Trials and tribulations of Sla framework in designing Arabic courses for speakers of other languages

There is a consensus among language teachers and researchers that language course design is always a work in progress. This is influenced by variables such as the type of language being taught and whether the teaching of this language has been researched. Arabic is one the languages that have created a
perennial debate among its teachers about the anticipated challenges pointing principally to three reasons. The first reason refers to the dichotomy that exists between MSA and Colloquial Arabic, which will have a direct impact on teaching the macro-skill of „speaking‟. The second reason deals with the complexity of MSA in terms of grammar. The final reason discusses the theoretical aspects of language teaching and learning and its implications to the design of the Arabic program. This paper discusses these problems stemming from the recent empirical pilot study of teaching Arabic for a specific purposes (ASP). The study exposes some the problems mentioned above and suggests solutions to improve the teaching of Arabic in the light of theories of SLA and language teaching and learning.