THE LIMITATIONS OF THE UNDERSTANDING OF THE LETTER YA’ IN THE ARABIC SYNTAX

The letter yā’ (ی) is one of the basic letters in the arabic language that possesses multiple functions. however, majority of the students’ understanding is more focused on only one of its functions, that is as a (ضمیر) (pronoun) attributing it to (انا) which means i. thus, the objective of this study is to determine the level of the students’ skills in distinguishing the various functions of yā’, to identify the appropriate usage of yā’ in a sentence structure as well as to analyse the students’ ability to relate yā’s function to i’rab. the results of this research can help the teachers to draft, diversify and to improve the teachings of the arabic language specifically in the arabic syntax. by using the qualitative method consisting of written tests and interviews on eight respondents from alsagoff arab school, ranging from primary five to secondary three, this study was conducted based on the revised bloom’s taxonomy theory. the outcome of the study showed that the understanding of ضمیر (pronoun) attributing it to انا which means i, was more dominant than the others. the limitations occurred because the students’ cognitive skills were only at the level of remembering and understanding. in conclusion, the students’ limitations in understanding the usage of letter yā’ were due to their incompetence in applying and analyzing previous learnt information. as a result they were unable to assess the differences of the multiple functions of the letter yā’.