Current status and challenges of ELT in the Libyan universities

universities

English at university level is a compulsory subject for both English and non- English majors. In common practice, non-English majors (e.g. students in geography, history, Arabic language, and psychology, computer, and biology departments) must attend a two-hour lecture in EAP on a weekly basis. These (EAP) courses are commonly given by English language teachers from the English departments and the syllabuses are flexible, as they are usually planned and designed by the Head of the English department. The students who take these EAP courses are generally taught short scientific texts, which are related to their areas of study. They are required to answer some comprehension questions at the end of the passage with their teacher. They also learn new vocabulary related to their majors.

In contrast, within the English Language Departments, which form the focus of this study, English majors receive more intensive instruction in different EFL skills, including reading, writing, listening, and speaking. In addition to classes on these four skills, EFL students must also take other obligatory modules including, phonetics, applied linguistics, literature, and teaching methods. These modules are taught alongside a very small number of non-English related subjects, namely, Arabic language and Islamic culture. Like students in other university departments, English majors study a four-year English language programme and attend regular classes six days a week. According to Al-Naiely (2012), English-related subjects currently comprise about 80% of the English department curriculum. All programmes are taught by well-educated Libyans or foreign teachers, mostly from India and a few from other Arab and African countries. As pointed out above, there is no fixed curriculum in university departments, hence, EFL teachers select their own materials on the basis of the

syllabus provided by the Head of the department. The teachers are responsible for searching for and determining what they believe to be appropriate for their students, either from within their own materials or from the limited materials provided by their department.

As mentioned above, the Libyan educational authorities have recently called for a shift from the Grammar-translation method to the communicative approach (Emhamed & Krishnan, 2011; Shihiba, 2011). However, in reality, many EFL teachers still choose the Grammar-translation method due to the pressures of examinations, the large number of students in the class and the highly prescriptive course schedules (Saaid, 2010), and university level teaching is no exception. This method dominates the university classrooms, as it fits well with traditional concepts that see activities such as application of grammatical structures, memorization of isolated vocabulary, and translating and understanding reading texts as very important methods for teaching and learning a language. The approach also caters for the highly examination-oriented system in Libyan universities that encourages teachers to prioritise grammatical explanations over communicative activities. In addition, the traditional Libyan methodology highly values the role of memorisation, and this seems to be the most common strategy in teaching of vocabulary and grammar in this country, as teachers are extremely concerned with helping their students to achieve high marks in their English examinations. Therefore the general assumption of most university EFL instructors suggests that in order to understand and be able to communicate in English, students need to primarily master the basic grammatical rules.

In the University EFL classroom, the teacher is regarded as the source of knowledge. S/he is the responsible authority who transmits what s/he knows to her/his learners. In my experience, learners seem more concerned with receiving the language, rather than understanding the meanings or even being able to use it. The learners are often passive receivers and are not expected to challenge the

teacher. Due to this, teachers mainly concentrate on how to pass on their knowledge to learners, instead of being concerned with how individual variables affect learning and how to help learners become more effective learners. In other words, they focus more on the product than the process and so give little consideration to how to help students to learn independently.

Moreover, despite the well-known fact that technology has made a great contribution in terms of providing English language access for learners worldwide, most Libyan EFL learners do not seem to benefit from such an advantage. First, there is an obvious lack of English media in Libya, for instance, only two news satellite channels broadcast in English (BBC and Aljazeera). Moreover, English newspapers are not available in many regions in Libya, though a few are supplied to people in Tripoli (the capital). Furthermore, like many other developing countries, the average internet speed in Libya is very poor and is limited in terms of availability. Many parts of Libya, particularly rural areas, are still lacking internet suppliers or have no internet connection at all. Under the far-reaching influence of such conditions, Libyan university EFL learners commonly experience a lack of variety in their approaches to learning.

1.5 The study: rationale, aims, and research questions