Problems Faced Due to English Ability

Not only do teachers‟ and students‟ views about language ability differ, but also data from the online questionnaires show that teachers and students have

different perceptions as to whether students face problems in their courses as a result of their English language ability, as indicated in Table 23.

Table 23: Do Students Face Problems in Courses Due to English Language Ability?

Survey Questions:

For Students: Do you face any problems in your courses due to your English-language ability?

For Faculty: Do you think that your students face any problems in your courses due to their English-language ability?

Response Students Faculty

Yes 42.9% (15) 84.9% (45)

No 57.1% (20) 15.1% (8)

Total (Respondents) (35) (53)

While only 42.9% of student participants thought they faced problems with courses due to their English ability, 85% of faculty participants said that they felt their

students faced problems with their coursework due to their English language abilities. This notable difference in the perceptions of faculty and students as to whether

students face problems in their courses due to their English language ability could be due to several factors including perceptions related to adaptations to materials, grading, or even exposure or non-exposure to English in a wider context than just the UAE.

When asked about problems faced in their courses on the questionnaire and during interviews, students and teachers commented on some of the same areas which included schooling prior to university entrance, inability to communicate, and reliance on memorization. Comments students made on the questionnaire included that they felt they had a problem understanding materials due to vocabulary, and that they had problems with grammar both when speaking and writing. Students who felt they faced problems in their courses due to their speaking ability said they had difficulty expressing their point of view and finding the right words. Shyness and dealing with

teachers in English was also one of the reasons given for having problems in English. As one student said, “Sometimes I don‟t understand a word and I‟m too shy to ask, but it‟s not a big problem because I can deal with it by asking my classmates.”

During an interview, one of the business college teachers also noted that his students are shy and unable to express themselves. He commented, “A good amount of the students, they‟re so shy that they‟re not even willing to raise their hand and ask a question.” Students often attribute their communication problems as stemming from having studied in the public school system. Fareeda, a communication and media studies student noted that she had problems speaking, “Especially because I studied in public school where everything was in Arabic, nothing was in English. Just one class [was] in English, mostly [we were taught] in Arabic,” while Hanan, a business student said, “Maybe because I‟m from public school…my friends like some from private they speak maybe English more than me.” One student interviewed even said that she was shy and felt students attending public schools were intimidated by the students who went to private schools. Private school students have more experience dealing with foreign teachers and are perceived to have better language skills by both teachers and students. Salma, a communication major noted,

You can read by yourself and never mind about the mistakes, but speaking especially I notice that if we have girls from private schools [in our classroom] and we know that they are speaking English well, but we can‟t [then] we can‟t interact in this class when they are with us. I asked many students if they suffer from this same point, and they said, “Yes, we feel uncomfortable to talk in English while they are in our class.” You know [this is] because they are laughing at us, and so we try to be silent.

Faculty members felt that students faced problems with reading, writing, and vocabulary, and that students had an “inability to clearly understand instructions both verbal and written.” The issue of understanding could be related to problems with listening, reading, or vocabulary knowledge or even to academic skills. Mentioned along with understanding are motivation and critical thinking skills as problems. An art and design teacher comments, “They have difficulties writing and reading high level texts. The most significant result of this is decreased motivation to do library based research.” Others note a “lack of motivation to excel” and claim “their ability and inclination to read assignments is poor.” A communication professor noted that

reading in general isn‟t just a problem for the students at this university, but one for the region as the “Arab Human Development Board has identified reading as a major problem across the Arab world.” This lack of reading skills and the problems with understanding vocabulary leads to an inability to comprehend materials. As noted by one teacher, “Oftentimes a student sort of misses the forest for the trees. They get caught up in each specific word (or sentence) and miss the overall theme of the section or paragraph.” Along with the areas of reading and writing, teachers also mention that note taking skills are weak, and that students lack both vocabulary knowledge and critical thinking skills.

In order to cope with materials, a business teacher noted that “some students simply rely upon memorization as opposed to truly understanding the concepts and being able to think issues through.” Part of the problem may not be related to the linguistic ability of students, but instead to a lack of honed academic study skills and strategies. The public education that these students received prior to their entry into higher education relied mostly on memorization and rote learning. Memorization seems to play an important role in learning for students and comments seem to indicate that it may even be reinforced in the way they are being taught and assessed at the university level. As Fareeda, a communication student said, “In my major we don‟t have any exams. There are just a little and for those you have like study guides and you just memorize it … but that‟s it. We all have projects, so actually we don‟t study.” Laila, a student in the humanities and social sciences department, relies on memorization to the point of even memorizing the teacher‟s body language and gestures. She comments, “I like to remember [memorize] too much…. So, I

memorized everything he [the teacher] was doing with his gestures during the lesson, and put them in my notes saying when he did this or that he was talking about this or that.”

Even though students and teachers differ when asked whether English language ability causes students difficulty, both mention similar issues when discussing what problems exist. Even with the majority (57.1%) of students saying that they do not face any problems in their courses due to their English-language ability, students do acknowledge that language may be an issue in relation to how much they are able to achieve academically. As Hanan, a business student wrote, “I am doing academically well, but it is not the level I wished to achieve. The reason is

my English. For sure, my English has been improved since early I attended the university, but it isn't like a native speaker.”