English education in Yemen in crossroads [Archives:2003/683/Education]

By Mohammed
H. Al-Fattah
Department of English, Faculty of Education, Al-Mahweet
English is now the fast dominating language in the world. It is the means of the international communication. Arabs need English to communicate with the native speakers of English. They need to go abroad, have access to many books and resources in the fields of science, technology, politics, education, commerce, industry, which are written in English. It's the language of medicine, mass media. So there's a great need for learning English.
English in Yemen enjoys an important status. It's being widely used in the field of business, industry, education and various other professional fields. Consequently, there is a need for teaching it communicatively. Our students go abroad for scholarships and while living there they need English for communication with these societies and they need English in their studies as well.
Nowadays, there's a strong motivation for learning English and some abiding needs to speak English. The language today is used extensively in everyday life to communicate with foreigners we meet everyday.
English in Yemen has no official status. Learning English is confined to the classroom. That is, the language is taught and used only in schools, institutes and universities. This status has recently been enhanced by the rapid growth of science and technology. Unfortunately, English in Yemen and in many Arab countries is taught like other subjects in the school curriculum because the motivation for learning the target language in this context is not high. This is especially the case in the early stages because young children are still unaware of their individual needs and interests. English also remains irrelevant to the majority of population especially in rural areas.
However, the need for English varies from one Arab country to another, depending on the degree of relationship with English speaking countries. English teaching has now started to take a dominant position in Yemeni schools, institutes and universities. It has occupied a prominent place in the university curriculum. The university of Science and Technology as a private university took the right step by establishing a Language Unit teaching all the students of the university an English program consisting of 250 hours.
Some private schools teach English from the first grade. English is taught in all governmental schools and private schools as a compulsory subject and as the first foreign language. In the governmental schools, the teaching of English starts from grade seven and from first grade. In some private schools and institutes it is taught for four to five 45 minute periods per week. Its teaching is continued up to the end of the secondary stage. And upon going to the university or technical colleges, they study English as a college requirement either for general purposes or for academic purposes.
The materials introduced in Yemeni schools are English for Yemen which was previously used up to 1995 and later a new course Crescent English Course has been used. In English for Yemen, the dialogue was the centre of learning. There was a dialogue practice. There were comprehension questions. Grammar was important in English for Yemen. Grammar comes after reading. Reading reinforces grammar. Reading is a medium in English for Yemen. A test based on English for Yemen, focussed on vocabulary, reading and grammar. Whereas in “Crescent English Course” reading is a skill. When you test reading you test skills. “Crescent English Course encourages students for communication by producing a large amount of vocabulary with pictures which makes it easy for the teacher to present English vocabulary without using Arabic. In “English for Yemen Course” the accent is on creativity. Although English is taught from grade seven up to the end of the secondary stage, Yemeni students complete their secondary education without any benefits from all the courses they study. Furthermore, many graduates with a bachelor degree don’t have the ability to use English fluently.
If we discuss the reasons, we find that there are many difficulties that influence teaching and learning of English in Yemeni schools. There are many problems related to the educational system. Instead of giving English a high place in Yemeni curriculum and thinking about motivating the learners, the number of periods has been reduced to 3 periods in some classes. This makes the duration of the course very short to enable the teacher to handle all activities and tasks and makes it difficult to achieve the expected objectives. In other words, the system of teaching and learning English used by the teachers is still unsatisfactory because of the lack of planing. Some problems in the teaching learning of English are related to the materials introduced due to the inadequately of finances, some problems are related to the learners who are not interested in English classes. Other problems relate to the strategies and approaches used in teaching English. The techniques and methods used in teaching the mother tongue are the same in teaching the foreign language. The foreign language teachers who lack communicative competence, linguistic competence and professional skills play a role in escalating the problems in this regard. In conclusion, the strategies and approaches of teaching and learning English should be continually checked and reviewed to cope with the quick changes and the great developments taking place around us.
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