1

Teaching a Language for No Purpose: The Case of

Teaching Arabic in International Settings
Dr. Mohamed Elfatih A. Braima
University of Khartoum, Sudan
braima1000@yahoo.com

Abstract

This paper investigates the situation of teaching Arabic in International formal settings. It takes as
a case study the experience of the International Islamic School (IIS) in Malaysia. This is a first
hand account which reviews the experience of IIS in teaching Arabic both as a first and foreign
language. The paper focuses on issues such as the limited recourses, objectives for teaching the
language, students' motivation, teachers qualifications and experience, teaching materials and
textbooks, parents expectations, students levels and grouping. The main point of the study is that
there is no clear and strong purpose for teaching Arabic in non Arab countries, this fact causes
low learners motivation, and poor learning outcome. Most of the available textbooks have been
designed for adults, and teaching methodologies are inadequate compared to those used for
teaching ESL. The study shows a diminishing role and presence for Arabic as a First Language,
and an external religious motivation for learning ASL from the part of the parents and not the
learners.

Introduction:

This paper sheds light on the situation of teaching of Arabic language in countries where
the language does not enjoy any functional communicative role. The study takes
experience of the International Islamic School (IIS) in Malaysia as a case study. There,
teachers of Arabic have been facing many difficulties and have received a lot of criticism
from all directions, yet no proper investigation or research has been conducted to look
into the issue. This timely paper covers the following important issues: teachers,
textbooks and reading schemes, teaching methodology, objectives for language teaching,
student motivation and the language teaching policy. It is hoped that the information
provided will enlighten the decision makers and parents of the school, so that they can
better understand the challenges faced by teachers of Arabic and help them to establish a
more effective Arabic language policy at IIS.

Background:

International Islamic School (IIS) is an English medium school with both primary and
secondary departments. The Office of the Rector, at the International Islamic University
Malaysia, established the IIS project in 1998. The rector at that time was Dr Abdul
Hamid Abu Sulaiman, a Saudi national, who are supportive of the mission of the school.
A number of American-educated Muslim scholars such as Dr. Farida Shamma, were
involved in conceptualizing the school and formulating its curriculum. In line with their
recommendations, the school followed an American curriculum for the first two years of
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its inception; with the exception of Arabic, Islamic Studies, Quran and Social Studies to
some degree. In the academic year 1999/2000, the School began a gradual departure from
the American syllabus towards a British Curriculum - students started to prepare for the
Cambridge IGCSE examination (International General Certificate of Secondary
Education) which is quite similar to the old 'O'-Level exam. They then continued to study
Cambridge 'A-levels', which, with the right grades, would provide them university
entrance in any recognized university in the world.
The establishment of IIS was supported and welcomed by the International Islamic
University Malaysia (IIUM) for three reasons:

1. The University would no longer have to pay exorbitant fees to other International
Schools in Kuala Lumpur for the children of its expatriate staff. Instead, it could
support an affiliated organization where the money could indirectly filter back to
the university‟s coffers.
2. The IIUM could have more say about the syllabus of IIS through the university's
Faculty of Education.
3. IIUM could feel confident that students at IIS would be receiving an education in-
line with its own Islamic values and practices. In other words, Islamic values
could be inculcated at an even earlier level.

IIS started with the full support of the University and its Education Faculty with two full-
time staff being seconded from the IIUM‟s education faculty to run the school. These
were; Dr. Mohiani Razikin, a Malaysian national, hired as Principal of the school, and
Dr. Feryal Alkhaldi, an American national, employed as Director of Academics.

A Board of Governors, with the Kulliyyah of Education having some representation,

managed the administration of the school. Since the University was not permitted to
involve itself in education below the level of Matriculation, it established a company to
manage the school called 'Gombak Educational and Cultural Development' (GECD) with
Mr. Yasin Baboo as General Manager. In 2002, GECD sought to diversify its business
profile by entering into a number of ventures such as; trading, property management,
tourism and agriculture. It therefore changed its identity from GECD to IIUM Holdings.
Education then became managed under the subsidiary 'IIUM Education' - the first
General Manager of which was Mr Shamsul Kahar Haroon.
By 2007, IIUM Education had expanded its business operations to include the following
organizations:

1. The International Islamic School (IIS)

2. International Islamic College (IIC) established since 2000
3. Sekolah Taman Ilmu dan Budi (Malaysian National School)
4. IIUM Montessori (previously known as IIS Kindergarten)

The student population of IIS consists mainly of children with some connection outside
Malaysia For example, children of expatriate lecturers at IIUM, children of expatriate
staff working in companies in Malaysia or Malaysian children whose parents worked or
studied overseas for some years. Another category comprises of non-Malaysian students
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who come to Malaysia specifically to study at IIS and who stay in the IIS hostel. In 2005
there were 300 pupils studying at IIS coming from over 35 countries such as - Pakistan,
Malaysia, Singapore, Indonesia, Thailand, China, USA, UK, Holland, Sudan, Algeria,
Iraq, Gambia, Guinea, Yemen, Bosnia, New Zealand, Japan and Brunei.

The Language Scenario at IIS

The medium of instruction at IIS is English; however, Arabic and Malay
are both compulsory subjects from Grade 1 to Grade 9. Urdu is an elective subject for
grade 10 and 11, and in the year 2004-2005, the school planned to offer other elective
languages such as French, Thai and Mandarin starting from Grade 7.

Teaching Arabic at IIS

Arabic is a compulsory subject from Grade 1 to 9 for all students and is offered as a first
language for native speakers of Arabic and a second language for those who are not
native speakers. Arabic features every day as a 40-minute period in the primary school
timetable, and four 50-minute periods per week in the secondary school. The following
table shows the weight age of Arabic in the school timetable:
Number of periods Total time per week Percentage
Primary (Grade 1-6) 5 200 minutes 13.2%
Secondary (Grade 7-9) 4 200 minutes 14.7%
IGCSE (Grade 10-11) 4 200 minutes 14.7
A-Level - - -
Students study Arabic for around 6,600 minutes per academic year (110 hours). This
means that students who go through the school from Grade 1 to Grade 9 will have studied
a total of 990 full contact hours of Arabic! However, this huge amount of time yields
very little benefit in terms of actual written and oral competency, particularly for Arabic
as a Second Language.

The current practice for grade 1 is that both native and non-native speakers study together
in the same class. The justification for doing this is that, since neither groups know how
to read or write, the teacher can focus on the basics of reading and writing the alphabet,
letter recognition, spelling and connection between sounds and letters for both groups.
From Grade 2 and above, the students are divided into two groups. Native speakers go to
one class and non-native speakers are divided into smaller classes, according to their
level. Since the number of students in a class ranges from 15 to 25, the school has
adopted a „block‟ timetable system, where different grades are taught Arabic at the same
time i.e. students from one grade study with students from another grade who are of
different ages but a similar language level. In the academic year 2004/2005 the Arabic
classes were combined as follows:

Grade combination Number of groups Number of students

Grade 1 1 20
Grades 2 & 3 3 42
Grade 4 & 5 4 50
Grade 6 & 7 3 35
Grade 8, 9 & ESL 5 57
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Grade 10 2 7
Grade 11 1 2

The table above combines information on Arabic as a first language and second language.
However, it would be useful to discuss them separately.

Teaching Arabic as a First Language:

During the first two years of the school the student intake comprised of a large number of
native Arabic speakers. Consequently, the Arabic language had a high profile in the
following ways:
1. The majority of extra-curricular activities, such as performances on stage, were
conducted in Arabic to suit the audience of mainly Arabic speakers.
2. Islamic studies classes were taught in English and Arabic.
3. Arabic was the main medium of communication among students outside class.

Due to rapid changes in the student population, the position of Arabic became more and
more precarious. Among the causes of these changes were‟ many Arabic speaking
students leaving the country or moving to other Arabic or International schools in Kuala
Lumpur. As a result, the problems of the Arabic department increased and these problems
can be summarized as follows:

1. Reduction in the Number of Students:

Small numbers of students in class creates problems for both the administration and for
teachers. From a financial point of view, it is a great waste of resources to run classes
containing only one or two students. Teachers also complain that it is difficult to teach a
class with only a few students in, because students cannot interact or participate in
activities. Moreover, in a class of two students where one student constitutes 50% of the
class, if that student is absent, teachers tend to wait until the absent student returns,
holding up the other student in the class. In response to this problem, the school
administration resorted to combining classes by merging other classes with less than three
students. But combining classes has one major disadvantage - students who are pushed up
to the next year skip a whole academic year, while students who are pushed down repeat
a whole year. In many cases, students who jump a year struggle to catch up with their
new classmates, and students who are pushed down feel bored because they are covering
the same material for the second time. This is not only a waste of students‟ time, but can
also affect students‟ motivation to study.

The following table shows the number of Arabic speaking students in each grade in the
academic year 2003/2004:

Number of Arab students

Grade 2 7
Grade 3 3
Grade 4 4
Grade 5 7
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Grade 6 4
Grade 7 1
Grade 8 2
Grade 9 5
Grade 10 2
Grade 11 1

2. The Learning Environment:

By the end of 2004, Arabic speaking students constituted only 13% of the total student
population, making them a minority in the school. Since the students of IIS come from
such diverse ethnic and linguistic backgrounds, English became the dominant language of
communication, both inside and outside the class. English also took over for the daily
running and administration of the school. This „wave‟ of English led Arabic-speaking
students to gradually abandon their mother tongue and start communicating in English to
the point where even siblings of Arabic speaking parents could be seen talking to each
other in English!

The home environment plays a vital role in increasing or countering the influence of
English language. If parents communicate in Arabic at home with each other, yet respond
to conversations initiated by their children in English, or if they ignore their children
playing and discussing in English at home, then they inadvertently weaken the position of
Arabic. Parents play a vital role in the linguistic behavior of their children because
children take cues from their parents about what is allowed and not allowed and whether
they should be monolingual or bilingual. Arabic speaking parents can enrich their
children‟s Arabic vocabulary and language structures, making them feel proud and
privileged to have Arabic as their mother tongue, and to have the chance to study it in a
school so far removed from the Arabic speaking world.

Sadly, Arabic is loosing on another battlefront in terms of mass media and television.
Parents are often busy at work or in their studies leaving children to spend a considerable
amount of time watching children‟s television programs. The trouble is, Arabic programs
are rarely aired in Malaysia and when they are, they are seldom directed towards
children. Some families may have satellite dishes with 24 hour access to the Egyptian
based ART Variety channels or the Doha-based Al-Jazirah news channel, but again, these
channels are not aimed at young viewers, so there are only a few children‟s programs. In
this way children become addicted to the more attractive and stimulating cartoon
channels and Disney films.

3. Limited library resources and the lack of a reading scheme.

The school library lacks any form of structured reading scheme or reading materials to
support children‟s reading and fluency in Arabic at the lower levels. Teachers believe that
were such resources made available, students would greatly increase their vocabulary and
could be exposed to new forms of Arabic in a more varied and motivating way.

The library houses only a very limited number of Arabic storybooks for children. Dr.
Abdul Hamid Abu Sulaiman, the previous rector of IIUM, donated the majority of the
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Arabic books on the library‟s shelves in 1998, but most of these books came from his
personal library, which was intended for university students. In 2002, the school spent
money to obtain Arabic storybooks from Qatar and these storybooks are available in the
library. However, teachers need to learn how to make use of them effectively, if they are
to be of benefit to students. Teachers should also encourage students to borrow books
from the library by suggesting suitable titles for their language level. In addition, the
school should allocate a portion of its yearly budget for the purchase Arabic library
books.
4. Teaching staff:
The Arabic department has been fortunate in terms of teaching staff with both First
Language Arabic teachers being native speakers from Iraq, Sudan, Jordan, Eritrea and
Algeria. Some of these teachers have been in the school since 1998, with one of them
specializing in Arabic, holding a masters degree in Education and having taught Arabic
for ten years. All Arabic teachers are considered to be very dedicated members of staff.

5. Textbooks:
From the year 1998 to 2002, the school used Arabic textbooks published by the Jordanian
Ministry of Education. However, the school was never able to secure an original supply
of these textbooks. After much deliberation, the Arabic Department succeeded in
obtaining an offer of free Arabic textbooks from the Ministry of Education in Qatar. This
series is still in use, despite complaints from parents about the level of vocabulary being
too high for students. This supply of textbooks from Qatar has solved the immediate
textbook problem, giving the department a chance to focus on other issues like the
improving of teaching methodology - an area where concern is mounting.

To summarize, although the teaching of Arabic as a First Language faces no immediate

problems in terms of textbooks or teachers, the decreasing number of Arabic speaking
students and the lack of support provided by the school environment makes Arabic as a
First language struggle for survival.

Second: Teaching Arabic as a Second Language (ASL):

Arabic as a Second Language is an area where both the school and the teachers face
many challenges. Before discussing these challenges, some explanation of the status of
the subject needs to be given.

First Language (FL) Arabic teaching, as the name suggests, refers to teaching Arabic to
native speakers of Arabic, for whom Arabic is their mother tongue. Second Language
(SL) teaching on the other hand, relates teaching Arabic to students who use Arabic
extensively in their every day life, but for whom Arabic is not their mother tongue. A
clarification of the differences between these two types of teaching would be helpful in
understanding the problems faced by the Arabic teachers at IIS. Below follows a list of
issues facing Arabic teachers along with a detailed discussion of each:

1. Objectives for teaching Arabic.

2. Students‟ motivation to study Arabic
3. Teachers‟ experience and qualifications
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4. Textbooks
5. Methodology of teaching
6. Parents‟ expectations
7. The environment
8. Grouping of students according to their level of proficiency
9. The admission policy of the school
10. Language skills
1. Objectives for teaching Arabic as a Second Language at IIS:
Since the beginning of the school, it has never been clear why Arabic is offered as a
compulsory subject for Grades 1 to 9. It was loosely assumed that Arabic should have a
high status because it is the language of the Quran, the revealed book for Muslims.
Knowledge of the Arabic orthography, sounds and morphology is important for reciting
the Quranic text. However, experience proved that millions of Muslims around the world
recite the Quran perfectly without understanding Arabic. Nevertheless, besides the
recitation of Quran, there are a host of other assumed reasons why Arabic should be
taught at IIS:

 To read Quran properly from the original text

 To understand the meaning of the Quran and feel the glory of its message, rather
than relying on translations.
 To enable students to gain access to the vast collection of Islamic literature
available in Arabic.
 To unify the Muslim community (Ummah) through the use of one language
 To continue higher education in Islamic studies or law, in Arabic speaking
countries.
 To take the IGCSE Arabic exam.
 To appreciate Arabic literature and culture, especially Arabic poetry - both pre
and post-Islamic.
 To communicate and integrate with the Arab community.

IIS needs to identify a clear set of objectives for teaching Arabic and then work towards
achieving them, if it is to be successful. Teaching Arabic for its own sake will not guide
teachers in the necessary teaching skills, nor will it assist in the adoption of an
appropriate syllabus. The result will be deep frustration on the part of teachers,
disappointment for parents and indolence for students. It is therefore high time that the
school answered the crucial question of why students learn Arabic at IIS. Answering this
question will aid syllabus design, selection of suitable teaching materials and the
development of relevant teaching methodologies.

2. Motivation for learning Arabic:

Student motivation is a decisive factor when studying a language and this is affected by
the purpose for which the language is learnt. One of the problems at IIS is that Arabic is a
compulsory subject which makes students feel compelled to study it, thus lowering their
motivation This is manifested in the following ways:

a) Students skip ASL classes more than any other subject.

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b) Students look for excuses to arrive late at ASL classes.

c) Teachers complain that students do not hand in homework.
d) Students complain that ASL classes are boring.

The above behaviors show a lack of purpose or „orientation‟ to study Arabic. Al-Busairi
(1991) defines orientation as, “The student‟s reasons for studying the language.”
According to him, students‟ motivation for learning can either be integrative or
instrumental. Integrative motivation focuses on the desire for interaction with members of
the target language community. Instrumentally motivated students have a more pragmatic
approach such as the desire to achieve academic or professional qualifications. Analyzing
students‟ orientation to study language helps identify their language needs and assists in
the selection of teaching materials and teaching methods.

The objectives listed above can be grouped according to the two types of motivation -
Objectives numbered (e) and (f) are examples of instrumental motivation, while
objectives (g) and (h) show integrative motivation. The other objectives labeled (a) to (d)
correspond to another type of motivation - religious motivation. Religious motivation can
be defined as the desire to study a language in order to fulfill certain religious obligations.
It is not essential to learn Arabic to be a Muslim, but it certainly helps. Students at IIS
seem to have a rather short-term form of „instrumental‟ motivation, which seldom
extends beyond scoring a high mark in class or passing end of year examinations. During
a period of two years, only one student has taken Arabic for the purpose of continuing his
education in an Arab country and no student has expressed the view that Arabic is going
to play an important role in his or her future occupation. There is no indication that
students are integratively motivated to learn Arabic. This is because they speak to their
Arab peers and friends in English, as well as their siblings. It seems unlikely therefore
that they would want to integrate into Arab culture or society in the future. The third type
of motivation - religious motivation contains a paradox. Motivation usually relates to the
learners, however, in the case of religious motivation, we find that parents are more
motivated than students. In other words, parents are the ones who want their children to
learn Arabic for religious benefits, whereas students do not seem to see the relevance of
it. As such, the motivation is not internalized but works indirectly through the parents. If
this kind of motivation can be made more immediate, then students will begin to
understand why their parents want them to study it and then learning will become more
meaningful for them.

3. Teachers’ qualifications and experience:

Since the start of the school, around fourteen teachers taught ASL, six of whom are still
teaching at the school.

Number of teachers Qualifications Current Status

3 M.A in teaching Arabic as a 2 still teaching ASL at
Second Language IIS
4 B.A or M.A in Teaching Arabic as 2 still teaching ASL at
a Second Language IIS
5 B.A or MA. in Islamic Studies or 2 still teaching ASL at
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other related fields IIS

2 M.A in Business or Economics Both no longer teaching
ASL at IIS

The table above shows the qualifications of those who have taught ASL at IIS. For the
first group, all 3 teachers (21%) have an Arabic specialization. The 4 teachers in the
second group (29%) were specialized in teaching Arabic as a second language, with all
four being native speakers of Arabic. The biggest group of 5 teachers (36%) were
graduates of Islamic studies or other related fields; all of whom were native speakers of
Arabic. The two teachers in the smallest group (14%) were graduates of Economics and
Business Studies. Both were non-native speakers of Arabic. In the last group, neither of
the teachers are currently teaching Arabic at IIS any longer.
From the statistics it is clear that there is a need for more teachers of Arabic as a second
language to be recruited. Being a native speaker of Arabic does not automatically qualify
a person to teach Arabic. Teachers with Islamic studies backgrounds may be enthusiastic
about teaching Arabic, but may lack the necessary methodology to teach the language
effectively. It is worth noting that having Arab teachers specialized in ESL to teach
Arabic is useful, provided that some retraining is given to ensure that ESL teachers
transfer their ESL knowledge to Arabic teaching. Such teachers can contribute a lot to
ASL teaching in terms of modern methodology and techniques. Most of the teachers
involved in teaching ASL have been teacher elsewhere, before they joined IIS, so lack of
experience is not a factor in the deterioration of ASL in the school.

4. Textbooks:
The biggest dilemma facing the Arabic Department at IIS has been obtaining suitable
textbooks. When the school started in 1998, no single textbook was specified for ASL
teachers. It was left to individual teachers to select a suitable textbook for their class,
based on their own experience and the ability of the students. The selected materials were
then sent for photocopying, as the original textbooks were out of print in the local market.
The following textbooks were the most popular titles used by teachers during the first two
years of school:

a) Al-Arabiah Llnash’een (Saudi Arabia)

b) Al-Qalam (by Prof. Muhammad Akram Saadudin, IIUM)
c) Iqra Series (USA-based Iqra Foundation)

This haphazard approach to obtaining textbooks created a lot of inefficiency, especially

when students move from one group to another or when class teachers change. From
2001, the school administration and Arabic department attempted to streamline the
selection of textbooks. Since local suppliers have no contacts with Arabic publishers, it
was eventually decided to use a locally published ASL textbook, as other schools in
Malaysia have used them successfully. Regrettably, even before the implementation of
the new textbook, teachers began raising concerns about spelling mistakes, errors in
syntax, inappropriate lexis and the unconventional Arabic script of the textbook. It is
possible that this last shortcoming could be due to the influence of local Javi script.
 10

Despite these inadequacies, the teachers agreed to use the textbook with two provisos -
firstly, teachers would identify and correct all serious mistakes so that students would not
internalize wrong forms of Arabic. Secondly, the school would establish contact with the
publishers to reprint the books, after the necessary corrections had been made. However,
after a trial of one semester, it became clear that the textbook was not suitable and so by
the end of the year the textbook was abandoned.

Under pressure to find another textbook, the Arabic department returned to Al-Arabiah
Llnash’een. But the problem with this book is that it was designed to teach Arabic to
adult learners, so that most of the topics and strategies are not suitable for children aged 6
to 12. Due to this, the primary department has had problems with the textbook, but in
2002, the secondary school settled for the textbook.

Solving the primary textbooks problem dominated discussions in the Arabic Department
for some time. After some resistance from the staff, it was agreed that second language
teachers would use the Qatari textbook, designed for native speakers, only with a
difference - the grade 3 second language learners would use the grade 1 textbook. Sadly,
after one year of experimentation, it became clear that this approach was unrealistic
because the texts were far too difficult for second language learners. Using text which are
too difficult for learners contradicts Krashen‟s (1981,1982) notion of „Comprehensible
Input‟. As a result, teachers complained that the concepts and vocabulary presented in the
book were too advanced for the students.
This experience was coupled with another experiment of allowing non-native speakers to
join first language classes. Only those with a high language aptitude and strong parental
support were admitted. Teachers reported some positive results with students performing
well in written exercises - in some cases even better than the native speakers. Their
listening comprehension also improved, with students managing to understand what the
teacher said to them in class, but they tended to resort to English when responding,
showing less progress in oral communication. Some students expressed a desire to return
to second language classes where they could score “A” more easily. This is because in
first language they had to struggle to obtain a passing grade of “C”. One way to
encourage students to continue in first language Arabic could be to design a special
Arabic exam which would be higher than the normal second language exam, but easier
than the first language one. In addition, students‟ progress could be more systematically
recorded with a full report being forwarded to parents.

Despite all the limitation, primary and secondary students have both been using Al-
Arabiyah Llnash’een for the years 2003 to 2004.

5. Parents’ Expectations:
Most parents who bring their children to IIS do so because of the Islamic environment
provided by the school, and the religious subjects such as Islamic Studies, Arabic and
Quran. These are not available in any other International schools in Kuala Lumpur and so
these subjects distinguish the IIS from its competitors - some of which are well
established schools with impressive reputations. Muslim parents come to IIS with high
expectations, expecting these three extra subjects to be taught to international standards
 11

using up-to-date facilities, and wait with anticipation for their children to speak and write
Arabic. Unfortunately, many parents have expressed disappointment in the teaching of
ASL at IIS. They cite cases of students who have studied Arabic for 3 to 5 years, but fail
to read or speak Arabic properly, and are still in a remedial group for reading Quran.
As a result, the school has been under continuous pressure to improve the quality of ASL
teaching. Yet, teachers complain that it is the diverse levels of ability in the same class
that is holding students back - one teacher has been using three textbooks to teach
different levels of ability in his class, still only having 40 minutes a day to deliver his
lesson. The root of the problem would seem to be the school‟s „open admission policy‟,
where students can join the school at any time during the academic year. Bringing new
students into class at different time, affects the language level of the class. The
implications of this problem will be elaborated in the following section.

6. Grouping of students according to their level of proficiency

Mixed ability classes have been the main bane of teachers, causing them much
frustration. The traditional way of solving this problem is by grouping students according
to their language level, not according to their ages or grades. This strategy was used for
first language at IIS and has been illustrated above; but it was used for a different reason.
In the case of first language, grades were combined because of the small number of
students in each class, but it was done ensuring that the students were of approximately
the same language level. The timetable was blocked to allow several grades to have
Arabic at the same time, with sometimes five teachers being required to teach Arabic as a
first language at one time.
In the case of ASL, the average number of students per group was 15, but teachers
complained that there was more than one level of ability in each group. An open
admission policy, once again was blamed for this. Every time teachers worked to narrow
the gap between students, they would receive a new intake of students, putting them back
where they started.
Another factor further exacerbating the problem of levels of ability in the same class was
the school‟s placement test. New students always sit for a placement test before they are
admitted to class. The ASL placement test has been used to identify students‟ level of
ability, but there are problems with the content of the tests and the way in which they are
written. The Arabic department would do better to follow the English Second language
department‟s procedure, where students‟ abilities are classified into six levels - beginners,
elementary, pre-intermediate, intermediate, upper- intermediate and advanced. Arabic
teachers could then be assigned to prepare placement tests for each of these levels. Then
when a new student arrives in school, members of the Arabic department could conduct a
brief interview to determine which placement test the student should sit for. In this way,
the chances of a new student entering the wrong level would be far less.

7. Language Skills in the ASL Program:

Determining which language skills should be focused upon in program depends upon the
needs of the learners and the program‟s purpose or objectives. The school should start by
answering the fundamental question raised earlier; why is ASL is taught at IIS?

It is unreasonable to expect teachers to teach all four skills of reading, writing, speaking
 12

and listening with the same emphasis. It has already been shown how Arabic is at a
disadvantage when it comes to oral communication, both inside and outside the
classroom, and this applies to listening skills too. At present, teachers tend to focus more
on grammar, spelling, translation and vocabulary, so that Arabic is rarely taught for
communication. Hence, students study Arabic as an abstract language that bears no
relevance to their everyday lives.

Teaching oral language is a complex issue - what type of spoken Arabic should students
be taught? If teachers teach classical Arabic, they are not preparing students for real life,
because classical Arabic is not used for everyday communication anymore. ASL learners
would be at a loss if they heard two Iraqi or Sudanese friends conversing in colloquial
Arabic in the lunch area. The school therefore needs to think very carefully about the
purpose of the skills being taught. It is unrealistic to ask all Arab students in the school to
speak classical Arabic, and even if they did, it would not reflect the real situation outside
school, in local Malaysian Arab community or in the Arabic speaking community at
large. This would therefore present second language learners with many difficulties.

What is needed is the teaching of Arabic for Specific Purpose (ASP), where reading skills
become the main focus of the Arabic program. Reading should be for understanding, as it
is with English for Specific Purposes (ESP) and English for Academic Purposes EAP. In
this way, students could fulfill their religious objectives, mentioned earlier. Then with
some additional emphasis on writing skills, students could also sit for the IGCSE Arabic
exam, should they choose to, and listening and speaking could be taught as a support for
reading comprehension.

Conclusion:
The discussion above have shown the type of difficulties faced by those involved in
planning for and teaching of Arabic in settings where the language is not used outside the
classroom. The IIS case is just an example, but we expect that teaching Arabic as a
foreign language faces the same problems in similar settings in the West and the non
Arab Muslim countries. The papers intended to share the experience of one pioneering
school in South East Asia, and it is hoped that the discussions would enlighten the
practice of teachers and educationists elsewhere.

References:
Al-Busairi, M. (1991): Needs, Attitudes and Motivation in Foreign Language: A Case
Study of Kuwaiti Students Studying ESP. Unpublished Ph. D. Thesis, University
of Lancaster, UK.

Braima, M. E. A (2004): The Role of English under Arabicization: A Case Study.

Unpublished Ph. D. thesis, University of Malaya, Malaysia
------------------ (2005): Opportunities and Challenges of International Islamic Education,
Afkar Jadida, issue No. 11, Khartoum (in Arabic). Available online at:
http://www.fikria.org/mogala/11/6_1.htm
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Krashen, S. D. (1981): Second Language Acquisition and Second Language Learning.

Oxford: Pergamon Press.
------------------ (1982): Principles and Practice in Second Language Acquisition. Oxford:
Pergamon Press.

Author:
Dr. Mohamed Elfatih Ahmed Braima is an Assistant Prof. at the University of Khartoum
(Sudan) and Head, Department of English. He was awarded M. A. in English from
University of Khartoum, M. HSc. in ESL from IIUM, a Ph. D. in English from University
of Malaya. He is a former Vice Principal (Academic) at IIS.
E-mail: braima100@yahoo.com