The Contrastive Method in Teaching Arabic at the Contemporary Orientalists: Selected Models

Abstract

Summary

Teaching the Arabic language among contemporary orientalists has been characterized by development and modernization. Whereas, the goals of the Western learner for the Arabic language differed from one generation to the other, and the time in which the Arabic language is taught has changed as a tool for interpretation and explanation of the Bible, because of the closeness of Arabic to the Aramaic language.

The interest in the Arabic language progress great strides, especially with the emergence of the need for translators to work in the diplomatic corps in the Middle East, and the increase in the pragmatic trend in teaching languages.

Contemporary orientalists have criticized the Arabic language teaching curricula that their former peers wrote. Because it focused on the theoretical side, which is learning Arabic as a written language, the need for learning Arabic as a spoken language increased. The study of the Arabic language using the contrast-to-English curriculum, for example, has shown many new results in the methods of teaching Arabic to Westerners.

Learning Arabic in the light of the Contrastive Method was a response to the development of contemporary Orientalism in its characteristics, an update of its research tools and methodological approaches, a departure from the pattern of mastering classical written Arabic to learning Arabic in a spoken language, and a contribution from contemporary orientalists in responding to the requirements of the growing and evolving labor market