Integrating Qur’anic Stories Into English Language Teaching: Voices From Indonesia

The Qur’an, which includes Qur’anic stories, has been a primary reading text for Muslim learners. Within the growing concern of contextual learning materials, discussion on how Qur’anic stories may have contributed to the English language teaching (ELT) area is still under research. This interdisciplinary study investigates the voices of English practitioners and experts in Islamic education and Qur’anic studies about the usability of Qur’anic stories in ELT. Their voices were used as the basis for designing a learning material prototype. Seventeen English practitioners from three cities in Indonesia, one expert in the field of Islamic education, and two experts in the field of Qur’anic studies were involved in this developmental research. The findings of the research show that Qur’anic stories deserve a place in ELT when they are equipped with reflective thinking activities, appropriate language level, proper assessment system, self-generated illustration, and proper transliteration of Islamic terms. It is recommended that Qur’anic stories be taught within the approach of teaching literature as a resource stressing the morality aspect of the stories.