The Purpose of Reading Arabic Text and the Problems Faced: A Preliminary Survey at the Faculty of Islamic Studies

The objectives of this study are: 1) to identify the purpose of reading Arabic text among students of the Faculty of Islamic Studies (FIS), 2) to identify the types of text and reference materials selected by them, 3) to identify the problems faced and the factors which hinder their interest for reading Arabic text. This research is in the form of a survey study using questionnaire. The research sample consists of 95 selected students of the course PY1112 Maharat al-Qiraah (Reading Skill) and the course PY1132.Maharat al-Kitabah (Writing Skill). The study findings show: (a) The percentage of students who read Arabic text during leisure is at a low level, (b) Students prefer to read only Arabic text related to religion and their fields of study, (c) The percentage of students who refer to classical (turath) books and current reference books in Arabic is still low. Among the factors which hinder student interest in reading Arabic text are the problems which are caused by attitude, problems related to text and having no knowledge of critical reading technique.