Arabic Language Training and Performance in the Nigerian Army: A Study of the Nigerian Army School of Education

Arabic language training has become a strategic military necessity for the Nigerian Army, given the increasing operational engagements of Nigerian forces in Arabic-speaking peacekeeping environments and the significance of Arabic in intelligence gathering, community engagement, and cross-border operations in the Lake Chad Basin region. This study examines the Arabic language training programme at the Nigerian Army School of Education, assessing its curriculum design, instructional quality, trainee proficiency outcomes, and alignment with operational Arabic use requirements. Using a mixed-methods evaluation design, the research analyses the Arabic language training curriculum documents and administers pre-training and post-training Arabic proficiency assessments to two successive cohorts of 60 trainees each. Interviews with eight military Arabic language instructors and six operational officers who have served in Arabic-speaking peacekeeping missions provide practitioner assessments of training relevance. The study finds that the current curriculum adequately covers basic conversational Arabic and military command vocabulary but lacks sufficient training in intelligence Arabic, dialectal variation, and the Arabic linguistic conventions used in civil-military communication with Arabic-speaking civilian populations. Post-training proficiency gains are statistically significant but fall short of operational effectiveness thresholds. Recommendations address curriculum revision, instructor development, and the integration of regional Arabic dialect components. Keywords: Arabic language training, Nigerian Army, military education, operational Arabic, peacekeeping.