Research in communicative methods for acquiring and teaching a second language has been extensively explored. Still, the research is more dominant on the acquisition and teaching of English only. This study aims to describe learning Arabic by using communicative methods and the factors that influence the Arabic speaking ability of students in the superior class of Darussakinah Batu Bersurat Islamic Boarding School. The method used is the descriptive qualitative method. The results for this study indicate that the use of communicative methods in learning Arabic increases students’ speaking skills, and students actively speak Arabic in the learning process. Other factors that affect students’ speaking ability are the language environment, continuous daily vocabulary, and good mastery of Arabic Grammar (nahwu and shorof grammar). Mastery of Arabic grammar is beneficial for students in reconstructing memorized vocabularies into complete sentences, thus creating a sense of confidence in speaking.

Humans use language to interact with others, exchange experiences, learn from each other, and improve and deepen intellectual abilities. Humans can convey various information, thoughts, experiences, ideas, opinions, desires, and hopes through language..1So important is the role of language in human life, so when there are language education activities, especially in foreign languages, they are required to be more careful. This is necessary so that the language studied is functional, where the language can be used in students' daily lives, both for listening, reading, speaking, and writing.In the 17th century, John Lock invited people to learn a language to interact with the community and spontaneously communicate thoughts in everyday life without being designed and arranged intentionally.2The language teaching revolution of the 19th century was the emphasis on spoken language.3The primary purpose of language education is to improve learners' language skills, not language knowledge. In contrast, language knowledge is taught to support the achievement of language skills.4Therefore, the teaching and learning foreign languages, with only a focus on grammar and translation of terms, no longer meets the community's needs and has no value. What we need today is how to use foreign languages in practice in their respective professional fields.5Speaking is the dominant formof communication that humans use more than writing.6Therefore, in teaching a foreign language or a second language, the skill that must be prioritized is speaking.7Eckard Eckard Kearny, Florez, Howarth, and Abd El Fattah Torky define speaking as a two-way process, including communicating opinions, information, or emotions. And success is measured based on the ability to carry out conversations in the intended language.8Speaking skills are the ability to express sounds or words and verbally tell thoughts in the form of ideas, opinions, desires, or feelings to the other person.9The suitable method for teaching speaking skills is the communicative method because this method emphasizes students' creativity in doing practice or practice. In this activity, students have more opportunities to speak.10The communicative approach allows for immediate error correction before mistakes become ingrained. This encourages or enables the learner to express themself like a native speaker in the target language. Discussions in the target language inside or outside the classroom can open students' eyes to the real-world value of language learning and influence their engagement with the material.

The results of research conducted at the Centre for Languages and Academic Development, Faculty of Islamic Studies, Islamic University of Riau (CELAD FAI UIR) evidence this using the communicative method, which emphasizes the functional aspects of students in speaking, being more practical orally than in writing, and memorizing the vocabularies and then practicing it. The learning process is creative, innovative, and fun so that students can be fluent and proficient in Arabic.12Another similar study states that the role of the communicative method itself is to improve or develop students' language skills.13The research results from Mordaunt and his team stated that the communicative method effectively taught foreign languages in the United States.14In addition, the results of other studies show that grammatical and communicative methods improve students' practical language skills, such as speaking and listening in foreign languages, and increase solid grammatical knowledge.15Also, the results of Muiz's research on communicative methods show that: 1) communicative methods can significantly improve students' vocabulary mastery skills through dialogue or communication activities. This increase can be seen from the change in thevalue of cycle 1 to cycle 2 of 26.55. In cycle 1, the average value obtained by students is 51.31, while in cycle 2, the average value obtained by students is 77.86. Increasing the score of this vocabulary memorization test covers all aspects of speaking skills used as assessment criteria. In addition, 2) the communicative method has significantly improved students' interest and response to learning Arabic.16And the results of research conducted by Rawai stated that the implementation of communicative methods in learning Arabic, namely, the number of students' vocabularies 

increased, and students received fewer sanctions because they could speak Arabic. In addition, students' Arabic skills with their peers increased.17Among the procedural steps in the teaching and learning process using the Communicative Method described by Finocchiaro and Brumfit in Huda, 1990, are as follows: First, a short conversation, preceded by an explanation of the functions of expressions in conversation, may occur. Second, practice expressing the main sentences r individually, in groups, or classically. Third, questions are questions about the content and situation in conversation, then follow-up questions are similar but directly related to each student's situation. Fourth, students in class discuss communicative expressions in conversation. Fifth, students are expected to be able to conclude the grammatical rules contained in the conversation. The tutor facilitates and corrects if there are errors in figuring. Sixth, students care to translate and express an intention, which is part of a more accessible and less structured communication exercise. Seventh, students evaluate by taking samples from student performances in free communication activities.18Many studies examine communicative methods for teaching foreign languages, but most of the language referred to here is English. The researchers here present research on communicative methods of learning Arabic as a foreign language and factors supporting students' speaking skills in one of the educational institutions in Indonesia. It is hoped that the results of this study can contribute to science in teaching Arabic as a foreign language in both formal and non-formal educational institutions.

This entry is adapted from: https://e-learning.man4kotapekanbaru.sch.id/takuana/article/view/33