Arabic Culture Deck (ACD): An Interactive Teaching Aid Innovation for Enhancing the Teaching and Learning of Arab Culture

The Arabic Culture Deck (ACD) is a pedagogical innovation aimed at restoring life to the teaching and learning of the Arab culture in the language classrooms. Going beyond textbook explanations, the ACD turns cultural learning to be an interactive process, fun-fulfilling and meaningful. Based on 100 cards arranged into ten cultural themes, such as greetings and non-verbal communication, cuisine, clothing, and celebrations, the deck enables learners to discover the aspects of culture by discussing, collaborating, and practicing in the real-life context. To study the viability and effects of this innovation, a pilot study among 143 Arabic undergraduate learners was carried out. The development process was systematic in nature and guided by a modified ADDIE model, and involved systematic stages of analysis, design, development, implementation and evaluation. A 20 item Likert scale questionnaire was used in order to gather the data by measuring the engagement, motivation and cultural understanding of the learners. Descriptive analysis showed that there was a great extent of learner acceptance (M = 3.42, SD = 0.14). The highest rated element (M = 3.54) was that ACD activities facilitated more enjoyable lessons and the lowest rated element (M = 2.87) stated the necessity of more extensive cultural integration. The results indicate that the students were positive about the interactive learning experience, which made them more motivated and interested in the process of implementation. These findings confirm that innovations like the ACD can make Arabic cultural education an active, learner-oriented experience. The integration of cultural knowledge into the fun of interaction that is ACD, not only informs the classroom learning but also develops the intercultural sensitivity that is needed to be effective in the globalised world.

Arabic language, cultural learning, gamification, experiential learning

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