Using Documentaries in Teaching Arabic Poetry

The easy access to new technologies had transformed language teaching and learning in more ways than we can count it. Watching documentaries can keep students engaged and motivated. Film documentaries are highly authentic materials that can be an excellent learning tool in Arabic language learning classes. Teaching Arabic literature, poetry in particular, was always a great challenge to students and teachers. It requires a competency on a top of competency (Saussy 2005, 19). Arabic poetry is full of words and vocabulary that is not used in Modern Written Arabic. It is the aim of this study to integrate documentary films in teaching Arabic poetry to Arabic learners, and to develop appropriate approach to Arabic poetry. This pilot study is an attempt to see how Arabic learners benefits from using one documentary series called On the Footsteps of the Arabs “على خطى العرب” to learn about Arabic poetry . The TV programeme, produced by Al Arabiya television channel and presented by Eid Al-Yahya. The overall aim of this study was to introduce Arabic poetry through an authentic visual context, where students can have a full visual context to help them grasp the cultural references, styles, an content of Arabic poetry