NEED OF PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT AND E-TRAINING FOR ACADEMIC STAFF TEACHING AT BIOLOGY DEPARTMENT

Teaching of English for specific purpose (ESP) is more crucial and difficult than teaching general English to target learners. Sometimes difficulties arise on account of English teachers’ lack of knowledge of the field or subject which they are supposed to deal with. Similarly, biology teachers may not teach effectively due to lack of proficiency in English among both teachers and learners. Both English teachers and biology teachers need to be ready to teach English and biology. Main objectives were to find out the types of issues and learning difficulties faced by the teachers of biological subjects related to English as medium of instruction at KAU, and to explore the preparedness of English teachers to teach the students of biology. The study is of descriptive-exploratory type based on the data gathered from a self-developed questionnaire. The findings of the study will contribute to the assessment of learning needs, betterment of methods of teaching of biology and related subjects, and provision of training and teacher development.  Article visualizations

UTILIZATION OF DIFFERENT TECHNOLOGIES AND MEDIA IN LEARNING WRITING SKILL IN ENGLISH: A CASE STUDY

The present study primarily aims at exploring possibility and utilization of technologies and media into English Writing class in a university at Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. Technologies include: computers, laptops, mobiles etc. while media include Facebook, Twitter, WhatsApp etc. In addition, importance and use of blackboard as education software has been studied. The study is basically based on a survey especially students and teacher’s observation and experience. The study is basically of qualitative type. The findings reveal that both learners and instructors exploit technologies, media, platforms and apps in order to learn writing in English. Both teachers and the students bear quite positive attitude regarding utilization and impact of various technologies, media and apps to learn how to write in English. It was also found that technology utilization basically depends on the awareness, skills and teacher’s preparedness. It is very important to be appropriately trained in the technology to make teaching more interesting and effective to develop proper attitude among the target learners towards achieving the targets of writing in English.  Article visualizations

ENGLISH TEACHERS’ PERCEPTIONS TOWARD DIFFICULTIES FACED BY LEARNERS OF ENGLISH AT BIOLOGY DEPARTMENT

Teaching and learning of English as a foreign language is not only challenging, but using English as medium of instruction is also crucial. When it comes to the places where English in not a lingua franca (a link language), the challenges simply double and both the teachers and learners face many problems due to the fact that the target subject (biology) is difficult and the medium of teaching (English) is also not easy. Teaching of English as a subject as well as a medium of instruction (teaching) in the Gulf region in general and Saudi Arabia in particular catches attention of many researchers and scholars especially when the issue is particularly related to poor achievement. Teaching of English at preparatory level (foundation year) at King Abdulaziz University (KAU), Jeddah serves two purposes: first, it lays and strengthens the foundation of general English that they carried forward from schooling. Second, the learners are made proficient in English during the foundation year so that they can pursue their specialties later. Despite the fact that English in Saudi Arabia is generally taught at school levels also, the achievement is far below the expectations from the viewpoint of English teachers at Biological/medical/health related subjects. Moreover, ‘Englishes’ at these departments are known as specific, and teaching/learning is somewhat different from the context of general English. Therefore, the present article is intended to explore the teachers’ perception and factors contributing to the difficulties in learning general as well as specific English. In addition, it focuses on sort of remedial teaching required to prepare the students at biology department.   Article visualizations

RELEVANCE OF DIFFERENTIATED INSTRUCTION IN SPECIAL EDUCATION FOR ANXIETY AFFECTED LEARNERS: A THEORETICAL ANALYSIS OF LEARNING PROBLEMS AND SOME STRATEGIES

Students fail to attain conceived aims and objectives for a multiple reasons. In a given situation, their failure can be directly attributed to ineffectiveness of teaching. Some students might be affected by some psychological or behavioural issues which may become more crucial in due course of time if instruction is not designed to assist special learners in the area of their difficulties. Anxiety is perhaps the most important factor that may affect the learning as a process. Anxiety may be of different reasons. Learning anxiety may be related to general anxiety which becomes a serious issue if not dealt properly in time. Differentiated instruction (DI) is a designed strategy based on differentiation philosophy to handle the problem faced by diverse/special learners: able, disable or especially ‘able ones’. DI gives all the diverse students the opportunity to learn the same curriculum; however, how each student learns is tailored dependent on students’ individual learning needs. This includes inclusive education students and special education students. This paper studies relevance of differentiation technique for learners having anxiety. This paper addresses some of the teaching techniques, strategies and practices deemed critical in the given context of modern time.  Article visualizations

CRUCIAL IMPORTANCE OF VOCABULARY IN THE PROCESS OF SECOND LANGUAGE LEARNING: AN EXPLORATORY STUDY

This paper focuses on the role of vocabulary in second language learning with reference to the teaching of English language to learners at tertiary level in Saudi Arabia. As we are well aware that English language is the demand of the contemporary times, a large number of people around the world are rather bound to learn English for different reasons. The learning of any second language hugely relies on vocabulary. Keeping the relevance of English in view, the Saudi government implemented English language courses in almost all the levels and domains of education. Therefore, it is expected from the language instructors that they will provide an environment within the classrooms in which learners can acquire the targeted language easily. Therefore, this paper also explores the perception and role of English teachers in the attainment process of Vocabulary learning goals in English language classrooms. The study is exploratory in nature, and it utilizes qualitative analysis. The finding will lead to improvement on the curriculum design, contents selection and teaching styles.   Article visualizations

FACTORS AFFECTING INTEGRATION OF LOCAL CULTURE IN SAUDI ENGLISH LANGUAGE CLASSROOMS

Language and culture are perhaps inseparable; however, foreign language and local culture may not be compatible with each other. Therefore, integration of local culture (Arab) in foreign (English) language teaching is cynically questioned. Studies support the notion that foreign language teaching can be boosted by the incorporation of foreign (British) culture in the target language (English) classroom. But, the application of local culture in the target language classroom poses great challenges as many factors affect the process such as: teachers’ native background, L2 teachers’ experience in native countries, L2 teachers’ preferences, teachers’ lack of local culture’s perception, lack of bilingual or multicultural awareness, administrators’ attitude towards local culture integration, students’ liking for native teacher and native contents, and traditional method of teaching English. Integration of local culture is required if the current books don’t have enough local material, and books are written by foreign authors. In short, the paper explores factors affecting integration of local culture apart from initially eliciting some advantages of Arab culture in English classrooms, and teachers’ preparedness to incorporate local culture. The study is of descriptive type which includes 2 samples: 3 types of teacher-group, and a group of students. The findings of the study lead to innovation of a teaching strategy by incorporating local culture in L2 class for motivating the students further.  Article visualizations

IMPORTANCE OF ENGLISH LANGUAGE CLINICS FOR REMEDIAL TEACHING: CONCEPT, FUNCTIONING AND CHALLENGES

Although EFL students learn English at schools and colleges, the time allotted for their English lessons per day is very limited. Setting up English Language Clinics at EFL colleges/institutes will help students improve and develop their language skills. This paper aims at helping EFL students develop their English language skills by opening English language clinics in schools and colleges. The paper presents the concept and scope of ELC and its usefulness. It also provides an overview of some of the English language clinics successfully run by various colleges in general and Jeddah community college in particular. Finally, it suggests various ways in which English language clinics can be established and implemented successfully for the benefit of students as well as teachers. It also provides some suggestions for extended tasks that can be carried out by the language clinic given enough administrative and financial support. The work is basically of descriptive-exploratory type that involved some English teachers’ responses from different colleges/universities and JCC teachers at King Abdulaziz University, Jeddah-KSA. The findings will be helpful in supporting the theory of establishing ELCs at English departments to cater to the needs of learners facing difficulties in learning specific aspects/skills of English language.  Article visualizations

Effectiveness of E-learning for the Teaching of English: A Study of Comparative Strategies

Teaching of English in Saudi Arabia (KSA) is on top priority these days. Linguists, researchers, pedagogues and teachers have different perceptions and views regarding the approaches/methods/techniques of teaching of English in EFL/ESL classrooms. In today’s modern learning scenario, it is believed that appropriate utilization of sophisticated tools of e-learning has generally been recommended in order to yield best possible results in a given situation. It is found that many students are found indifferent towards learning the target language (English). Different reasons are attributed to this situation. However, in order to overcome learning difficulties and motivate the concerned learners it is suggested that the students should be well involved in the teaching/learning activities. Online resources in particular can catch the attention of even a passive learner. While ascertaining the effectiveness of e-learning in general, the following aspects were also taken into account: relevance of e-learning, utilization of e-resource, e-training for the teachers etc. The effectiveness has been measured on account of the observation, responses of the questionnaires, experiment on the sample. The findings of the study are hopefully going to be effective and useful in the current practice of teaching English.Keywords: Teaching, E-learning, online learning, pedagogues, linguists, resource utilization, e-trainin

Muslim Education in Post- independent India: Past, Present and Future

The real journey of education in general and higher education in particular in India started after 1947. Education is its journey can’t stand alone but institutional roles need to be included to assess the contribution as a whole. The institutions of higher learning are considered the most important agency of social change, social transformation, and entire development of the country. Muslim education has always been a serious issue despite availability of so many academic institutions in general and minority institutions in particular. The poor condition of the Muslims’ education can’t be attributed to the government only, but the society, home, economy, motivation, employment and similar factors. The present article is a modest attempt towards exploring and analyzing the miserable state of Muslim education and associated factors

Teachers’ Perceptions of the Significance of Local Culture in Foreign Language Learning

Learning takes place in an environment, and environment includes the local culture which is extremely important while learning in general. The question remains critical if the local or foreign culture is crucial in the learning process of a foreign language. There isn’t much difference of opinion on the relevance of British culture in an English class, however the usefulness of the local culture (the Saudi culture in this context) is questioned. The present study is a modest attempt towards answering some such questions formulating the basis and the hypotheses for this research