alone.

Try one question

What does the Arabic word بيئة (bee'a) mean in English?

Common questions

Do students see Arabic script or transliteration?

Both, together. Every vocabulary item appears in Arabic with a romanisation in brackets beside it, in all thirteen activities. A student who is still slow with the script can work, and a student who is fluent can ignore the brackets.

Does that prepare them for reading a real exam text?

Only partly, and this is the honest limit. An exam text has no romanisation beside it. These build vocabulary and comprehension; they do not build the fluency that comes from reading unsupported script, so pair them with script-only reading.

Is there anything for listening or speaking?

No. Every activity here is read and answered on screen, and DoRevision has no audio component at all, so nothing on this page rehearses hearing the language or producing it aloud. That is a whole part of a language course we cannot help with.

How much is there?

Thirteen activities, one for each topic in the specification, fifteen to eighteen minutes each. It is one pass over the course rather than a bank.

What do the activities actually ask students to do?

Vocabulary pairing in every one, then a mix of gap-filling, ordering, choosing and short written responses. Eight of the thirteen ask the student to produce written Arabic rather than only recognise it.

Will I see who has completed them?

No. Following a shared link records nothing about who followed it, which is a deliberate choice about children's data.

Put one in front of a class

Tell us the subject and how long you have. You get a link to hand out, and it marks itself.

Create a free teacher account

Written by David Wright, Co-Founder, DoRevision.

David builds DoRevision with his son Noah (15). David has spent his career building EdTech products, and Noah has grown up watching lines of code being written. As a student at an important stage of his education, together they are building the revision platform that Noah is using to help revise for his GCSE exams and hopes his friends will find useful too.

Spotted an error on this page? [email protected]

How DoRevision writes its teacher material How DoRevision uses evidence and cites sources

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