Designing Curriculum of Lexical Based Bilingual Arabic-English for Basic Islamic Studies

Designing Curriculum of Lexical Based Bilingual Arabic-English for Basic Islamic Studies

National existence can be ensured only by protecting the specific characteristics of each nation. In a unified mosaic of nations and countries, those that cannot protect their unique characteristics, “patterns,” or “designs” will disappear. Therefore, designing Curriculum of Lexical Based Bilingual Arabic-English for Basic Islamic Studies is badly needed for young learners. It should contain commonly used Islamic vocabularies, a selection of Qur’anic verses, Prophetic sayings and other original texts commonly used Qur’anic chunks, phrases, or verses. Lexical approach is preferred since its basic principle is: "Language is grammaticalised lexis, not lexicalized grammar" (Lewis 1993). In other words, lexis is central in creating meaning, grammar plays a subservient managerial role.

THEORETICAL BACKGROUND
Successful mastery of a foreign language through classical instruction, according to Sadtono (1983:1), must rely on time-honored and ironclad principles as follows: (1) extensive in-class instruction, (2) high frequency of drills and real language usage (3) relatively small-sized class of 10-15 students, and (4) teachers with excellent language mastery and teaching competence. The teaching of Arabic language for all levels of schooling in Indonesia is confronted by sheer obstacles that directly contradict the above principles. The common problems associated with the teaching of Arabic language in Indonesia are: (1) very minimum teaching-learning sessions with the exception of language department classes, (2) low frequency of language drill and real usage, (3) oversized classes of 40 students, and (4) teachers with mediocre language mastery and inadequate teaching competence.
Moreover, studies pinpoint to the woeful fact that Arabic language teaching in Indonesia of all levels, from Madrasah Ibtidaiyah (Khasairi et. Al., 2002) and Madrasah Tsanawiyah (Khasairi & Kholisin 2003) up to Madrasah Aliyah (Maslichah et. Al., 2002) has been plighted by a strain of problems that urgently demand solution. The above predicament instigated a study entitled ‘The Effectiveness of Vocabulary-Based Arabic Language Teaching for Madrasah Ibtidauyah’ by Murtadho & Irhamni (2003). The study, sponsored by Development for Undergraduate Education (DUE-Like) Batch III project, involved fourth grade students of Madrasah Ibtidaiyah (Islamic Elementary Schools) in their first semester.
The lexical approach to second language teaching, according to Lewis (Moudraia 2001), has received interest in recent years as an alternative to grammar-based approaches. The lexical approach concentrates on developing learners’ proficiency with lexis, or words and word combinations. It is based on the idea that an important part of language acquisition is the ability to comprehend and produce lexical phrases as unanalyzed wholes, or “chunks” and that these chunks become the raw data by which learners perceived patterns of language traditionally thought of as grammar.
Very basically, a lexical approach to teaching means the primary focus is on helping students acquire vocabulary. This movement away from a grammar-based syllabus largely began in 1993 with the publication of “the Lexical Approach” by Michael Lewis. It was called an approach to differentiate it from a method. What it focuses on are structures made up of words, meaning that the actual paradigm shift was away from individual words to clusters of words, or lexical chunks as they are commonly referred to. This new idea about the structural nature of the language does not exclude grammatical structures but instead recognizes that the language has far more structures than those that occur in the grammatical syllabus (Lackman:2).
'Lexical chunk' is an umbrella term which includes all the other terms. We define a lexical chunk as any pair or group of words which are commonly found together, or in close proximity. 'Collocation' is also included in the term 'lexical chunk', but we refer to it separately from time to time, so we define it as a pair of lexical content words commonly found together. Following this definition, 'basic' + 'principles' is a collocation, but 'look' + 'at' is not because it combines a lexical content word and a grammar function word. Identifying chunks and collocations is often a question of intuition, unless you have access to a corpus. (http://www.teachingenglish.org.uk/article/lexical-approach-1-what-does-lexical-approach-look).

Here are some examples.
Lexical Chunks (that are not collocations)
by the way
up to now
upside down
If I were you
a long way off
out of my mind

Lexical Chunks (that are collocations)
totally convinced
strong accent
terrible accident
sense of humor
sounds exciting
brings good luck
Principle 1- Grammaticalised lexis
In recent years it has been recognized both that native speakers have a vast stock of these lexical chunks and that these lexical chunks are vital for fluent production. Fluency does not depend so much on having a set of generative grammar rules and a separate stock of words - the 'slot and filler' or open choice principle - as on having rapid access to a stock of chunks:
"It is our ability to use lexical phrases that helps us to speak with fluency. This prefabricated speech has both the advantages of more efficient retrieval and of permitting speakers (and learners) to direct their attention to the larger structure of the discourse, rather than keeping it narrowly focused on individual words as they are produced" (Nattinger and DeCarrico 1992).

The basic principle of the lexical approach, then, is: "Language is grammaticalised lexis, not lexicalised grammar" (Lewis 1993). In other words, lexis is central in creating meaning, grammar plays a subservient managerial role. If you accept this principle then the logical implication is that we should spend more time helping learners develop their stock of phrases, and less time on grammatical structures.

Designing Curriculum of Lexical Based Arabic-English for Basic Islamic Studies
In recent years, the entire world has witnessed an upsurge of interest in the Arabic language. An important factor of this interest is the increasing number of Muslims and non-Muslims who need to understand Islam. Over the past view decades, this interest has been growing steadily (Mohamed 2003:v). High schools under Ministry of Religion Affairs in Indonesia have compulsory subjects of both Arabic and English which are not synchronized. Therefore, designing curriculum of lexical based bilingual Arabic-English for basic Islamic studies is needed to make students aware of using these two languages dealing with their religion as well as strengtherning character building.
It is suggested that the curriculum contains commonly used Islamic vocabularies, a selection of Qur’anic verses, Prophetic sayings and other original texts commonly used Qur’anic chunks, phrases, or verses. As guidline the author delivers 7 points to grass up the whole teaching-learning activities so that it will contribute in designing semester plan of lexicon based Arabic teaching.

1. For an Arabic class held weekly (one session per week), the total amount of meetings for a semester is 16 (8 meetings for a-half of semester).

1. There are two choices of the amount of new words and lexical chunks for each session:

1. Five new words and lexical chunks are introduced for each session.
2. Ten new words and lexical chunks are introduced for each session.

1. Material review is given following three sessions or once in a month.
2. Depending on the choice:

60. Students will learn 15 (fifteen) new words and lexical chunks each month, which means that in a semester (4 months) the total number of new words and lexical chunks students will acquire is 15 X 4 = 60.
61. Students will learn 30 (thirty) new words and lexical chunks each month, which means that in a semester (4 months) the total number of new words and lexical chunks students will acquire is 30 X 4 = 120.

1. Based on the assumption that bilingual Arabic-English   is taught for 6 consecutive semesters (from grade I to III), it follows that the total number of words and lexical chunks to be mastered by the students depending on the choice are as follows:

1. Total new words and lexical chunks = 60 x 6 = 360
2. Total new words and lexical chunks = 120 x 6 = 720

1. Every single word is written in red and lexical chunk is written in black.
2. For each meeting, one set of words and lexical chunks cards is given to each pair of students.

Based on above guideline, the author delivers a sample to design semester plan of lexical based Arabic-English teaching for one semester which the choice of five new words and lexical chunks are introduced for each session.

Session	Lexical chunk of   استعاذة   /Seeking refuge in Allah/
1	ملك ملك الناس	الفلق رب الفلق	رب رب الناس	العياذ و العياذ بالله	أعوذ أعوذ بالله
	King The King of men	The daybreak The Lord of daybreak	Lord The Lord of men	Seeking refuge I am seeking refuge in Allah	I seek refuge I seek refuge in Allah
2	ربكم عذت بربكم	عذت عذت بربي	ك أعوذ بك	الرحمن أعوذ بالرحمن	اله اله الناس
	Your Lord I seek refuge in your Lord	I seek refuge I seek refuge in my Lord	You I seek refuge in You	The Merciful I seek refuge in the Merciful	God The God of men
3	أعيذها أعيذها بك	همزات همزات الشياطين	الرجيم الشيطان الرجيم	الشيطان من الشيطان	استعذ استعذ بالله
	I seek refuge for her I seek refuge for her in You	Incitements The incitements of the devils	The expelled / the accursed Satan, the expelled (from the mercy of Allah)	Satan/devil From Satan	Seek refuge Seek refuge in Allah
4	Review 1, 2, 3 Language games or test

Session	Lexical chunk of   بسملة   /say bismillah ‘in the name of Allah’/
5
6
7
8	Review 5,6, 7, 1,2,3

Session	Lexical chunk of   حمدلة   /Say Alhamdu lillah ‘praise is due to Allah’/
9
10
11
12	Review

Session	Lexical chunk of   عبادة   /worship/
13
14
15
16	Review

REFERENCES

Khasairi, Moh. dkk.2002      Pelaksanaan Pengajaran Bahasa Arab di Madrasah Ibtidaiyah se Kota dan Kabupaten Malang. Laporan penelitian Proyek DUE-Like Batch III Program Studi Pendidikan Bahasa Arab Fakultas Sastra Universitas Negeri Malang.
Khasairi, Moh. dan Kholisin. 2003  ‘Pelaksanaan Pengajaran Bahasa Arab di Madrasah Tsanawiyah se Kota dan Kabupaten Malang’. Laporan penelitian Proyek DUE-Like Batch III Program Studi Pendidikan Bahasa Arab Fakultas Sastra Universitas Negeri Malang.
Lackman, Ken. Lexical Approach Activities: A Revolutionary Way of Teaching. Ken
Lackman & Associates Educational Consultants.
Lexical Approach 1 - What does the lexical approach look like? http://www.teachingenglish. org.uk /article/lexical-approach-1-what-does-lexical-approach-look. downloaded 11 Mei 2014.
Maslichah; Nurhidayati; Ainin, Moh.2002 ‘Pelaksanaan Pengajaran Bahasa Arab di Madrasah Tsanawiyah se Kota dan Kabupaten Malang’. Laporan penelitian Proyek DUE-Like Batch III Program Studi Pendidikan Bahasa Arab Fakultas Sastra Universitas Negeri Malang.
Mohamed, Mamdouh N. 2003. Arabic A Bridge to Islamic Culture. Jeddah: Dar Al-Andalus Al-Khadra’a.
Moudraia, Olga. 2001     Lexical Approach to Second Language Teaching. In ERIC Digest EDO-FL-01-02 June 2001.
Murtadho, Nurul dan Irhamni. 2003          ‘Efektifitas Pengajaran Bahasa Arab Berbasis Kosa Kata untuk Madrasah Ibtidaiyah’. Laporan penelitian Proyek DUE-Like Batch III Program Studi Pendidikan Bahasa Arab Fakultas Sastra Universitas Negeri Malang.
Sadtono, E. 1983 Metode Belajar Mengajar Bahasa Inggris untuk Kemampuan Komunikatif Lisan. Makalah disampaikan dalam Seminar Metodologi Pengajaran Bahasa Inggris SMP-SMA tanggal 19-22 Juli 1983 oleh Pusat Pengembangan Kurikulum dan Sarana Pendidikan Badan Penelitian dan Pengembangan Pendidikan dan Kebudayaan Departemen Pendidikan dan Kebudayaan.