ABSTRAK
The Phonological Interference of Arabic to Indonesian StudentsThis study aims at finding the deviation of Arabic phonemes in Indonesian students learning Arabic, especially short vowels, long vowels, and consonants. The informants consist of a group of 8 students in the first semester and a group of 7 students in the third semester in Arabic Department, the Faculty of Letters, the University of Indonesia.

This study is a. comparative analysis dealing with the phonological system of Indonesian and that of the Arabic. I compare the similarities and differences between the Indonesian and the Arabic phoneme systems.

Interference is instances of deviation the norms of either language which occur in the speech of bilinguals as a result of their familiarity with more than one language, i.e. as a result of language contact (Weinreich, 1951:1).

In conclusion, it is understandable that the Indonesian students learning Arabic have problems in pronouncing the Arabic phonemes which do not exist in the Indonesian phonological system. However, the percentage of the deviation is not so high that it ranges is from 9.43 percent in group of students in the first semester to 17.96 percent in the group of students in the third semester. The most important factor that influences the deviation is the habit of Indonesian students in listening and reading Arabic in religious ceremonies.