Teaching Arabic as a Foreign Language (AFL) in the United States has been growing, particularly after the terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001. In this regard, Taha (2007), for instance, mentioned that the “National Security Language Initiative” was initiated in January 2006, and aimed at encouraging American students to learn “critical-need” foreign languages, including Arabic. Several Arabic textbooks were composed to meet the demands of this new growth. However, in comparison to textbooks available in the USA for other long-established modern languages, such as French, Spanish, and German, these Arabic textbooks arguably possess some inherent weaknesses. For instance, they often lack integration of communicative activities, visual aids, and pop culture artifacts, among other things. Further, they lack a clear vision of where to place students in accordance with standards set in the American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages (ACTFL) Proficiency Guidelines (American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages, 2012), whose scale has four main levels (Novice, Intermediate, Advanced, Superior). To partly address these shortcomings in current Arabic textbooks, this contribution aims to shed light on both benefits and limitations of using comics and political cartoons which are presently largely absent from relevant materials. It is argued here that strategic integration of such pop cultural forms as visual aids in Arabic textbooks will (i) motivate students towards the subject matter, (ii) provide authentic contexts to teach history, colloquial Arabic, and culture, and (iii) improve students’ writing and speaking in Arabic. Within the larger picture, this study will look at how comics and political cartoons can provide opportunities for students to improve their proficiency with regard to Arabic language and culture, and how these forms of pop culture can enhance students’ level of motivation and develop their multiliteracy skills. Relevant activities will be illustrated based on the American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages (ACTFL) guidelines as well as on students’ levels of proficiency. Tis contribution will also address how AFL teachers can utilize these cultural artifacts in teaching their students Arabic language and culture in an integrated way, and how they can develop students’ multimodal and critical skills. Works Cited Taha, T. A. (2007). Arabic as “A Critical-Need” foreign language in post-9/11 era: A study of students’ attitudes and motivation. Journal of Instructional Psychology, 34(3), 150–160.