Enrollment into Arabic as a second language (ASL) in Dubai has increased steadily due to the high influx of expatriates’ populations. Although Arabic is the primary language in Dubai, the government has mandated that Arabic be taught in all private schools for non-native Arabic speakers from grades one to nine. This was at the time when the COVID-19 pandemic hit the world and it threw this mandated study into the world of teaching and learning via online means. Therefore, the purpose of this study is to examine the teaching and learning of ASL online in Dubai during the COVID-19 pandemic by exploring the role of innovation and technology infusion in teaching ASL, assessing how education stakeholders can motivate students in online learning, and investigating ways of effectively assessing students’ progress in online learning. The study utilized a qualitative case study where ten teachers and ten learners in 20 private schools in Dubai were interviewed, having been selected through the purposively sampling technique for the administration of unstructured interviews. The researcher analyzed the data using thematic analysis.
There were three major findings in this study. First, the adoption of online digital technologies for the teaching and learning of ASL has a positive influence on online teaching. The adoption of such technologies was successfully carried out with the support of capable infrastructure and efforts by the Dubai government, parents, leaders, and teachers of Dubai schools. Second, students are motivated by their parents and teachers for the adoption of online learning techniques where the learning was made interesting, flexible, manageable, autonomous, and generalized. Third, online learning shifted the focus from quantifiable assessment means such as grades, credits, rankings, and markets to the achievement of learning and teaching outcomes and acquiring the needed skills.
The study concluded with recommendations, implications for practitioners, and limitations of the study. It also identified suggestions for future research
