The Development and Evaluation of a Song Album as an Instructional Material for the Teaching and Learning of Basic Arabic Language in Malaysian Primary Schools

Abstract

This article reports on a research project aimed at developing and evaluating a song album as an instructional material for the teaching and learning of basic Arabic language in Malaysian primary schools. Generally, the procedure for undertaking the research project could be divided into four different stages, namely (i) the gathering of ideas for the music arrangement for all the nine songs in the album; (ii) development of the song album; (iii) evaluation of the developed song album; and(iv) improvement and refinement of the song album. The results show that characteristics of suitable music arrangementfor the songs in the album are as follows: (i) modern music instruments combined with local and Arabic traditional music instruments so as to make the compositions more unique and interesting, (ii) the use of a variety of rhythmic styles;combining modern and traditional elements including middle east rhythm, (iii) employment of the combination of adult and children singers (iv) varied tempo with vibrant and energetic mood (v) take into account the possibility of combining singing of the songs with dance and movement activities. According to evaluation by the panel of experts, the songs in the albumareof good quality in both the aspects of singing and music arrangement. Meanwhile the results on the aspect of usability found that all of the songs in the album are attractive and suitable to be used as instructional material for the teaching and learning of basic Arabic language to year one pupils in Malaysian primary schools. The song album could facilitate Arabic language teachers to be more confident in carrying outsingingactivities in their classroom as outlined in the Year One Arabic language textbook published by the Ministry of Education. Consequently, by employing singing activities using the songs in the album could help to make their lessons more engaging, attractive and effective.