Analysis of Reading Comprehension Exercise Items in the Book Series "Al-Arabiyyah Bayna Yadayk" Volume Three تحليل بنود أسئلة تدريبات الاستيعاب القرائي في كتاب سلسلة "العربية بين يديك" الجزء الثالث

Abstract

This study analyzes reading comprehension exercise items in the third volume of the Arabic language learning series Al-Arabiyyah Bayna Yadayk (Arabic Between Your Hands), employing the classification framework proposed by Abd al-Rahman bin Ibrahim al-Fawzan. A qualitative descriptive approach was adopted through library research, with data collected from the student textbook and analyzed using Miles and Huberman's content analysis model. The findings reveal that all sixty reading comprehension exercises distributed across the book's sixteen units belong exclusively to the category of "meaning-based exercises" (tadribat al-ma'na) in al-Fawzan's taxonomy. These exercises are diversified into five main types: true/false with correction, cause-and-effect matching, main idea–paragraph matching, event sequencing, and short-answer questions. Collectively, they target three levels of reading comprehension: literal, inferential, and critical. Short-answer questions constitute the most frequent type at 36.67%, followed by true/false exercises at 26.67%. The study concludes that the exercises are pedagogically well-balanced and appropriately aligned with the advanced level of learners, though critical and evaluative comprehension receives relatively limited attention. It is recommended that future editions incorporate exercises that more explicitly foster higher-order thinking skills among non-native learners of Arabic.