STUDIES IN ARABIC TEACHING AND LEARNING
Year:2018 | Volume:2 | Issue:3 |Papers Count:8

Textbook is considered as the main tool in education, and it is important in that in all levels of education, it coordinates other elements and in many cases, the teaching method is determined by the book and most teachers adapt their methods only based on the textbook. Each textbook needs to be investigated to determine its quality. One of the methods for investigation and analysis of the textbooks is content analysis which means the investigation of the target book to recognize the strengths and weaknesses in accordance with the criteria on the basis of which the textbook is written. This research analyzed the content of the eighth grade Arabic textbook in Iran based on the criteria of selection and organization of the content from the viewpoint of male and female teachers in Yasuj. The statistical population of the study included 118 Arabic teachers of the eighth grade of Yasuj city. The research tool was a 41-item questionnaire developed based on six main criteria including criteria for community needs, interest, importance and benefits, learning ability and continuity and sequence. The results of this study indicated that the overall assessment of teachers from the Arabic Book of the eighth grade is high and very high, which suggests that the book is appropriate from these teachers’ point of view.

This study was conducted by the Arabic grammar course in the secondary government schools in Somalia. The researcher presented the different stages of the Arabic language as well as the difficulties experienced while teaching Arabic in Somalia. Hence, the study aimed to identify the difficulties and problems related to the curriculum and its components. To this aim, the researcher used the analytical descriptive method, and one of the most important tools adopted in the research was the questionnaire which was administered to the teachers. In addition, the researcher used descriptive statistical analysis to evaluate the nine axes of the questionnaire. The researcher also used the analysis of the hypotheses that showed the relationship between the independent and the dependent variables. The most important findings of this study were as follows: The current curriculum and its components are not suitable for Somali students, according to the responses given by the teachers participating in this program; The Arabic grammar curriculum did not find any evaluation and development in advance; Based on the needs of the Somali society, the school reality is not encouraging to teach Arabic grammar course, and the textbook and teachers are not available in most schools in Somalia; The teachers did not receive sufficient training either inside or outside the country. All of the above-mentioned factors led to the students’ weakness and their lack of skills in speaking, reading, writing and listening.

Language is regarded as the manifestation of intellectual and material life of mankind so that it is the most prominent means for human beings to express their mental and heart’s desires. Accordingly, various theorists in different areas including linguistics, psychology, sociology, communication sciences, cultural studies, and etc. have studied the mechanism of languages structures and lingual systems from the view of combination, semantics and pragmatics. Hence, they provided an appropriate background for presenting new methods in learning a language through speech process analysis and mutual perception of written and verbal communications. In this regard, the present author seeks to present a new approach in Arabic learning process based on a descriptive-analytical method from the view of theoretical concepts of applied syntax and in the light of pragmatics and intercultural discourse. Through this approach, the materials are presented in a pragmaticalcontextual framework to provide a basis for the students to think in Arabic and to apply the language according to the lingual and applied textures.

Curriculum is the most significant factor influencing the performance of graduate students in higher education and needs to be planned in a way to be responsive to scientific, personal, social and job needs of graduate students. To enhance and strengthen the curriculum in higher education, it needs to be fundamentally evaluated and if necessary, some modifications be made in accordance with various and changing needs of the students. The aim of the present study is to investigate the degree of fit between Arabic language and literature curriculum and scientific, personal, social and job needs of students. The research method of the present study was descriptive survey. The research tool was a questionnaire which included 51 questions examining the match between Arabic language and literature curriculum and students’ needs. The statistical population and the sample of the study were the same including all first-grade students at M.A level in educational year 2016- 2017 in Arabic language and literature in Shahid Chamran University of Ahvaz and universities of Shiraz, Esfahan and Mazandaran. In the present study, the statistical indices like frequency, percentage, mean, variance and standard deviation were used to analyze the data. The findings revealed that the match between Arabic language and literature curriculum and students’ needs is lower than the average level. In other words, the mentioned curriculum is not responsive to the students’ needs.

Communication in the Arab world is based on style and this is against to the Western world in which style does not play an important role in communicating. The Middle East cultures, which most of Arabic countries are part of, are the second ranking after Japan in relying on the linguistic context. The present researcher tried to show the role of linguistic context in teaching Arabic language by using a descriptiveanalytic method. The results showed that the context view is a main element in teaching Arabic language to non-Arabs and sentence context is frequently used in activating the language of Arabic learners. Moreover, “self-questioning” is an efficient method for developing students’ autonomy in learning the language and methods like “paragraph summarizing” and “collocating” and “filling in the blanks” improve students’ vocabulary knowledge and contribute to their understanding of words in different contexts.

This study aimed at investigating the relationship between motivation to learn and the Arabic writing and self-assessment skills of Arabic language teachers in western cities of Golestan Province. Considering the goal, the study was an applied one, and with respect to its nature and method, it was descriptive and correlational. The research population consisted of all Arabic language teachers of western cities of Golestan Province (N= 75). Through simple random sampling and using the Cochran formula, 63 teachers were selected. Questionnaires used in the study included: learning motivation questionnaire (Gardner, 1985), the spelling skills questionnaire (developed by the researcher) and selfassessment questionnaire ( developed by the researcher). Cronbach’s alpha coefficients calculated for these questionnaires were 0.93, 0.95 and 0.71, respectively. Pearson correlation coefficient (r) and regression coefficients (R2 and b) (as parametric tests) were used according to the normal distribution of variables to assess the correlation between variables. The results showed a statistically significant relationship between motivation to learn the Arabic language and self-assessment of teachers, between motivation to learn Arabic and Arabic writing skills and between teachers’ self-assessment and their Arabic writing skills.