Non-Muslim Malaysian learners of Arabic (NMMLAs): an investigation of their attitudes and motivation towards learning Arabic as a foreign language in multiethnic and multicultural Malaysia

Abstract

The main focus of this study is to investigate the non-Muslim Malaysians’ attitudes and motivations towards learning Arabic as a foreign language. The study aims at examining the respondents’ attitudes towards learning foreign languages in general, towards learning Arabic language in particular and attitudes towards Arabic native speaker. This study also aims at investigating the motivational orientations among the NMMLAs in learning Arabic as a foreign language. The findings reveal that the NMMLAs’ held a high positive attitudes towards foreign languages, and held a moderate positive attitudes towards Arabic language and its native speakers. As to motivations, the respondents were instrumentally motivated to learn Arabic language with the need to fulfil the university requirement having the highest ranking whereas the intrinsic and integrative motivation came second with the same mean score . By conducting this research, it is hoped to widen the horizon of teaching Arabic in Malaysia, not only to Malay Muslims learners but also to non-Muslims.