THE READABILITY OF MAHARAT AL-QIRA’AH TEXTBOOKS BASED ON CLOZE TEST AMONG NATIONAL UNIVERSITY OF MALAYSIA STUDENTS

Textbooks are one of the reference materials in the teaching of Arabic in Malaysia. In line with the current development, the Arabic language has become an important foreign language after English. Arabic language achievement of students in the country is still at a low level. Among the factors associated with the weakness issues of Arabic language proficiency among students is the suitability of the language level in the textbooks. The objective of this study was to determine the level of readability of a textbook, Maharat al-Qira’ah at the Faculty of Islamic Studies, National University of Malaysia. The respondents comprised of 162 students. Data was collected through cloze tests and questionnaires and later analyzed using descriptive analysis. The average score for cloze test of textbook Maharat al-Qira’ah is defined by 65%, which translates that the level still remain at a low level and not appropriate for the purposes of teaching and learning. Therefore, the authorities should take into account the level of readability before any textbook is used as the learning resource so that it corresponds to the students’ level of language skills.