Teknik Pelajar Bukan Muslim Belajar Bertutur Bahasa Arab secara dalam Talian (The Techniques of Non-Muslim Students’ in Learning Arabic Speaking Skills Online)

Abstract

The learning of Arabic in Malaysia, which was once exclusive for Muslim students, is now gaining popularity among local non-Muslims. Learning Arabic, even at the beginner’s level, is not easy for non-Muslim students. The situation is even more challenging during the COVID-19 pandemic which witnessed a total shift to the online teaching and learning mode. The aim of this study is to identify the learning techniques employed by non-Muslim students to learn Arabic speaking skills online. This qualitative study interviewed six non-Muslim undergraduate students from Universiti Malaysia Sabah (UMS) who were taking a level 2 Arabic course. The results of shows that non-Muslim students were able to follow the process of learning speaking skills online, even though they had some difficulties at the beginning due to the lack of basics in Arabic. Their ability to follow the learning process were mainly the result of mastering the basic skills of reading Arabic texts and writing Arabic letters. Equipped with these two skills, the students demonstrated 22 learning techniques which can be divided into three categories according to their intended use, namely Malay-Arabic translation, reading Arabic texts without diacritical marks, and Arabic speech improvement. This study also suggests that fiurther research should be carried out to explore the potential of Asynchronous Multimedia-based Oral Communication (AMOC) in Arabic language learning for beginners. © 2022, Penerbit Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia. All rights reserved.