A few days ago, students at the Princess Noura Bint Abdulrahman University for Women were protesting because an estimated 70% of them had failed their English exam. This university located in Riyadh, is reputed to have the largest only-female campuses in the world, with a total of about 26,000 students.
The students claimed that the exams were very hard and they insisted the university had to give them another chance to take them. Most of them claimed they came from public schools, where the language of instruction is basically Arabic. Unfortunately, very little emphasis is laid on the English language in these schools.
This happens at a time when the Ministry of Education is planning to seek the assistance of foreign firms to teach the English language in Saudi public schools. The council of ministers agreed that English language education should be started from the fourth grade. This is going to be implemented from the next academic year (2011-2012).
I asked a few Saudi mums about their opinions and they said they were happy about this decision. They would not have to spend a lot of money to send their kids to English language institutes nor spend large sums of money to hire private instructors who charge up to 250 SAR per hour. Many private English language instructors would find that the demand for their services would progressively drop in the few coming years. If you are a language instructor, look for other areas where you excel and exploit this option. Go for the other subjects for example, or look for another means of extra income.
The students claimed that the exams were very hard and they insisted the university had to give them another chance to take them. Most of them claimed they came from public schools, where the language of instruction is basically Arabic. Unfortunately, very little emphasis is laid on the English language in these schools.
This happens at a time when the Ministry of Education is planning to seek the assistance of foreign firms to teach the English language in Saudi public schools. The council of ministers agreed that English language education should be started from the fourth grade. This is going to be implemented from the next academic year (2011-2012).
I asked a few Saudi mums about their opinions and they said they were happy about this decision. They would not have to spend a lot of money to send their kids to English language institutes nor spend large sums of money to hire private instructors who charge up to 250 SAR per hour. Many private English language instructors would find that the demand for their services would progressively drop in the few coming years. If you are a language instructor, look for other areas where you excel and exploit this option. Go for the other subjects for example, or look for another means of extra income.
bonjour,
ReplyDeleteje voudrais vous demander si vous avez une idée sur la meilleure "IELTS"?
mes enfants ont commencé l'Anglais à l'âge de 8 ans. la partie grammaire conjugaison et vocabulaire, rédaction de petits textes est bien acquise mais ils manquent de pratique (conversation) je voudrais qu'ils deviennent un peu plus fluent ( ils le sont plus en arabe car ils discutent avec leurs amis saoudiens, en français car nous leur parlons français) mais en anglais c'est un véritable problème la seule solution est un institut de langue.
là où je suis j'ai le choix entre wall street, et berlitz. mais à chaque fois que j'en parle autour de moi des amis saoudiens me disent que les résultats ne sont pas bons avec leurs enfants. je n'ose pas leur demander si c'est l'enfant qui ne prend pas ses cours au sérieux ou si c'est l'institut lui même qui fait du mauvais travail.
alors si vous avez une idée sur le meilleur institut? merci d'avance pour votre réponse
Bonjour Nassima,
ReplyDeleteJ'ai eu à travailler avec quelques élèves qui ont fait les cours d'anglais à Berlitz. J'avoue que j'étais impressionnée car apres un mois seulement elles s'exprimaient bien en anglais (avec un accent americain en plus!). Je n'ai jamais rencontré quelqu'un qui a fait les cours à Wall Street.