The Impact of Poor English Language Proficiency on Professional Development of Professors at Jordanian Universities

Abstract

It is widely acknowledged that English has become the language of communication internationally (Yahya, 2012; Pennycook, 2014). To the researchers’ best knowledge, no research has reported on neither the difficulties non-English major professors face when using English as their formal language of instruction nor on the impact of these difficulties on their professional development. Thus, this paper aims to offer a better insight into the different problems that university professors non-major in English specifically face when communicating in English and their influence on their academic and professional advancement. Non-English major professors need to be competent in communicating English because they need to contact international organizations for publications, introducing partnership, present up-to-date findings in their fields and so on. The sample of the study comprised of 20 non-English major lecturers randomly selected from Hashemite University. Data collected via semi-structured interviews revealed that the participants encountered numerous difficulties in reading, writing and speaking and listening when using English and that these difficulties impact negatively on their academic and professional development. In light of these findings, the paper concludes with some of the participants’ suggestions to solve these difficulties.