Research Proposal: English Teaching and Communicative Ability

This research proposal examines teacher approaches in English language teaching and their effect on students' communicative abilities within a tertiary college setting, specifically at the International Maritime College Oman (IMCO). The study acknowledges the growing importance of English in Oman and the need for effective teaching strategies, considering the Omani educational system and the General Foundation Programme (GFP) at IMCO. The proposal outlines the research problem, which focuses on the GFP's English language curriculum, including its modules, assessments, and learning outcomes. It highlights the significance of the four English language skills (listening, speaking, reading, and writing) and how they are assessed. The research aims to analyze the relationship between teaching approaches and student performance, contributing to the improvement of English language instruction in tertiary education. The proposal also discusses the context of English language learning in Oman, including its role in primary and tertiary education, the textbooks used, and the challenges faced by students. The study will provide insights into effective strategies for enhancing students' communicative competence in English, addressing the demands of a globalized world and the needs of the Omani educational system.

A RESEARCH PROPOSAL DEFENCE
Investigating Teacher Approaches in Teaching
English and the Students’ Communicative Ability in
a Tertiary College.
Prepared by: Adel Ben Mohamed.
Supervised by: Prof. Dr. Harshita.
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17-12-
2018
1. Introduction
These days, the widespread of the English language has resulted in an
essential obligation to acquire the necessary communication skills in
English. Therefore, today, there is an important need for effective and
suitable teaching approaches to teach the English language. In this
respect, a research study done by Jalbani (2014) showed that teaching
approaches depend on the age group. For instance, he argued that
secondary and higher education students prefer “group exercises,
lectures, field work, projects and peer teaching.”
Another study conducted by Adunola (2011) indicated that teaching
approaches by the teachers has a direct link with the low performance of
the learners. This study will analyze the importance of having an easy,
efficient and accurate method of teaching English to the people who
speak other languages traditionally. The method drawn from the study
will be suitable and effective for learning English and the case study here
will thoroughly explain why. The advantages of the methods will also be
listed here.
The Omani Educational System:
As far as the Omani educational system is concerned, students have to
study twelve years in school prior to entering the tertiary education. In
this system, the public school education consists of the following:
A- The basic education, which is broken down into two cycles:
- Cycle One (Grade One – Four): Here, all students are taught in the same
class regardless of gender. They start learning English from grade one.
- Cycle Two (Grade Five – Ten): male students and the female students
are taught in separate schools.
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B- Post-Basic Education (Grade Eleven-Twelve): This depicts the basic
education’s second main cycle prior to students joining the tertiary
education.
Once graduating from post-education, students are allowed to pursue
their studies in the tertiary education.
- The importance of English in primary education:
According to Al Jardani (2013), the English language in Oman is
considered as the most prestigious and important language because of its
privileged status as the most commonly used language in government
and private organizations. However, its use is more pronounced in the
private institutions due to their close working relationships between them
and the international organizations such as UNICEF, UNESCO and other
companies such as those operating in the oil and gas industry.
Consequently, the Omanis have recognized the need for learning English
as an EFL in school. Furthermore, they are aware of the importance of
having their children learn English in order to equip them with skills
necessary to communicate competently in the modern technologized
world, through sending emails and filling forms. According to Garg and
Gautman (2015), the Omani parents also think that learning English
language opens up several opportunities and bright future. As a result,
most Omani parents have invested heavily, in terms of resources, effort
and time in helping their children learn English quickly and effectively,
mainly through at-home private lessons. Informed by this demand, the
Omani parents and society at large expects teachers to teach their
children English in as effective a way as they expect. Therefore, there is
need for effective strategies of teaching this target language. In this
respect, production of English as a target language is key since parents
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would like to see their children competently express themselves in
English through both writing and speaking. In Oman, Arabic is the first
language taught in government schools from Grade one, but English has
also been taught alongside Arabic in grade one due to its privileged
status (Al Jardini, 2013). However, English is taught from Kindergarten in
nearly all private schools. Students have to study English five to seven
lessons every week with each lesson taking 40 minutes, making learning
English hours to be around 3-4 hours every week. Therefore, a student
would interact with English in a period of 40 minutes every day for the
twelve years that a student would be in a primary school. Due to the
centrality of English language in Oman, most of the educators see English
as a second language as evidence in the teaching of English from
kindergarten in private schools and Grade one in public schools. This
demand to learn English is made more acute by the fact that several
international companies and institutions use it as an official language.
Arabic, however, is mostly spoken at home as a mother tongue but
English is also beginning to be spoken in some families making English be
a second language as most educators view it.
As far as the textbooks are concerned, all government schools use only
two national books to facilitate the implementation of the curriculum. One
of them is known as “English For Me” used in grade 1-10 and the second
book is called “Engage With English” for grade 11-12. Every government
school in Oman, must use these textbooks and are obligated to cover all
the syllabus on time. Consequently, timely completion of the syllabus is
emphasized as a core input in learning language.
-Importance of English in Tertiary education in Oman: there are sixty-four
higher educationalinstitutions in Oman, thirty-five of them are public and
twenty-nine are private.
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Regarding the English language, it must be noted that various colleges
and institutes teach it for different ends. For instance, the International
Maritime College Oman (IMCO) and the Sultan Qaboos University (SQU),
where the proposed research study will take place, use only English in
their assignments and papers. In relation to this, in most of the higher
institutions in Oman, the students are taught foundational course like
Maths, English and Information Technology for one year before they start
they major in their selected courses of study. The curriculum of those
courses is meant to prepare students with proficiency in English in the
four skills. In other words, the nature of this one-year program is to focus
on both accuracy and fluency simultaneously. However, according to Al
Busaidi& Al Shihi (2013), they find out that there are a few students who
find English challenging and dropped before they complete the desired
curriculum. In 2013, for instance, studies have shown that 86% of female
students and 44% of male students successfully completed their
foundation study while 0.60% of female students and 4.2% of male
students dropped out of their study in this same period (Al Busaidi& Al
Shihi, 2014). However, there is no clear evidence that those students
abandoned study due to their low English proficiency.
1.2- The research problem
The Foundation Department at IMCO runs the General Foundation
Programme (GFP), which is developed with an intention of facilitating
learning of English, Maths, IT, and Study skills in order to meet the
requirements of the entry level as expected by IMCO academic
departments based on the GFP standards provided by the Oman
Academic Accreditation Authority (OAAA). The General Foundation
Program’s content and delivery at IMCO are constantly being redesigned
and reviewed in consultation with the Curriculum Committee.
In this program, a course which takes one year and integrating English,
IT, Maths and study skills is offered. The English course is divided into
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four modules: Core, listening and speaking, reading and writing. For the
Core module, students will have improved their spelling and range of vocabulary as well as be able to
use a wide range of grammar structures to communicate on topics related to their everyday lives. Total-English
Pre-Intermediate Student’s Book and Workbook are the main textbooks used and they incorporate the use of
all skills. Assessment takes place in the form of one language test, a mid-term and a final examination, though
students are required to show transfer of knowledge gained in this course to all areas of their studies. For the
listening and speaking module, students will have enhanced their skills in listening and will be able to critically
analyse different topics of the course material. They will also be able to speak confidently and intelligently on a
variety of issues. The course book students will follow is Q: Skills for Success Listening and Speaking 2.
Students will learn to communicate fluently in a wide variety of situations, understand and respond to a variety
of different genres of texts including lectures, conversations, dialogues and monologues. They will also learn to
take notes to prepare and deliver short presentations or take part in group discussions. Examination of the
listening component will be part of the language test, the mid-term and final examinations. Examination of the
speaking component will occur during the assessment period at the end of the semester. As for the reading
module, students will have developed reading and vocabulary-building skills such as scanning, skimming,
predicting and guessing meaning from context. Course materials are selected from Q: Skills for Success Reading
and Writing-2 and cover a wide range of real-world, culturally related topics, which motivate students to read
for a clear purpose. Vocabulary practice focuses on high–frequency items and recording chunks of language, so
that students can see how the vocabulary is used. Reading skills are assessed in one Language Test, as well as in
the Mid-Term and Final Exam. As far as the writing module is concerned, students will have learned the process
of composing paragraphs and short essays of different genres. The course book students will follow is Q: Skills
for Success Reading and Writing 2. Students will learn to compose coherent paragraphs and essays by using
cohesive devices and linking words. Students will learn proper layout and punctuation. Self-editing is also an
important focus. Students will learn to plan before writing, revise, edit and rewrite. Students will also be
expected to write clear thesis statements, supporting and concluding paragraphs employing accurate grammar
and a wide range of academic lexical items encountered in Q Skills. Students’ writing performance will be
assessed in the Mid-Term and Final Exam, as well as in a pre-scheduled Writing assessment. In addition, the
four English skills are assessed in the Foundation department: In the writing assessment, students are asked to
write an essay of 250 words about a topic related to the reading module. For the oral assessment, students are
asked to give a presentation about a topic for 3 minutes and after that they have an interview with two
teachers for about 7 minutes. For the listening skill, the students are assessed in two parts with different
contents. In the reading, students are given a text and they are asked to answer the comprehension questions.
For the grammar and the vocabulary, they are assessed in separate sections in the language tests, the mid-term
exams or in the final exams. The implementation of the curriculum focuses on
certain key areas and learning outcomes such as developing skills and
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capabilities within the subject areas as demanded by IMCO. The teacher
in this program acts as a facilitator who guides the students to develop
self-sufficiency and independence in learning. In this one-year course, the
program is divided into 2 semesters. In every semester, students must sit
for various continuous assessments as well as mid-semester exams and
final exams. Once a student has successfully completed the foundation
program, such a student has an opportunity to pursue a Diploma program
(s) at IMCO.
Regarding the English course, students are placed in the Pre-Intermediate
(FENG-I) or Intermediate (FENG-II) level based on their Placement Test
results. It is worth mentioning here that the placement test covers five
sections: listening, grammar, vocabulary, reading and writing. However,
the speaking skill is not assessed in this exam. At IMCO, students need to
complete Intermediate level in order to be enrolled for a diploma
programme. The Foundation department needs to meet the following
objectives:
“1. Preparing the students for their postsecondary and higher education studies.
2. Creating an environment in which the student is able to gain strength in verbal and
written communication in English and to demonstrate the ability of using acceptable
academic and technical language in order to be able to continue onto their future field of
specialization at Degree level.
3. Building listening and verbal communication skills, in addition to understanding
lectures while taking notes, participating in conversations and answer formal and informal
questions in relation to context.”
4. By the end of the course, students will be able to display, control and mastery in listening and speaking skills.
5. Show expertise in critically analysing talks and lectures and to participate in and lead small group discussions.
6. Prepare and deliver a talk of at least 5 minutes. Use library resources in preparing the talk, speak clearly and
confidently, make eye contact and use body language to support the delivery of ideas. Respond confidently to
questions.
7. By the end of the course, students will be able to display control and mastery of writing paragraphs and short
essays
8. Show control of punctuation and mechanics when writing a paragraph or essay
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9. Students will be able to maximize their writing competence by engaging with the writing process.
10. Engage students with a meaningfully new texts in the English language.” (see appendix A)
The course outcomes mentioned earlier are attainable. However, by the
end of the course, some challenges are encountered in the students’
improvement in the English language on one hand, and in the process of
achieving the learning objectives of the course on the other hand. In
other words, as a teacher in the Foundation department at IMCO, I
noticed that most of the students have many communication problems in
the sense that they cannot express themselves in a good way. Also, some
students raised the issue of how their teachers focus more on accuracy
rather than fluency. The General Foundation Programme aims to raise students from an elementary
level of English to an intermediate level. Students are encouraged to learn to think in English and to develop
motivation for using English. Students will see a clear focus on learning outcomes and learning strategies, rather
than memorising information to pass an exam. Also, great importance is given to helping students develop
strategies of learning English. That is why, study skills will be incorporated in all English subjects taught in the
level.
Teachers at the Foundation department will act as facilitators rather than sources of information who transfer
knowledge to the students. By the end of the course, students should use English more confidently and have
developed a variety of study skills and higher thinking skills. In addition to learning English, we hope to train
learners to be responsible adults who will enter the workforce well-disciplined, motivated and highly educated.
Accordingly, the research problem of this study is why IMCO students are
not able to be good communicators, in the sense that they are not able to
communicate in English in a proper way This problem led me to dig
deeper into this problematic issue as it really affects negatively the
students’ competence.
1.3 The objective of the research
In this case study, I wish to conduct an investigation into the approaches
used by the FND teachers to teach the English language and the
students’ ability to communicate in English by the end of the English
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course.In other words, I am eager to know about the students’ levels of
communicative ability in English after one year of exposure to the
aforementioned language.
1.4 Research Questions
Referring to the research problem addressed earlier, this research will
attempt to answer the following questions:
1- What do teachers understand about the English curriculum?
2- What approach (es) do English teachers think might be
effective to their students’ needs? How do they measure the
success or failure of an approach?
3- What approach(es) are currently being used by FND English
teachers in classrooms?
4- What are the roles of the teachers to enhance the students’
communicative ability?
5- What approaches do students think would help them be good
communicators in English?
6- What are the roles of the students to get able to communicate
in English?
7- What are the students’ level of communicative ability
according to teachers?
8- From the students’ perception, what do they think about their
level of communicative ability?
9- What are the student’ level of communicative ability based on
their assessments’ results?
1.5 Research Scope
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The research of the study will be done in a tertiary institution named
‘the International Maritime College Oman – IMCO. The post-secondary
graduates have to study one year in the Foundation Department, where
they will be prepared to improve their English performance before moving
to their respective majors in diploma such as (a deck officer, a process
engineer, a Marine Engineer or a Logistics and Transport manager.)
2LITERATURE REVIEW
2.1 Introduction
In this chapter, the focus will be given to recent studies which were
carried out about the influence of teacher’s approaches as well as the
curriculum on the students’ communicative ability.
2.2 Theoretical framework
Teaching and learning a foreign language has been one of the debatable
issues in the field of education. Brown (2007) claims that there is a
correlation between teaching and learning. English is quite a difficult
language. Due to some aspects such as lack in sound speech
correspondence and uncertainty in spelling and pronunciation it is difficult
to learn the language especially for people who speak in a different
mother tongue. A teaching method that includes a lot of memorizing and
practice shall be ideal to learn this language. The method must also make
sure that enough time is given to each zones of learning this language in
order to fully be able to master it. Cook (2011) pointed out that the “ the
proof of teaching is in the learning.”
2.3 The objective of teaching and learning a foreign language:
The ultimate objective of teaching a foreign language is to enhance the
students’ communicative abilities (Liu, 2003). In other words, learners
should be able to express themselves freely. Also, they should be able to
understand the others’ communication.
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In the age of globalization where all countries have formed bonds with
each other it is important to have a language that connects all of these
together to ease communication between people from different countries.
This will help in formation of business association and also for the
purposes of development.
English is a language that is spoken almost all over the world which is
why if a person knows English he/she will be able to communicate
throughout the world helping him/her in a personal as well as professional
manner. All these aspects collectively signify why it is so essential to
learn the language and due to the difficulty level of it, the language
demands an easy and effective teaching method.
2.4 Approaches and methods in language teaching:
It is essential for foreign language teachers to be aware of the various
and important approaches and methods in the field of ELT.
- The Grammar Translation Method: Richards (2001) defines the
Grammar Translation Method (GTM) as “a way of studying a
language that approaches the language first through detailed
analysis of its grammar rules followed by application of this
knowledge to the translated texts or sentences into the target
language.” Grammar being the foundation of written and spoken use
of any language is essential to master when learning a language and
thus method will enable that to happen.
- The Direct Method: This method indicates that learners should
acquire the foreign language the same way as the children do to
learn their mother tongue. Or as they pick up the language in a
foreign country. Hence, grammar should be taught in an inductive
way. This way of teaching is undoubtedly affective but requires a lot
of time and practice.
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- The audio-lingual method: It was first introduced with the intensive
language training courses of the US army. The audio-lingual method
focuses on aural and oral skills. This methodology is also
characterized by its overuse of the educational resources such as
recording tapes, language labs and visual aids. This method is ideal
to achieve accuracy in the language which is otherwise difficult due
to its lack in speech sound correspondence.
- The Communicative Language Teaching approach: The main
objective of such an approach is to improve the learners’
communicative abilities. This approach shows that there is a strong
correlation between fluency and accuracy. According to Brown
(2007) the communicative approach should motivate learners to use
the foreign language pragmatically, authentically and functionally.
The first presentation of having knowledge of any language is being
able to fluently talk in it and thus method proves to be helpful as far
as speaking is concerned. This method also helps in sharpening
pronunciation and use of proper grammar in speech.
- Teacher- centred method: This method paves the way to the teacher
to be the core element of the educational process. So, learners get
their knowledge from the teacher without being engaged with the
subjects being taught. This method of learning enables the passing
of knowledge from teacher to student and hence here it is essential
that the teacher masters the language speaking and writing skills
himself/ herself . This method solely depends on the knowledge and
efficiency of the teacher and if he/she is brilliant in that this method
proves to be a huge success.
- Student- centered method: Greitzer (2002) pointed out that this
method aims at improving active learning. Today, many teachers use
this method to enhance the learners’ interest, critical thinking and
analytical research (Hesson and Shad, 2007). Being interested in the
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learning is the first path towards affective learning and that ia why
this method proves to be helpful by motivating the learners. This
approach is very efficient in promoting students’ achievement
(Slavin,1996).
- Teacher- student interactive Method: This method combines both
teacher-centred and student-centred methods. Moreover, this
method enhances students’ skills for searching relevant knowledge.
Indeed, the teacher-student interactive method is considered to be
the most efficient method that help learners to promote their
academic performance. As such, Chin and Daud (2010) asserted that
foreign language teaching should put students as essential
participants in the learning process. This method again solely
depends on abilities of individuals involved and if that is efficient and
adequate this method comes out to be a huge success as nothing is
more encouraging while it comes to learning is close association and
communication between the individuals involved.
- Collaborative learning approach: According to Care and Griffin (2014),
today there are so many tasks that are too difficult to be carried out
with one student. As such, researchers in the field of education have
come out with a new approach called “Collaborative learning
approach”. This kind of approach improves the learners’ abilities to
work together. (pair/group work). Researchers who support such an
approach thought that learners have individual differences and
similarities, in the sense that they have different background
knowledge, skills, abilities and experience. Once these things are
shared among learners, there will be more educational benefits among
them. This method enables transfer of knowledge of skills between
individuals which proves to be helpful for all those who are involved.
- However, there are so many research studies that have been conducted
on approaches and method of teaching. For instance, a study
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conducted in Jordan by Aqel (2013) revealed that by the use of the
Grammar Translation Method (GTM), the learning process went faster
and the students’ digestion of the grammar rules was much easier.
Also, Aqel (2013) found that by applying the Grammar Translation
Method, the students could express themselves in English correctly and
freely. Similarly, he pointed out that such a method could be easily
applicable in the teaching and learning process. In this line, this
viewpoint was supported by Al Refaai (2013) who conducted a study
about the use of translation in foreign language and teaching. The
research study found that translation can foster the competence and
the performance of language learners. Another comparative study was
carried out by Chang (2011) in Taiwan, in which he compared the
Grammar Translation Method and the Communicative approach,
showed that the first approach was more effective than the second
approach in terms of accuracy. Whereas, in his research study, Li
(2017) found that the Communicative approach or the Communicative
Language Teaching approach can enhance the students’ ability to
practice the language in their daily life. In addition, the findings from a
research study done by Ganyaupfu (2013) showed that the most
effective approach that leads to the significant improvement of
students’ academic performance is the combination between both
teacher-centered and student-centered teaching approaches.
2.5 Second language teaching and its relevant factors:
2.5.1 The teacher’s role: Lochana and Deb (2006) claimed that
teachers have become aware of the importance of using the student-
centred approach in their teaching style. In other words, by applying
this approach, teachers can support their students to learn the target
language in the context and use it in their real life situations.
2.5.2 The use of teaching resources:
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Teaching resources has a very positive contribution in enhancing
communicative language use. In this context, there are three types of
teaching resources: text-base, task-based realia such as textbooks,
games, role plays. Task-based activities are meant to promote
aq2communicative language teaching. Also, authentic objects can be
used to support communicative language classes. Abebe and Davidso
(2012) indicates that students are willing to learn vocabulary if the
visual aids are applied in the learning process. In addition, Mathew and
Alidmat (2013) pointed out that if a foreign language teacher uses
audio-visual materials, students are likely to grasp the language in an
effective way and they can even remember the content of the lessons
for longer time.
2.6 Language learning theories
Lavandez (2011) claimed that there are various types of theories to
language learning such as the structural theory, the cognitive theory,
the functional/ communicative theory and the interactional theory.
a- The structural theory: Lavadenz (2011) indicates that the structural
theory is considered as a composition of linguistic traits of
language. For example, the phonological, the syntactical and lexical
element. Similarly, some linguists believe that the language is
identical to its linguistic forms.
b- The cognitive theory: According to Aljoundi (2014) this type of
theory depends on cognitive psychology as it involves the way
people think and learn the language skills. So, cognitive theory
focuses on the mental changes in a learner’s mind. These changes
are because of the cognitive processes. Furthermore, Lavadenz
(2011) claimed that language is considered as a mental ability
which is pre-arranged biologically.
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c- The functional / communicative theory: Lavadenz (2011) argued
that the functional / communicative theory considers the language
as a means to achieve specific goals. Likewise, under this theory,
communication is viewed as a function of language.
d- The interactional theory: This theory considers the language as a
tool that maintains and creates human relationships, performances
and social exchanges. (Lavadenz, 2011).
2.7 The importance of the curriculum in education:
2.7.1 Curriculum design: Curriculum design is an essential element
to create a suitable teaching and learning environment. The curriculum
includes three main components: the knowledge, skills and the
competencies which learners should acquire to pass from one level to
another. (“Curriculum design”, n.d.). Accordingly, the design of the
curriculum should take into consideration clear and well-defined
objectives for the learners to obtain. However, these objectives must line
up with convenient and relevant teaching and learning approaches as
well as activities. By doing this, learners are given more chance to grasp
the three previously cited components of the curriculum namely the
knowledge, skills and competencies. Once designing the curriculum, it
comes the role of the teacher to implement it in classrooms.
2.7.2 Types of curriculum:
A- Functional-notional curriculum: Mickan (2013) pointed out that the
units of analysis under this model were based on functions which are set
as learning objectives. These functions include many items or “notions”
such as expressing likes and dislikes; refusing; inviting…
b- Communicative curriculum: This model focuses more on authentic
language and communicative activities. It works well in small classes,
high teacher proficiency and a variety of resources. However, Mickan
(2013) claimed that the implementation of a such curriculum has lots of
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disadvantages. He assumed that classrooms are not the suitable places
to improve the students’ communicative ability. Also, he mentioned that
the choice of topics under this kind of curriculum are not of high
importance.
c- Task-based curriculum: The structure of this kind of curriculum
includes activities and tasks that necessitate the use of language such as
problem-solving, decision making…
The implementation of the Task-based curriculum requires teachers with
high proficiency level, accessible teaching resources and promising as
well as encouraging classroom working conditions in the sense that
students can work together. (pair work or group work).
d- Content-based curriculum: This model deals with teaching of content
subjects. In a target language. Its main objective is to facilitate the
learning process for the student to digest the content of the subjects.
(Mickan 2013). However, the content-based curriculum is not widely
successful in term of implementation due to organizational factors.
Moreover, teachers’ low proficiency in the target language along with low
teaching qualification are two main constraints that impede the
implementation of the content-based curriculum. (Mickan, 2013).
e- Genre –based curriculum: According to Mickan (2013), this model of
curriculum focuses on developing students’ skills in analyzing the goals of
authentic texts as well as selecting the suitable words and grammar.
However, the obstacle facing the genre-based curriculum is its emphasis
on teaching genre as foreseen and sociable discourses.
2.7.3 Curriculum constraints:
A research study was carried out by Al Seghayer (2013) on Saudi EFL
curriculum showed that its implementation faced many hindrances:
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A- Time limitation for giving instruction: According to the study, the
Saudi students are given little time to communicate in English as they are
not exposed to the English language. Therefore, the teaching and
learning activities will be of a poor quality. In other words, teachers would
focus more on covering the syllabus than on giving fruitful language
instruction.
B- Lack of learning resources: Al seghayer (2013) found that the shortage
of teaching resources is one of the hindrance facing the implementation
of the curriculum. This means that learners would not be exposed to
authentic listening and reading materials. Consequently, this would have
a negative impact on the students’ motivation.
C- The constraint of knowledge and practice: The research study, which
was conducted by Al Seghayer (2013), revealed that the Saudi curriculum
gives more focus on the presentation of the knowledge than on the
practice of the given knowledge and resources. The study also showed
that English teachers dominated the interaction during the
communicative activities in classrooms.
D- The limitation of teaching and learning norms: Al Seghayer (2013)
found that Saudi educational system does not use the quality standards
of teaching and learning. In addition, he indicated that the process of
English teachers is a total failure as the only credential to be an English
teacher is to have a bachelor’s degree in English even if the recruited
teachers are not capable to carry out the job of teaching in a proper way.
2.7.4 Language competencies in the education system:
Language competencies are of high importance to acquire a foreign
language. They include the four skills (receptive skills: Listening and
Reading / productive skills: Speaking and writing.). Aguelo (2017) argues
that some students face many obstacles to foster the four skills.
Pattanpichet (2011) claimed that some Thai learners consider speaking
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activities as “face threatening and nerve wrecking activities”. However,
Lombana (2013) pointed out that writing is the most difficult skill to learn
as it necessitates knowledge of linguistics and the awareness of cognitive
and socio-cultural facet to convey its meaning. For the reading skills,
some learners do not get any benefit from reading a text and an article.
(Al Alqarni, 2015). In addition, Hamouda(2013) found out that some
students are facing many difficulties with regards to the listening
comprehension as teachers give much more importance to teaching other
skills. In relation to this, in a research study done by Otaala and Plattner
(2013), they found that most of the lectures who participated in the study
thought that the lack of English competencies among the students would
engender many problems such as expressing themselves in English,
focusing with teachers, taking valuable notes, writing essays…
Nevertheless, the same study revealed that most of the participant
students thought that they had not faced none of the aforementioned
hindrances. Accordingly, the study showed a discrepancy between
English lectures and their students’ beliefs, in the sense that lectures
were not conscious about the fact that their students thought that their
English language competencies are fine. In this respect, Otaala and
Plattner (2013) pointed out that the lecturers’ unawareness of their
students’ beliefs could hinder the academic performance of the learners.
3. Proposed research methodology
The research context of the study will be the GFP Department of a
college of higher education institution. The college grants bachelors,
diploma and master’s degrees in an industry –specific sector.
3.1 Research design
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This study’s research design will be a case study and qualitative in
nature. The chosen method will be appropriate to this research study
due to its nature.
3.2 The participants
The participants of this study will be six English language teachers from
the General Foundation Programmes department (GFP) at the college.
The striking feature of the subjects is that they come from different
nationalities namely two Omanis, an Egyptian, an Indian, an Iranian and a
Bulgarian. In addition, the participants will be from mixed gender (male
and female). Moreover, ten students from three different classes (30
students) will participate in a focus group discussion.
In conclusion, the participants are expected to give a great value to the
research study, as they will represent wider demographic background in
relation to educational background, nationality age, gender, and teaching
experience as well.
3.3 Data collection techniques
The upcoming research study will depend on two various instruments of
data collection, namely six classroom observations and six semi-
structured interviews with different teachers. In addition, a focus-group
discussion will be conducted with students from different classes. Also, for
data analysis issue, the participant teachers will be split into two groups
based on their respective experience: the first group will comprise of
three teachers having five years teaching experience at the college. The
second group will include the teachers with having five years or of
teaching experience or more. The division of the teachers into two groups
comes from the tertiary education. In this system, the public school
education consists of the following: I assume that the teachers with more
experience may use only teaching approaches which different from the
ones used by newly recruited teachers, who have recently graduated and
19

with expertise in TESOL studies and would have more prepared in relation
to recent approaches to language teaching. In relation to this, Zarei and
Sharifabad (2012). Found that the attitudes of experienced and novice
teachers as to the impact of the motivation and self-concept on the
efficiency of teaching were almost the same. However, the significant
differences were found in their “anxiety and autonomy”. In terms of
teaching approaches, age and educational background play an important
role and is one of the crucial variables in language teaching.
3.3.1 Interviews & classroom observations
The researcher is going to interview the six teachers first to know about
the approaches they know and they use in their classrooms.After that he
will conduct six classroom observations for all the participant teachers.
Also, both data collection techniques will be guided by checklists that will
be made up by the researcher for both classroom observation sessions
and various questions for the interviews to get ample data. Moreover, the
researcher will use the video/ audio Stimulated Recall Tool (SRT) to save
all the collected data either on a video camera or on a mobile phone so
that he can refer to them at any stage of the study. The data generated
from the SRT aims at giving evaluative and constructive feedback on the
observed lessons. Accordingly, this will make the upcoming research
study more credible and more trustworthy. Also, the data which will be
derived from SRT will be extremely important for the analysis, in the
sense that the researcher will notice whether there is a mismatch
between the theory (what information was given during interviews) and
the practice (what is done in reality in classrooms).
The content of the checklists will be guided by theories and past studies.
Once the observed lesson is over, the researcherwill sit with the observed
teacher to view and discuss the video / audio taped lesson. The teacher
20

will be asked to reflect on his/her lesson. In other words, he/she will be
encouraged to come up with any comments, as s/he can pause the video
or the audio tape at any time. Finally, it is worth noting that the
stimulated recall interview will be based on key points on the video as it
will be a semi-structured one. In addition, it will be carried out as fast as
possible with the observed teacher so as they can reflect on his/ her
lesson in a better way. (Kane.et al, 2004)
3.4 Issues of reliability and validity
To make this research study reliable, valid and respectful to the privacy
of the participants, it must guarantee some crucial features such as
objectivity, credibility, honesty integrity and openness. In this respect, the
subjects of the study will be assured of their anonymity in any given
information (written or spoken). Accordingly, the participants will be
given consent form to be agreed on prior to signing it.
Furthermore, the research will get the approval from the college
administration (the Dean or the Deputy dean) along with the Head of the
English Department (HoD) to carry out this research work. In this respect,
the subjects of the study will be assured of their anonymity in any given
information (written or spoken).
Another point worth noting, in order to get an ample data, only the Arabic
language will be used in the focus group discussion with the students
where the discussion about correct and effective method of teaching and
learning a foreign language will be held. For the purpose of validity and
reliability, the Back Translation technique will be used. Tyupa(2011)
pointed out that Back Translation is considered a common and an
effective tool for the assessment of the quality of translation. In this
upcoming research study, the focus group discussion will be tape-
recorded so as to be translated into English. After that, the translation will
be based on the transcription of the recording which includes the
21

questions asked by the teachers and the students’ responses throughout
the debate. After that, the translated document will be re-translated into
Arabic by another interpreter to find out whether there would be any
nuances between the re-translated version and the original one.
3.5 Data analysis and interpretation approaches
First of all, collected data from the participants will be documented in files
with the respective names of all the participants. The researcher will
describe what the participant teachers would do in their observed lessons
here the researcher should only report the teachers’ actions and steps in
the classroom throughout the lesson. So, the researcher should be
neutral in this stage. Then, the researcher will report what each
participant (students and teachers) said in the interview in a neutral way
again. Finally, the researcher will move to the analytical part in which he
will use both qualitative and quantitative content analysis.
For the data analysis of the teachers’ interviews, the transcripts will be
read and memos will be written. After that, the interview transcripts will
be described and then they will be categorized according to its themes.
At a final stage the data gathered from the interview transcripts will be
classified into codes and each code will denote a specific pattern and
meaning.
As far as the students’ focus group discussion, the researcher will use
“the scissor-and-sort technique”. In other words, the researcher needs to
go through the transcript of the focus group discussion and then tries to
identify the items related to the research question of the study.
As for the data analysis of the lesson observation, the obtained
information will be classified into a table and entered into a spreadsheet
in the SPSS program for referring to it to study in future and it will serve
22

as a guide for ensuring the correct use of the concluded information for
further research and use.
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