A little over a decade ago, Arabic was primarily taught at select higher education institutions and usually supplemented courses relating to the Middle East. However, with Arabic becoming increasingly popular in the United States and being offered at several secondary and post-secondary institutions, we see that learners today have more varied attitudes towards Arab culture than they ever did before. Therefore, the 21st century Arabic classroom is not only teaching language but also culture. Currently, there are many guidelines for choosing cultural content and frameworks for teaching culture; some of them have even been integrated in teaching standards at the state and national level. The ideas presented in such works have definitely emphasized the role of cultural proficiency in the foreign language classroom. However, in order to achieve cultural proficiency, learners needs must be realized (Mantle-Bromley 1992). Therefore, this study seeks to fill this void in the context of the Beginner Arabic classroom at the secondary and post-secondary levels. The main research question of this study is: How can knowledge of learners’ needs regarding Arab culture result in higher cultural proficiency levels? To address this question we must consider other underlying questions such as the following: What do our learners know about Arab culture? What are their attitudes towards Arab culture when they commence their Arabic studies? How do their attitudes towards Arab culture change over the course of the year? How does exposure to cultural content in Arabic class affect their attitudes? What are the pedagogical techniques and methods that promote the meaningful learning of culture and consequently cultural proficiency? This study provides answers to these questions by determining the “present knowledge” (lacks) of learners regarding Arabic culture at the beginning of their Arabic language studies and the “required knowledge” (necessities) they need to attain cultural proficiency by the end of the first academic year in an Arabic language program. Moreover, it also takes into account the “subjective needs” of learners, i.e. what they want to learn about Arab culture. Thus, based on detailed analysis of learners' needs, this study proposes cultural content that is best suited to result in the meaningful learning of culture and cultural proficiency in the Beginner Arabic classroom.