Omani school supervisor perspectives of contextual factors impacting upon students’ limited English proficiency: an exploratory study

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Author
Al-Mahrooqi, Rahma
Denman, Christopher
Al-Maamari, Faisal
Publisher
Universidad de Córdoba, UCOPressDate
2016Subject
OmanEFL
English proficiency
Contextual factors
Supervisors
METS:
Mostrar el registro METSPREMIS:
Mostrar el registro PREMISMetadata
Show full item recordAbstract
Since the beginning of Oman’s “modern era” in 1970, English has assumed a central role in the country’s
education system and has acted as a lingua franca across a variety of domains. However, despite this,
graduates of Omani public schools are often reported as lacking the English-language linguistic and
communicative abilities demanded by higher education institutions and the world of work. Consequently,
most high school graduates entering tertiary education are required to enrol in foundation programs to
improve their English language skills, while the employability of graduates seeking jobs straight from high
school has also been reported as being negatively affected. Within this context, the current research
explored the ways in which contextual factors relate to Omani school graduates’ development of English
language skills. To achieve this, eight high school English language teaching supervisors responded to an
on-line, open-ended question about the contextual factors they believed caused Omani school students to
graduate with low English language proficiency. Results indicate that participants believed families,
parents, and “Englishness” are the most important contextual factors contributing to this issue. The
practical implications of these findings are discussed.