Job Discussion Forums

[veiledsentiments]

I thought that Wilburforce's posting of this article needed a thread of its own. This is major news in Gulf education and could be the beginning of the end of the large Foundations departments with their many EFL teachers:

[It's Scary!]

[veiledsentiments]

Must say that I agree...

VS

[battleshipb_b]

[quote][quote="veiledsentiments"]I don't believe that they ever taught in Arabic. None of the Gulf universities have except in a few majors.


It may be the end of an era...

VS[/quote][/quote]

I agree probably the end of an era. But why do you say state owned Gulf Universities didn't teach in Arabic? That's not true Some did and very few taught all their courses in English. This is a trend of the last ten years, thanks to the Internet and Bill Gates making English accessible. QU used to teach almost all the programs in Arabic, hardly any profesors could speak English. In the 1980s and 1990s most universities in this region had Arabic speaking lecturers, very few could speak adequate English and as their students couldn't either, lectures were in Arabic. I don't remember hearing any English spoken in any lecture halls in the 1980s at QU. The same goes for the Saudi universities I've taught at apart from KFUPM and the private universities.

Compulsory English courses were credit courses at QU in my day 23 years ago. Only Engineering and some of the science courses plus the English lit dept had English as medium of instruction. Business was taught in Arabic too.

Most Saudi universities were/are the same, especially programs in the Humanities and Social Sciences, etc. When I arrived in the Magic Kingdom the net was banned. Only when the regulations were relaxed and English became more accessible did some of the universities start offering some of the courses in English.

[battleshipb_b]

Here is what their president said:

[quote][b][i]Asked why the University had adopted English as the medium of instruction instead of Arabic, which is the official language of the country, Al Misnad said, � Arabic is our official language in administration and most of our programmes are taught in Arabic. English has been adopted as the medium only in pure sciences and professional courses. One-third of the whole curriculum is taught in Arabic. All the students must study Arabic, Islamic history and Qatar history[/i].[/quote]

So who says they haven't been teaching in Arabic? Looks like you have got the wrong end of the stick, VS mam.

[veiledsentiments]

I know that SQU was all in English from the start... (except Islamic Studies and Education), as was Uof Bahrain... and I was told the same with UAEU and QU in the late 80s when I arrived in the Gulf. I know Foundations teachers who were at all of those locations in the late 80s. So why would they have a bunch of Foundations English teachers at all of those universities if they weren't teaching many, if not most, of the majors in English. That didn't mean that all of the professors actually taught in English... only that they were supposed to... Of course that was even true at HCT when I got there in the early 90s. I would hear teachers teaching content courses in Arabic when I would walk past their classes - even though their texts were in English.

I'm glad to see that a move may be starting to go back to teaching in the language of the country.

VS

[battleshipb_b]

Elation, worries on the campus Saturday, 28 January 2012 00:35

Qatar University students have responded with scepticism to the SEC move on the medium of instruction.

By AZMAT HAROON

Qatar University is in the throes of a controversy with the Supreme Education Council (SEC), the regulator of educational institutions in the country, recently asking it to change the medium of instruction literally overnight from English to Arabic in some key faculties such as those of law, media studies, business administration and international affairs.
The move, as expected, has sparked a heated debate across the country with a majority welcoming it arguing that it would promote nationalism and boost the number of students at the university. Then, there are those who are opposed to the move and they argue that it could adversely impact the university�s standard of education and its international accreditation.

And within the university, the reaction of students and faculty members, particularly from the departments concerned, is one of shock and surprise. They say they came to know about the new decision through media reports and local social networking sites.This, because the announcement about the decision was officially made a day before the spring holidays began, making it difficult for people to seek confirmation from the university authorities.Although many students went to their departments in search of answers on Thursday, faculty members as well as administration officials had no clear answers to satisfy them. Infuriated, the students were asked to remain calm and not lend ears to rumors. The Chairman of Students� Affairs at QU confirmed that notifications regarding a change in the medium of instruction had been issued to the departments and that they were studying a new action plan.

The SEC decision also calls on QU to abolish the �Foundation Programme� of the university which previously helped students acquire basic skills in English, mathematics and computers, once thought to be critically important, before taking up the main courses. Members of the university�s senior management held a number of meetings of senior level on Wednesday, a day after the notifications were issued, to discuss the mechanism of implementing the new policy.

According to a local Arabic daily, the mechanism involved a review of some parts of the curriculum and the fate of non-Arab students and faculty members. The meeting was attended by the heads of departments, deans, faculty members and senior management of the university. A source present at the meeting told the daily that the management discussed new methods to calculate teaching hours of the Foundation Program along with the issues involving the university�s international accreditation. It is believed that a new plan for the Foundation Program would be announced soon and it would be applied to disciplines taught in English only. There is so far no word on the fate of those already enrolled in various courses of the said departments.


What professors say


According to the Arabic daily, QU staffers have welcomed the decision saying that it would promote Qatar�s national identity and allow students to enrol here instead of seeking admissions abroad. They said that the move has put an end to an old controversy among students and faculty members alike about teaching the curriculum in English.Dr Khalid Al Ali, Director of the Foundation Programme, said that this decision will make it easier for students to get admission to the university. �The Foundation Program will be reviewed and a new plan will be announced soon, but it will be implemented only for special courses that use English as the medium of instruction,� he said. Al Ali added that a panel was busy studying methods to develop a new Foundation Program that would be able to cope with the changes. �The panel will reevaluate the past records of the Foundation Program and it would study a proposal to reduce the duration of both the Foundation Program and the study of English,� he said.Some of the senior professors said that the SEC�s decision was not implemented abruptly. �The decision was thoroughly studied before we adopted it,� said a professor from the Arabic department. �The aim is not to boycott the English language but to improve the efficiency of students in academics. Now fluency in English will no longer remain one of the conditions for entering the university,� he said.

Dr Rabia Sabah Al Kuwari said that Arabic should be a priority at all times. �Arabic is the language of the Holy Quran. According to our Constitution too, it is the first language of the country,� he said. According to Al Kuwari, many years ago there was a decision that made correspondence between ministries, corporations and universities to be compulsorily in Arabic. �This decision defends the previous policies along with the Qatar National Vision 2030,� he said.The Dean of the College of Business and Economics, Dr Nitham M Hindi, told a newspaper that the decision would not bring down the academic standard of the university, and the �market value� of QU degrees and certificates. Incidentally, none of the professors who taught courses in English was immediately available for comment.


What students think


The students have largely responded with scepticism. Those who welcomed the decision were not sure how it would be implemented and how will it affect their studies and job prospects.Others believe that teaching in the Arabic medium will adversely impact the �market value� of QU degrees and make it all the more difficult for students to seek admissions to international universities for higher studies. �I am a student of economics and management. We cannot study in the Arabic medium because most of the terms used in our subjects are in English. Besides, it�s business studies. We deal with local and international markets, so we need to be qualified in English if we want to work after studies,� said a student. Some are of the opinion that teaching in Arabic should be made optional and not mandatory.�Out of almost 18 faculty members in our department, half come from non-Arab backgrounds. Those who are Arabs have studied in the West most of their lives, so it�s easier for them to communicate with us in English than Arabic,� said a third year student of international affairs. �From what I gather, the university had no idea (about the decision), they came to know of it exactly when we did, through the newspapers. I did call my department as soon as I heard the news and they told me to be patient and wait for an official announcement from the university, which they haven�t done yet because most of us are on vacation,� said Shaima Sharif.

Some students are complaining that references for most subjects are only available in English and that if the medium of instruction changes it would become very difficult to conduct authentic research, since most books in the curriculum of international affairs, media and business studies are in English. Sections of students, on the other hand, were found celebrating. �I tried almost six times to acquire the 5.5 band in IELTS (the test for a student�s basic knowledge of English for admission), but failed. Now I can join QU without worrying about my English scores,� said a student who did not want to be named.Another student, lauding the decision, said that Qatar is doing the right thing as countries like France and Germany, for instance, use their native language in teaching. �We should support Arabization, except when using scientific terms which should be in English,� he said. The opinion among students at large is that they should not be forced to learn a foreign language.


Need for English in the workplace


In a research titled �Needs of English By Graduates of Qatar University in the Workplace� published in the Journal of Language, Society and Culture, Haifa A Al Buainain, Fouad Khalil Hassan and Ahmed Madani of Qatar University studied the range, need and actual use of English in the workplace in Qatar. The results of the research showed that English language is highly needed for working in both the state and private sectors in Qatar. The researchers found that more than 77 percent of respondents in workforce needed to use English in varying degrees which surpassed the 50 percent boundary in an overall need for English. The participants had a similar degree of need for reading, writing, speaking and listening skills in English. Only 21.6 percent of the respondents said they did not need to use English, though some in this category admitted they needed to use it every now and then. The majority of the participants in the survey had received their education in government schools. Regarding self-assessment of English language proficiency, 38 percent stated that their level of proficiency ranged from weak to average, while 61.5 percent estimated their range from good to excellent.

Spring holidays have begun and the university administration doesn�t really have much time to switch to the new medium of instruction, which calls for not only text books and other reading materials in Arabic for the above key streams but also able and experienced teachers who could impart quality education in these disciplines. Then, the question of what happens to the existing faculty members who have been giving instructions in the said streams in English, needs to be resolved amicably. The university administration should keep in mind that undue delays in implementing the change would make it vulnerable to widespread criticism in the local media from the students, their parents or guardians and the community as a whole.


The impact on national education policy


In the past few years, education in Qatar has undergone a sea-change and is labelled �Education For A New Era�. According to Mohammed A A Manasreh, author of a study titled �English in an Islamic Cultural Context: Qatari Student�s Attitudes to English and Advised Practices�, an action research study based on the findings of one of the Independent Schools in Qatar, part of the educational reforms stems from the national curriculum standards, which are set by the Centre for British Teachers. Schools have to meet those standards through whatever methodology, approach or materials they find suitable.Manasreh also found that 89 percent students said they liked English, while 95 percent considered English language a means for a better job. It is no surprise then to see an influx of native-English speaking teachers into many secondary schools in Qatar.

Keeping that in view, the change of the medium of instruction at Qatar�s national university from English to Arabic for some key streams seems to be a contradiction as for the country�s grassroots education policy is concerned. Children who have previously studied English textbooks and have been instructed in English, would find it all the more difficult to follow an Arabic curriculum. The decision, perhaps, makes sense for the students of law as court proceedings in the country are carried out in Arabic. B[b]ut for people interested in media studies, international affairs and business administration, or instance, the dilemma is whether to go to Qatar University or seek education elsewhere.[/b]


The fallout


The problem with institutions that impart education in the national language, especially higher studies, is that they limit scope for students in the global employment market. In this case, although Arabic is spoken in 23 countries and ranked 5th among the most spoken languages in the world, for undergraduate and postgraduate students to be able to conduct any kind of research, they would still need to rely on publications of the West, which can often be found only in English language. This is in addition to the fact that books and other resources borrow heavily from concepts and theories that were developed in the West in the last two centuries or so. The new decision is in essence a burden on the faculty and administration of QU. One of the key reasons why QU climbed the ranks of universities in the world was because of its research and publications in English, which also helped it to gain international accreditation.The SEC decision also means that the fate of foreign teachers is in a fix. If the deans and heads of departments cannot speak Arabic themselves, how they can be expected to instruct students in Arabic?The same is true of international students and students from various expatriate communities who joined QU in large numbers in the past few years. It not only ignores the needs of this community in Qatar but also discriminates against those who are currently studying in the university.


The Peninsula

[battleshipb_b]

There are also non-Arabic students (children of Asian expats from India and Pakistan) who also attend this university. My Pakistani friend's daughter is a student there and is devastated that she will not be able to continue in her major. They are thinking of sending her to Pakistan to finish her studies.

[battleshipb_b]

Arabic vs English Saturday, 28 January 2012 00:40

The Issue: Qatar University has been recently asked (the decision was announced this week) by education authorities to switch the medium of instruction from English to Arabic, for some crucial disciplines like law, media studies, business administration and international affairs.

The move has been welcomed by those who feel that one should learn a subject in one�s native language and simultaneously learn English to be prepared to pursue higher studies abroad. But what is being doubted is whether the university would be able to implement the change in the medium of instruction in such a short span of time. Spring holidays have begun and the university administration doesn�t really have much time to switch to the new medium of instruction, which calls for not only text books and other reading materials in Arabic for the above key streams but also able and experienced teachers who could impart quality education in these disciplines.Then, the question of what happens to the existing faculty members who have been giving instructions in the said streams in English, needs to be resolved amicably. The university administration should keep in mind that undue delays in implementing the change would make it vulnerable to widespread criticism in the local media from the students, their parents or guardians and the community as a whole.

The decision-makers should also bear in mind that the students doing law, media, business and international affairs courses in the university which would now be taught in Arabic are able to compete in the job market. Studies suggest that students learning a subject in their native language tend to master the subject better provided they simultaneously learn the English language, than those whose mother tongue is not English but they are taught a subject in the English medium. Qatar University switching the medium of instruction for the key study streams is thus, laudatory, but the students would do better not to ignore learning English on the sidelines of their main studies.

The move is also heartily welcomed because Qatari students, especially, those seeking admission to law, media studies, business administration or international affairs studies were until now required to have high scores (in secondary education) only to be enrolled for a �Foundation Program� of a year�s duration.Only if they acquired a high grade point average (GPA) in this Programme were they admitted to one of the above courses. There were many who couldn�t even qualify the �Programme� to be able to seek entry to the above disciplines.

[b]Such students found the �Foundation Programme� that focused on students acquiring basic skills in English, mathematics and computers, not only tough and unwanted but also a sheer waste of time[/b].Many of them were, thus, forced to seek admission to universities in Sharjah or Jordan, among other countries, and ironically, they landed jobs here as well with ease, mainly in the government, once they returned with a graduate degree.

But a Qatari graduate, in order to have a graduate degree from Qatar University, had to undergo so much of �trouble�.�Now, with the medium of instruction being Arabic for the four major disciplines, Qatar University graduates from these streams wouldn�t have to now waste a year of their life cycle,� a critic told this newspaper not wanting his name in print.
He said that there are examples worldwide, and in the neighbouring Saudi Arabia as well, that for a university to be of international acclaim and standard it need not compulsorily impart education in English.�The focus on teaching should be on the content of a subject rather than being on English which is merely a medium of instruction,� said the critic.

He said that what had been happening at Qatar University in the above streams was that students were made to concentrate on the learning of English rather than the subject. �So we welcome the move but are suspicious if the university administration would be able to implement the decision in such a short span of time,� he said. 
The Peninsula

[battleshipb_b]

The big problem will be what to do with the huge number of teachers they have. If they get their act together, they should offer ESP courses like they did when I worked there. We taught credit courses for the Business, Engineering and Science students. The courses were 5 hours a week and popular because we taught them what they needed to know. Many Gulf universities have such programs.

[battleshipb_b]

[quote="veiledsentiments"]I know that SQU was all in English from the start... (except Islamic Studies and Education), as was Uof Bahrain... and I was told the same with UAEU and QU in the late 80s when I arrived in the Gulf. I know Foundations teachers who were at all of those locations in the late 80s. So why would they have a bunch of Foundations English teachers at all of those universities if they weren't teaching many, if not most, of the majors in English. That didn't mean that all of the professors actually taught in English... only that they were supposed to... :lol: Of course that was even true at HCT when I got there in the early 90s. I would hear teachers teaching content courses in Arabic when I would walk past their classes - even though their texts were in English.

I'm glad to see that a move may be starting to go back to teaching in the language of the country.VS[/quote]

Very strange. QU started its foundation in 2004. This is a fact. One of my old colleagues was working there when it was set up that year. Before that it was just and ELU like other places. So what's this about QU having a foundation in the early 90s?

One of the first places to set up foundation was HCT which was a sort of model for some universities. They opened up in 1988. I was offered a job there that year but turned it down as the working hours were longer than at QU. It was also an unknown entity and people were wary of what it would be like. Rightly so as it happened. I also heard UAEU has both ESP and foundation courses. It depends on where the student is placed.

U of Bahrain offers some programs in Arabic. Don't forget they have a much longer history with English than anywhere else in the Gulf and the Brits helped them set up their university. They did not have a foundation program in the 1980s, they had an English Language Unit - do you remember Daoud? I don't think they even use the term foundation unit, but hey - I may be wrong. Next time I drive over the causeway for a booze-up I'll check with my friends who work there. Usually we don't talk shop when we meet up. They do ESP courses as well as basic English for the weak students.

If QU thinks this thing through they should go back to the old ESP credit program. Reading the articles in the Peninsula suggests that some of them are concerned about English for the workplace and would probably be happier doing credit courses which will be more useful than what they may be learning at the moment. Maybe some QU teachers can add something but they are probably too afraid to post as they get booted out it they do. This is true as at least one poster is now working in the magic kingdom and has tales to tell of mismanagement and underhanded treatment of staff.

[battleshipb_b]

The fallout from this decision will be huge. Like I said, there are plenty of jobs in the magic kingdom but mainly for male instructors. That said, the magic kingdom is not the best place for everyone. Not recommended for families and females.

[veiledsentiments]

I do believe that they (around the Gulf) usually started with something called a Language Center or some such term. I worked with teachers at SQU in '88 who had come from both the Qatar University and Bahrain University - and had been teaching there for some years in EFL. Student numbers at that time were low too.

Later on most of them changed the name to "Foundations" rather than Language unit or whatever. But, little changed as to the teaching. At SQU, they didn't change the name, but added more general English courses rather than just ESP. (needed because so many had a level that was too low for ESP) Their programs slowly became more similar to the ESL departments in the US or UK. There were already math and computer type courses for entering students.

So... whether you call it "Foundations" or the "Language Center" - it is still teaching the basics that these students lack on arrival. All of them had some majors in English and some in Arabic.

VS

[veiledsentiments]

Thanks for the article BB... very interesting debate in the press.

So, I interpret this to mean that last week, people outside the university in some Ministry declared that these changes be made... immediately... in the middle of an academic year. Obviously with no thought or input from the institution that will suddenly need all new texts and a bunch of new teachers/professors as of... tomorrow.



This is exactly the same stupidity shown by the Ministry and UAEU. Let's get rid of the expensive Foundations department and give it to HCT... starting now. As with this QU decision, it was a very sensible idea. But they both need a plan of implementation, probably over 2 to 3 years.

The lack of planning and thought is likely to mean that it will have to be cancelled as it will be impossible to implement. (as happened in the UAE) Why is it that they seem fundamentally unable to research and figure out that this is not a corner shop with 4 employees that can change direction quickly? It will take time (years?) to find more professors and locate/receive textbooks and make major additions to their libraries.

Another soap opera ensues... with a significant number of expat teachers/professors having to quickly polish up the CV as they are wondering if they will have a job next semester or not. Again we are caught in the middle...

VS

[FunGus]

Supposedly, the VP of QU has sent out a message to all employees stating that all contracts will be honored...so the teachers currently there should be safe until the end of their contracts.

Where they all will go on to from there (there are 100+ teachers) is anyone's guess...