The use of Stress in Arabic words and Sentences Among Malay Speakers of Arabic as a Second Language: An Analytical Study

Abstract

This research aims to elucidate the prosody in both Arabic and Malay languages. It seeks to explore the proficiency of Malay students who speak Arabic as a second language, specifically analyzing their ability to apply stress in Arabic words and sentences. The study also investigates error patterns and Malay students' weaknesses using Arabic stress to identifies the factors influencing research outcomes. The research uses an analytical methodology to uncover the proficiency of Malay students using Arabic as a second language in utilizing Arabic lexical and sentence stress. Study samples were chosen from undergraduate students in the Arabic Language Department at the International Islamic University Malaysia. Their voices were recorded while reading selected Arabic texts, and data were extracted using the "Praat" software to measure intensity, frequency, and duration. The researcher conducted interviews with two lecturers as experts in the research who specialized in the field to find the factors that influence the weaknesses and the solution for the root cause. The findings indicate a significant impact of mother tongue language on the use of Arabic stress since the Malay language tends to place the lexical stress at the end of words hence it aligns with research results showing that the percentage of the error in placing stress (end of the word) were higher than the correct percentages. Additionally, the data analysis for sentence-level stress supports that Malay students lack linguistic spirit and emotional expression when speaking Arabic. Furthermore, the researcher divided the samples into male and female groups. According to sentence-level correct prosody percentages, the result shows that the proficiency of the female group was better compared to the male group. Lastly, the researcher hopes that the results of this study will contribute to enriching the understanding of Arabic stress and provide new insights to enhance Arabic speech performance among Malay students.