BBC Arabic (Learning English) has a dedicated bilingual radio programme aimed at teaching English to native Arab speakers. As an Arabic learner yourself, you may benefit hugely from listening to this interactive programme where the host (an Arabic speaker) interviews a guest (an English speaker) in English about a particular news item. The interview is then interpreted in Arabic immediately by the host.

اليوم فى بي بي سي أكسترا إنجليش دوج يتحدث إلى رشا عن عدد الطلاب فى الفصول الدراسية فى المدارس البريطانية

Today Doug and Rasha are talking about class sizes.
Here in Britain state schools have a class size of 30 students. But is that too many?
Many teachers say that it is, but not everyone agrees. In some schools with large classses the teacher is helped by a classroom assistant. In this way individual students get more attention.
We asked people what they thought the ideal class size is.
Here are some of their comments:
- I don’t think one person can look after 30 children properly and give them the right amount of attention.
- I think class sizes should be smaller, probably about 15 students.
- I would say that 30 is too big.

ما حجم الفصل الدراسى أينما تعيش؟ ماهو متوسط عدد التلاميذ فى تلك الفصول؟

• class sizes : عدد الطلاب فى الفصل
• a classroom assistant : مساعد تدريس فى الفصل
• attention : إنتباه
• the ideal class size : الحجم المثالى للفصل الدراسي

Source of Realia

BBC Arabic – Learning English – Classroom size

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هل حلمت في يوم من الأيام أن تفتح صفحة جديدة في حياتك؟

• making a fresh start : بداية جديدة – صفحة جديدة في الحياة
• eBay : موقع للمزادات علي شبكة الإنترنت
• to escape from painful memories :يريد أن يهرب من ذكريات مؤلمة
• a clean break :تعبير يعني الإنفصال عن الماضي بشكل تام
• bidding :المزايدة

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Source of Realia

BBC Arabic – Learning English – A fresh strat

Australian auctions entire life on eBay – The Telegraph

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Your Feedback and Comments

• How did you find this activity?
• Did it help you improve your understanding of Arabic?

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To leave a comment about V-Arabic realia resources, go to FEEDBACK & SUGGESTIONS

BBC Arabic (Learning English) has a dedicated bilingual radio programme aimed at teaching English to native Arab speakers. As an Arabic learner yourself, you may benefit hugely from listening to this interactive programme where the host (an Arabic speaker) interviews a guest (an English speaker) in English about a particular news item. The interview is then interpreted in Arabic immediately by the host.

In this podcast, Sam and Doug are talking about the role of English as a global language.

The 21st of February is UN International Mother Language Day, a day which promotes linguistic diversity and multilingualism. Being multilingual means that you are able to speak different languages.

Many jobs require people to be multilingual. Some politicians are multilingual; click on the link below to hear Fidel Castro, who has just retired as leader of Cuba, making a speech in English in 1959.

Today we are asking; “given the status of English as an international language, should world leaders all speak English”?

We asked Londoners what they thought, here are some of their responses:

“If they choose not to that should be respected.” “Not speaking the same language is not necessarily a major barrier to communication.” It would make negotiations easier.”

هل يجب علي كل زعماء العالم التحدث باللغة الإنجليزية؟

• global language : لغة عالمية
• International Mother Language Day : اليوم الدولي للغة الأم
• linguistic diversity :التنوع اللغوي
• multilingualism : تعدد اللغات
• multilingual : يتحدث أكثر من لغة
• retired : تقاعد
• making a speech : يلقي كلمة
• status : وضع – حال
• barrier to communication : عائق أمام التواصل
• negotiations : مفاوضات

Source of Realia

BBC Arabic – Learning English – Importance of the English Language

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BBC Arabic (Learning English) has a dedicated bilingual radio programme aimed at teaching English to native Arab speakers. As an Arabic learner yourself, you may benefit hugely from listening to this interactive programme where the host (an Arabic speaker) interviews a guest (an English speaker) in English about a particular news item. The interview is then interpreted in Arabic immediately by the host.

This is the latest BBC bilingual radio programme for learning English. It is hosted by Mr. Louay Ismail, the BBC producer who came to interview us here at CASAW, University of Edinburgh last Tuesday 4th Mar. 2008

The topic of this podcast is very cheerful and nice to listen to : What makes you happy?.

The topic of discussion stems from a recent research carried out by the University of Edinburgh, which suggests that genes ‘play key happiness role’.

Read more

Welcome to BBC Xtra English!

In today’s programme Doug and Louay talk about happiness.
Scientists at Edinburgh University have been studying identical twins and non-identical twins to see what influence genes have on happiness.
Identical twins have the same genes while non-identical twins are genetically different.
The scientists asked the twins questions to measure how satisfied they were with their lives.
The results were interesting. Identical twins were generally equally happy even when their lifestyles were very different.How can this be?
The scientists have linked certain personality traits with happiness. These include not worrying too much, being sociable and even being conscientious at work.
50% of these personality traits are inherited so the scientists think our genes might contribute to 50% of our general happiness and satisfaction with life.

Listen to the programme :

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Key Vocabulary

• happiness : السعادة
• identical twins : توأم متماثل تماماً في الشكل
• non-identical twins : توأم بينهما إختلافات في ملامح الشكل
• genes : جينات وراثية
• genetically different : مختلفين جينياً
• satisfied : راضياً
• equally happy : سعداء بشكل متساوي – سعداء بشكل متماثل
• lifestyles : أنماط الحياة -أساليب الحياة – الطرق التي يعيش بها الناس حياتهم
• personality traits : مزايا – خواص شخصية
• conscientious : واع – حي الضمير
• inherited : ورث

Further Reading

Related article from Middle Eastern Online

من قال ان السعادة لا تورَّث؟

باحثون يكتشفون ان العوامل الوراثية تتحكم في نصف السمات الشخصية المسؤولة عن الشعور بالسعادة.

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• How did you find this activity?
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To leave a comment about this post, use the comments section below.

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BBC Arabic (Learning English) has a dedicated bilingual radio programme aimed at teaching English to native Arab speakers.

As an Arabic learner yourself, you may benefit hugely from listening to this interactive programme where the host (an Arabic speaker) interviews a guest (an English speaker) in English about a particular news item. The interview is then interpreted in Arabic immediately by the host.

Read the following article before listening to the podcast:

Today Kaz and Louay talk about controlling your anger.

A new study says that controlling your anger helps the body repair itself. It speeds up the healing process.

100 participants were given blisters on their arms and asked to fill in a questionnaire on how well they controlled their temper. Then scientists studied the speed of recovery.

The hot-headed people took longer to heal.

If you can’t control your temper your produce higher levels of the stress hormone cortisol, which in turn affects the healing process.

We hear some anger control techniques including meditation, walking away and biting your lip.

Do you have a bad temper? How do you control it?

هل لديك طبع و مزاج حاد؟ و كيف تقوم بالسيطرة علي غضبك

Further reading:

‘Anger control’ key to recovery – BBC News

Listen to the programme :

Key vocabulary:

• controlling your anger : السيطرة علي غضبك
• the healing process : عملية الشفاء
• blisters : تورم جلدي خفيف – بثرة مائيه
• the speed of recovery : سرعة التماثل للشفاء
• hot-headed people : الناس الذين مزاجهم حاد و يغضبون بسرعة
• to heal : أن يُشفي
• stress hormone : الهرمون المسبب للقلق و الإجهاد
• anger control techniques :طرق و أساليب للسيطرة علي الغضب
• meditation : التأمل و التفكر
• biting your lip :عض الشفاه

Read more >> Options >>

Source of Realia:

• BBC Arabic – Learn English – تعليم الإنجليزي