Bridging the Nahwu–Insyā' Gap: The Effectiveness of Syntactic Integration in Arabic-as-a-Foreign-Language Writing Instruction

Aidillah Suja, Syarifaturrahmatullah Syarifaturrahmatullah, Moh. Syaifudin, Renti Yasmar, Ade Destri Deviana, Achmad Tito Rusady

Abstract


Although syntax is recognized as a fundamental component of foreign-language writing ability, syntactic knowledge acquired separately from writing practice rarely transfers into actual text-production performance. This study examined the effectiveness of a syntax-integration model in Arabic writing instruction within the Indonesian Islamic higher-education context, using a quasi-experimental pretest–posttest control-group design involving 108 Arabic Language Education students from three universities. The experimental group (n = 53) received integrated instruction—authentic-text modeling, sentence-and-paragraph reconstruction, collaborative editing, and explicit syntactic feedback—while the control group (n = 55) received conventional writing instruction. Because the data were not normally distributed, analysis used the Wilcoxon signed-rank test for within-group comparisons and the Mann-Whitney U test for between-group gain scores, complemented by the rank-biserial correlation effect size. Both groups showed significant improvement in writing ability. However, the experimental group showed a significantly higher gain score (Z = -2.788, p = .005, r = .27). These findings indicate a measurable added value of syntactic integration, albeit with a small-to-moderate effect size, and offer contextual empirical evidence for pedagogy in Arabic as a foreign language.

Keywords


Arabic as a foreign language; Arabic writing instruction; Quasi-experimental study; Syntactic integration; Writing proficiency

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References


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DOI: https://doi.org/10.17509/alsuniyat.v9i2.105035

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