US-China Education Review B, July 2016, Vol. 6, No. 7, 419-428 doi: 10.17265/2161-6248/2016.07.002 The Employment of Documentary Film in Enhancing Arabic Writing Skills Among Non-Native Speakers From the Experts’ Perspective Tg Ainul Farha Tg Abdul Rahman, Abdul Rahman Chik, Muhammad Sabri Sahrir International Islamic University Malaysia, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia Nowadays, having access to authentic material for language learning, such as documentary film programs is very easy for all students and teachers around the world. The importance of this comprehensive input was emphasized by Krashen. At the same time, many studies have highlighted the linguistic, informational, and pedagogical purpose of documentary film in language skill learning. The base of the studies is the cognitive theory of multimedia learning. Accordingly, the present study has two main objectives, firstly to highlight the importance of using documentary film in enhancing the learning of Arabic as a second language (ASL) writing skill. Secondly, to analyse and discuss local experts’ views on the utilization of documentary film in the ASL classroom. For this purpose, a questionnaire was distributed among 12 experts in the field of ASL in Malaysian public universities. Their responses were collected and analysed based on closed-ended and open-ended surveys. The findings and discussion indicated that strong recommendations are given to the credit of the research question. The ASL experts recommend types of documentary films to be utilized, the category of writing skill that can be developed and the appropriate instruction technique to be used in the classroom. Keywords: Arabic language, Arabic as a second language (ASL), documentary film, writing skill, authentic learning Introduction Having access to language input is very important for learning any language especially for learning Arabic as a second language (ASL). This issue was highlighted by Krashen in describing the role of input hypothesis in second language acquisition. By understanding that input which contains structure at a higher level, progress along a natural order, where the structure is a bit beyond the current level of competence is achieved. Input is the essential environmental ingredient. Not all input heard by the student will be processed for language acquisition (Krashen, 1985). Krashen (1985) suggested that comprehensive input as a potential type of language input is the main features in all cases of effective second language acquisition (SLA), where by more quantities of this input seem to cause faster or better SLA, while lack of access to comprehensive input causes Tg Ainul Farha Tg Abdul Rahman, Ph.D. candidate, Department of Arabic Language and Literature, Kuliyyah of Islamic Revealed Knowledge and Human Sciences, International Islamic University Malaysia. Abdul Rahman Chik, Ph.D., associate professor, Department of Arabic Language and Literature, Kuliyyah of Islamic Revealed Knowledge and Human Sciences, International Islamic University Malaysia. Muhammad Sabri Sahrir, Ph.D., associate professor, Department of Arabic Language and Literature, Kuliyyah of Islamic Revealed Knowledge and Human Sciences, International Islamic University Malaysia. DAVID PUBLISHING D