The designing of Virtual Learning Environments for authentic proficiency enhancement in Arabic

The Common European Framework of Reference (CEFR) conceives language proficiency as the ability to cope with different tasks referring to real-life situations in ways that emulate native speakers' behavior. In the case of Arabic the accomplishment of those tasks by native speakers may require the resort to Standard Arabic (SA) alone, to Colloquial Arabic (CA) alone, or to a mixture of SA and CA. Our contribution illustrates how this complex linguistic reality can be reproduced inside the classroom by creating a Virtual Learning Environment (VLE) that enables authentic proficiency enhancement and assessment in Arabic and ultimately allows the application of CEFR guidelines to the Teaching of Arabic as a Foreign Language (TAFL).