Suchergebnisse

The academic curriculum is developed through a systematic process whereby content is created through the alignment of needs to stakeholder or target group. This qualitative research study features a small-scale, English for academic purpose (EAP) needs analysis (NA) of three credit-bearing EAP programs and the corresponding departmental programs conducted at a Language Center at a higher education institution in Oman. Based on interview, observational and documentary data, the analysis showed divergences in academic literacy (writing and reading) between the EAP and content programs. Principally, the findings pointed to the presence and operation of a group of informal orders and the emergence of two interrelated stories: public and real. The public story purported to blame the learner's English language proficiency for unfavorable performance at EAP and Departmental levels, whereas the real story revealed that institutional factors were equally responsible. The paper ends by making a few conclusions about the importance of heeding informal order when carrying out needs analysis.

High levels of parental/guardian involvement in their children's education are often associated with a number of educational, social, and even psychological benefits. These include higher rates of school attendance, greater communication with the school or education provider, better social adjustment, and higher levels of academic achievement including in the development of literacy skills. However, despite this, research from the Arab world on the relationship between parental involvement and children's development of English language literacy skills has tended to report mixed results, with this also being the case in the Sultanate of Oman. To explore this issue within the Omani context, the current study examined the potential benefits, challenges, and practices of Omani parents as these relate to their children's English language studies. A two-section Likert-type response scale questionnaire was administered to 391 parents of students in the country's public school system. The first questionnaire section related to participants' attitudes about parental involvement in their children's English studies while the second explored the frequency with which parents engaged in activities related to their children's English classes. Results indicate that Omani parents are generally aware of the importance of their involvement in their children's development and believe that they should be involved in a number of home- and school-based activities. However, despite this, their actual level of involvement in their children's English language studies was somewhat limited.

Researchers have long been interested in the characteristics associated with "good" teaching. However, most relevant studies have been conducted in Western contexts. As cultural background has a strong influence on the way good teaching is perceived, it was considered important to explore this issue in the Arab Gulf. The current study sought to compare Omani school students' and teachers' perceptions of the characteristics of good English as a foreign language (EFL) teachers in the Omani context. To achieve this, 171 Omani students and 233 English teachers responded to a seven-category, 68-item questionnaire utilizing a 4-point Likert-type response key. Descriptive statistics and t tests were used to determine perceptions of good teacher characteristics and differences between students' and teachers' responses. Results indicate that Omani students and teachers generally agree about the importance of all characteristic categories, with those related to English language proficiency and treating students equally being of special importance. Participants also agreed that knowledge of Western culture/s and the use of technology were relatively unimportant. Implications of these findings for EFL teaching in Oman are discussed.