THE LANGUAGE LEARNING PROCESS IN THE QUR'AN: A THEMATIC ANALYSIS AND ITS IMPLICATIONS FOR FOREIGN LANGUAGE TEACHING

Abstract

Language learning theories taught in Islamic educational institutions are drawn mostly from Western linguistics and psychology, while the Qur'an, a scripture revealed in language and concerned throughout with teaching, has rarely been examined as a source for a theory of language learning. This study aims to formulate the concept of the language learning process, its principles, methods, and goals according to the Qur'an, and to relate this concept to modern theories of second and foreign language learning. The study is qualitative library research using the thematic exegesis (tafsir mawdu'i) method. Verses containing linguistic and pedagogical terms, such as lisan, qawl, bayan, asma', qira'ah, qalam, sam', and ta'lim, were collected and interpreted through classical and contemporary exegetical works, organized into a systematic concept, and compared with modern language acquisition theories. The findings show that the Qur'an views language from several dimensions: as a social system, an act of speech, a cognitive capacity, a literacy skill, and a sign of God's power. Humans are born without knowledge but are endowed with hearing, sight, heart and mind, the organs of speech, and an innate capacity for expression (al-bayan), with hearing consistently mentioned first. Drawing mainly on the teaching of names to Adam (QS. al-Baqarah [2]: 31–33) and the Prophet Muhammad's reception of revelation (QS. al-'Alaq [96]: 1–5; QS. al-Qiyamah [75]: 16–19), the study formulates a seven-stage spiral process: listening, learning vocabulary, imitating, reading, writing, understanding and expressing, and reviewing and conveying. This process rests on eight principles, including gradualness, ease, listening first, and repetition, and is carried out through thirteen methods, such as direct face-to-face instruction (talaqqi), dialogue, storytelling, parables, and recitation. Its ultimate goal is the six qualities of speech named in the Qur'an (qawlan sadida, baligha, karima, maysura, layyina, and ma'rufa), which correspond closely to the components of communicative competence while adding an ethical and spiritual dimension. The study proposes a Qur'anic language learning model that can inform English and other foreign language teaching in Islamic institutions, and recommends empirical testing of the model.