Effect of Presenting the Holy Quran Verses on Grammar Achievement and Motivation Enhancement of Iranian High School EFL Learners

Abstract

Muslims believe that the The Holy Quran is the message of God Almighty which has been transmitted to His messenger, Prophet Mohammad (PBUH), through revelation in the Arabic language. This Holy book has been translated into many languages, including English. Although the content of the The Holy Quran has been translated into the English language, few studies have been conducted to explore the beneficial effects of The Holy Quran verses on learning English. This study investigated whether using the The Holy Quran's verses to teach English grammar improves the grammar learning and enhances motivation of high school EFL learners. To this end, 40 homogeneous participants were selected from a high school and then were assigned into two different groups (experimental vs. control). All the learners in the two groups took a grammar pretest, as well as a motivation questionnaire. The experimental group learners were exposed to Quranic verses in their English classes, while the control group learners attended their regular language classes. Finally, the participants took a grammar posttest as well as a motivation and an attitude questionnaire. The results of the one-way ANCOVA showed that the performance of the participants in the experimental group outweighed that of the control group. The statistical analysis of the attitude questionnaire showed that positive attitudes were formed in the students towards this technique of teaching grammar via The Holy Quran verses in English.