a Qualitative Assessment of Students' Arabic Writing Skills (Kitabah) at SMA Bina Taruna Surabaya

Abstract

This study aims to analyze the implementation of kitabah assessment, identify its objectives, assessment forms, and assessment instruments, and examine the challenges encountered in its implementation at SMA Bina Taruna Surabaya. Because, writing skills assessment is a fundamental component of Arabic language learning, it measures learners' productive ability to organize ideas, apply linguistic rules, and communicate meaning effectively in written form. However, writing assessment practices in schools continue to emphasize grammatical accuracy, limiting the comprehensive evaluation of students' writing competence. This study employed a descriptive qualitative approach using a case study design. Data were collected through classroom observations, semi-structured interviews and analysis of documentation. Data were analyzed using the interactive model of Miles, Huberman, and Saldaña, consisting of data condensation, data display, and conclusion drawing and verification. The findings reveal that kitabah assessment has been systematically implemented through sentence construction, paragraph completion, and picture description tasks. Although these activities effectively assess students' mastery of vocabulary, grammatical structures, and spelling accuracy, the assessment remains predominantly product-oriented and focuses more on linguistic correctness than on idea development, coherence, cohesion, creativity, and communicative effectiveness. Furthermore, teachers have not yet implemented standardized analytical scoring rubrics, resulting in limited objectivity and comprehensiveness in evaluating students' writing performance. The study concludes that the current implementation of kitabah assessment at SMA Bina Taruna Surabaya effectively measures students' fundamental Arabic writing skills but has not yet fully represented communicative writing competence.