Arabic as a foreign language

Assessment in Arabic language learning as a foreign language (Arabic as a Foreign Language) is currently undergoing a significant paradigm shift. This transformation is influenced by the development of digital technology, the utilization of Artificial Intelligence (AI), and the implementation of the Merdeka Curriculum in Indonesia, which emphasizes flexibility, differentiation, and learning personalization. This article presents a Systematic Literature Review (SLR) aimed at identifying, examining, and synthesizing developments, innovations, methodological approaches, and various challenges in the assessment of the four Arabic language skills, namely listening, speaking, reading, and writing, during the period from 2020 to early 2026. The review employed the PRISMA (Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses) protocol to identify and analyze relevant literature. The findings indicate a shift from conventional evaluation systems based on discrete tests toward the implementation of Technology-Enhanced Assessment (TEA) and more authentic forms of assessment. The literature synthesis reveals several key findings. First, diagnostic assessment, encompassing both cognitive and non-cognitive aspects, plays an important role in designing differentiated learning within the framework of the Merdeka Curriculum. Second, the development of assessment instruments for Arabic language maharah is increasingly oriented toward measuring higher-order thinking skills (Higher Order Thinking Skills/HOTS). Third, the utilization of Generative AI, including ChatGPT, as well as various gamification-based learning platforms, has introduced new approaches to providing faster, more adaptive, and interactive feedback. Based on the synthesis, the effectiveness of modern assessment is not determined solely by the sophistication of the technology employed, but also by the alignment between technology and pedagogical objectives, the transparency of assessment procedures, and its ability to comprehensively represent learners' communicative competence while maintaining the principles of academic integrity.

The emergence of generative artificial intelligence (Generative AI), such as ChatGPT, has brought significant changes to higher education, including Arabic language learning for non-native speakers (Arabic as a Foreign Language). Writing skills (Maharah al-Kitabah) are considered a relatively complex productive skill. Learners are required not only to master word formation (Sarf) and Arabic grammar (Nahwu), but also to organize ideas coherently and logically. This article employs a Systematic Literature Review (SLR) approach based on the PRISMA 2020 standards to map the use of ChatGPT in Arabic writing, examine the reliability of AI in Arabic grammar, and identify research gaps that remain underexplored. The review findings indicate that ChatGPT can serve as a useful writing partner (human-AI co-writer), particularly for generating ideas, enriching vocabulary, and correcting basic grammatical errors. However, AI still frequently produces errors or “hallucinations” when dealing with morphologically complex words, variations in Arabic dialects, and unvocalized texts. As a result, AI-generated writing may appear linguistically polished on the surface while containing grammatical inaccuracies. Furthermore, excessive reliance on AI may pose risks to academic integrity, while AI detection tools themselves often produce inaccurate results when identifying Arabic-language texts (false positives). This review also finds that existing research remains overly focused on English, tends to examine only the final writing outcomes without investigating students’ cognitive processes, and has paid limited attention to AI models specifically developed for the Arab region, such as ALLaM and Jais. Therefore, the approach to AI-assisted learning needs to shift from merely using AI toward purposeful and reflective utilization through frameworks such as the Spiral Learning Model and Genre-Based Pedagogy, so that AI functions as a scaffold without diminishing students’ autonomy and critical thinking.

Arabic for Specific Purposes (ASP) connects language instruction with learners’ academic or occupational domains, but adapting specialized contexts for absolute beginners presents a design problem: disciplinary relevance may introduce linguistic demands that exceed the learners’ capacity. This conceptual paper proposes a curriculum-aligned procedure for contextualizing elementary Arabic conversation tasks for university accounting students without claiming to teach technical accounting discourse. Drawing on scholarship concerning ASP, needs analysis, task-based language teaching, constructive alignment, and beginner-level interaction, it develops a four-stage procedure: identify a communicative function, select a plausible accounting-related context, check linguistic and interactional demands, and specify observable evidence of performance. Six illustrative task adaptations demonstrate its application to introductions, occupations, locations, colleagues, appointments, and documents. These tasks are original, hypothetical designs rather than observed classroom activities or responses to empirically established learner needs. A proposed set of decision checks distinguishes contextual relevance from occupational authenticity, and genuine oral exchange from scripted reproduction. The framework offers a bounded starting point for needs analysis, expert review, and empirical evaluation.

عربی برای مقاصد خاص (ASP) آموزش زبان را با حوزه‌های آکادمیک یا شغلی زبان‌آموزان پیوند می‌دهد، اما تطبیق زمینه‌های تخصصی برای مبتدیان مطلق یک مسئله طراحی ایجاد می‌کند: ارتباط دیسیپلین‌محور ممکن است الزامات زبانی را فراتر از ظرفیت زبان‌آموزان وارد کند. این مقاله مفهومی، رویه‌ای هم‌راستا با برنامه درسی را برای زمینه‌سازی تکالیف مکالمه عربی مقدماتی برای دانشجویان حسابداری دانشگاهی پیشنهاد می‌کند، بدون آنکه ادعای آموزش گفتمان حسابداری فنی را داشته باشد. با استناد به پژوهش‌های مربوط به ASP، تحلیل نیازها، آموزش زبان مبتنی بر تکلیف، هم‌سازگاری سازنده‌گرا و تعامل در سطح مبتدی، رویه‌ای چهارمرحله‌ای توسعه می‌یابد: شناسایی یک کارکرد ارتباطی، انتخاب یک زمینه قابل قبول مرتبط با حسابداری، بررسی الزامات زبانی و تعاملی، و مشخص کردن شواهد قابل مشاهده از عملکرد. شش نمونه تطبیق تکلیف، کاربرد آن را در معرفی‌ها، مشاغل، مکان‌ها، همکاران، قرارها و اسناد نشان می‌دهد. این تکالیف طراحی‌های اصیل و فرضی هستند، نه فعالیت‌های کلاسی مشاهده‌شده یا پاسخ‌هایی به نیازهای زبان‌آموزان که از نظر تجربی ثابت شده‌اند. مجموعه‌ای از چک‌لیست‌های تصمیم‌گیری پیشنهادی، ارتباط زمینه‌ای را از اصالت شغلی، و تبادل شفاهی واقعی را از بازتولید سناریو-محور تمایز می‌دهد. این چارچوب یک نقطه شروع محدود برای تحلیل نیازها، بازبینی توسط متخصصان و ارزیابی تجربی ارائه می‌دهد.

This study examines linguistic and stylistic over-elaboration in beginner Arabic writing produced during a classroom task permitting generative artificial intelligence (GenAI) and electronic translation. The study emerged from an Arabic language course involving undergraduate accounting students at Universiti Teknologi MARA (UiTM), Terengganu Branch, Malaysia. Students were instructed to write a simple birthday invitation addressed to friends, using accessible vocabulary and including specified invitation elements. During the review of approximately 100 submissions, the instructor observed recurring instances of vocabulary, courtesy expressions, and sentence formulations that appeared more sophisticated or formal than expected for the learners' proficiency and the task's communicative purpose. Adopting an exploratory qualitative approach, the study draws on these professional classroom observations, supplemented by the direct examination of three available invitation texts. The analysis considers lexical overreach, stylistic over-elaboration, unnecessary syntactic complexity, register mismatch, and learner-level appropriateness. The findings highlight a pedagogical distinction between linguistic correctness and the suitability of written expression for a beginner's level and communicative situation. They also suggest that apparently sophisticated writing should not automatically be interpreted as evidence of independent linguistic proficiency. Because individual tool use and writing processes were not documented, the study does not attribute particular expressions to GenAI or establish causal effects.

This study aims to describe the implementation of the Suggestopedia method in increasing students' confidence in speaking Arabic and identify supporting and inhibiting factors. The method used is qualitative research with a descriptive approach that aims to describe the phenomenon in depth. The results of the study indicate that the Suggestopedia method is effective in increasing students' confidence in speaking Arabic. This is evident from the improvement in students' speaking ability, fluency in reading Arabic, and changes in students' attitudes from shyness to being more active and brave in speaking in front of the class. Supporting factors include school policies, teacher competence, parental support, the availability of teaching materials, and adequate learning facilities. Inhibiting factors include the inability of some students to read the hijaiyah letters, low learning motivation, and feelings of shame and fear of making mistakes.

این پژوهش با هدف توصیف اجرای روش Suggestopedia در افزایش اعتماد به نفس دانش‌آموزان در صحبت کردن به زبان عربی و شناسایی عوامل حمایت‌کننده و بازدارنده انجام شده است. روش مورد استفاده، پژوهش کیفی با رویکرد توصیفی است که هدف آن توصیف عمیق پدیده می‌باشد. نتایج پژوهش نشان می‌دهد که روش Suggestopedia در افزایش اعتماد به نفس دانش‌آموزان در صحبت کردن به زبان عربی مؤثر است. این امر از بهبود توانایی گفتاری دانش‌آموزان، روانی در خواندن عربی و تغییر نگرش دانش‌آموزان از خجالت به فعال‌تر و شجاع‌تر شدن در صحبت کردن در مقابل کلاس مشهود است. عوامل حمایت‌کننده شامل سیاست‌های مدرسه، شایستگی معلم، حمایت والدین، در دسترس بودن مواد آموزشی و امکانات آموزشی کافی می‌باشد. عوامل بازدارنده شامل ناتوانی برخی دانش‌آموزان در خواندن حروف هجایی، انگیزه پایین یادگیری و احساس شرم و ترس از اشتباه کردن است.