Teaching and Learning Arabic Writing to Fourth Grade Students in the Basic Education Schools in Oman

Abstract

This study, which took the form of a case study approach, investigated the teaching and learning of Arabic writing in fourth grade Basic Education (BE) in the Sultanate of Oman. The aim was to understand how Arabic writing is taught in the BE schools, and how this influences students' performance in writing. In order, to achieve this aim, the teaching and learning of Arabic writing was explored from different angles, which incorporated the perspectives of curriculum professionals, teachers and students, in addition to classroom practices and students' written texts. This qualitative study used participant observation, interviews and document analysis to collect data related to investigative issues. An inductive approach was employed, to analyse observation and interview data, and content analysis was conducted for the document analysis. The findings of this investigation were divided into three chapters according to the emerged themes. The first chapter was about knowledge for writing, which included transcriptional and compositional knowledge, knowledge about writing forms (genres) and knowledge about the writing processes. The second chapter explained the writing pedagogy, teaching processes, teaching recourses and teacher’s roles in the writing classroom. The third chapter discussed the successful and limited aspects in the BE curriculum. Generally speaking, this study illustrated that teaching and learning Arabic writing is restricted by the official curriculum, which not only affects students' ability in writing, rather it also influences teachers' perspectives and practices in the writing classroom. Arabic writing in the fourth grade of the BE schools is taught in a prescribed manner, and few opportunities are granted for student to do creative writing. The emphasis in the Arabic writing curriculum of fourth grade is given for writing accuracy in terms of spelling, handwriting and grammar, rather than for creativity in writing. In the conclusion of this study, several recommendations were proposed for policymakers, curriculum professionals and teachers to assist them in enhancing the teaching and learning of Arabic writing.

Date of Award	1 Jan 2007
Original language	English
Awarding Institution	University of Bath
Supervisor	David Skidmore (Supervisor)