Teach English in BAnan Qu - Chongqing

Problems for English Language Learners in Saudi ArabiaLet it be considered that I do not intend to argue that learning English in Saudi Arabia is more challenging than other places around the globe, yet I would love to discuss the issues that made learning English in Saudi Arabia different. I would be discussing about seven issues that I have experienced during my six years stay here in KSA. ? Nature of the first language For English language learners in Saudi Arabia, they are facing number of difficulties related to their first language. This study will discuss only two of that where one is pronunciation and the other one is grammatical issue. ? P: Arabic, the native language of Saudi Arabia and many Arab nations in the Middle East and North Africa, is grouped under Semitic languages family where they do not have the sound ?p? at all. Therefore, whenever they are trying to say a word that has the ?p? sound, they just use the sound ?b? and unfortunately they fell that nothing is wrong about it. The problem arises when they try to spell those words. They either spell it as they prefer or the teacher has to spend sometime to differentiate the two sounds on each and every word. ? Word order in a sentence: in Arabic subject, object and tense of the verb are part of the verb as suffix or prefix while in English, all of these are stand-alone words. This makes English hard for Arabs learners. ? Cultural barriers: similar to the barriers discussed above, culture has its own negative impact for Arab students. These problems are reflected in the following three aspects. ? Unwillingness to use some expressions in english: Arab students do not like to use some expressions in english as they consider it against their religion. For example: when somebody greets them, they prefer to say: ?Thank God? in Arabic rather than ?Fine thanks?. They may never say: ?Happy Birthday!? as they believe this expression is against their religion. We can mention such problems one after the other, but I think this is enough example. ? Unwillingness to adopt cultural aspects of English language: Saudis are typical traditional people and they resist change. It is totally unacceptable even to use course material that shows a picture of women with some parts of her body uncovered. Words like: boyfriend, girlfriend? are not welcome in Saudi Arabia. ? Hatred to cultures of countries where English is spoken as a first language: when it goes to the extreme, some of the students really hate western countries and they even consider English is an indication of invasion on their country. ? Religious barriers: religion plays a remarkable negative role in teaching and learning English. ? No music: teachers are not allowed to use any audio material if it has any audio clip even instrumental. I think any teacher can understand how hard it is to find an audio material without music. ? No video: the same is true for video especially if there is a woman acting on the video. The teacher is responsible to produce his own video material for his own class which is a very hard job. Similar to this problem, most of the students are not willing to be part of video recording. ? No teacher from the opposite gender: the other problem is the gender discrimination, which is reflected by the prohibition of teaching students from the opposite sex. ? Teachers' inability and first language dependency: English has been taught in Saudi Arabia for generation. However, majority of the teachers are native Arabic speakers, which might not be a big problem. But most of these teachers prefer to use Arabic in the class. They just read the material and give translation for their students. At the end of the day the students achieve almost nothing. On the other hand, most of these teachers have a stereotype attitude towards their students: ?Saudis never understand!?. Such an attitude has been in place for so long and students think that learning English is unachievable goal. In the meantime these teachers have a very hard time to pronounce very common words correctly. To give some example: the, that, ?. ? Lack of access to the English language: the other barrier Saudi students are facing is lack of access to the English language intentionally and unintentionally. Some students have a strong desire to practice English, but they do not have anybody to practice with. And the others avoid the chance thinking that English is taking over Arabic, an idea they hate the most. ? First language translation on authentic materials: the last, but not the least barrier for Saudis to learn English is word-by-word translation of authentic materials of all levels. So, the students are tempted to quickly refer to the Arabic translation than experimenting the target language. These are few of the problems I have observed while I am teaching English in Saudi Arabia. I hope this essay would encourage formal research on the case to come up with reasonable solution.