The Interplay of Academic Writing Skills and Attitudes Toward Classical Arabic Among Graduate Students

This study aimed to assess the academic writing skills of graduate students in educational departments at a leading state university in Saudi Arabia and investigate the correlation between these skills and their attitudes towards the classical Arabic language. Employing a descriptive analytical approach, the research utilized an academic writing test and the Attitude towards Classical Arabic Scale. A random sample of 105 male and female students, representing 45% of the study population, participated. Drawing from a compendium of essential Academic Arabic writing skills, encompassing 74 sub-skills distributed across 8 core competencies, the results of the writing test unveiled that the participants had achieved a satisfactory level of mastery in these skills. Key findings reveal that graduate students excel in style and linguistic accuracy while showing a need for improvement in formatting skills. The study also highlights positive attitudes towards Classical Arabic, with a strong preference for writing, followed by listening, reading, and speaking. Notably, a significant positive correlation was observed at a 0.05 significance level between students' possession of academic writing skills and their attitudes towards Classical Arabic. Furthermore, gender-based analysis indicated higher academic writing skill scores among female students in educational departments. Based on these insightful findings, pedagogical recommendations and suggestions for future research were also deliberated.