The Phonological Characteristics of the Arabic Language and the Challenges of Teaching It to Non-Native Speakers: A Descriptive-Applied Approach

Abstract

This paper investigates the phonetic characteristics of the Arabic language as a central component of its linguistic structure and examines their impact on the challenges of teaching Arabic to non-native speakers. Arabic is characterized by a distinctive phonetic system that includes the full range of Semitic sounds and distributes them across the entire human speech apparatus, making accurate articulation a fundamental objective in Arabic language teaching.

Adopting a descriptive–applied approach, the study analyzes the Arabic phonetic system and highlights its most salient features, such as the diversity of articulation points, the presence of pharyngeal sounds, and the contrast between emphatic and non-emphatic consonants. It also identifies major phonetic difficulties faced by non-native learners and analyzes their causes, particularly first-language interference and pedagogical factors. The study concludes that integrating phonetic awareness into systematic auditory and articulatory training can significantly enhance learners’ communicative competence.