Teaching Arabic in the era of Industrial Revolution 4.0 in Indonesia: Challenges and opportunities

Abstract

Teaching Arabic as a foreign language (TAFL) in Indonesia has been interest of many scholars, but studies on TAFL in the context of industrial revolution (IR) 4.0 have been rarely conducted. This qualitative study was aimed at investigating the challenges and opportunities in accelerating the quality of Arabic language instruction in the IR 4.0 era. Qualitative data analysis consisting of four steps, namely, data collection, data reduction, data presentation, and data verification was applied to analyze the gathered data. According to the research results, the challenges are the following: Arabic language teachers’ limited adaptation to technology, students’ low motivation to learn, and uncertainty of policies on TAFL practices. The opportunities to effectively establish Arabic teaching and learning are government support, demands on Arabic language skills in modern workplaces, and availability of interactive multimedia.