Development of Contextual Arabic Writing (Insya’) Teaching Materials for Pesantren Students

Abstract

This study aimed to address the challenges in teaching Arabic writing skills (insya’) at Islamic boarding schools (pesantren), where instruction often relies on memorization and lacks structured, contextual materials suited to students’ needs. The research sought to develop valid, practical, and effective teaching materials to improve students’ writing abilities. Using the Research and Development (R&D) method adapted from Borg & Gall, the study followed several stages: needs analysis, planning, product development, validation, limited trial, and revision. The participants were students of Pondok Pesantren Al-Ittihad Cianjur, and data were collected through questionnaires, interviews, observations, validation sheets, and pretest–posttest writing assessments. The needs analysis indicated that students required simple, contextual, and gradual materials related to their pesantren environment. Validation from experts yielded an average score of 3.71 (“feasible”), showing that the materials met content, language, and design standards with minor revisions needed. After improvement such as adding varied writing exercises and enhancing visuals the limited trial revealed significant gains: average writing scores increased from 65.7 to 80.6, particularly in sentence structure and vocabulary use. Thus, the developed materials proved valid, practical, and effective, offering an alternative solution to enhance Arabic writing instruction in pesantren.