The British Council English for the Future Programme has just launched the Arabic version of their LearnEnglish website: http://learnenglish.britishcouncil.org/ar/. This new site enables all Arabic speaking learners of English, even beginners, to access the wealth of materials and ideas available on LearnEnglish. LearnEnglish is a free website from the British Council with games, stories, listening and video activities and grammar exercises. There are separate sections for Business and Work, and for the IELTS exam.
Nic Humphries, Director English Middle East and North Africa says: "Trying to improve your language skills by yourself is difficult but there is no reason why learners can't achieve that with some "serious fun". The Arabic version of the LearnEnglish website will help learners in the Middle East and North Africa discover that there is a lot they can do themselves and that learning like this can be enjoyable. Independent online learning is not a common approach to learning in this part of the world but one that is going to be increasingly important in the coming decade. It is a challenge. Fortunately, young people in the region are quickly learning that they can do almost anything now when they put their hearts and minds to it!"
To celebrate the launch, and to help learners of English in the region develop their language skills outside the classroom, the British Council is organising the English Challenge; a competition open to users of LearnEnglish Arabic in the Middle East and North Africa. The competition is running for the months of October, November and December. Each month 3 UAE citizens will win one of a fantastic range of prizes: an iPad2, a Dell Inspiron NS110 and a Nokia mobile phone. Participants need to register on the LearnEnglish website to take part.
English for the Future is a programme designed by the British Council to support English language skills development in the emerging labour market in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA). It works in partnership with Ministries of Education across the MENA region and is supported by the commercial sector.
-Ends-
About the British Council
The British Council is the UK's international organisation for educational opportunities and cultural relations. We create international opportunities for the people of the UK and other countries and build trust between them worldwide. We work in over 100 countries in the arts, education and English and in 2010/11 we engaged face to face with 30 million people and reached 578 million. For more information please visit: www.britishcouncil.org
Competition participants:
- Have to be Arab citizens from the MENA region living in UAE
- Have to be over 16 years old
- Have to register their details on: http://learnenglish.britishcouncil.org/ar/
- Have to answer the competition questions published on the website
For more information about our online resources, please visit:
Teachers: http://www.teachingenglish.org.uk/
Learners: http://learnenglish.britishcouncil.org/ar
Kids: http://learnenglishkids.britishcouncil.org/ar
For more information, contact Jancis McGrady, English Projects Manager, British Council UAE, (Tel) 0505516717 or (Email) Jancis.mcgrady@ae.britishcouncil.org
© Press Release 2011



















