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[nomad soul]

UAE culture of storytelling can leave students ‘unprepared for higher education’
By Melanie Swan, The National | April 11, 2016
Source: http://www.thenational.ae/uae/uae-culture-of-storytelling-can-leave-students-unprepared-for-higher-education

ABU DHABI // The culture of oral storytelling presents a challenge to those attempting to encourage reading in the region, experts say. Dr Melanie Gobert, the past president of Tesol Arabia teachers’ organisation and co-founder of the Mena Extensive Reading Foundation, said she believed the lack of a culture of reading had a detrimental effect on education standards in the region.

“I’ve been teaching in Saudi Arabia and the UAE since 1993, and I’ve come to realise just how little Gulf Arab students read," Dr Gobert said. “A lot of this has to do with competition from technology – mobile phones, messaging, and online video games – but a lot of it has to do with the lack of a reading habit in the society because they are traditionally considered an oral culture, where stories and folklore are passed down by word of mouth."

On Saturday, the Year of Reading Mini-Conference takes place at the Petroleum Institute in Abu Dhabi to address the continuing challenges of promoting a culture of reading, bringing together academics from around the emirates to tackle what is becoming an academic crisis, leaving pupils poorly prepared for higher education.

Dr Gobert said teachers such as herself, who have a lot of experience in the region, should impart to new teachers “how the lack of a reading culture or lack of reading impacts students’ performance from a very early age". There was not a culture of parents taking children to libraries, or reading bedtime stories, which compounded the problem.

Results speak for themselves, she said, and a lack of reading hinders students when they reach higher education. The International English Language Testing System exam in reading uses a rating range of one to five. Candidates from the UAE score on average 1.40 below the rest of the world in the test, and 0.40 below the rest of the Arabic test takers, Dr Gobert said. On the general training module, UAE test takers score, on average, 2.6 less than the rest of the world, and 1.70 less than the average Arabic participant. “In a previous research study that I conducted in 2008 on the reading habits of Emirati students, 41 per cent of the respondents reported that they did not read at all in Arabic or English outside the classroom," Dr Gobert said.

One of the organisers of the conference, Dr Helene Demirci, co-chairwoman on the Mena Extensive Reading Foundation, said: “Without the basic tools of reading, studies in later life become much more challenging. “With the advances in technology there is so much information to process in such a short time. If students lack the basic skills in reading, there are challenges in that students will not be able to keep up with the amount of new knowledge and information available and this could result in losing opportunities in the workplace." She hoped the conference would provide a forum for the presenters to share their successes in encouraging reading.

Bridie Farah, chairwoman of the Tesol Arabia Read special interest group, is also an organiser of the conference. She said it was time to change the way educators educate. “I think one of the biggest challenges is to find out what works and what doesn’t in schools and in higher education. I think, as with the rest of the world, that one of the major obstacles is finding ways to interest students and to excite them about reading."

(End of article)

[veiledsentiments]

[dragonpiwo]

Absolutely right VS.

Kinda like the consultants and teaching development gurus who invent a bit of jargon and claim to have re-invented teaching.

[D. Merit]

[Geronimo]

"...Candidates from the UAE score on average 1.40 below the rest of the world in the test, and 0.40 below the rest of the Arabic test takers, Dr Gobert said.
On the general training module, UAE test takers score, on average, 2.6 less than the rest of the world, and 1.70 less than the average Arabic participant...."

Today the already massive and detailed IELTS-related corpora provide the basis for the comparative analysis
of various population's performance levels at an unprecedented level of detail.

Can UAE-based ELT teachers take advantage of this potentially terrific resource by locating some key areas for improvement in their teaching practice?

Why is there such a significant deficit in the performance level of UAE candidates
when compared with the rest of the Arabic test takers?

More positively put...what are the differences in educational context which account for the highest performing Arabic speakers relative success?

For instance, Egyptian candidates are performing at a significantly higher level
across the whole range of IELTS exams -when their results are compared with those of their Emirati counterparts:-

Egypt:- Listening - 6.5; Reading - 6.2; Writing - 5.8; Speaking - 6.4; Overall - 6.3
U.A.E.:- Listening - 4.8; Reading - 4.6; Writing - 4.6; Speaking - 5.3; Overall - 4.9

If this poor performance level of Emirati candidates is really attributable to a lack of reading in general primarily,
then why are there such sizeable gaps between Egyptians' and Emiratis' average scores in the Listening and Speaking exams, as well?
Are they speaking less than the Egyptians, too?!
https://www.ielts.org/teaching-and-research/test-taker-performance-2014

"...“In a previous research study that I conducted in 2008 on the reading habits of Emirati students, 41 per cent of the respondents reported that they did not read at all in Arabic or English outside the classroom," Dr Gobert said..."

In which countries do Arabic speaking candidates read most extensively?
And, how do their exam results compare with those of the Emiratis?

Furthermore, could the relative IELTS band levels attained by Emirati candidates from public schools be contrasted with
those of their many compatriots emerging from the international schools?

I believe that Corpus Linguistics techniques have already improved teaching practice at the global level
by informing the design and contents of mainstream textbooks such as "Objective IELTS"..
http://www.cambridge.org/us/cambridgeenglish/catalog/cambridge-english-exams-ielts/objective-ielts

Can those same techniques be exploited to good effect at the Arabic-speaking regional level?
http://assets.cambridge.org/97811070/41196/excerpt/9781107041196_excerpt.pdf

One final question -
Are you taking your Emirati students to the forthcoming
Abu Dhabi International Books Fair
- as 2016 has been declared "U.A.E Reading Year" by the President?
http://adbookfair.com/en/default.aspx

Geronimo

[veiledsentiments]

Another easy question. Only a small percentage of Egyptians will ever take the IELTS. Those that do will be the top students that are hoping to go the UK to study. They will be paying for the test, not their government and thus their level will match 3rd year HCT students for the most part.

Whereas in the UAE, the government is giving this test to a significant percentage of the students in the country. Thus there are many fossilized beginners in the mix who will wash out of the HCT/UAEU student body because they never were academic material.

The only thing these two groups share is that their first language is Arabic... other than that, it is apples and oranges.

[spiral78]

This is an interesting difference between European students and students from the ME. In Europe, the most popular public transit activity, for example, is still reading (though you do see some young 'uns these days playing phone games). Book stores still exist across the region and some seem to be doing pretty well.

I've worked with a lot of ME students outside their native habitats; I doubt many of them are reading for pleasure or edification, and agree that it's a handicap academically.

[Geronimo]

VS wrote:

[izmigari]

IELTS proficiency notwithstanding, I found the little princesses of HCT highly skilled at storytelling whenever test marks didn't go their way or they were too busy socializing on their mobiles preventing full marks for unattempted homework assignments.

Poor babies!

NOW it's revealed that their IELTS achievements aren't stellar???

Scandalous!

[veiledsentiments]

[Geronimo]

"...During our previous event in November at Abu Dhabi’s Petroleum Institute, we enjoyed a diverse array of presentations and lively interactive discussions on a wide range of topics related to reading and academic literacy including; the challenges facing school teachers in teaching reading, critical thinking and reading proficiency, reading in the digital age, digital literacy skills, traditional reading, active reading strategies, reading for meaning and critical and extensive reading. If November’s event is anything to go by then we can all look forward to furthering the discussions related to reading and literacy and seek innovative ways to promote reading throughout the region..."

Let's hope that the author's hopes for
the "2016 is the UAE Reading Year" mini-conference
prove to be well-founded, and that some concrete proposals for improved practice emerge in a report!

Here's the link to the Read SIG's mini-conference -
which was referred to in 'TheNational' article by Melanie Swann,
as presented by Nomad Soul in her opening post:-
http://www.tesolarabia.co/read-sig-2016-is-the-uae-reading-year/

There's one suggestion which I can offer up to new teachers, drawing upon my own recent
experience of EAP-related sessions with Omanis, Qataris, Saudis and Emiratis...

Seek an interview with a native English teacher or two; and then ask them
how they overcame their own challenges.
Two of my former Omani teaching colleagues were kind enough to accede to this request.
One of them had graduated from Sultan Qaboos University and was studying for his Masters at Manchester University at that time.
Unsurprisingly, he was unequivocal about the importance of reading.
'What advice would you give to Omani College EAP students?' I asked him.
'Read, read, read!' he replied.

He promoted the distribution of easy readers in his sessions, such as those found on this website...
http://www.penguinreaders.com/pr/students/

I believe that expat English teachers can secure the support of
their native English teacher colleagues in this mission to promote more extensive reading.
Maybe they'll prove to be the strongest allies available!

"...Sheikh Khalifa added that to establish a knowledge-based economy, introduce a new path for development based on innovation and knowledge and achieving
sustainability, we must stop importing expertise. We must foster our own talents. We need to raise an educated generation that is aware of the global changes and capable of working and innovating in all fields.

His Highness concluded that education and knowledge will remain key for prosperity and reading is key for education and knowledge. The first verse in Quran is “Read”...."

http://www.uaecabinet.ae/en/details/news/mohammed-bin-rashid-on-presidents-directives-2016-is-uae-reading-year

Finally, I must apologise to VS for failing to realise that she did in fact mean to contradict herself. As she points outs -

[veiledsentiments]

OK... so you have totally proven that you are unable to read and comprehend any better than my students or just choose to be argumentative with no obvious purpose except to borderline troll.

But do continue to cut and paste more stuff...

VS

[dragonpiwo]

Maybe because of money, Egyptians only take the exam when they have a good chance of getting a good score. I taught Libyans IELTS and we had good returns because we were rigorous about who could enter the exam.

'Pass everyone, yes you are wonderful, go take IELTS' might be the simple reason in the Gulf.

And it's true, out here they read way to little. This must impact their performance in the IELTS reading, which is bloody tricky.

[D. Merit]

^ A simple and straightforward answer and, to be fair, not one that has eluded either VS or Dr. Gobert.

[Geronimo]

Several major corporate sponsors are supporting the UAE literacy drive nowadays...

http://www.emirateslitfest.com/competitions/young-peoples-competitions/chevron-readers-cup/

Geronimo