The Status of English Language Teaching (ELT) from 1986 to the Present

Due to tense diplomatic relations with the international community in the mid-1980s (see Appendix One), Gadhafi ordered his officials to ban the English language and any other foreign languages in the country. As a result, the Libyan Ministry of Education amended its language policy which led to the omission of all foreign languages, including the English language, from the education system (Otman and Karlberg, 2007). In addition, all foreign language departments in public and private institutions were closed and newspapers, magazines, or any other literature written in foreign languages were banned in public and private institutions (Otman & Karlberg, 2007). However, following the political reconciliation in Libyan and Western and American relations in the 1990s (see Appendix One), the Libyan government re-introduced English language into the education system, permitted materials written in foreign languages, and allowed Western media to broadcast everywhere in Libya (Falola et al., 2012; Vandewalle, 2016). At this time, the Libyan

Ministry of Education developed a language policy through which new ELT material was developed and introduced into the Libyan schools.

As it was not easy to obtain official documents on the Libyan language policy or English Language Teaching (ELT) material at this period from the Libyan Ministry of Education, I will cite a document that I obtained from the publisher of the Libyan ELT material, Garnet.

During my Masters degree in 2009/2010, I contacted and asked them for any relevant documents about the Libyan language policy and ELT material. They linked me to the authors who designed the material and provided me with a document outlining the aims of the language policy. Garnet Publishing is an independent British publisher based in Reading with over 40 years’ experience; it has a special interest in Middle East and North African issues, including ELT material (Garnet Publishing, 2018). These aims have been developed by the publishers from the government language policy in order to meet the needs of the Libyan English as Foreign Language (EFL) students (Adrian-Vallance and Donno, 2009). Based on Garnet’s document (see Appendix Three), there appear to be three areas from the government language policy that seem important for my study. First, there is the view of language as a linguistic system around which the language skills – listening, speaking, reading and writing – and the content of material need to be organised and sequenced. Secondly, there is a view about learning that mastering the linguistic system, vocabulary and grammar leads to successful learning and acquisition of the language.

Thirdly, in terms of the language culture, the Libyan authorities seem to recognise English language as the most important language through which a new window of development (social, economic, industrial and cultural) can be opened to the entire world.

Based on the language policy above, Garnet developed new English language material for the Libyan preparatory and secondary schools (Zainol Abidin et al., 2012; Mohsen, 2014).

This new material, ‘English for Libya’, draws on a hybrid syllabus which combines and integrates the elements of Structural, Functional and Skills syllabi when using one of these syllabi alone would be irrelevant or inappropriate for the learners and their needs (White, 1988). Instead of the selection and organisation of language content in terms of structures, the Functional Syllabus selects and organises its content around specific purposes of communicative functions (Nunan, 1988). In contrast, a Skills-based Syllabus selects and organises its content around specific language skills and integrates linguistic competencies (pronunciation, vocabulary, grammar, and discourse) together into generalized types of behaviour such as listening to spoken language for the main idea, writing well-formed paragraphs, or delivering effective lectures (Jordan, 1997). For example, the new material

focused on functions of language – asking for directions, writing an email – but at the same time provides a focus on language structures, especially those which have been used to achieve given language functions. These language skills and linguistic knowledge are two components of the content knowledge (CK) and general pedagogical knowledge (GPK) which I introduced in Chapter One and which I will discuss in more depth in Chapter Three.

Although ‘English for Libya’ material was more developed and appropriate to the learners in terms of the communicative aspects of language use, the Libyan EFL teachers were not able to deliver the material successfully through the assigned learner-centred methodology and support their learners to achieve the intended learning outcomes due to a lack of appropriate training (Najeeb, 2013; Aloreobi and Carey, 2017). As a result, the new ELT material was usually implemented through traditional methodologies such as the grammar translation method (GTM) and audiolingual method (ALM) introduced in the previous section and discussed in detail in Chapter Three (Latiwish, 2003; Najeeb, 2013;

Abukhattala, 2016). Besides the lack of training, there was also a shortage of qualified Libyan EFL school teachers who could implement the material effectively (Latiwish, 2003;

Najeeb, 2013; Abukhattala, 2016). Other factors that appear to have hindered a successful implementation of the new material and its objectives included lack of facilities and resources in most Libyan schools, such as laboratories, computers, smart boards and small group environments (Artemi and Ajit, 2009; Emhamed and Krishnan, 2011; Najeeb, 2013).

Although some Libyans managed to learn and speak English in one way or another, the continual changes of language policy and ELT materials and the prohibition of foreign languages in Libya at times appear to have set back Libya by at least two generations (Otman and Karlberg, 2007). Consequently, the standards of English language proficiency of most Libyans appears to have deteriorated dramatically, and the language competencies of Libyan students and the quality standards of Libyan schools have fallen noticeably (Aloreobi and Carey, 2017). As Libyan generations grew up in a society and an education system fuelled by Gadhafi’s views and aggression towards America and the West, Libyans appear to have developed a sense of resistance and hatred towards foreign languages, including English. As a result, most Libyan students are still reported to have a low level of motivation and growing negative attitudes towards English language which could be one of the main challenges to the development of ELT situation in Libya today (Youssef, 2012).

The previous section offers a possible explanation for the relative neglect of attention to intercultural communication and communicative aspects of English Language Teaching (ELT) or global English in Libyan language policy and ELT materials. Because of the focus on the Arabic language and culture, and politically motivated negative attitudes towards English language speakers, Libyan ELT has not attended to communicative aspects of language, and problems in implementing the hybrid syllabus, may also have led to the development of ineffective material and students’ low motivation. In the final ELT section below, I focus on intercultural communicative competence and relate it to the Libyan context.