Transforming English education in Oman

The writer is a 4th year student at the Dept of English and Translation, SQU.

Naturally speaking, language is more natural than being pretentious. We are born speaking and producing utterances but, sure, not reading or even writing. To learn a language, people must practice and speak it! In Oman's context, the English language is considered as a foreign language, totally different from the Arabic language. And it is being taught at schools for its necessity in today’s world.

But are we using the correct approach for that?

To answer this question, we should, first, look at why we teach the English language. The most prominent and basic answer is to use it, to speak it. To speak means to practice, to give students a lot of chances. However, what appears to me, we do not do so, we do not give students a chance to practice and we do not let them engage in it.

What teachers used to do was basically, to teach some grammar rules and some other boring readings about unimportant themes, some listening here and there and finally how to write an email.

Is this, really, the way of teaching a language? I do not think so. Yes, grammar, is important but it naturally comes with practicing, with speaking. Reading,

writing and listening skills are also important, but whatever happens, they are secondary to the real use of language. Students would not remember what Sami told Maha, or why Biff laughed at Paul after they arrived home and had Makboos!

We used to have only out-of-ten marks (sometimes five) for speaking skills, sorry, for reading from a script skill. Is this the way of teaching English?

To teach English or any other language for usage purposes, the practical part should equal the theoretical if not more. We should allocate the majority of marks for the practicals, for the speaking part. And students should not pass if they are not able to improvise a given speech each according to his/her age.

Scientifically speaking, we are using the Grammar-based approach. This is an approach that focuses on the explicit teaching of grammar rules and vocabulary and focuses on drills, memorisation, and repetitive practice of grammatical structures.

So, students are evaluated based on their ability to produce grammatically correct sentences. But what after memorising those boring rules and structure? Where should those rules be applied? I think at Al Majlas with their peers when they gossip! What a nice conversation it would be!

What should be used is the communicative approach. This is an approach that focuses on the ability to communicate effectively in real-life situations, using interactive activities, role-plays and group work to enhance speaking and listening skills.

In this approach, students are evaluated on their ability to use the language in context, rather than just their grammatical accuracy. This approach aims to develop fluency, confidence and the ability to speak. Thus, students would be able to use the language effectively, which is the main reason for teaching the language. Students would automatically use the language in other contexts outside the classroom because they got engaged and they were given a chance to use, practice and speak.

A study conducted in Indonesia says that after implementing the communicative approach, students' performance significantly improved. Before this approach, many students were stuck at novice proficiency levels and struggled to communicate effectively in the targeted language.

However, after introducing the approach, the study showed a remarkable shift. More students moved up to intermediate and even advanced proficiency

levels. The study also revealed that fewer students remained at the novice stage and many were able to achieve higher levels of language use.

So it is very obvious that we should shift to a student-centred approach. And apply some effective teaching strategies like role play, debates, storytelling and interactive games that encourage students to be part of the learning process. And actually, avoid the boring ones that even teachers also get bored with and want to finish the class as soon as they can.

The journey starts with those who set the content, who set the syllabus, who set the activities to be used in the classroom, who teach the content, who monitor the progress and who evaluate the product.

Without forgetting the stakeholders and students who should accept such a radical change and work very hard for the best of their learning.