Sources of Weakness in Language Skills among the Students of Arabic Language and Literature: An Exploration of Viewpoints of the Students and Professors

Using of language skills has long been among the most conspicuous weak points of learners of Arabic language as a foreign language. By interviewing some professors and experts of Arabic language teaching, a number of topics were recognized as worthy to be investigated further as sources of weakness. These topics include “sources of boredom and tiredness of students in learning Arabic language”, “the appropriateness of existing instructional materials”, the appropriateness of the teaching methods”, “the sources of students motivation”, “the effect of teaching methods on motivating students” in general and “the appropriateness of methods for teaching listening” in particular. A researcher made questionnaire was used to elicit the viewpoints of students and professors regarding each of the above-mentioned topics. The results indicated that learners of Arabic language are not de-motivated but bored and tired due to the overall teaching context, in which they are learning this foreign language. Among the major sources of this boredom are “inappropriate teaching methods”, inappropriate instructional materials” and “inappropriate techniques in teaching listening comprehension”.