Effective Methods in Learning Arabic Language as a Foreign Language

Students who learn Arabic as a foreign language in a foreign country usually face difficulties to achieve proficiency in the language. This is primarily because of the lack of Arabic language resources. However, this situation does not hinder the emergence of a group of outstanding students who achieve fluency in Arabic by using their own methods. This study investigated the methods used by these students to be used as a guideline for other students. To collect the data, a set of questionnaire was developed from the Imitation Strategy Instrument introduced by Rosni Samah (2014). The questionnaires were distributed to 50 outstanding final year students from the Arabic language department, Faculty of Major Languages, Islamic Science University of Malaysia. The results showed that effective strategies for learning Arabic language as a foreign language were gathering, enhancing and applying. The targets are new vocabulary and sentence. The tools to perform the strategies were Arabic materials and language activities. This study recommends that in learning Arabic language as a foreign language, the three methods mentioned above should be applied. The Arabic materials should be provided and language activities should be organized. The effective methods used by outstanding students should be used as a guideline for other students to be more proficient in Arabic Language. DOI: 10.5901/mjss.2016.v7n3p349