Linguistic Imagination And Its Relationship To Expressive Performance Among Fifth-Grade Literary Students

Abstract

     The research aims to identify the level of linguistic imagination and expressive performance among fifth-grade literary students, and to reveal the nature of the correlation between them. The research started from a field observation indicating the dominance of rote learning and memorization methods in teaching Arabic, and the resulting weakness in employing linguistic imagination and the reflection of this on the students' expressive performance. This necessitated a systematic scientific study of these variables to reveal the nature of the relationship between them. The researcher adopted the descriptive method as it was suitable for the nature of the objectives. The research population consisted of (1471) fifth-grade literary students in preparatory schools affiliated with the Baghdad Governorate Education Directorates for the academic year (2024-2025). The research sample consisted of (500) students, who were selected using a phased random method, at a rate of approximately (34%) of the research population. The researcher adopted two main tools to collect data. The first tool was a linguistic imagination test, which consisted of (40) items distributed across eight skills, four of which were main skills, and four others were sub-skills. As for the second tool, the researcher prepared a test of expressive performance, which is a topic that the students in the research sample write on, relying on ready-made correction criteria to correct the students’ writings. The researcher verified their validity and reliability according to the approved scientific principles. After using appropriate statistical methods, the results showed a strong and statistically significant positive correlation between linguistic imagination and expressive performance. In light of these results, the researcher recommended a number of recommendations, and also suggested a number of proposals, including conducting a study to reveal the level of expressive performance among middle school students.