Teachers` strategies in teaching Arabic vocabulary in primary school year 1 (J-Qaf programme)

Abstract

The objective of the teaching and learning of Arabic in primary school in Malaysia aims to cultivate interest in learning the Arabic language and mastering basic Arabic language skills in addition to allowing students to communicate using simple sentences, (Standard Document KSSR Arabic Language Year 1, 2011). In order to obtain those objectives among others, students need to master the Arabic vocabulary which is the key to speaking in any languages. Deficiency of the knowledge of vocabulary will be lesser in students’ confidence to communicate in the Arabic language. Thornbury (2002) stated that students normally have a problem to acquire a sufficiently large amount of vocabulary that enable them to communicate effectively. To achieve maximum vocabulary acquisition among students, Arabic teachers of j-QAF program, especially, must be prepared in terms of their teaching strategies. This study investigated and explored strategies that have been applied by Arabic teachers in primary school in teaching Arabic vocabularies. A set of questionnaire was distributed to 76 Arabic teachers from 76 national schools in Kota Setar to collect the data of strategies that have been used by Arabic teachers while teaching Arabic vocabularies in the classroom. The data were analyzed via IBM SPPSS statistic version 22. The finding in this study showed that most teachers are applying vocabulary teaching strategies as listed by the scholars. However, the most preferred strategies are the ordinary and are the simplest to be applied such as repeating certain words. Some of the most preferred strategies are also the most effective strategies as perceived by the teachers.