READING SKILLS LEARNING PROBLEMS AMONG STUDENTS OF ARABIC COLLEGE TONGXIN NINGXIA CHINA

Abstract

Reading skill proficiency is a pre-requisite for language teaching and learning (T&L) activities that students need to master. This is because by mastering the reading skill, one can understand the content of the reading text and enrich their vocabulary. However, the data showed that the students at Tongxin Arabic College of Ningxia in China were still facing the challenge to master the reading skill. This situation indirectly poses a barrier to achieving the objectives of T&L activities. Therefore, this study was conducted to obtain data related to the problems faced by students in mastering the reading skill in Arabic language T&L activities at Tongxin Arabic College. The instruments used in this study were questionnaires, observations, and interviews. The simple random sampling method used in this study involved 56 female students, 44 male students, 3 male teachers, and 9 female teachers. The data obtained were analysed using SPSS software. It was found from the findings of the study that there were five factors that had influenced the reading skill proficiency among students, namely physiological factors, self-motivation, effort, implementation strategies, and lack of vocabulary size. Apart from that, there were other additional factors that also influenced students' reading skill proficiency, which included poor grammar, passive engagement in the classroom, lack of exercise, lack of educational resources, and rewards for teachers. This study also proposes a number of appropriate measures to address this problem from the students’ aspects and the teachers’ aspects. From the students’ aspects, it is proposed that the reading resources are diversified such as the use of the electronic medium as an alternative reading medium. Whereas from the teachers’ aspects, it is proposed that the methodologies used in T&L activities are strengthened. It is hoped that this study will improve the level of reading skill proficiency among students in Tongxin Arabic.