Arabic Language for Tourism: Development of Application of

Learning Assessment: Based on Hybrid/ Blended Learning

Muhammad Yunus Anis

Department of Arabic Literature, Universitas Sebelas Maret, Surakarta, Indonesia

Keywords: Learning Assessment, Arabic For Tourism, Discourse Analysis, Hybrid/ Blended Learning.

Abstract: Arabic language has a significant role in expanding and describing the potential of the Middle East area.

Historically, the Arabic language had become the “lingua franca” in the Arabic Peninsula. One of the most

significant potentials in this area is tourism, especially religious tourism. This research examined the learning

assessment in the Arabic language for a certain purpose (Arabic for tourism). The data in this research was

several texts about tourism in the Arabic peninsula area. The assessment had two segments: (1) grammatical

aspects and (2) discourse aspects. The assessment of Arabic for tourism lesson was be implemented using

hybrid/blended learning supported by E-learning. The grammatical assessment measured the capability of

the student to understand the text about Arabic tourism from the point of view of the units of language such

as words, phrases, clauses, and sentences. The discourse assessment focused on the capability of students to

investigate the relationship between the function of language and the elements of communication. By

elaborating the discourse assessment in Arabic tourism text, the students can determine comprehensively five

functions of language in the discourse analysis, such as (1) expressive function, (2) phatic function, (3)

informational function, (4) aesthetic function, and (5) directive function. This research will be the main model

of Arabic tourism lesson based on the hybrid/ blended learning to develop the application of learning

assessment.

1 INTRODUCTION

The Arabic language had a significant role in

describing the aspects of tourism in Middle East Area.

If we discuss tourism, there are three basic

discussions; they are (1) level 1; provision, (2) level

2; encounters, and (3) level 3 management. Level 1

focuses in areas of tourism related to the creation of a

tourism product, and promotion and selling of typical

tourism products. Level 2 focuses on the capability of

students to handle face to face contact with a tourist

who is on holiday. Level 3 focuses on tourism issues

at a basic managerial level (Walker, 2010). This

research will examine an Arabic for tourism lesson

which was related mainly to level 1: Arabic tourism

products, such as the brochures of certain places in

tourism areas and then level 2 on the capability of the

students to understand the Arabic tourism brochures,

especially when they translated the brochures from

Bahasa Indonesia (L1) into Arabic language (L2).

The term “tourism brochure” or “tourist newsletter”

sometimes has the equivalent meaning with the term

/nasyrah siyāḥiyyah/ ( ). Both level 1 and

level 2 tasks are included in the Arabic tourism lesson

which was developed using hybrid and blended

learning. This article also described the self-

assessment of the lesson in the areas of (1) the

capability of the student to understand the grammar

and (2) the capability of the student to understand the

discourse parts. This self-assessment will be

developed into the “action for improvement”. This

article also describes the procedures for assessment in

this Arabic tourism lesson. It will help subsequent

research related to Arabic tourism, learning

assessment, and hybrid/blended learning.

Previous research about Arabic tourism based on

linguistic aspects had been described by Mansor

(2016) under the title “Arabic for Tourism:

Guidelines for Linguists and Translators”. Mansor

concluded that Arabic for tourism possesses many

positive and stylistic and linguistic features, which

add to its richness and beauty (Mansor and Salman,

2016). On the other hand, Mansor does not focus on

the assessment or hybrid/ blended learning, thus

leaving a gap in the research. Previous research about

Arabic learning assessment had been conducted by

Anis, M.

Arabic Language for Tourism: Development of Application of Learning Assessment: Based on Hybrid/ Blended Learning.

DOI: 10.5220/0008679900760081

In Improving Educational Quality Toward International Standard (ICED-QA 2018), pages 76-81

ISBN: 978-989-758-392-6

Melki (2013) under the research title “An Assessment

of the Use of the Arabic Language Tools in

Knowledge Management”. This paper explores

language as a tool to deliver knowledge in Lebanon.

The data in this research had been collected using

interviews of employees in (1) educational, (2)

financial, and (3) tourist enterprises. The results of the

analysis led the authors to conclude that the

specialized ontologies should be upgraded

[3]

. On the

other hand, the localization of some certain terms

were helpful in the process of knowledge transfer.

From the result from this research, it can be

concluded that specialized ontologies and

localization had a significant role in the translation

process, especially in the process of knowledge

transfer. This research did not describe tourism

brochures, thus leaving a gap in the research. This gap

focuses on the assessment of an Arabic for tourism

lesson based on the texts of tourism brochures.

Previous study about blended learning had been

described comprehensively by Littlejohn (2003)

under the title “Preparing for Blended e-Learning”.

This previous study guided this research about the

collaboration between e-learning and blended

learning. The previous research also discussed about

devising blended e-learning activities and

documenting e-learning blends (Littejohn and Pegler,

2007). Blended learning is closely related to open and

distance learning (non-face to face classroom). Anis

(2018) described open and distance learning in Arabic

creative writing in a case study of MAN Karanganyar.

This research investigated open and distance learning

in the Arabic language describing the common

mistakes in WSQA (word, sentence, question, and

answer) method and its impact to decrease the

memorizing method when learning the new

vocabularies and the strategies method to minimize

the common mistakes in Arabic language when using

WSQA (Anis, 2018). Arabic blended learning has

been studied by many scholars. Designing an Arabic

blended learning environment to teach Arabic writing

for non-Arabic speaking young children based on the

ASSURE model has been studied by Alnajdi (2018).

This blended learning research concluded that writing

course (writing improvement activities) took more

time than pronunciation and reading courses. Hence,

the assessment of a language course should pay more

attention to writing skills improvement. Alnajdi’s

research suggests that Arabic blended learning using

entertaining Google applications on smartphones and

tablets could be a useful component of an Arabic

language course. Blended learning using these

resources would be flexible, to be used anytime and

anywhere during free time. Last but not least, the

previous research about Arabic blended learning has

been described by Alasraj (2014) in his research

under the title “the Effectiveness of Blended Learning

in Teaching Arabic as a Second Language”. His

results indicate that there is a difference in the

learning outcomes and that using a blended learning

approach is a more effective way of imparting

knowledge. Teachers should therefore be aware that

blended learning strategies can enhance their

teaching

[7]

. This previous research was not directly

about using the blended/ hybrid method in Arabic for

tourism. This means this topic has yet to be studied.

This study focused on the capability of the students to

understand the grammatical aspects and discourse

aspects in the Arabic tourism brochures. Both aspects

became the foundation for the assessment and

evaluation of the Arabic tourism lesson. Optimal

evaluation can lead to improvements in Arabic

tourism lessons for Indonesian students.

2 METHOD

The method of this research was divided into

evaluation of (1) the grammatical aspect and (2)

discourse aspects of the Arabic tourism blended

learning lessons. Blended learning, for the purpose of

this study, is defined as a synthesis between on-line

material and the class meetings (face-to-face). The

texts used in this research were collected from several

texts about tourism that had been translated from

Bahasa Indonesia into Arabic language and were

related to tourism destinations. To assess grammar,

the first steps focused on the grammatical mistakes of

the students during the translation process from

bahasa Indonesia (L1) into Arabic language (L2). 40

tourism brochures had been translated by the students

from Bahasa Indonesia into Arabic language. The

brochures had been designed using PowerPoint. By

studying the texts we concluded that in the Arabic

tourism brochures, the discourse aspect could be

divided into 5 functions: (1) informational function,

(2) expressive function, (3) directive function, (4)

aesthetic function, and (5) phatic functions. This

discourse aspect is the content or deep structure. On

the other hand, there is a surface structure in Arabic

tourism brochure which related to grammatical

aspects. There are some common mistakes which had

been made by the students when translating from

Bahasa Indonesia into Arabic language, such as: (1)

the translation of technical terms, (2) Arabic phrase

problems, (3) Arabic clause problems, (4) Arabic

sentence problems, (5) word order problems, (6)

unfamiliar structures, and (7) source/ target language

Arabic Language for Tourism: Development of Application of Learning Assessment: Based on Hybrid/ Blended Learning

structure problems. Thus, it was decided that the

assessment of Arabic tourism brochures should be

focused on both surface and deep structure, the

grammatical aspect and discourse aspect to measure

the capability of the students to comprehend the

message/content of Arabic tourism brochures.

This research used a qualitative method. The data was

analyzed using a descriptive method (describing the

structure of language). The method used in this

research was divided into three main parts: (1) data

collection, (2) data analysis, and (3) data reporting.

The data collection uses observations to obtain

information about grammatical and (2) discourse

translation problems. Miles (1994) indicates that

qualitative analysis can be divided into three basic

steps, they are: (1) data reduction, in our case, these

were the Arabic units of language, such as: words,

phrases, clauses, and sentences, (2) data display, in

our case, these focused on (2a) common grammar

mistakes and (2b) models of discourse then (3)

conclusion drawing/ verification using the overview

of data, in our case, the data in the table 1.

The third step of analyzing qualitative data

activity is conclusion drawing and verification (such

as in the table1) (Miles, 1994). Data reduction is part

of the analysis. The data was displayed in an

organized, compressed form to facilitate conclusion

drawing and action. In this research data is displayed

in tables and figures to aid the assessment of both

aspects. The conclusion of this research was that the

assessment of Arabic brochures can be conducted

using both (1) the common mistakes in Arabic

grammar, and (2) the implementation of discourse

and information flow. Using both aspects is most

important as it results in the best quality assessment

in Arabic tourism lessons and also in Arabic creative

writing lessons, because these two aspects have a

significant role in Arabic language teaching and

learning.

3 RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

The data in this research focused on tourist brochures

which had been translated from Bahasa Indonesia

(L1/source language) into Arabic language (L2/target

language) by students from Arabic Department

program at Universitas Sebelas Maret, Surakarta,

Central Java, Indonesia. E-learning Universitas

Sebelas Maret was used in the design of this Arabic

tourism lesson as the students accessed the material

for the lesson from the web OCW (open courseware)

(www.ocw.uns.ac.id) by going to the menu (Fakultas

Ilmu Budaya) and then clicking (detail) then (Sastra

Arab – Lihat mata kuliah) (Daftar Jurusan Fakultas

Ilmu Budaya).A certain lesson, such as Arabic

translation or Arabic tourism could then be chosen

from the description of the lesson. The lesson material

to help students design the Arabic brochures was in

the form of PowerPoint, ebook, youtube video, and

Table 1: Ooverview of Student Translation Problems With Arabic Tourism Brochures

Data number

Tourism Brochures

Brochure

Grammatical aspect

Discourse aspect

Data 1

7 best place in Wonogiri

The translation of technical

term

Informational function

Data 2

Tour to Berastagi

Arabic phrase problem

Informational function

Data 3

Tour to Saronde Island

Arabic clause problem

Informational function

Data 4

Tour to Saronde Island

Arabic sentence problem

Informational function

Data 5

Tour to Berastagi

Word orders problem

Informational function

Data 6

Tour to Dieng

Unfamiliar structure

Expressive function

Data 7

Tour to Saronde Island

Unfamiliar structure

Expressive function

Data 8

Tour to Anak Gunung

Krakatau

Word orders problem

Directive function

Data 9

Tour to Karimun Jawa

Source/ target language

structure problem

Directive function

Data 10

Visit Indonesia 2009

Source/ target language

structure problem

Aesthetic function

Data 11

Tour to Solo

Source/ target language

structure problem

Phatic function

ICED-QA 2018 - International Conference On Education Development And Quality Assurance

basic tutorials (such as in wikihow.com: membuat

brosur paket wisata: how to create tourism

brochures). The students used this information to

design Arabic brochures using appropriate grammar

and discourse style.

3.1 Arabic Grammar Assessment

Grammar plays a significant role in understanding

the surface structure of tourism brochures. Nababan

(2012:50) has published guidelines for translation

qualitative assessment (TQA) (Nababan et.al., 2012).

Translation can be considered accurate when there is

no distortion in the meaning of words, technical

terms, phrases, clauses, and sentences, from L1 to L2.

In the process of blended learning, the feedback from

assessment was noticable. The first problem was in

the translation of the words in tourism brochures

particularly the name of cities and food. For example

when translating words like “Wonogiri”(a city) and

“Gaplek”(food) (Data 1) . Some of the students used

the technique borrowing to describe these. In this

case, the students used a description to explain the

word. For example: “Wonogiri is a regency in the

southeastern part of Central Java” (

 ). Gaplek is a kind of food made from

cassava (       ). The

technical terms in tourism brochures presented a

crucial difficulty. A phrase can be looked at from the

translation of the individual words such as “paket

tour” which became /thardu daurah/ () (Data

2). Alternatively, the term “package tour” can be

translated into Arabic language /richlah munadz-

dzamah/ () and /chazmah jawwalah/ (

). One problem related to clauses is illustrated in

the Arabic clause below (Data 3).



The clause /allati lam tu’raf min qabl/ was an

Indonesian construction that is unfamiliar in Arabic

language. This clause can be replaced by the word

“unfamiliar” (   ). One problem at the

sentence level is illustrated in this sentence below

(Data 4).



.

This sentence contains a grammatical mistake; the

word /jazīrah/ was the female nouns, thus the pronoun

should be hiya (but in the data above, the students

used the word huwa, for the masculine nouns).

3.2 Arabic Discourse Assessment

Discourse assessment focused on the five functions

of language related to the use of language and act of

communication from Geoffrey Leech (1983:49)

There are four basics function of language based on

their communicative purpose (1) argumentative

function (to present argument), (2) descriptive

function (to describe things in the external world), (3)

signaling function (to communicate information

about internal states), and (4) expressive function (to

express internal states of individual). Discourse can

be categorised in terms of its function. Leech also

proposes five models for discourse (1) informational

discourse, (2) expressive discourse, (3) directive

discourse, (4) aesthetic discourse, and (5) phatic

discourse (Kushartati, 2007)

The Information function is related to “the

message” or “new information” and is constructed

from the source of information or message. This

variant of discourse is closely related to truth and

value. In the tourism brochures, the information

function appeared in the first step, especially when

the brochures describe the tour package and so on.

The students' problem with the informational function

related to the failure of the students to understand the

text source (L1). For example when they wanted to

translate the information about accommodation/

transportation; “transportation: ELF 12 seat full AC”

(Bahasa Indonesia). The result was incorrect. The

student had translated into Arabic language with the

sentence below (Data 5) using Bahasa Indonesia

construction. This resulted in word order problems in

the target language. The word /majlasah/ was femina

and the word/kāmil/ was mascula. There is no

agreement between these words thus, the word order

problem. This problem was also caused by the

influence of Bahasa Indonesia (source language).

12   



















   

ELF

The word /kāmil/ has the lexical meaning “perfect”,

“complete” and “perfect”. It was not incorrect based

on lexical choice. The phrase “full AC” is a

construction of Bahasa Indonesia. This phrase does

not need to be translated into Arabic language using

the word /kāmil/ to express the source language terms.

The word “air conditioner” can be translated into

Arabic language just using the word “mukayyif”

() or “takyīf” () without the word al-hawā’

(). The word “transportation” /al-wasīlah/ also

was incorrect. The word “transportation” should be

translated into /muwāshalāt/ ()(Cambridge

Arabic Language for Tourism: Development of Application of Learning Assessment: Based on Hybrid/ Blended Learning

English-Arabic dictionary). The students tried to

convey new information to the readers, but made

grammar mistakes such as the agreement between

two words. Thus, these common mistakes can be

reduced by blended learning by maximizing grammar

practice based on Arabic composition. This practice

should be focused on how to give new information to

the readers using “informational discourse”.

The second function is the expressive function.

Expressive discourse encourages students to practice

how to express feelings and attitudes in Arabic

composition (writing the Arabic brochures).

Expressive discourse also becames the main media to

appraise how the students arranged an idea or

opinion. By looking at the data below, it can be

concluded that the students, used the expressive

feelings, such as in the data about Dieng plateau. The

invitation to go to Dieng can be found from the word

/hayya/ () “come on!”.











DIENG 2014 (Data 6)

The data below is an expression the student's

opinion to encourage the reader to go to Saronde

Island in North Gorontalo; it can be looked at from

the word level /ithmi’nān/ () “peace of mind”,

confidence, and peace (Data 7).



The third function of language is the directive

function. The directive discourse related dominantly

with how the students attempted to influence the

behavior or attitudes of others. This kind of discourse

trained the students to use commands and requests in

the Arabic brochures (such as in data 6). Examples of

this kind are, I want to go to Krakatau Mountain.

This function can be elaborated from the data about

the description of “Anak Gunung Krakatau” below.









Anak gunung Krakatau merupakan salah satu

warisan alam yang luar biasa, terletak di Selat Sunda

diantara Pulau Jawa dan Sumatera

Objek wisata satu ini memiliki pesona khas yang

membuatnya terlihat berbeda diantara objek wisata

yang lain (Data 8).

By looking the data 8, we can observe how the

students expressed their feeling about the beautiful

scenery of Anak Gunung Krakatau, using the word

/al-mumayyaz/ () “special” in a direct way.

Some of the students also used a question to make the

directive function (Tour to Karimun Jawa). The use

of questions as commands in tourism brochures can

be found at (www.tnlapp.com), using the question (

).







 (Data 9)

The fourth function is the aesthetic function which

is focused on the aesthetic aspects, such as beauty.

This kind of discourse refers to the messages or

information which had a high aesthetic content.

Aesthetic discourse can reveal the students' ability to

arrange the message in an aesthetic way. One

example is the student's use of the word /fātin/ ()

“catchy”. The student tried to employ the aesthetic

function by the lexical choice of word. It can also be

seen from the word /mursyid/ () “guide” (Data

10).



Your guide to fascinating Indonesia

The fifth function is the phatic function. Phatic

discourse trains students to arrange expressions to

keep communication lines open and maintain social

relationships. This kind of discourse related to the

smooth communication between people, such as

introducing yourself and greetings. Phatic discourse

made the brochures more attractive. For example, the

phrase /ahlan wa sahlan/ as phatic function

(mujamalah) () grace(fullness).









4 CONCLUSION

This research studied assessment of students

understanding of material in an Arabic tourism lesson

based on their translation of tourist brochures. The

assessment considered, (1) students understanding

ICED-QA 2018 - International Conference On Education Development And Quality Assurance

the grammar in the brochures and (2) students use of

the discourse functions in the brochures. For the first

problem, students made some common grammar

mistakes in finding the equivalence of technical

terms. Systematic assessment is needed to avoid these

problems and would improve the quality of the

Arabic tourism lesson. Grammar was considered at

the word, phrase, clause, and sentence levels.

Common mistakes related to: (1) the translation of

technical term, (2) inaccurate Arabic phrases, (3)

inaccurate Arabic clauses , (4) inaccurate Arabic

sentences, (5) word order problems, (6) unfamiliar

structures, and (7) source/ target language structure

problems. The second problem focused on the

discourse aspects related to the five functions of

language in Arabic tourism brochures. It was found

that the students used five basic functions of language

when designing the tourism brochures,: (1)

informational, (2) expressive, (3) directive, (4)

aesthetic, and (5) phatic.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

LPPM UNS supported this research – The Institute

for Research and Community Services, under a

Social, Humanities, and Education Research Grant

(Hibah Penelitian Sosial Humaniora dan

Pendidikan – PSHP 2018).

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