Teachers' Professional License – Subject Test: Arabic Language 1: free practice test

Past exam question Unit: Grammar and morphology

1. Averb – particle – noun

   The tāʾ is an attached subject pronoun, which is a noun, not a particle.

2. Bverb – noun – particle

   The kāf is an attached object pronoun, which is a noun, not a particle.

3. Cverb – noun – noun ✓ Correct answer

   (اصطفى, iṣṭafā) is a past verb, the tāʾ is a subject pronoun and the kāf an object pronoun, and pronouns are nouns.

4. Dnoun – verb – noun

   The word begins with the verb (اصطفى, iṣṭafā), not with a noun.

Reference: ETEC Arabic Language Teacher Standards – Level 1 (2020), Standard 6.36.1 (parts of speech, declension and definiteness), indicator 1, p. 8

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Past exam question Unit: Grammar and morphology

1. Aظننتُ الضيفَ حاضرًا ("I thought the guest was present")

   The two objects of (ظن) were originally (الضيف حاضر), a subject and a predicate.

2. Bرأيتُ العلمَ نافعًا ("I considered knowledge beneficial")

   (رأى) here is a verb of the heart meaning "to consider", and its objects were originally (العلم نافع).

3. Cوجدتُ الصدقَ منجاةً ("I found truthfulness a rescue")

   (وجد) here means "to know", and its objects were originally (الصدق منجاة).

4. Dكسا والدي أخته ثوبًا جديدًا ("My father clothed his sister in a new dress") ✓ Correct answer

   (أخته) and (ثوبًا) are two objects that cannot form a subject and predicate, since (أخته ثوبٌ) is not a meaningful sentence.

Reference: ETEC Arabic Language Teacher Standards – Level 1 (2020), Standard 6.36.2 (nominative nouns), indicator 2, p. 8; Ibn ʿAqīl, Sharḥ al-Alfiyya, chapter on kāna and its sisters

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Past exam question Unit: Grammar and morphology

1. Asubject

   A subject is nominative, and the word after the first term here is genitive.

2. Bthe second term of an annexation ✓ Correct answer

   (كلِّ) is the first term and (شيءٍ) is the second term, genitive with a kasra.

3. Cobject

   An object is accusative, and (شيءٍ) bears the genitive kasra.

4. Dpredicate

   The predicate here is (خالقُ), which is nominative, while (شيءٍ) is genitive.

Reference: ETEC Arabic Language Teacher Standards – Level 1 (2020), Standard 6.36.4 (genitive nouns), indicator 3, p. 8

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Past exam question Unit: Grammar and morphology

1. A(مُسَاوَاة)

   (مُسَاوَاة) is the verbal noun of (سَاوَى), pattern mufāʿala, not of (سَوَّى).

2. B(اسْتِوَاء)

   (اسْتِوَاء) is the verbal noun of (اسْتَوَى), pattern iftiʿāl, not of (سَوَّى).

3. C(سَوَاء)

   (سَوَاء) is a noun meaning equal or even; it is not a standard verbal noun.

4. D(تَسْوِيَة) ✓ Correct answer

   (سَوَّى) is on the pattern faʿʿala, whose standard verbal noun is tafʿīl; when the last radical is weak it becomes tafʿila: (تَسْوِيَة).

Reference: ETEC Arabic Language Teacher Standards – Level 1 (2020), Standard 6.36.8 (morphological terms and rules), indicator 5, p. 9; Shadhā al-ʿArf fī Fann al-Ṣarf

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Past exam question Unit: Language and vocabulary

1. Achapter dāl, section ṣād ✓ Correct answer

   The root is (ṣ-f-d); al-Qāmūs uses the last letter for the chapter (dāl) and the first for the section (ṣād).

2. Bchapter ṣād, section dāl

   This reverses the system: the chapter is the last root letter and the section the first.

3. Cchapter fāʾ, section ṣād

   Fāʾ is the middle letter of the root, not the last, so it cannot be the chapter.

4. Dchapter dāl, section fāʾ

   The chapter is right, but the section is the first letter (ṣād), not fāʾ.

Reference: ETEC Arabic Language Teacher Standards – Level 1 (2020), Standard 6.36.9 (dictionary use), indicator 2, p. 9

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Past exam question Unit: Literature and appreciation

1. Athe Jāhilī era

   The Jāhilī era knew the single-rhyme ode, not the muwashshaḥ.

2. Bthe Abbasid era

   The muwashshaḥ arose in al-Andalus, even if it overlapped the Abbasid period in time.

3. Cthe early Islamic era

   Early Islamic poetry kept the traditional ode form.

4. Dthe Andalusian era ✓ Correct answer

   The muwashshaḥ originated in al-Andalus as an innovation in form, rhyme and meter.

Reference: ETEC Arabic Language Teacher Standards – Level 1 (2020), Standard 6.36.10 (periods of Arabic literature, writers and genres), indicator 1, p. 9

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Past exam question Unit: Literature and appreciation

1. Aone tenor and several vehicles

   There are three tenors (آراؤكم، وجوهكم، سيوفكم), not one.

2. Bseveral tenors and one vehicle ✓ Correct answer

   Three things (opinions, faces, swords) are likened to one thing, the stars: several tenors, one vehicle.

3. Cseveral tenors and several vehicles

   The vehicle is the single word (نجوم), so it is not plural in the sense of several different things.

4. Done tenor and one vehicle

   The tenors are three, so it is not one.

Reference: ETEC Arabic Language Teacher Standards – Level 1 (2020), Standard 6.36.11 (appreciating literary text), indicator 1, p. 9; al-Balāgha al-Wāḍiḥa, section on simile

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Past exam question Unit: Producing language (speaking and writing)

1. Aits third letter takes ḍamma and a long vowel is added after its first letter

   The third letter of the verbal noun takes kasra, not ḍamma, and no long vowel is added after the first.

2. Bits third letter takes kasra and an alif is added before the last letter ✓ Correct answer

   For five- and six-letter verbs the third letter takes kasra and an alif is added before the last: استخرج ← استخراج، انطلق ← انطلاق.

3. Cits second letter takes kasra and its last letter is dropped

   The second letter is silent in (استخراج) and the last letter is not dropped.

4. Dits third letter takes fatḥa and its hamza is dropped

   The third letter takes kasra, not fatḥa, and the hamza stays in the verbal noun.

Reference: ETEC Arabic Language Teacher Standards – Level 1 (2020), Standard 6.36.13 (producing language), indicator 7 (writing hamzas), p. 10

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Past exam question Unit: Teaching Arabic in primary school

1. Akey words

   Key words are used to pull out the most important points in a text, not to build vocabulary.

2. Bthe listening triangle

   The listening triangle is a strategy for developing listening, not vocabulary.

3. Csemantic maps ✓ Correct answer

   A semantic map links a new word to its synonyms, antonyms and related words, thereby building vocabulary.

4. Dcopying vocabulary repeatedly

   Repeated copying is rote memorising that does not link a word to its meanings or grow vocabulary.

Reference: ETEC Arabic Language Teacher Standards – Level 1 (2020), Standard 6.36.15 (teaching reading and reading-lesson strategies), indicator 4, p. 10

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Past exam question Unit: Teaching Arabic in primary school

1. Avisual dictation (al-imlāʾ al-manẓūr)

   In visual dictation the text is shown, then hidden and dictated; it is not direct copying.

2. Bcopied dictation (al-imlāʾ al-manqūl) ✓ Correct answer

   The pupil copies from a written model; it is also called copied dictation (manskhūkh), and suits beginners in Grades 1 and 2.

3. Cauditory dictation (al-imlāʾ al-istimāʿī)

   It relies on listening to the text after discussing it, not copying from a model.

4. Dtest dictation (al-imlāʾ al-ikhtibārī)

   Its aim is to measure attainment, not to practise copying.

Reference: ETEC Arabic Language Teacher Standards – Level 1 (2020), Standard 6.36.16 (teaching writing), indicator 4, p. 11

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