The Perspectives of Students and Teachers towards The Content of ‘Arabic Language for Ibadah’ Courses at The International Islamic University Malaysia: An Analytical Study

Abstract

The aim of this study is to analyse the course content of the Arabic Language for Ibadah in the Centre of Languages and Pre-University Development at International Islamic University Malaysia, by describing the course content, analysing the opinions of students and teachers towards that course content from the perception analysis. The researcher implemented an analytical description method in this study by describing the course content of the Arabic Language for Ibadah in terms of its lessons and how it incorporates the topic with Quranic verses, hadiths of Prophets, adhk?r, and du?a? or supplications and analysed the students and teachers’ perceptions to find ways to improve the course content. The researcher has distributed the questionnaire to 174 male and female students and interviewed three teachers of the Arabic Language for Ibadah (LQAD 2003) for Semester 1 2022/2023 at the university, in order to analyse the course content from their views. The researcher adopted six content analysis criteria based on the content analysis list of Dr. Rushdi Tu?aimah's book "Dal?l ?Amal f? I?d?d Al-Maw?d Al-Ta?l?m?yah li-bar?mij Ta?l?m al-?Arab?yah". Therefore, the researcher prepared a questionnaire consisting of 45 questions that have adopted these six selected criteria which are: output, the four language skills, vocabulary, sentence structures, cultural content, and language exercises. The results revealed that the students have a positive perception on the course content in terms of language skills, vocabulary, grammatical structures, cultural content, and language exercises except for the output aspect. As for the teachers' perception, they also suggested a review of the output and sentence structures aspect. Lastly, the analysis of perceptions has identified several areas for improvement in the course content.