Factors that Hinder Speaking Arabic as a Third Language

Abstract

Learning Arabic in Malaysia has started a long time ago. However, studies have shown that the level of language skills among students is still unsatisfactory. For speaking skill, students are facing difficulties to speak Arabic well, because language errors have always been the case. Due to this reason, it is necessary for a study to be conducted with the purpose of identifying the constraints that are stopping them from speaking Arabic properly as well as the implications of this problem. To identify the constraint factors, a total of 98 students who attended the first level Arabic course at UiTM Shah Alam were chosen as respondents. A survey form was used as a research instrument. The data were analysed based on the basic descriptive to find frequency, percentage and mean in distribution. The findings show that the most important constraints are the lack of vocabulary and the environment, that do not encourage them to converse in Arabic, leading to the inability to speak the language fluently. This study also proposed three ways to overcome this problem, namely using an Arabic language learning strategy, implementing well-designed teaching methods for speaking skills and the need to increase reading materials.