The history of Arabic education in Malaysia began with the arrival of Islam in this region. The residents of Tanah
Melayu had first recognised the Arabic letters and its enunciation through Islamic religious practices that was
related to Arabic. However, during that time, Arabic was not intensely taught and studied since the focus was
given further to the teaching of Al-Quran and Fardhu Ain (Khoo, 1980). As such, Arabic was taught per se
through religious studies that using books written in Arabic (Rejab, 1992).
It can be said that the formal Arabic studies in Malaysia began with the emergence of hut schools in the 18th
century (Jusuh, 1990). Initially, the study focused on the study of syntax and morphology that served as a
pre-requirement for the study of Islamic knowledge learned afterward (Samah, 2009).In 1996, through the
Education Act 1996, Arabic was officially included in the Malaysian educational curriculum as a foreign
language subject and was taught in schools as one of the linguistic subjects. Today, Arabic is not only taught in
Arabic stream schools anymore since it has also been made available as an elective subject in boarding schools
and higher education institutions. The learning and teaching of Arabic were further expanded with the
establishment of the departments of Arabic language in public higher education institutions. Universiti
Kebangsaan Malaysia was the first higher learning institution to establish the Department of Arabic Studies and
Islamic Civilisation, followed by International Islamic University Malaysia through the Department of Arabic
Language, and then University of Malaya through the Department of Arabic Language of the Faculty of
Language and Linguistics. Universiti Putra Malaysia has also established its Arabic Language Unit and
subsequently in 2005, Universiti Sains Islam Malaysia established its Arabic Language and Communication
Programme in its Faculty of Major Language Studies. The last one was the same establishment in Universiti
Sultan Zainal Abidin (UniSZA).
These favourable situations had placed Arabic in a special situation. Asma Omar (in Mezah, 2009) asserted that
it is difficult to treat Arabic as a foreign language because of its status in Islamic society in Malaysia. Therefore,
Arabic has its own status compared to other foreign languages based on the observational history of Islamic
studies, culture and national education policy.