The purpose of the research reported in this article is to present the notion of Culture of Traits (CoTs) and to develop a 'Communicative Traits Model' (CTM) in teaching, learning, and assessing of Arabic as a first language. The ultimate goal is to create a shared vocabulary, establish a common language and build a consistent understanding of what constitutes good teaching, learning, and assessing of Arabic. Towards this aim, two complementary dimensions were investigated; An analysis of the

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... igins and nature of the notion of CoTs, of how language learning happens and of how to conceptualize and encapsulate this in a model to create such a shared vocabulary in the teaching, learning, and assessing of Arabic. To validate the usefulness of CTM, the Bahraini teacher candidates completed the researcher-developed questionnaire to survey their views about what has been revealed by the analysis regarding CTM. Results indicated a very positive agreement on the importance of CTM as a clear and a practical framework to teach, learn, and assess the Arabic language not only in writing but also in speaking, reading and listening. Broadly speaking, stakeholders in the education sphered e.g., teachers, students, school principals, parents, curriculum developers, or policy makers, hold different and divergent expectations of what makes good teaching, learning and assessment. Some believe in the culture of memory and hence adopt surface and rote learning while others believe in the culture of creativity and then adopt deep learning and encourage students to participate and construct meaningful learning experiences (Biggs & Tang, 2011; Marton & Säljö, 1984) . The critical point to be made here is whether there are common expectations among stakeholders in the language education of what makes good teaching, learning and assessment of the language, whether for example there are common understandings of who is a competent reader, writer, speaker or listener? Or in another way of formulating the same point whether there is a common understanding among teachers and students, for instance, of what good writing means, or what good reading entails, or what good speaking involves, or what good listening looks like? Culham (2003 Culham ( , 2005 Culham ( , 2010 approaches these questions with respect to writing in particular through a 'traits of writing model'. In her model, she intends to create a shared vocabulary, build a consistent understanding of common characteristics of what good writing is and what makes a good writer. She identifies seven traits that make good writing and enable a competent writer: ideas, organization, voice, word choice, sentence fluency, conventions, and presentation. This common understanding can then serve as a baseline for teaching, learning, and assessment of writing. In a large-scale five-year study on the traits of writing with fifth-grade teachers and students in 74 Oregon schools, Portland, results provided significant evidence of the effectiveness of using this 'traits of writing' analytical approach to improve students' writing with specific focus on the traits of organization, voice and word choice