Motivation for Teaching and Learning Arabic and its Impact in Understanding Qur’an to Transform Ulul Albab Generation: An empirical study

Abstract

This article critically examines teachers’ and learners’ views on their motivation for teaching and learning the Arabic language in secondary school settings. It discusses the motive and rationale behind Arabic provision within secondary schools and the degree to which this provision meets the expected outcomes in transforming Ulul Albab generation with special focus on learning Arabic for Qur’anic purposes. As a Muslim educator specialized in teaching Arabic, I have seen that most of the Islamic schools have the provision of teaching and learning Arabic with a religious view; also, I have seen inappropriate syllabus use, shortage or complete lack of resources and many other issues which hinder proper teaching and learning of Arabic. The motivation behind this study came from a deep interest in examining views of learners and teachers to find out their motives for learning and teaching this language. As a practitioner in the field, I am hoping that this empirical enquiry will contribute to the wider efforts aiming to improve this important teaching provision in the British secondary schools particularly, and for the wider world generally. I conducted this enquiry within the interdisciplinary field of Islamic Education Studies. This study aims to contribute to the growing body of empirical studies in this field. My review of the literature suggests that the teaching of Arabic in the secondary schools has not been subjected to empirical research, especially to explore the motives behind it. I feel that there is an urgent need to investigate the challenges facing teachers of Arabic with a special focus on Qur’anic Arabic within the context of secondary schools, to generate Ulul Albab.