A Contrastive Analysis of Indonesian and Arabic Phonetics

Abstract

There are some factors causing some challenges for non-Arabs speakers in learning
 Arabic, which include non-linguistic and linguistic ones. These factors also influence
 Indonesian students learning Arabic as a foreign language. In general, Indonesian
 students find difficulties in learning Arabic due to a number of differences between
 Indonesian as their first language (L1) with Arabic as the target language (L2) at almost
 all aspects of linguistics. The process of learning L2 which does not show its linguistic
 equations in their L1 has led the assumption among Arabic students in Indonesia
 that the language is difficult to learn. Therefore, this study aims to: (1) describe the
 similarities between Indonesian and Arabic phonetics; (2) describe the differences
 between Indonesian and Arabic phonetic; and (3) offer a formulation of Arabic learning
 pattern for speakers of Indonesian learning Arabic to help them learn the language
 easier. This research applied a comparative descriptive qualitative approach. The
 result of data analysis shows three findings; (1) There are 16 (sixteen) similar sounds of
 Indonesian and Arabic phonemes; (2) There are 7 (seven) Indonesian phonemes that
 do not exist in Arabic; and (3) There are 13 (thirteen) Arabic phonemes that do not exist
 in Indonesian. Based on these findings, it is suggested that the teaching of Arabic
 language should prioritize the similar sounds in Indonesian and Arabic.