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Teaching English in Saudi Arabia: From Good to Better or from Bad to Worse?
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Teaching English in Saudi Arabia: From Good to Better or from Bad to Worse?As a student who studied English and a teacher who taught English too, I can say teaching English in Saudi Arabia has more attention than many other subjects – at least in the few past years and on the thought level – because it is a global need not only a local one. In order to understand and get knowledge from outside resources, English language would be the medium to accomplish that. From this perspective, aims of teaching English in Saudi Arabia have been stated. Nothing wrong with the aims and goals of teaching this language because the reality itself suggests them and reality never lies, but the problem with whether they are achieved or not and how they are achieved; how English is taught by teachers, how is it learned by students and what is the role of the educational system in the whole process? Have we ever thought of the way of doing all this whether we are doing it the right or the wrong way?
There is no doubt there are problems and, unfortunately, big ones – I am writing only about public schools since I know almost nothing about private schools – that touch the essence of this critical subject, as it is described by many! We know there are problems simply because they make the barriers that prevent us from achieving the goals we want to achieve! This makes the problem obvious even for the laymen. So what are the problems we are talking about and what solutions have we got? Well, as for the problems, I will list some of them in the following paragraphs with a punch of suggested solutions if I have any BUT someone has to have eventually!
The major problem that includes all the sub-problems is that the outcomes are really unsatisfying. When a student graduates from High School, he is considered to have taken four hours a week in English for six school years and still the outcome is bad if there is any outcome to be mentioned! Well, I admit there are benefits that students usually get from studying English this way like knowing the meaning of some words like YES and NO! So what is wrong with this outcome? Why are not we getting any good results from the money spent and the plans applied in teaching English? What should we do about it?
1) Start Teaching English from the Early Stages: Until the time of writing this article, English language in Saudi Arabia is only taught from the sixth grade while it should be taught from the fourth or even the first grade. The best time for students in school should be the English language time among the other subjects. NO textbooks for English should be used at this time of school; the Elementary Stage. The lessons should be as much fun and practical as possible. Teaching English at this stage should be a trip to the language not telling stories about it. The teacher should be able to get the students to love this language at this age. Many students hate English classes because they are faced by a sudden difficult new experience at the Intermediate Stage which splits them into two groups; one group, the less-numbered one, which can deal with it normally and come over it successfully and the second group which has a negative reaction towards this language that lasts for ages and this is the last thing we need.
2) Concentrating on Quality Not Quantity: One big problem we face in our English teaching is the curricula. They are too much for teachers to cover and too much for students to handle. What we do now is concentrating on finishing the curricula in time and in whatever possible way regardless of any benefits we get from doing this! Simply, we need to reconsider our curricula putting in mind the quality that ensures achieving the goals not the quantity that is to be finished because the student will not be asked how many pages or units did he study but, instead, he will be judged on his/her use of the language and this is the only thing that matters. What is being done now is quite the opposite!
3) Evaluation Not Examination: English language is a LANGUAGE! It should not be treated like any other school subject; it has to be dealt with in a way that suits its nature as a language. The more natural we are in teaching English the more natural results we get. Studies have proven that the emotional state of the learner either positive of negative is reflected on the speed and quality of the learning process. Exams are the unseen monsters to students and the only thing that requires them to avoid this danger is to hide from it through studying JUST the night before the exam which is apparently useless because we are dealing with students who memorize information using the short-term memory instead of acquiring language using the long-term memory. Of course, when we talk about evaluation here we are not talking about PASSING the subject as simple as possible as many people think, unfortunately. We are talking about evaluation and about passing or failing at the same time.
4) No More than 20 Students in One Classroom: It is a simple equation: If you want better results, do what needs to be done! One of the important requirements of getting better outcomes in English language teaching and languages in general is the number of students in each class. Many schools suffer this problem not only in English classrooms but in the other subjects too. Since teaching English is the subject matter here, this is a very critical problem to be mentioned. The teacher can not look after each student individually with this big number and make sure that each student has fully acquired the skill or whatever goal to be accomplished.
5) Visual Aids Should Be Used in Instruction: One of the problems we have is introducing the language theoretically rather than using it practically. Language means acquisition, imitation and practice. This is how we should learn and yet use the language to communicate. Language is not information to be studied and examined in, it is much more. Many schools lack the modern technology devices and equipment that help learning English well with a more enjoyable and effective way. The learners should see and hear how language is exactly used in real situations. They should watch, hear and imitate the language not look at textbooks talking about the language.
6) Increase the Number of English Class Hours: Four hours a week are not enough in my opinion. Instead of making students go to other outside resources such as Language Institutes after graduation as English is being increasingly a main requirement for the working market, we can increase the English hours in our schools and save time and money. English classes should be at least six hours a week. If we can not provide students with the enough proficiency in English language through teaching it in our schools, we should either fix this problem as soon as possible or save the time and effort by giving them the required money to do their learning somewhere else!
There might be other problems that are not mentioned above or that touch more detailed situations that I do not have the space to elaborate about but I think the most important ones are stated. As I said before, the problems are so obvious to detect but the question is: Are we willing to do something or will we just keep mourning our bad outcomes?! d
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Concentrating on Quality Not Quantity: One big problem we face in our English teaching is the curricula. They are too much for teachers to cover and too much for students to handle. What we do now is concentrating on finishing the curricula in time and in whatever possible way regardless of any benefits we get from doing this! Simply, we need to reconsider our curricula putting in mind the quality that ensures achieving the goals not the quantity that is to be finished because the student will not be asked how many pages or units did he study but, instead, he will be judged on his/her use of the language and this is the only thing that matters. What is being done now is quite the opposite!
We should make some changes in the next plan to avoid this problem.
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- duaaAlmorsy July 2011