Enhance students’ Arabic proficiency with this modern specification while developing communication and analytical skills.
- For first teaching from September 2026, with first exams from May/June 2028.
- Specification content has been carefully designed to be appropriate for international and multicultural schools, ensuring no student is disadvantaged through arbitrary barriers.
- Includes creative writing to engage and interest students, with a choice of two exam questions from five in the writing paper.
- Offers a clear assessment structure, including a detailed list of grammar that can be assessed, providing clarity for teachers and students.
Join our live online training session on 27 October 2025 to hear more about this new qualification from Specification Development Reviewer, Abdul Haleem.
Register your interest to receive email updates containing resources and support to help you teach this new qualification, including access to digital inspection copies of the Student Book from Oxford University Press.
International GCSE Arabic – First Language (9267)
Students study all of the following themes on which the assessments are based.
- Theme 1: Identity and culture
- Theme 2: Local, national, international and global areas of interest
- Theme 3: Current and future study and employment
OxfordAQA provides resources and advice you need to teach the International GCSE Arabic specification effectively.
- Download the specification.
- Take a look at specimen papers and mark schemes.
- The switching guide will be available before the end of 2025.
- View our training courses to help you deliver OxfordAQA International GCSE Arabic.
- From Oxford University Press: fully-matched Student Book and digital teaching resources available ahead of first teaching in 2026 – register your interest to request a digital inspection copy.
First exams from May/June 2028
Paper 1 – Reading Comprehension and Grammar
• Understanding and responding to different types of written language
• Written exam
• 2 hours
• 50 marks
• 50% of GCSE
Paper 2 – Writing
• Communicating effectively in writing for a variety of purposes
• Written exam
• 1 hour 45 minutes
• 50 marks
• 50% of GCSE
Take a look at:
- Example specimen exam paper and mark scheme for Paper 1.
- The OxfordAQA International GCSE Arabic switching guide will be available soon.
- You must be an approved OxfordAQA centre to enter students for our exams. Make sure you become an OxfordAQA centre before you start teaching a course.
