Beurteilung des Einsatzes von Gleichnissen im Arabischunterricht für Nichtmuttersprachler durch Studierende des Instituts für Islamische Theologie der Universität Osnabrück

Abstract

The study was initiated on the premise that the mission of teaching is loaded with goals other than the mere transfer of content. Those other goals are considered to be an enrichment of the teaching mission. When teaching Arabic to students, it is important to take into account their current level of Arabic skills. It is shown that reliance on the text of the holy Qur’an to reveal the beauty of the Arabic language is the right choice, especially in the case of students learning Arabic as part of their degree in Islamic Theology in Germany. Given that the Qur’an was worded on the basis of Arabic language rules, the Qur’anic text uses all the capabilities of the Arabic language – its terms, semantics, and aesthetics – in such a way that it reveals the beauty of the language like never before. Many methods of teaching Arabic are thought to be rather stagnant, which cannot be said of the method of teaching Arabic from an aesthetic perspective. The goal, then, is to teach Arabic through the aesthetic dimension by integrating the rhetoric into the context. This enables learners to understand Qur’anic texts more effectively, showing them the beauty of the language. This is the challenge undertaken by the researcher. The researcher used the specific rhetorical method of allegory. The methodology was based on a lesson for teaching Arabic designed by the researcher, entitled “Spending for the sake of Allah”. The main question of the study was to explore the attitude towards the method of integrating allegory into teaching Arabic to non-native speakers among a sample of students at Osnabrück University’s Institute of Islamic Theology. The descriptive method was used to shed light on the research question. Despite being a pilot study, the researcher relied on the descriptive method, since the study lacked pre- and post-analysis, and did not include a control group. The results showed the importance of using a variety of teaching methods to teach Arabic in general, and to non-native Arabic speakers in particular.