The Development and Assessment of the Thinking Maps for Arabic Speaking Skill Among Secondary Religious School Students

Abstract

Oral proficiency or conversation is a cornerstone of the communication process. It is also one of the purposes behind language teaching and learning. Arabic language students at secondary religious school have been found to face difficulties in their oral proficiency. They are facing in speaking Arabic fluently in the many and diverse situations of daily life and in expressing their thoughts and needs competently. Therefore, the purpose of this study is to identify the problems impeding the development of the speaking skill among students of the secondary religious school, at Sekolah Menengah Agama Slim River, by finding appropriate solutions that can improve this key skill.

This study has raised the following questions: what are the most important skills that students must earn to build a good conversation in Arabic? What is the main problem of communication skills among students of secondary religious school? How can thinking maps improve students' conversation skills? What are the suggestions that can help students make good communication with others? The study seeks to answer these questions by attempting to identify the methods that can help students to communicate effectively in Arabic with native speakers. The study also seeks to clarify the ways that students can use to express their past, present, future and experiences, as well as to identify issues in language communication among students. This study highlights how to use thinking maps to improve the speaking communicative activity among students. The study will apply the descriptive analysis methodology. The study will make use of observation and the questionnaire as data collection tools. The study will describe and analyse the problem using SPSS. The findings of this study will help Arabic language practitioners to improve the students' oral proficiency.