The Mobilisation of Linguistic Universals in Facilitating the Teaching of Arabic as a Foreign Language: A Foundational Linguistic Approach

Abstract

This study examines the pedagogical potential that linguistic universals hold for the teaching of Arabic as a foreign language in general, and for facilitating the instruction of its constituent components in particular most notably those pertaining to specific analytical levels of linguistic description, whether morphological, syntactic, lexical, or semantic. The study presents a practical model demonstrating the efficacy of mobilising these universals in advancing the teaching of Arabic as a foreign language, within the broader context of diversifying and modernising its instructional strategies, methods, and approaches. The study proceeds from the hypothesis that Arabic shares with other natural languages a set of universal linguistic principles operative at the level of its internal linguistic system, and that these principles constitute an entry point for constructing pedagogical scaffolding amenable to further development at subsequent levels.