Attitudes of Teachers of Arabic as a Foreign Language toward Methods of Foreign Language Teaching

Abstract

This study examined the attitude of teachers of Arabic as a foreign language toward some of the most well known teaching methods. For this reason the following eight methods were selected: (1) the Grammar-Translation Method (GTM), (2) the Direct Method (DM), (3) the Audio-Lingual Method (ALM), (4) Total Physical Response (TPR), (5) Community Language Learning (CLL), (6) the Silent Way (SW), (7) Suggestopedia (SUGG), and (8) Communicative Language Teaching (CLT). Teachers' attitude toward these eight methods was assessed, and the correlation between teachers' preferences and some demographic variables were also measured. T-test and Pearson correlation tests were used in this study to derive conclusions from the research questions. 48 male and female Arabic teachers who teach Arabic in the United States took part in this research. They listed their impressions on a Likert Scale questionnaire that has forty items, plus five questions regarding demographic information about the participants. The following results were found: 1- There was a significant relationship between TAFL's age and the GTM method of foreign language teaching, 2- There were no significant gender differences in the attitudes toward the eight methods of foreign language teaching, 3- participants whose native language is not Arabic preferred the CLL and SW methods more than participants whose native language is Arabic. As only 3 of the 48 participants reported their native language as not Arabic, the results of the attitudes toward the CLL and SW methods by these participants are not generalizable because of the small sample size, 4- Those participants with no training preferred the GTM method more than those who are trained, 5- Those participants who had received training prefer the ALM and TPR methods more than those participants who had not received training, and 6 There was a significant relationship between TAFL's years of teaching experience and the GTM method of foreign language teaching.