Attitudes of Saudi Non-English Major Students Towards Learning English (original) (raw)
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International Proceedings of Economics Development and Research, 2014
The aim of this study is to make the process of learning English as a foreign language in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia in line with the students' own preferences and to make teachers recognize their students' preferences in this regard. In order to look at the teaching process from students' perspective, a survey was conducted using a set of two questionnaires across various secondary schools in the southern region of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. Through the first questionnaire, 288 students from different levels of the secondary schools were asked to express their preferences for learning English, and through the second one, 28 teachers responsible for teaching English to the same selection of students were asked to state their opinion about the interest of their students in the learning process. The data, thus acquired, pin point a number of areas in which there is a need for further agreement among the students and teachers. It also gives teachers the opportunity to reorganize their teaching strategies and reshape the classroom activities in accordance with the students' preferences.
International Arab Students Attitude towards Learning English
Global Regional Review, 2018
English is not more the language of few countries it has become an international phenomenon. Thats why many types of research all over the world are exploring the attitude of these non-native English learners towards it. The current study explores the attitude of Arab students (studding in Malaysia) towards learning English. This study adopted the methods of descriptive research design. In this approach, quantitative data from questionnaires of 49 respondents, Arab countries students studying at the University of Science Malaysia was collected. For data analysis, Pearson correlation and multiple recreations were conducted and it was found out that the Arab students with the attitude towards English had a significant correlation with English learning and importance and English language Policy of their country.
what are the aspects affecting the usage of English language: Students Perspective in Saudi Arabia
The widespread use of the English language and the globalization of the worldhave made it mandatory for the English learners' to be more efficient in oral communication. Speaking is one of the most important skills to be developed and enhanced as means of effective communication. Many language learners find it difficult to express themselves in spoken language. Therefore, college students are required to have high oral English competence. We find that undergraduate students are generally facing problems to use the foreign language and express their thoughts effectively and confidently. They face many psychological obstacles or cannot find the suitable words and expressions. The inaccurate articulation and inadequacyof an English learner is an indication of the problem. Therefore a need was felt to discover the reasons behind this worrying trend. Due to the scarcity of research in Al-Quwaiyiyah, Saudi Arabia, it would be a timely study to redress this issue. The present study aims to explore the speaking problems of a cross-section of undergraduate students foundation level (Prep year), Nursing and Laboratory students in Communicative English in Al-Quwaiyiyah Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. Our results demonstrated that most of the students like to communicate in English and be a part of the English-only environment; however they acknowledged some key factors that prevented them from speaking English. Fundamental factors included linguistics, individual, social, psychological and institutional which were largely based upon their beliefs, assumptions, needs and desires. This paper aims at establishing the need to focus on the factors affecting on language learners' English speaking skill. It may also help teachers and educators to understand the underlying factors that compel students to speak their first languages instead of English. The study identified the main learning difficulties in English speaking as observed by the students. Finally, some suggestions expected to be significant remedies to overcome the problem based on the results of the study.
PROSPECTIVE GRADUATES' ATTITUDES TOWARDS ENGLISH LANGUAGE LEARNING IN BAHRAIN
The undergraduate level students in the Kingdom of Bahrain have problems in the acquisition of English as a second language. Most of the Bahraini students, who have spent ample years of learning English (from junior to secondary school), fail to acquire an expected level of proficiency in English when they enroll into the University for higher education. As a result, they are not easily absorbed by the global market. Aim: The aim of this study was to identify the Bahraini students' attitude towards learning English as a foreign/second language in the university which in turn can help in devising the ways and means to bring in the necessary changes to achieve the expected level of proficiency. Material & Method: The samples consist of 50 randomly selected Kingdom University students of College of Business Administration and College of Architectural Engineering & Interior Design. The survey handout is not a questionnaire but a series of statements with a choice of fixed five different responses. It mainly consists of three parts. The first part has 12 statements based on the reasons for learning English; second part has 12 based on how the students feel about English lessons and the third part has 6 statements to analyze how the students feel about learning English. Results & Discussions: The analyses of Parts A, B & C encapsulate that the students are aware of the usefulness of English and feel that the activities they are engaged with during the English classes to be beneficial and are contented with the progress they have been making since their school is in the acquisition of the proficiency of English language. Now, the question arises whether the students are achieving the expected level of proficiency, when they enroll into the university. Thus, this study lays the scope to identify the gap between the school level curriculum and college level expected frame of reference which is to be addressed by the educationists seriously as the findings portray a positive attitude towards English learning from the prospective graduators.
LEARNING ENGLISH IN SAUDI ARABIA: A SOCIO-CULTURAL PERSPECTIVE
2014
This study aims at investigating the cultural factors which predispose Saudi students towards learning English in Saudi Arabia from the point of view of Saudi teachers and students. The researcher attempts to examine these factors from Islamic social perspectives by raising questions that examine how positive these factors are and how they encourage and motivate students to learn English language. These cultural factors are : Islam, national identity, globalization, westernization, Saudi teenagers' attitudes and beliefs, motivation, travelling, social websites, knowing the purpose of learning, need for communication, native speakers' teachers, and the learning of Arabic language by native speakers of English .The qualitative descriptive research method was used. Two data-gathering tools were used for data collection: a questionnaire and an interview. The total number of the subjects was 226 participants. The analysis of the collected data shows that the most influencing factors upon learning English in Saudi Arabia are traveling abroad to learn English, knowing the purpose of learning English and Saudi teenagers' beliefs and attitudes . The least influencing factors upon learning English in Saudi Arabia are Islam and westernization.
Saudis’ Attitude Towards English:Trend and Rationale
Professional Communication and Translation Studies
This paper investigates the trend of Saudis’ attitude towards English and the reasons behind it. To discern the trend of the attitudinal change, the paper analyses the findings of some relevant studies conducted in 1990s and 2000s. Moreover, to find out the raison d'être behind the change, the paper looks into the reasons underlying the introduction and expansion of English language teaching in Saudi Arabia as English language teaching and the positive attitude towards it are supposed to grow concomitantly. The paper focuses on two major contributing factors—Saudi Economy (SE) and Saudi English Language Education Policies (SELEP)—in the expansion of English language teaching in Saudi Arabia. The paper concludes that if the economic trend remains and if SELEP continue to exert their influence on Saudi citizens and the English language teaching, the increasingly positive attitude towards English will prevail in Saudi Arabia.
In this article the author focuses on the factors supporting Saudi Arabian tertiary level students in learning the English language. The article discusses government initiatives, parental support, classroom atmosphere, and teachers' encouragement at elementary and tertiary levels of English language learning. A questionnaire with close-ended questions on a four-point Likert scale was administered to collect data. The findings showed that, English should be taught from grade one at the elementary level, and qualified English teachers are required there. In terms of supporting factors, family awareness and support is essential. The findings also shows that parents should care about the language proficiency of their children rather than grades in examinations.
Journal of English Teaching, 2019
The research paper aims at studying the attitudes of the students of Islamic Learning and Education Faculty towards English at the University of Karachi. It is based on testing the hypothesis that the students of Islamic Learning Faculty have less positive attitudes towards English as compared to the students of Education faculty through a survey on first year students of both faculties. A five-point Likert scale was used to conduct a survey on 151 students of the Islamic Learning faculty and 135 students of the Education faculty. The results were calculated using an independent t-test and standard deviation which reveals that there is a minor difference in the attitudes of the student of both faculties. The students of the Education faculty showed more positive attitudes when asked about the importance of English as compared to the attitudes of the students of Islamic Learning Faculty. However, the difference in their attitude is negligible. As the results reveal a minor association between the attitudes of the learners and their faculty, the study; therefore, proves the null hypothesis which says that there is no significant difference between the attitudes of the students of both the faculties.
Problems of English Language Acquisition in Saudi Arabia: An Exploratory-cum-remedial Study
—'An international language belongs to its users, not to the countries whose national languages have become internationalized' (Edge 1992). With an ever increasing number of L2 users it is time we rewrote the description of the place of English among world languages. All types of interactions, more particularly between nations, are through English, for a reason no other than the fact that it is the only language in which non native users can possibly communicate. It is the language of science, technology and business apart from being significant in political or diplomatic dialogues. English Language has come to be owned by all people in the world of work. Saudi Arabia is no exception. Almost a hundred years on Saudi schools, colleges and universities teach English with primary and genuine concern. Still, just like non-native learners in other non-English speaking countries, Saudi learners also confront many problems in their English Language acquisition. This study is a humble effort to bring out the major barriers and problems that Saudi students face while learning English; it proposes remedial measures for the said barriers and problems. In this study, the researcher has tried to focus on the teaching methodologies and learning atmosphere prevalent in Saudi English classrooms.
The Attitude of Non- English Major Student in Learning English
Tarbawy : Jurnal Pendidikan Islam, 2018
This paper analyzed the results from a survey of 116 non English major students from four majors at State College for Islamic Studies, Syaikh Abdurrahman Siddik Bangka Belitung. It focused on some causes that may have hindered English learning in the past for students participating in the survey, and the students’ perspectives about English learning in State College for Islamic Studies, Syaikh Abdurrahman Siddik Bangka Belitung.In the study reported here, a ready-made questionnaire from Hsiu-Ju Lin dan A. Clyde Warden about The English Learning Questionnaire was exposed, Factors of English learning for this population were analyzed descriptively.Results showed that most of the students had not either fear or unpleasant feelings about their past English learning experiences, and those students of different majors had different perspectives about English learning. Several suggestions are provided for future application in teaching English to non-English majors at State College for Isl...