Berita

August 14 2017, by Scha

The Arabs living in Indonesia are mostly descended from the Hadrami. The prominent people among them with investing in real estate and trading got power financially. Before Islam came to Indonesia, Arabs had contact with Indonesia for many years. Arabs may have come to live in Indonesia first of all in the fifth century. So no wonder Arabic language been using in religious school and madrasah in Indonesian till today. But nowadays, there is no limitation of Arabic language since it is using in learning process of higher education. The importance of efforts to promote Arabic learning is recognized by the Arabic Language Education (PBA) of University Muhammadiyah of Yogyakarta (UMY) by organizing International Conference and Call for Paper with the theme of Education, Literature, and Technology.

Vice Rector for Student Affairs, Alumni and AIK,  Hilman Latief, MA.,Ph.D., mentioned “The agenda of the PBA is aimed to provide a new breakthrough in the Arabic learning system by using technology as the base of learning media. We are aware of the need to revolutionize the Arabic learning system which is now highly urgent in the international world. It is expected that this activity can enrich the insight in directing the development of learning, because if the resulting system is qualified then it will be applicable to other fields.”

On the agenda PBA UMY choose the Dubai Institute of Applied Technology (IAT) to develop Arabic learning technology. “UMY will support the development of this technology by providing materials,while the design of the technology will be done in Dubai. The results of this cooperation will be applied to Arabic teachers throughout Indonesia. Therefore, before the agenda today, we have held a national-level learning workshop Arabic language followed by Arabic teachers throughout Indonesia as well as delegates from Malaysia and Singapore, “said Talqis Nurdianto, L.c., M.A., as chairman of PBA UMY. Talqis also added that in the development of the technology UMY also cooperates with IMLA (Indonesian Language Teachers Association) and also Center of Research and Intercommunication Knowledge from Saudi Arabia.

From this partnership we also strive to formulate the standardization of the use of arabic language. This is because the form and use of Arabic language is used differently in each region of origin. For example the use of Arabic fushah will be different from the language structure with the amiyah, not to mention the dialect of each region such as Libya, Oman, Egypt and other Arab countries. Our synergy is a real effort to pioneer the development of more advanced Arabic learning with the use of technology. Therefore, the recognized and internationally recognized Arabic standardization is required, including by UMY. One form of standardization is the TOAFL (Test of Arabic as a Foreign Language) that can be recognized by universities throughout the Arab country, “Talqis added.

Dr. Ali Mayouf Al Mayouf of King Saud University, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia as one of the speakers also expressed the importance of the Arabic language learning for children based technology, in the form of an application on your computer or on the phone. That is because according to these learning methods more closely and accepted by children, because the intensity of the interaction of children with very large technology. In addition, there will also be the agenda of the Arabic Corps of Arabic Linguistic Workshop on Friday (11/8). “The next activity is the formation of the Arab Corps on the next agenda. This corpus is a collection of information relating to Arabic, be it literature and even research. So corpus will then serve as a container to know the form, function, and meaning of an Arabic word. For instance, when we want to find the use of the word “ana”, the corpus will be giving all forms of use, function and meaning of the word in different contexts. The formation of this corpus is the first time in Indonesia, and also the superior articulation us in interpreting and Islamic belonging to St. Louis, “said Suryanto, S.Pd., M.Ed., Ph.D as the Dean of the Faculty of Language Education.

The corpus will be formed by a team consisting of 8 institutions that will provide material inputs: PBA UMY, UIN Sunan Kalijaga, UNIDA Gontor, UIN Maulana Malik Ibrahim, Tazakka Modern Pond, Al Azhar University Jakarta, UNS Surakarta, and IMLA. It is hoped that the transfer of technology will attract the Indonesian community, especially the students to learn Arabic in the future.