Job Discussion Forums

[Kaspar Hauser]

from 7DAYS, Thursday, 13th July, 2006

Students from the UAE ranked lowest in the world in a globally-recognised English language exam. Cambridge ESOL tests are used by employers, immigration authorities and universities across the world to prove proficiency in English. But just 48 per cent of students based in the UAE passed the Preliminary English Test (PET), compared to 58 per cent in Bahrain, 72 per cent in Saudi Arabia and 82 per cent in Egypt, according to data released by the University of Cambridge.

In fact UAE students came bottom of 135 countries. Craig McWilliam, Middle East development manager for the exam board, said UAE students did well at speaking and listening tests, but it was their writing that let them down. �The Arabic culture is essentially oral which perhaps contributes to the students� low performance,� he said. �We know it�s not a question of a different alphabet because even the Chinese and Japanese have scored better,� he added. Students in Arabic Bahrain did better, but McWilliam said those students had more incentive as the tests count as credits towards degrees.

http://www.7days.ae/2006/07/13/students-struggle-in-english.html

[veiledsentiments]

I would say that it doesn't prove that UAE students are the worst in the world. What it proves is that they have the worst English teaching at primary/secondary level and don't teach the kids to write.

Anyone who has taught Arabic speakers in the Middle East knows that they will need to spend the vast majority of their teaching time correcting this lack. Most of them enter your class without the ability to write a simple sentence.

So, I find your thread subject line unfair...

VS

[Kaspar Hauser]

[veiledsentiments]

Neat... I didn't even know that you could change the subject lines.

VS

[Kaspar Hauser]

You're always ruining my fun.

Your point about primary/secondary school is valid, but is that the only reason? Is it any more valid about the UAE than about Saudi Arabia or any number of other countries with similarly bad English language training at the primary/secondary level?

And considering how much they spend on tertiary-level education, with its palatial campuses, banners, flags, pointless conferences, wouldn't you expect better results? Is it all show and no substance? Potemkin colleges? Or does it tell you something about a society where nobody has to work hard because they know they'll never go hungry no matter how lazy they are?

[omanized]

ooooo, ouch So in your school you studied hard in order to get a meal? I suppose you pulled yourself up from the streets through the Oliver Twist School of Linguistics to prepare for a life of EFL pickpocketing?

Time for a summer break - take a load off and cleanse some of the bitterness out of your system.

omzd

[Spin duck]

Hmmm. So much to conjecture in the reading of these statistics for 1 'petty' exam. For more chances to interpret profiles by country for Cambridge ESOL exams (going back to 1999) visit http://www.cambridgeesol.org/research/grades_current.htm

[Wigwam]

Preliminary English Test (PET) (2004)
http://www.cambridgeesol.org/research/2004/pet.htm

Average percentages in each grade for all sessions by country.
Please note only countries with a candidature greater than 40 are listed.
PET grade statistics 2004
Grades
Country PassMerit Pass Total Pass Narrow Fail Fail
China 21% 47% 69% 12% 20%
Colombia 18% 44% 62% 12% 26%
Egypt 27% 58% 85% 10% 5%
India 77% 19% 96% 1% 3%
Iran 18% 53% 71% 13% 16%
Ireland 51% 37% 88% 4% 9%
Italy 28% 52% 80% 8% 11%
Japan 10% 50% 60% 16% 24%
Libya 9% 41% 50% 16% 34%
Malaysia 36% 56% 92% 5% 3%
Oman 0% 29% 29% 24% 47%
Qatar 15% 53% 68% 9% 23%
KSA 17% 59% 77% 8% 15%
Spain 21% 57% 78% 11% 11%
Turkey 19% 45% 65% 11% 24%
Ukraine 38% 56% 94% 5% 1%
UAE 5% 43% 48% 22% 30%
UK 20% 53% 73% 10% 18%

How many students in the UAE take the test compared to other countries?

[scot47]

And how do students in Ukania fare when it comes to learning foreign languages ?

It alwasy amuses me that all these TEFLology experts come from states where Foreign Language Teaching is appaling ! (viz US and UK !)

[Stephen Jones]

It simply could be that the UAE enters a lot more unsuitable students than elswhere.

[veiledsentiments]

Kaspar: Sorry to ruin your fun. I think what we have here are two things. First off the PET exam leaves a great deal to be desired. (that is the most positive thing that I can say about it...) And who was tested for these statistics? All students? those in the villages? those in Dubai or Abu Dhabi? Entry into UAEU? Only those in the government schools? Does it include those that have gone to the private 'international' schools? I'd ask that question for the countries that you are comparing too... since you want to compare the scores to Saudi students, which Saudi students were tested? An equivalent grouping?

Looking at the palacial universities and blame them for the entry English exams also isn't really a valid comparison either. If you've been in the ME, you are well aware that it is style over substance. They would have been better off if they had spent more of that money on primary and secondary education.

VS

[stoth1972]

The fact that, on average, UAE students scored lower on the PET as a result of poor writing results is no surprise. I felt that on a primary, secondary, and university level that less value was placed on writing as a skill. Whether in an international school, or teaching graduates of the UAE government schools, the value of writing within Arabic culture (not just the UAE) is apparent. There is nothing more painful than teaching the TOEFL writing component: thesis, 2 support statements, conclusion. The countless hours we practiced writing those four sentences...While VS is right, a great deal has to do with the inability to write a simple sentence, I also think they lack the skills of forming an argument in writing in Arabic. When I asked my students, "How would you make this same argument in Arabic?" Many students used repetition of their belief, rather than examples and personal experience. I'm not so sure, as mentioned before by someone else, that the written word possesses as much power as the spoken, and I don't think this is limited to the UAE. Perhaps the reason we see a discrepency between a country like Egypt and the UAE is the general value placed upon learning English by each nation. I'm sure there's a way to see how Egyptians scored on the written, just haven't searched that yet!