Author(s): Rozaini Tukimin, Nik Mohd Rahimi Nik Yusoff, Harun Baharudin
Purpose: The aim of this study is to review the potential application of teaching aid in reading 29 Arabic letters with Fatha vowel using a strategic teaching approach based on mental imagery techniques. Imagery strategies are said to be effective to improve memory and mastery in reading skills.
Design: This study is designed to review a strategic development of a teaching material of the Arabic Vowel Fatha Reading Aid in the teaching of Arabic reading skills for lower-level grades students using ADDIE (Analyze, Design, Develop, Implement and Evaluate) Instructional Model. The methodology of this paper consists four steps: The first step consists analyzing the main cause of students’ weaknesses in reading Arabic text. The second step consists designing the characteristics of material to be taken into account in building an effective teaching aid. The third step consists the process in developing the material and the last step consists implementing and evaluating the effectiveness of usage in teaching and learning Arabic. A total of 20 students from Year 1 were exposed to the intervention using the charts that are designed graphically using picture icons which resemble certain Hija'iyyah Alphabets for 7 weeks with a focus on 4-5 letters per week.
Findings: A significant result obtained from pre and post-test using T-test analysis proved that the strategic use of this technique is potentially an alternative method to overcome the problem of reading Arabic Hijaiyyah letter of Fatha lined vowels.
Implication: This innovative teaching aid and teaching technique has a great potential to be used in the Arabic Education subject to enhance students’ ability in reading skills. This material hopefully can be useful in helping pupils who are low-achievers in teaching and learning Arabic Language, Tasmik activities (Iqra 'reading guidance) and Quran Literacy Camp (Quranic recovery program) which is being implemented under the j-QAF program.