The Objective Research Trends in Language Education in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia: An Analytical Study of Master's Theses and Doctoral Dissertations

This study aimed to identify the objective research trends in language education in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia through analytically analyzing Master's theses and doctoral dissertations. To achieve this aim, the researchers followed a descriptive approach, using content analysis to examine all theses and dissertations related to learning and teaching the Arabic language that were approved by Umm Al-Qura University from 1976 to 2019, totaling 231 theses and dissertations. The results revealed several objective trends regarding the curriculum, the learner, the teacher, and the branches of language and its skills, presented in terms of frequencies and percentages. Based on these results, several recommendations were made, including directing researchers to focus on the kindergarten stage in general education and the postgraduate stage in university education, as well as paying greater attention to the study of prosody.