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This study investigates cognitive and metacognitive strategies in learning oral Arabic among students at Universiti Teknologi MARA (UiTM), Malaysia. The concept of these strategies was derived from the self-regulated learning framework, which consists of five components, namely rehearsal, elaboration, organization, critical thinking, and metacognitive strategies. The purposes of this study are to investigate the level of cognitive and metacognitive strategies used (1) among UiTM students; (2) between students with different prior experiences, namely, some of them had an experience of 5 years in learning Arabic in secondary school (abbreviated by SWE) and some of them did not have any experience at all (abbreviated by SNE); (3) between students of different gender; and (4) between students with the interaction of different gender and prior experience. The sample of this study consists of 183 students and employs a questionnaire adapted from the Motivated Strategies for Learning Questionnaire (MSLQ). The study revealed that (1) all UiTM students used cognitive and metacognitive strategies at a moderate level; (2) SWE scored significantly higher than SNE in all five components of cognitive and metacognitive strategies; (3) females scored significantly higher than males in rehearsal, organization, and metacognitive strategies; and (4) there were no statistically significant differences noted in all components between students with the interaction of prior experience and gender. This study had some classroom implications. It suggested that some improvement and changes in learning oral Arabic should be made in terms of selecting learning materials, implementing oral Arabic activities, and learning tasks, which will stimulate the use of all strategies, as well as conducting proficiency tests instead of achievement tests. Students should also be exposed to the learning techniques which used all these strategies extensively and collaborative activities may be carried out among students with mixed prior experience and gender. (Contains 5 tables.)

Arabic vocabulary learning is in dire need for additional teaching and learning aids, especially with the integration of advanced multimedia application such as digital or online games. This article reports on the findings of a study on the implementation of an online Arabic vocabulary learning games prototype among teenage learners in the Centre for Foundation Studies (CFS), International Islamic University Malaysia (IIUM). The evaluation on the usability, practicality and effectiveness of the game's prototype was conducted by various experts of Instructional Designers and Subject Matter Expert, and the different users among learners and lecturers. The formative evaluation is divided into three main phases: pre-formative evaluation, formative evaluation one and formative evaluation two. Findings from the evaluation process show that the online game enhances learner's perceived perception, concentration, immersion and knowledge improvement. Positive reports are also gathered from qualitative data from the implementation of open-ended surveys, interview sessions, think-aloud methods, class observations, and testimonials. This study has indicated usability, practicality and effectiveness of online games in its application in Arabic language learning among elementary learners with suggestions and comments for further improvement of the game's prototype. The study indicates that students personally feel that they are able to learn Arabic vocabulary through this online game's application and this data will provide directions for further research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Arabic course at Universiti Teknologi MARA (UiTM) Malaysia is an elective offered to first degree students. The objectives of this study are to investigate (1) the level of oral Arabic practice among UiTM students, (2) the correlation between oral Arabic practice and resource management strategies which consist of four sub components, namely, time and environment strategy, effort regulation strategy, help seeking strategy and peer learning strategy, and (3) the differences in the use of resource management strategies among students with different level of oral Arabic practice. This is a mixed method of quantitative and qualitative study using an adapted questionnaire of selfregulated learning strategies and interviews with students. The quantitative data were collected from 455 samples using the stratified random sampling technique. The study found that (1) students used moderately oral Arabic, and their practice outside the classroom was lower than inside the classroom, (2) there were significant correlations between oral Arabic practice and the use of peer learning strategy as well as time and study management strategy, and (3) there were significant differences in the use of peer learning strategy among students with different level of oral Arabic practice. This study suggests that the use of peer learning strategy as well as time and study management strategy have to be increased in order to increase the oral Arabic practice among students, such implementing collaborative grouping activities and using peer assistants which are officially selected among students themselves. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Arabic course at Universiti Teknologi MARA (UiTM) Malaysia is an elective course offered to first degree students. The objective of this study is to evaluate the use of learning materials in the context of learning oral Arabic at UiTM. It is a mixed method of quantitative and qualitative study using questionnaires, interviews and classroom observations. For quantitative data, stratified random sampling technique was used involving 455 students and 48 course lecturers while for qualitative data, 13 interviews with students, 8 interviews with subject lecturers and 12 classroom observations were engaged. The study found that the textbooks were the only learning material that had been highly used compared to other materials, showing that learning was primarily based on the textbooks. This study suggests some improvements in the use of learning materials such as to use authentic materials through computer and Internet. The textbooks have to be used as a guide and not as a final objective of learning. The use of learning materials has to support students' interest, their needs and motivation. They also have to be given freedom to select materials according to their needs and interest. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Arabic course at Universiti Teknologi MARA (UiTM) Malaysia is an elective offered to first degree students. This study is aimed to investigate the use of peer learning strategy among students in learning oral Arabic at UiTM. It is a mixed method of quantitative and qualitative study using a questionnaire adapted from The Motivated Strategies for Learning Questionnaire (MSLQ) and interviews. The quantitative data were collected from 445 samples using the stratified random sampling technique. Meanwhile, the qualitative data were collected by conducting 13 interview sessions with students. Overall, the study found that the use of this strategy among students was high. Further investigations on subcomponents of this strategy found that it was highly used in grouping activities. However, the level of students' readiness to provide explanations and to spend their time to discuss the course subjects during group discussions was moderate. This study suggested some improvements in learning oral Arabic in UiTM such as using peer assistants which could be officially selected among students themselves in learning oral Arabic. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Arabic course in Universiti Teknologi MARA (UiTM) Malaysia is an elective course offered to first degree students. The objective of this study was to investigate students' test anxiety in learning oral Arabic at UiTM. It was a mixed method of quantitative and qualitative study using a self-regulated learning questionnaire adapted from The Motivated Strategies for Learning Questionnaire (MSLQ) and interviews. For quantitative data, the disproportionate stratified random sampling technique was used involving 445 samples while for qualitative data, 13 interviews with students were engaged. The study found that students' test anxiety was moderate. However, cognitive part was found to be at a high level and higher than emotional part which was moderate. Through interviews, the study also identified some reasons that contribute to students' test anxiety. This study had some classroom implications. It suggested some learning practices to overcome test anxiety among students in learning oral Arabic cognitively and emotionally. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Arabic course at Universiti Teknologi MARA (UiTM) Malaysia is an elective course offered to first degree students. The objective of this study was to investigate students' control of learning beliefs in learning oral Arabic at UiTM. It was a mixed method of quantitative and qualitative study using a questionnaire adapted from The Motivated Strategies for Learning Questionnaire (MSLQ) and interviews. For quantitative data, the disproportionate stratified random sampling technique was used involving 445 samples while for qualitative data, 13 interviews with students and eight interviews with subject lecturers were engaged. The selection of students took into consideration their prior experience in learning Arabic and the faculty clusters they belonged to. The study found that the control of learning beliefs among students was high. It was also found that there was no significant difference in this component among students with different prior experience. This study suggested that activities and learning practices which stimulate students' autonomy in learning oral Arabic have to be used constantly in order to nurture the control of learning beliefs among students. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of this study is to investigate the control of learning beliefs among students of Arabic as a Third Language Course in learning oral Arabic at Universiti Teknologi MARA (UiTM) Shah Alam. This is a mixed method of quantitative and qualitative study using a questionnaire adapted from The Motivated Strategies for Learning Questionnaire (MSLQ) and interviews. Quantitatively, a number of 297 samples is selected using the stratified random sampling technique and quantitatively, 21 interviews with students and subject lecturers are engaged. It was found that students' control of learning beliefs was high. Therefore, this study recommends that in learning oral Arabic, activities and learning practices which can stimulate students' autonomy need to be carried out intensively in order to build students' control of learning beliefs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Arabic course at Universiti Teknologi MARA (UiTM) Malaysia is an elective offered to first degree students. The objective of this study was to investigate students' self-efficacy in learning oral Arabic at UiTM. It was a mixed method of quantitative and qualitative study using a questionnaire adapted from The Motivated Strategies for Learning Questionnaire (MSLQ) and interviews. Quantitative data were analysed using SPSS 17, involving 445 samples which were chosen by using the stratified random sampling technique. Qualitative data were analysed using NVIVO7 engaging 13 interviews with students. The study found that, overall; the level of self-efficacy among the students was high. Further investigation found that self-efficacy towards success in the oral Arabic course in UiTM was high while self-efficacy towards mastering oral Arabic in general was moderate. This study suggests that the concept of self-efficacy should be implemented and nurtured among students and it should be in line with their different abilities in oral Arabic. On the other hand, authentic learning materials should also be used in learning in order to become an ultimate benchmark in learning oral Arabic. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The current Arabic alphabetical order […… … … …] does not comply with the 'easy to difficult concept' for the Malay students as suggested in the education theory. For instance, alphabet 'tha' […] is considered difficult to the Malay students because the alphabet does not exist in the Malay alphabet consonant, whereas this alphabet is in the early part of the Arabic alphabetical order. Therefore, the aim of this study is to rearrange the Arabic consonants according to the Malay accent for learning purposes. The objectives of this study are to: (a) identify the fluency level of Arabic language consonants; and (b) rearrange the Arabic consonants according to the fluency of Malay accent. This study was carried out at the preschool centers deploying six-year-old children who have just started learning Arabic language. The instrument in this study was a set of pronunciation test based on al-Khalil Method. The pronunciation test was evaluated by two experts in 'tajwid' and 'tarannum' disciplines. The findings showed 12 consonants were found to be at the moderate level of fluency, and one at the weak level, and the rest at the high level. The findings also showed that the highest mean score is the alphabet [ …], and the lowest score is alphabet [ …]. Therefore, this study suggests the identified Arabic alphabetical order to be used in teaching of the pronunciation of Arabic language in Malaysian schools. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Students' attitude towards language learning has been identified to influence the learning process. This study investigated students' attitude towards the learning of oral Arabic in Universiti Teknologi MARA (UiTM) which includes two aspects, attitude towards the teaching of the language and attitude towards the language itself. The objective of the study is to explore students' attitude from the cognitive, affective and conative perspectives. This is a qualitative study engaging 21 series of interviews, comprising 13 series of interviews with students and 8 with subject lecturers. The selection of students took into consideration their prior experience in learning Arabic and the faculty clusters they belonged to. The acquired interview data were transcribed verbatim and analysed using NVIVO7 software in order to establish the relevant themes. The study found that cognitively, all students affirmed to the importance of the oral Arabic even though they prioritized other subjects. Students' perception towards the difficulty of learning oral Arabic depends on their prior knowledge and experience. Affectively, all students expressed their positive attitude towards learning oral Arabic, except for some who had no foundation of the language expressed their uneasiness, learning in classess where students are of mixed abilities. Conatively, the students had shown their resilience to the learning and would like to continue doing so in the future. This study recommends that the teaching approach used should be appropriate to the students' prior knowledge and experience. Appropriate approach is therefore vital in moulding students' behaviour which consequently effects their performance in learning oral Arabic. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The purposes of this study were (1) to investigate the usage of self-regulated learning strategies among students of Arabic Language as a third language course (AL3) and Intensive Arabic course (IAC) focusing on Arabic oral skills (2) to investigate the differences in the usage of self-regulated learning strategies between these two groups. The sample of this study consisted of 98 students, 59 from AL3 and 39 from IAC. This was a quantitative study and used a questionnaire adapted from The Motivated Strategies for Learning Questionnaire (MSLQ). The study indicated that (1) nine out of 15 components' means in self-regulated learning strategies were high, six components were moderate as well as no single component fell in the low group of mean, (2) by using a one-way MANOVA analysis, there were significant differences between students of AL3 and IAC in five components of the selfregulated components. The study suggested that a different approach of teaching should be implemented to each group considering the different levels of self-regulated learning strategies used in their studies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper discusses the Arabic teachers for the Malaysian Smart School Project in light of assessment New Primary School Curriculum (NPSC) and Integrated Secondary School Curriculum (ISSC) based on The Malaysian Philosophy of Education. Data on the NPSC and ISSC is taken from 250 schools in Malaysia using postal questionnaire. The study identifies the weaknesses in the implementation of those curricula as lack of understanding and support among the teachers for the teaching approach advocated by the Philosophy of Education, packed syllabi, large class sizes, short teaching periods and lack of support for teachers to develop materials. This study analyse the Malaysian Smart School in terms of its conceptual blueprint as its implementation is only at its pilot stage. We find that the Malaysian Smart School has the potential of improving education by providing answers to the unresolved questions in the previous curricula. However, the Malaysian Smart School have to be assessed some time after its implementation based on The Malaysian Philosophy of Education, as conceptual blueprints may not materialise without effective implementation policies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]