Why Arabic Is Hard To Read

Professor Zohar Eviatar's team of researchers at The University of Haifa have found that both sides of the brain is used when reading a language - but when learning Arabic this is wasting effort. The cursive script of Arabic means that only the left side of the brain, which distinguishes detail, should be used.

The study involved 40 people, some of whom only spoke Hebrew, while some also spoke and read Arabic well. The team then went on to measure how quickly and accurately the students could distinguish between individual letter forms, first in Hebrew and then in Arabic.

Fluent Hebrew readers use both left and right hemispheres of the brain to tell Hebrew letters apart (the same thing has previously been found with English letters. ) There are clear differences between letter forms in English and Hebrew, but not in the cursive Arabic forms.

The Hebrew-only speakers behaved like children just starting to read most languages - they tried to tell Arabic letters apart, managed to do it slowly but made a lot of mistakes, and used both hemispheres of their brains. The fluent Arabic readers, however, only used their left hemispheres to tell Arabic letters apart.

The team think this may give them some clues about what readers may be doing wrong when they begin to try to read Arabic. All learners instinctively use both hemispheres to help them learn any new task. But the right hemisphere is not that good at distinguishing small details, and readers starting to learn Arabic have to learn to focus on small details, such as small dots and tails.

Researchers now hope to compare new and highly expert Arabic readers in the hope of finding out what their brains are doing when they look at letters. This would lead to better teaching methods for Arabic reading, helping students to tell letters apart and how to remember which sound goes with which letter.