التربية والتعليم

Since 1932 English language teaching at Saudi schools passes through different phases of changes and revolutions. When the system of education was changed with the creation of the intermediate stage in 1958, English has become a definite subject with its syllabus which was brought at that time from some neighbouring countries but did not fit into customary Saudi education; nor did it meet the interests of the learners. The programme was called “Living English for the Arab World” ran for nearly twenty years when a new English programme was especially designed for intermediate school learners in 1980. The programme was called “Saudi Arabian Schools English”- SASE- which, to some extent, responded to the aspirations of Saudi society and learners’ needs. During the last decade the accountable people in the Ministry of Education neither recognized improvements on students achievement nor did they realize student’s competence in English. The Ministry then decided to change the English syllabus which was called Saudi Arabian Schools English (SASE) and the new syllabus launched at the beginning of 1990. The current English syllabus which is called “English for Saudi Arabia - ESA - is prescribed for both stages intermediate and secondary. A general assessment carried out by the researcher on the target learners progress shows little indication of improvement. The learners still suffer from being: 1) incapable to understand communicative oral and written messages. 2) incapable to convey communicative oral and written messages. 3) incapable to read and understand meanings implied in English passages and sentences. 4) incapable to write a communicative message or respond to an inquiry. This study, exists to investigate the reasons of the curriculum (ESA) defects which are deemed to be related to the: 1) vague statement of objectives and general specification of their contents and functions. 2) improper selection of substance and learning experiences which hardly meet the learners’ interdisciplinary needs and interests. 3) unstable system of content organization and experiences gradation. 4) inconvenient methodology which largely depends on memory-intense approaches. 5) lack of effective instructional media and teaching aids. 6) shortage of qualified English teachers and supervisors. 7) limited resources of the school and handicapped exposures of the environment. 8) invalid techniques of evaluation and unreliable strategies of student assessment. The study, therefore, exists to survey the English teachers and supervisors suppositions in addition to the target learners views regarding the situation of ESA by using a variety of tools such as questionnaires, interviews and analysis of content and test results. Accordingly, the following components are going to be evaluated. 1) the current objectives of the syllabus of various classifications with manifold specifications. 2) the criteria of content and experiences selection. 3) the principles of content organization and experiences gradation. 4) the techniques and strategies of instruction and examination. 5) the resources which are availed by the school such as library, cloakrooms, play-yards, realia and teaching aids. 6) the performance of teacher and the orientation of the English supervisor. The study ends with an overall picture of what an English syllabus at intermediate school should be. This would involve some suggestions and recommendations based on Saudi Islamic cultural aspects in the light of subject matter prospectus.

Although use of Arabic is defective as a method for learning a foreign language, it is useful in certain situations when communication breaks down. Using Arabic as a technique for teaching English might occur especially in the early stage of learning English, but such use must be governed by some rules. For instance, use of Arabic should be done by the teacher and not by the student. It is also available not to use literal translation – word by word – since there are a lot of contrasts between English and Arabic not only in form but also in meaning. Clauses and sentences are more manageable for translation into Arabic isolated words except if t he words are abstract nouns such as: ‘honest’ or ‘faith’ then it is better to translate them literally. The use of Arabic is desirable when it is inevitable, helpful and quicker. Forbidding the use of Arabic in all cases is not recommended because a student sometimes thinks in Arabic. A student searches in his mind for the equivalent in Arabic. When he finds it, he is happy, satisfied and has a pleasurable feeling of success. When the English word has become perfectly familiar, style use of Arabic is dropped . The mind does not indulge in a soluble operation when a single one is adequate. The object of the teacher, therefore, is to take the strangeness of the new word away as quickly as possible, and make the student quite familiar with it, so that there is no need for translation into Arabic. Nevertheless, the teacher should be aware of the parameters of using Arabic in the English classroom in order to conduct his class effectively.