The Impact of the Meaning Construction Strategy on the Acquisition of Grammatical Concepts Among Fifth-Year Literary Stream Students
Main Article Content
Abstract
The current research aims to identify the effect of the meaning construction strategy on the acquisition of grammatical concepts among fifth-year literary stream students. To achieve the aim of the research, the researcher proposed the following null hypotheses:
❖ There is no statistically significant difference at the 0.05 level between the percentage of grammatical concepts acquired by the experimental group, which studied using the meaning construction strategy, and the control group, which studied using the traditional method, in the grammatical concepts acquisition test.
❖ There is no statistically significant difference at the 0.05 level between the average scores of the experimental group, which studied using the meaning construction strategy, and the control group, which studied using the traditional method, in the collective grammatical concepts acquisition test.
To achieve the research goal and its hypotheses, the researcher selected a quasi-experimental design with partial control for two groups: experimental and control. The researcher identified the grammatical concepts within the topics prepared in the research plan based on the Arabic language grammar book for the fifth literary grade for the academic year 2021-2022. The researcher then prepared the final grammatical concepts acquisition test consisting of 54 items (44 multiple-choice items and 10 matching items). To ensure the validity of the test items, the researcher presented the test to a group of experts for face validity and obtained their approval. The test was then applied to a pilot sample of 100 students to determine the time required to answer the test, and to find the difficulty level, ease, discriminative power of the test items, and the effectiveness of the wrong alternatives. The researcher determined the test reliability using the split-half method and corrected it with the Spearman-Brown coefficient.
The researcher formulated behavioral objectives for the grammatical concepts specified in the research plan, covering the six cognitive levels of Bloom's taxonomy, totaling 69 behavioral objectives. The researcher also prepared teaching plans for the research topics and presented a model to the experts, who approved it.
The researcher randomly selected Al-Rowad School for Boys in the center of Al-Khalis's district to conduct the experiment. The research sample consisted of 66 students equally divided into experimental and control groups. The researcher controlled for some variables, such as chronological age in months, previous year's Arabic language grades, and parents' educational attainment.
After teaching the specified grammatical topics to both groups, the researcher applied the grammatical concepts acquisition test to the research sample. Statistical analysis was conducted using SPSS 19 with t-test for independent samples, Chi-square, Pearson correlation coefficient, and Spearman-Brown. The results showed:
- The experimental group students outperformed the control group students in the grammatical concepts acquisition test using the meaning construction strategy in both null hypotheses.
Based on the research results, the researcher concluded:
- The meaning construction strategy encourages students to acquire grammatical concepts during teaching.
- Providing a sense of freedom when presenting grammatical material helps in acquiring grammatical concepts, leading to the superiority of the experimental group students over the control group using the traditional method.
Based on the research results, the researcher recommended:
- Training Arabic language teachers on the steps of the meaning construction strategy to benefit from it and acquaint teachers with modern teaching methods through training courses.
The researcher also suggested:
- Conducting similar studies at other educational levels.
- Conducting similar studies to examine the impact of the meaning construction strategy on acquiring critical thinking skills.