Teaching Arabic to Non-native Speakers for Special Purposes: The Purpose of Worship is a Model

Abstract

Objectives: This paper intends to suggest solutions to the challenges of teaching Arabic to non-native learners, especially for religious purposes. Arabic learners do so for numerous motives depending on the educational purposes which include commercial, diplomatic, medical, religious, among other purposes.

Methods: This study employs the Experimental descriptive method, determining first the learner’s linguistic level, identifying the educational content, and defining the teaching methods that are compatible with this special purpose as the wheel of the educational process begins with the teacher’s philosophy that stems from the educational content on which the educational curriculum is based and from the extent of its awareness of the educational purpose.

Results: Through analyzing the educational content of the curricula of both “Word and Nagham” and the “Arabic at Your Hands”, the study found that it included the recitation of the Holy Qur’an, the Sharia rulings, the chain of transmission, the noble Prophetic hadiths, the method of ablution, and other matters related to Sharia knowledge, without separation from the daily communicative context. The special purpose can be presented in educational curricula built according to pragmatic dimensions that take into account language context and its culture.

Conclusions: The study showed that Islamic universities and institutes concerned with teaching Arabic to non-native speakers cannot shirk their responsibilities and leave Arabic in the context of their teaching for religious purposes without specifying clear educational foundations. The legal text has always been misunderstood as a result of teaching it and presenting it with incorrect curricula and teaching methods.