Analysis of Teacher-Student Interaction in Class Learning and Application of Arabic at Islamic Science University Malaysia (USIM)

Interaction is an important factor in the success of teaching and learning process (P P). Through a good interaction implemented in the (P P) process, students are easily encouraged to get involved in the learning process and raise their language proficiency. Therefore, this study is undertaken to examine the interaction happening among the teachers and students during the Arabic (P P) process. Besides, this study intends to identify the type of interaction taking place apart from examining the language the teachers and students use in the learning process. This qualitative study draws on observation and interview instruments. To fulfil this purpose, video recording session is carried out for four occasions of 40 minute duration each in the Arabic learning classes, Faculty of the Main Languages Studies at Islamic Science University Malaysia (USIM). Later, the video is analysed using the system of Foreign Language Interaction (FLINT) of Moskowitz (1971) and the framework of Malamah-Thomas (1987) to pin down the interaction happening, and also the Language Use Interaction (LUI) of Kaseh Hanif (2017) in order to elucidate the language the teachers and students use. Also, the interview session is run with a teacher and five students to consolidate this study outcome. As a result, this study indicates that the teachers rely on six types of conversation while the students resort to five types of conversation based on the Foreign Language Interaction (FLINT) system. This aside, the outcome shows that there are six types of the interaction taking place in the classrooms based on the framework of Malamah-Thomas (1987), i.e. the teacher interacting with many students, the teacher interacting with one of the students, the teacher interacting with a particular group, the students interacting with the teacher, the students interacting with members of the group, and the students interacting with the entire class. The outcome also witnesses that some significant use of the language by the teachers and students in realizing the (P P) process is in Arabic. Nevertheless, further studies are needed to get a more comprehensive picture of how one student interact with another in a broader sense as most of the interaction happening is between the teacher and students. Therefore, it is hoped that this study could bring out the input and exposure to the teachers so as the (P P) process becomes centred around the students.