ABSTRACT
Earlier approaches to language teaching thus emphasized textual skills at the ex-- pense of aural ones. With the more commonly taught foreign languages in the an-- glophone systems, a turn toward communicative approaches to language teaching would entail an adjustment of the curriculum to accommodate a greater emphasis on spoken forms of the language such that all four language skills, active as well as passive, were nurtured. That some of the more commonly taught languages, such as Spanish, French, and German, possess spoken varieties that approximate standard written forms will have rendered the task relatively simple. With Arabic, on the other hand, the notorious differences between all spoken varieties and most written forms of the language present problems that have yet to be resolved in the Arabic teaching profession where a bias toward the textual aspects of the language is still very much alive. Indeed Alosh (1997, p. 100) notes with evident approval, "The long-range pur-- pose of most Arabic programs is to enable students to deal with written discourse effectively" (emphasis added). He further asserts that introducing a spoken element into Arabic teaching should not be allowed to compromise this aim. "Reading," he states, "is the major goal of most Arabic programs, and in no way should [developing the ability to speak Arabic] infringe upon this goal (p. 134)."
