Exploring Innovative Language Learning Course Design: Challenges and Dilemmas from the Arabic for Specific Purposes Pilot Course

Developing second language programs for speakers of other languages is a challenge in itself. In particular, the teaching of Modern Standard Arabic (MSA) as a foreign language faces many challenges today. There is growing advocacy calling for language learning design to be embedded within a theoretical framework. Various second language acquisition theoretical frameworks such as the Processibility Theory (PT) and the Teachability Theory (TT), for example, are expected to form the basis for effective course design. The recent development of a pilot course (Arabic for Specific Purposes) explored innovative course design using blended learning format (both online and face-to-face learning). Various challenges and dilemmas emerged during the course of design and implementation and these are examined and reviewed in this paper with the objective of enhancing future iterations of the course. The purpose of this paper is therefore threefold. First, we will be revisiting the main tenets of PT in the light of the teaching Arabic as a Foreign Language. Secondly, we will be examining the pilot program to demonstrate whether theories of Second Language Acquisition (SLA) have been conceptualized and implemented when designing the program. Finally, we will make recommendations of how to improve this program for a better learning outcome.