i assume you would recommend using an Arduino vs. a breakout board?
That's a little like asking whether you should use a tennis racket or a piece of sports equipment to play tennis with. One is clearly defined, and well suited to the purpose. The other is not, and may or may not be appropriate. A GPS breakout board, for instance, would be next to useless for connecting the motor driver to.
Do you know of some code that i can install onto the arduino in order to test what you have suggested?
I was presuming that you were familiar with how to use pinMode() to set the mode of a pin, and digitalWrite() to set the pin HIGH or LOW.
If not, then, clearly the use of the motor/board is beyond your skills at this time. It does not have to remain so, but connecting an unknown device to the Arduino is not a beginner project.