The Mubasyarah Method in Maharah Kalam Instruction: A Structured Narrative Review of Evidence, Conditions, and Limitations

Abstract

Arabic speaking instruction requires approaches that expand learners’ opportunities to speak while addressing hesitation, limited active vocabulary, and dependence on translation. This article examines the contribution, enabling conditions, and limitations of the mubasyarah or Direct Method in the teaching of maharah kalam. It addresses a recurring weakness in the literature: findings from classroom action research, one-group pretest–posttest studies, comparative experiments, qualitative case studies, and learner-perception studies are often combined as though they provide equivalent evidence of effectiveness. A structured narrative review was conducted using publications issued from 2020 to September 2026 and accessible through official journal pages, DOI links, or publisher websites. Thirty-two journal articles, proceedings papers, and books were included in the conceptual synthesis, while the principal empirical studies were mapped by educational setting, participants, design, intervention, outcome, finding, and evidential limitation. The synthesis indicates that mubasyarah is promising for increasing speaking opportunities, classroom participation, confidence, and context-specific fluency when teachers provide gradual scaffolding, comprehensible input, repeated interaction, and a supportive language environment. The evidence does not, however, justify a universal claim of superior effectiveness. Several studies lack control groups, use non-equivalent outcome measures, report perceptions rather than performance, or examine reading, grammar, and numerical vocabulary instead of speaking. Teacher competence, practice intensity, initial proficiency, institutional language policy, and complementary methods remain plausible alternative explanations. Direct oral interaction should therefore constitute the core of speaking practice, while selective first-language support, explicit feedback, and eclectic techniques should be used according to learner needs