Arabic as a Foreign Language: Phonological Analysis of Speech Sounds Produced by Students

The aim of this paper is to expose the potential difficulties encountered by students learning Arabic as a foreign language (AFL) with a focus on sounds production. The research design was descriptive-analytic. The data was obtained using direct recording and interviews. The sample included 27 AFL students at the Arabic Institutes at IMSIU and KSU. The work on this research is twofold: first, the paper reports on teachers' and learners' views on the general difficulties encountered by students learning Arabic, focusing on those in post-secondary school getting ready for tertiary education. Secondly, the paper analyzes their speech for pronunciation errors found in sounds production. The results show that learners generally had no problem expressing themselves, but they had some pronunciation issues with some specific Arabic sounds. The results also show that the students attempt different methods to overcome pronunciation difficulties. Teachers were aware of these difficulties, and they had their own methods to help improve students' pronunciation of unfamiliar sounds. The findings show that traditional ways of teaching Arabic sounds are not enough, and difficulties could still exist, as shown by the phonological analysis of sounds environments. The study suggests that implementing an eclectic approach, leveraging the use of technology, could help AFLs to improve their pronunciation.