IMPLEMENTATION OF HOTS IN DEBATE STRATEGY TO IMPROVE THE ABILITY OF SPEAKING ARABIC AMONG STUDENTS

Abstract

— Teaching Arabic as a second language in higher institutions to students who are non-Arabic
speakers has been a challenge. Although different methods and strategies have been implemented in
different places, the results remain same. The phenomenon of students who cannot speak Arabic actively is
seen as a common problem in many universities. Among the reasons is that the lecturers have not been able
to implement appropriate learning strategies in teaching foreign languages. This study aims to measure the
effectiveness of the implementation of debate strategies in improving students’ Arabic speaking skills and
critical thinking. This study uses a pre-experimental design to know the effectiveness of applying the debate
strategy. Data collection uses instruments in the form of tests, observations and documentation, and the data
are analyzed quantitatively. The results show that the application of the debate strategy can improve Arabic
speaking skills and critical thinking of students with t-count > t-table (3.5 > 2.09) which means that the null
hypothesis (H0) was rejected and the alternative hypothesis (Ha) was accepted. Thus the application of
HOTS in the Arabic debate strategy can improve students' speaking skills and critical thinking. The results
of this study provide input for using HOTS in every learning activity to be more effective in improving
learning outcomes.