Al-Jawhar : Journal of Arabic Language

Arab Academics’ Perceptions of Fusha and Amiyah in Arabic Language Instruction in Indonesia

2026-06-09T16:50:49+00:00

Arabic language instruction in Indonesian higher education faces the diglossic challenge between Fusha (standard Arabic) and Amiyah (colloquial dialects). Instruction predominantly emphasizes Fusha, while Amiyah is rarely or never formally taught, resulting in students who are proficient in formal literacy but limited in practical communication. This study aims to explore academics’ perceptions regarding the teaching of Fusha and Amiyah, understand students’ challenges, and evaluate the curriculum strategies employed. A descriptive qualitative approach was adopted, involving in-depth interviews with 20 Arabic language academics from various State Islamic Universities (UINs) across Indonesia, analyzed using content analysis techniques. Findings indicate that Fusha serves as the primary foundation for academic literacy, whereas Amiyah is acquired informally through extracurricular experiences or exchange programs. Teaching strategies include lectures, text analysis, discussions, and Fusha-based writing exercises. These results provide an in-depth understanding of the prioritization of formal literacy and underscore the need to develop optional Amiyah modules to equip students with cross-cultural communication skills. The study recommends further exploration of integrating Amiyah into the formal curriculum.

Learning Motivation among Students Participating in a Private Arabic Language Program at Al-Fatih Private Tutoring Institution

2026-06-15T15:05:51+00:00

This study examines the importance of learning motivation in supporting students’ success in an Arabic private tutoring program. Arabic learning often presents challenges, particularly in vocabulary, Arabic syntax, morphology, and Arabic text reading. This study aims to describe students’ learning motivation in joining the Arabic Private Tutoring Program at Al-Fatih Private Tutoring Institute. It also identifies the supporting and inhibiting factors that influence their motivation. This study employed a descriptive qualitative approach. The researchers collected data through interviews, observation, and documentation. The data were analyzed through data reduction, data presentation, and conclusion drawing. The findings show that students’ initial motivation was generally influenced by parental encouragement, academic needs, and the desire to understand religious lessons. However, after participating in the private tutoring program, students’ motivation developed into intrinsic motivation. They felt more comfortable, confident, and supported in understanding Arabic. The main supporting factors included patient tutors, gradual learning methods, a conducive learning environment, and parental support. The inhibiting factors included difficulties in understanding Arabic grammar and limited independent practice. This study concludes that the Arabic private tutoring program plays an important role in fostering students’ learning motivation. It also improves their self-confidence and strengthens their basic Arabic language competence.

Gender Representation in the Verbal and Visual Content of Arabic Textbooks: A Critical Content Analysis Study at STAIN Sultan Abdurrahman Kepulauan Riau

2026-06-04T14:00:48+00:00

This study investigates gender representation in the verbal and visual texts of Arabic textbooks used at STAIN Sultan Abdurrahman Kepulauan Riau, namely Al-Lughah al-‘Arabiyyah al-Rā’i‘ah lil-Mubtadi’īn 1 and 2. The study employed a critical content analysis approach to examine how gender is constructed through both visual and verbal elements in the textbooks. Visual data were analyzed through four indicators: pictures that only included men or women, foregrounded male/female figures in relation to backgrounded ones, pictures of boys and girls, and visual contexts identified as domestic or professional. Verbal data were analyzed through three indicators: men and women as subjects, objects, and possessives in sentences. The findings reveal that male representation remains dominant across both dimensions. In the visual texts, men were more visible, more frequently foregrounded, and more often represented as children than women. In the verbal texts, men also appeared more frequently as subjects, objects, and possessive forms in sentence structures. These findings indicate that gender bias in the textbooks operates simultaneously at both visual and verbal levels. The study confirms that Arabic textbooks function not only as pedagogical tools but also as ideological media that may reproduce gendered power relations. Therefore, the development of Arabic teaching materials in Islamic higher education needs to be more responsive to gender-inclusive and equitable representation.

Cultural Mediation of Self-Determination in Arabic Learning Motivation at Salafi Pesantren Mambaus Sholihin

2026-06-09T17:01:36+00:00

The urgency of Arabic language learning in Islamic boarding schools lies not only in linguistic mastery as a medium of Islamic scholarly communication, but also in fostering sustained learning motivation within religious and social environments. This study aims to examine the implementation of Self-Determination Theory (SDT), which includes autonomy, competence, and relatedness, in Arabic language learning at Pesantren Salafi Mambaus Sholihin, and how these components are mediated by the cultural context of the pesantren. This research employs a qualitative approach using data collection methods including observation, interviews, and documentation, followed by thematic analysis. The findings indicate that student autonomy develops gradually through a structured learning system, competence is strengthened through a tiered curriculum and direct feedback from teachers, and relatedness is built through ukhuwah-based social relationships and intensive teacher–student interaction. These results show that SDT is more effective when adapted to pesantren cultural values, thereby enhancing intrinsic motivation in Arabic learning. In conclusion, the integration of modern motivational theory with traditional Islamic education contexts contributes significantly to the development of more adaptive and contextualized learning strategies. Future research is recommended to explore different pesantren contexts to enhance the generalizability of the findings.

Politeness Strategies in Arabic-Indonesian Classroom Communication: A Sociolinguistic Study

2026-06-15T15:13:41+00:00

Linguistic politeness is an essential aspect of fostering effective communication and creating a conducive learning environment in foreign language education. This study aims to analyze the politeness strategies employed in Arabic language learning interactions at MAN 2 Kota Batu from a sociolinguistic perspective. The study adopted a descriptive qualitative approach, with data sources consisting of teachers’ and students’ utterances during Arabic language instruction, interview data, and classroom observations. Data were analyzed using Brown and Levinson’s politeness theory, Holmes’ language choice theory, Hymes’ ethnography of communication, and Poplack’s code-switching theory. The findings reveal that teachers employed various politeness strategies, including softened direct strategies, positive politeness, negative politeness, indirect strategies, and avoidance strategies. These strategies were used in delivering instructions, making requests, giving reprimands, and providing corrective feedback to students. Furthermore, Arabic–Indonesian code-switching and code-mixing were found to serve important pedagogical and social functions, including clarifying instructional content, facilitating students’ comprehension, maintaining interpersonal relationships between teachers and students, and constructing a bilingual classroom identity. In the process of correcting language errors, teachers employed recasts, prompting, indirect correction, and praise-before-correction techniques to preserve students’ confidence. Students’ responses indicated that the implementation of these politeness strategies enhanced learning comfort, classroom participation, willingness to answer questions, and learning motivation. The study concludes that linguistic politeness functions not only as a communicative tool but also as a socio-pedagogical strategy that supports the effectiveness of bilingual Arabic learning in the madrasah context.

Arabic Language Teaching Strategy in Improving Student’s Reading Skills at Ira Islamic Junior High School Medan

2026-06-15T15:10:02+00:00

This study is motivated by the low level of Arabic reading skills (maharah qirā’ah) among students at MTs IRA Islamic Junior High School Medan, particularly in grades VII and VIII, where many students have not yet mastered the recognition of Arabic letters. This condition highlights the need for an effective instructional strategy that can systematically improve students’ reading abilities. The study aims to describe the implementation of a constructivist-based Arabic language teaching strategy to enhance students’ reading skills and to identify the supporting and inhibiting factors in its implementation. A qualitative descriptive method was employed in this research. Data were collected through observation, semi-structured interviews, and documentation. The participants included an Arabic language teacher, the school principal, and selected students using purposive sampling. Data analysis followed the Miles and Huberman model, consisting of data reduction, data display, and conclusion drawing. The findings reveal that the teaching strategy was implemented through a constructivist approach combined with habituation of reading the Iqro’ book before the main lesson. The learning process was carried out gradually, starting from recognizing Arabic letters, practicing pronunciation, and progressing to reading simple texts with individual guidance. The results indicate an improvement in students’ reading skills, particularly in letter recognition and reading comprehension. Supporting factors include the active role of teachers, availability of learning media, school support, and student motivation. In contrast, the main obstacles are limited instructional time and lack of reading practice at home. The study concludes that integrating constructivist learning with Iqro’ habituation is effective in improving basic Arabic reading skills.

The Effect of Using the AlifBee Application on Improving Arabic Writing Skills among Seventh-Grade Students at MTs Laboratory UINSU Medan

2026-07-04T10:23:05+00:00

Despite the rapid advancement of digital technology in language education, Arabic writing instruction in many Islamic schools still faces significant challenges due to limited opportunities for meaningful writing practice, insufficient learner engagement, and the continued dominance of traditional teaching approaches. This condition highlights the urgent need to explore innovative technology-based solutions that can support students in developing productive Arabic language skills. Therefore, this study aims to investigate the effect of using the AlifBee application on improving Arabic writing skills among seventh-grade students at MTs Laboratory UINSU Medan. The study employed a quantitative research method with an experimental approach using a one-group pretest-posttest design. A total of 40 students were selected as the sample through cluster random sampling. Data were collected through tests, observations, and documentation. Data analysis was conducted by testing validity, reliability, normality, descriptive statistics, and hypothesis testing using the Paired Sample t-Test, all analyzed with SPSS. The results showed that the students' mean pretest score was 12.78, which increased to 16.58 in the posttest, indicating an improvement of 3.80 points. The hypothesis testing results revealed a significance value (Sig. 2-tailed) of 0.001, which was lower than 0.05 (0.001 < 0.05). Therefore, the alternative hypothesis (H₁) was accepted and the null hypothesis (H₀) was rejected. These findings indicate that the use of the Alifbee application has a significant effect on the writing skills of seventh-grade students at MTs Laboratory UINSU Medan.