Cultural intelligence and acculturation among non-native Arabic learners: the impact of ‎learning apps

Introduction

Learning the Arabic language as a second language has become a goal for many non-native learners from different countries, cultures, ages, and genders. Universities and institutes specialized in this field prepare curricula and programs for them with everything they need to learn the Arabic language as a second language considering that they will face some difficulties in adapting with the new culture or accepting the differences. Lecturers also recognize that this may be easy for some learners and difficult for others.

Foreign learners of the Arabic language when traveling to learn it in the country of the language, such as Jordan and Egypt, may suffer from difficulties in adapting to society because of their different cultures and lifestyles. Thus, foreign learners can adapt and achieve their goal of learning the Arabic language and interact with the environment and culture of the host country by acculturating with its people. This means that they have the ability to understand and interpret unfamiliar interactions from a cultural perspective (Van Dyne, Ang, & Koh 2008).

Acculturation (AC) expresses the processes and stages that the learner of the second language goes through to adapt to the culture of native speakers (Al-Osaily 2015). AC is one of the most essential elements for achieving true language competence. Language skills are not only mechanical, but also require social and cultural competence and communication skills with members of the target language community (Boone 2021).

An individual’s possession of cultural intelligence (CQ) helps them to enhance their AC, as CQ expresses personal traits that focus on the behaviors and skills required to involve and interact with cultures. This helps the individual to become acquainted with the cultural environment of others and to engage, interact, and perform effectively in a manner commensurate with them, thus achieving an adequate understanding of the nature of the language and how to use it (Thomas 2006). Aricat Karnowski, & Chib (2015) showed that people with high CQ who are culturally active are more in contact with members of society and develop AC than are individuals with low CQ who are fossilized.

Al-Muzaffar (2017) defines CQ as being able to deal with different environments and adapt to behavioral patterns in multiple cultures to engage with them easily. There can be no real communication in the target language without cultural efficacy; second language learners need to have an awareness and understanding of both the self-culture and the other’s culture to achieve success in communication in the context of “we.” Not everything that is said or written is always an indication of what is meant (Parker 2016).

Coleman (2015) argued that studying abroad can provide huge opportunities for social interaction, and the depth of new social networks will lead to many results and outputs. The depth of learners’ acquaintance with new friends affects input, output, feedback, and the group of language functions that are practiced, and thus, pragmatic competence. In addition, greater contact with native speakers in their environment may affect other goals, such as academic, cultural, personal, professional, pleasure, and tourism. Therefore, increased communication with local communities led to greater gains.

Recently, educational apps have occupied an important position in education, including language teaching for foreigners (Gangaiamaran & Pasupathi 2017). The advantage of learning apps is that they are easy to access anywhere and at all times (Kuimova et al. 2018). Researchers have paid significant attention to technology, especially educational technology. Some research has focused on phones as assistants in language education (Klimova 2019; Leis, Tohei, & Cooke 2015) and studies have found that the use of educational apps may have an effective role in teaching language to foreigners. This is because of their unique applications, such as activities, ease of use, and availability at any time (Klimova 2019; Kukulska-Hulme 2016; Balula et al. 2015; Diána 2020).

There are many learning apps used by non-native Arabic learners, such as Duolingo, Learn Arabic Vocabulary, Memrise, Innovative 101, Pimsleur, Mondly, Teach me Arabic, and Rosetta Stone. In addition, there are many other apps available on Google Store and App Store that make learning languages easier and more effective (Raed 2021).

The use of educational apps helps language learners to lessen their fears, practice, and feel linguistically efficient in communicating with native speakers (Kacetl, J., & Klímová 2019; Klimova 2018), because educational apps contain various verbal and written lessons that help the individual practice correct pronunciation. When they use the correct words (Chen 2016), this helps the individual in social engagement with others, and helps them exploit their CQ to interact and reach the AC that helps them achieve their goals (Figueiredo et al. 2019; Vardakosta et al. 2023).

Many studies have investigated the effectiveness of using learning apps to learn languages for non-native learners (Golonka et al. 2014; Hwang & Wang 2016; Liu et al. 2014; Hsu et al. 2014), but the focus was not on the impact of the use of learning apps in terms of cultural aspects, such as CQ and AC. Therefore, this study focuses on this effect.

Methods

Results

Discussion

This research focuses on the use of learning apps among non-native language learners. Specifically, it focused on how learning apps affected the learning of Arabic languages, and the results found that it is affected. However, learning languages is not limited to vocabulary and reading; learners must know the culture and interact with the community. To this end, this research studied the relationship between CI and AC and the effect of learning apps on the participants. This study found that CI and AC had a positive effect on each other. CI refers to having many behavioral aspects and skills to help the learner communicate and get involved with the culture of the second language. This skill helps them achieve their goals of understanding the language and knowing how to use it in different situations. This was confirmed by Aricat et al. (2015), who mentioned that people with high CI will be more culturally active and become more involved with the community and develop their AC, and vice versa.

This study found that the use of learning apps increased CI and AC among non-native Arabic learners. With combined learning from apps as well as in the classroom, students show a greater understanding of the language. This, in turn, makes them more self-confident in their linguistic competence, which is the key to understanding culture. Learning apps contain verbal and written lessons that help learners break their fear of saying incorrect words. This helps learners get involved in the community, establish their CI in knowing others, and achieve their goal of becoming AC, leading them to learn Arabic more easily (Klimova 2019; Diána 2020).

The study found that gender had no role in CI or AC among non-native Arabic learners. These results can be attributed to the fact that males and females face similar experiences when learning languages, such as being in a new country and culture shock (Ellis 2015). Furthermore, both males and females have similar attitudes toward learning the Arabic language because they have left their homes to try learning it to fill their passion.

Conclusion

This study revealed a significant correlation between CQ and AC among non-native learners, offering valuable insights into assisting them in adjusting to their new community. Furthermore, the utilization of educational apps has been shown to enhance both CQ and AC. Thus, it is imperative to encourage learners to engage with these apps, as they foster cultural awareness, thereby facilitating the process of learning Arabic. Notably, no discernible sex-based disparities were observed in terms of the CQ and AC.