Second Language Acquisition In The UAE: Refocusing Attention On Teacher Professional Development (original) (raw)

Numerous education reform initiatives of the decade have not improved student performance as was initially hoped in the United Arab Emirates. This has been borne out by the results of international assessments. After studying English throughout their K-12 years, school leavers are, in many instances, unable to speak or write coherently in English. This naturally raises questions about the skills and qualifications of teachers. It certainly appears there is a major issue confronting English education and education reform in the United Arab Emirates.One reason is that scant attention has been paid to what really transpireson a daily basisin the classroom. This paper refocuses attention on the classroom, specifically on how efficient professional development can change teachers' classroom behaviours in ways that lead to demonstrable improvement in student performance. One of the paper's principal observations is that continuousprofessional development programs are generally better than individual seminars and workshops which are one-time events. The paper concludes by showing that perhaps a combination of online professional development and face-to-face trainingwill help,by giving teachers opportunities to practice what they learn over relatively extended periods of time, and offering a level of convenience that conventional professional development does not.

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