Curriculum and Instruction

This study investigated the reasons why Omani English language teachers at the Language Centre (LC) at Sultan Qaboos University (SQU) tend not to publish in the English Language Teaching (ELT) field or a related one. Publishing has always been one of various venues for professional development in any academic area in any context. ELT at SQU is not an exception. Twenty Omani ELT teachers at the LC at SQU responded to an online questionnaire about their professional publication activities. The results showed that the participants are being overburdened with administrative and technical responsibilities and assigned a heavy teaching load. Furthermore, the participants hold perceptions about publishing as being a demanding and challenging process due to reasons related to their professional competence or the work culture and environment they belong to.

Sultanate of Oman is one out of many developing countries around the world which have valued English as a very important international language and a tool for achieving multiple purposes. When His Majesty the Sultan came to power in 1970, the government accepted English as the only official foreign language and allocated huge budgets and resources for its implementation through education. However, almost three decades after this, it was found that students exiting the ELT system in Oman suffer from various inadequacies in their English language proficiency, which has had negative implications for Oman's national development. This has driven the government to attempt to revolutionize English language teaching (ELT) through pursuing a reform plan-Basic Education System (BES). This paper attempts to examine the attitudes of 141 freshmen, who have exited the BES and joined Sultan Qaboos University (SQU) in September 2009, about their teachers and the curriculum. The results have shown that there have hardly been any significant changes in the BES reform project, as compared to the previously implemented system-General Education System (GES) mainly due to implementation shortcomings.

Foreign language learning is a complex process determined by several explicit and implicit factors and strategies. The literature on the field has highlighted the importance of foreign language strategies in improving learners’ command of the target language and has shown that learners employ different strategies to foster their learning of a target language. Today, English as a foreign language (EFL) learners in Oman and elsewhere are surrounded more than ever by various out-of-class English sources that can potentially influence their English language learning, but which may have negative implications for EFL policy implementation in the country. This study investigates the use of out-of-class strategies by Omani EFL learners as a means to identify means of formulating the ELT policy. A 33-item questionnaire was developed, validated, piloted and e-mailed to all Sultan Qaboos University (SQU) first year students to investigate their perceptions about the strategies they employed when they were at school and which they thought had helped them improve their English. Analysis of the data showed that participants adopted certain passive/receptive and active/productive strategies that were counter to the ELT policy in Oman. The findings have implications for teacher practices and roles and for the EFL policy in the Omani and other similar EFL contexts.

As a high-stakes international language proficiency benchmark, the International English Language Testing System (IELTS) requires different and special Language Learning Strategies (LLS), which pose numerous challenges to its takers. Some Sultan Qaboos University (SQU) majoring in English Language Teaching (ELT), have therefore, failed to achieve an overall score of Band 6 on the IELTS as a language proficiency requirement and a condition mandated by the Ministry of Education for selecting English language teachers among. This qualitatively driven hermeneutic phenomenology study, hence, discusses this issue from an ideological perspective. The study triangulates data from semi-structured interviews made with six fourth-year ELT Student Teachers (STs) at SQU and the pertinent literature. The critical discussion revealed various ideologies about the powerful impact of the IELTS on the STs’ English language development. The findings have important implications for the practices of the teachers in the Omani ELT school system and elsewhere.

Language learning games combine a number of linguistic, psychological and social elements that have been found to have considerable advantages and powerfully impact language learning and teaching. They are incorporated into language curricula to promote interactive engaging learning. This study investigates the role of games in the Omani ELT syllabus through conducting a thorough content analysis of Basic Education System English language textbooks across all grades as well as seeking the attitudes of teachers and students of three public schools representing the three teaching cycles in the educational system. A content analysis form and a questionnaire were used to collect data. Results showed that the Omani ELT syllabi endorsed a modest number of communicative games across grades, the majority of which focus on teaching vocabulary with a very timid focus on the language skills. Moreover, students hold highly positive attitudes about the role of games in improving their language whereas teachers have moderately positive attitudes about their role. Implications of these results on the language learning and teaching context are outlined.

Proficiency in the English language has been described as central for determining Non-Native English Speaking Teachers (N-NESTs) selection for joining the profession. The Ministry of Education in the Sultanate of Oman decided to set the score of Band 6 on the International English Language Testing System (IELTS) for accepting the English Language Teaching (ELT) graduates of Sultan Qaboos University (SQU) as full-time teachers. This qualitative content analysis study hence triangulates data from interviews and the relevant literature about the different language proficiency measurement devices to determine the selection of SQU graduates to join the ELT force. The findings show that the Ministry of Education needs to rethink the decision of opting for the IELTS as a valid and reliable selection criterion. The results have important implications for setting selection criteria of becoming an English language teacher in the Sultanate of Oman and beyond.