Preparatory Year Research Articles

The Role of Core Skills Development Through English Language Teaching (ELT) in Increasing Employability of Students in the Saudi Labor Market

The National Commission for Academic Accreditation & Assessment (NCAAA), Saudi Arabia, aims to determine ‘standards and criteria for academic accreditation and assessment and for accrediting post-secondary institutions and the programs they offer’ (2012). Along this line of teaching, learning standards, each department is required to submit the Course Report (CR) and the Course Specifications (CS) reflecting the quality of learning and the management of courses aiming to achieve the highest international standards. As mandatory procedure, English Language Centers (ELC) in the Saudi universities also prepare quality assessment reports. The reports include data about the assessment of English language skills of speaking, listening, reading and writing skills. In addition, the CR and CS both seek to establish whether students at the Preparatory Year have mastered core skills such as communication skills, problem solving skills, thinking skills, language skills, attention, executive skills, memorizing and other cognitive and interpersonal skills. This qualitative study highlights the major findings the teachers’ perceptions about integrating core skills into English language teaching that would potentially increase employability of students in the labor market in Saudi Arabia and as well as contribute to the national vision 2030 that includes ‘learning for working’. Our study focuses on the relationships between teachers’ perceptions about core skills development during English language teaching and teachers’ decisions about using teaching activities to enhance those skills. Data were collected through questionnaire, semi-structured interviews and class observations and coded into different categories and labelled and then the results were drawn analyzing the connection between those categories.

The visual memory development technique: A remedial and pre-reading activity to enhance EFL learners’ motivation

This longitudinal study examined the effect of the Visual Memory Development Technique (VMDT) on the motivation of students with low proficiency to read in the EFL context. The sample population consisted of 64 Preparatory Year (PY) students at Najran University. All 64 students were given the Motivation for Reading in English Questionnaire (MREQ) to measure their motivation to read prior to the treatment (VMDT). The 64 students were divided into an experimental and a control group. Both groups received instructions for reading with their traditional remedial materials, but the experimental group's instruction was supplemented by the addition of the VMDT at the beginning of each reading class for twelve lessons over a six-week period. An exit slip was given to the students at the end of each lesson. After six weeks, the MREQ was administered to both groups to measure the change in the students' motivation to read in the English language. The results of the quantitative tool (MREQ) were analyzed via SPSS (Ver.16) and Excel (Ver. 2013), and the findings of the qualitative tools (experimentation and exit slips) were collected and analyzed using a thematic approach. The post-test result for the MREQ showed a significant difference in students' motivations (F = 10, 21, p < 05). Based on the results, the students in the reading group that was given the VMDT at the beginning of the class showed increased motivation to read in the English language inside the classroom; suggestions and pedagogical implications are presented accordingly.

Necessity of ESP (English for Specific Purpose) Courses for Medical and Science Students at Najran University, Saudi Arabia: An Exploratory-cum-remedial Study

English as we know that plays a major role in higher education, Science and technology. It also plays a very essential role in the field of Medicine and other related disciplines because textbooks and journals are mostly written in English. This paper is an attempt to call for ESP courses specially designed to meet the needs of the growing demand of teaching English to Medicine and Science students or to modify the prerequisite course of such professional disciplines i.e. “Preparatory Year Program (PYP)” up to the level of ESP. The present study identifies the students’ acuities about the significance of the language skills, their ability in performing those skills, and their preferences regarding the English language course. It also sheds light on the problems in teaching English for specific purpose in Saudi Arabia. This study investigates the challenges encountered in teaching Medicine and Science students in Saudi Arabia and also attempts to answer the following questions: (a) what are the challenges that Medicine and Science teacher face while teaching? (b) What are the causes of these problems and (c) how can such problems be minimized? Finally, the findings of the research suggest some remedial measures and recommendations for improvement.

Merging the E-journaling and the Workshop Methods to Reduce Prep-Year Students’ Writing Apprehension: An Experimental Study

Preparatory (prep) year students presently encounter a significant disparity between prior to college English writing and the much superior level of competence needed for potential academic programs in Saudi Arabia. Study has verified the operational efficacy of the methods of e-journaling and writing workshop on alleviating writing apprehension but on a separate basis. This study represents an original contribution to knowledge through exploring the effects of merging these two outstanding methods. Accordingly, the degree to which this new method reduced Saudi prep-year students' writing apprehension was statistically examined. Tools included an instructional program and a writing apprehension test. The researcher applied the randomized control-group posttest-only design in the experiment. Students were randomly assigned to an experimental group, that studied the new program and a control group, that did not experience such treatment. At the end of the experiment, the two groups were post-tested using the writing apprehension test. Statistical treatment of the results was carried out, and the findings revealed that there is a statistically substantial difference between mean scores in favor of the experimental group students. This indicates that the integration of the e-journaling and the writing workshop methods has substantial effects on minimizing students’ writing apprehension as compared to the control group students. Further research is needed to develop new consistent methods of teaching writing that cope with and benefit from the current digital outbreak, especially in the Saudi, Arab and EFL foundation/prep-year contexts.

Fostering Critical Intercultural Awareness Among EFL Students Through Critical Discourse Analysis

This paper reports some findings on the development of critical intercultural awareness among English-as-a-foreign-language students in the context of a critical reading enrichment course for students in the preparatory year at a Saudi university. The critical reading class aimed to increase levels of critical intercultural awareness among the participants when they decoded and encoded an intercultural text. A qualitative action research design was used. The teacher-researcher equipped the participants with tools from critical discourse analysis for analyzing intercultural texts. After that, they were asked to work on an assignment by reading a text about a dinner invitation and then writing creatively on that topic. The study data were collected from these reflective writings in the participants’ portfolios. The teacher-researcher also used tools of critical discourse analysis to analyze the collected data. It was found that the participants demonstrated a balanced intercultural awareness associated with the discourse of food diversity. They also effectively appreciated cultures of the self and others and demonstrated appropriate intercultural knowledge of the self and others. Furthermore, they acquired the intercultural skills of relating to intercultural texts, as well as analyzing and interpreting them. The study suggests the effectiveness of critical discourse analysis as a teaching and learning strategy to increase critical intercultural awareness among English-as-a-foreign-language students.

Investigating Problems of Speaking Skill: A Case Study at Al-Baha University

The aim of the study is to explore the problems of speaking skill for students of preparatory year of Al-Baha University, Saudi Arabia. In order to answer the questions of the study, the researcher adopted the descriptive approach. The sample of the study consisted of (54) teachers of the university, most of them are MA and PhD holders. The questionnaire was prepared and refereed by specialized assistant professors then directed to teachers to answer (agree, strongly agree, neutral, disagree, and strongly disagree). The study indicated that there is a wide range of difficulties and problems facing those students. The demographics of the society around them is one of the most important obstacles. The gap between teaching speaking at secondary stage and university is one of the obstacles. Students of preparatory year are mostly shy while trying to speak. The study recommended reviewing the ways of assessing student’s speaking skill taking into granted the tribal nature of the students. The administration of the university should draw explicit goals at the local level of the university to help students develop the skill. The role of teacher is increasing constantly under these circumstances to help his students improve the skill as one of the most significant skills of English although they come from different cultural backgrounds. The study recommended further research to study the role of society structure in developing speaking skill.

Knowledge, Attitudes and Practices Regarding Rubella Infection among Preparatory Year Students: A Preliminary Exploratory Study in Aden, Yemen

Knowledge, Attitudes and Practices Regarding Rubella Infection among Preparatory Year Students: A Preliminary Exploratory Study in Aden, Yemen

The Attitudes of Preparatory Year Students towards Community Responsibility

The Attitudes of Preparatory Year Students towards Community Responsibility

Foreign Language Speaking Anxiety: A Psycholinguistic Barrier Affecting Speaking Achievement of Saudi EFL Learners

This study is oriented towards the analysis of the speaking achievement of the learners of English as Foreign Language (EFL) in Saudi Arabia. It aims to examine the influence of foreign language speaking anxiety as a psycholinguistic barrier affecting speaking achievement of Saudi EFL learners. It primarily attempts to answer the research question, ‘is there a correlation between foreign language speaking anxiety and the speaking achievement of Saudi Arabian EFL learners?’ The data of the study were collected using questionnaires and speaking achievement tests. Samples of the study were 100 (50 male and 50 female) Preparatory Year Students studying English at Northern Border University, in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. Descriptive statistics and Spearman’s correlation coefficient were used to analyze data in Statistical Package for the Social Science (SPSS) version 25. The results of the study revealed that there is a weak correlation between the speaking language anxiety and achievement of Saudi EFL learners in speaking, the effect size of the value of r is -0.242. Based on this result, the EFL learners with high language anxiety have less achievement in speaking test while EFL learners with low language speaking anxiety have high achievement in speaking test. The value P = 0.000 (sig. 2-tailed), which is smaller than 0.05%, indicating that language anxiety has significant negative effect on the respondents’ achievement in speaking. In other words, this indicated that 1% increase in anxiety would lead to a 88.8% decrease in EFL learner's performance in speaking at 0.000 level of significance. In conclusion, the study suggested different language anxieties such as personal and interpersonal anxiety, classroom anxiety, and learners' perceptions about foreign language anxiety need to be decressed.

The Relationship between Psychological Resilience, Psychological Adaptation and Purpose in Life among University Students in the Preparatory Year

The study aimed to show the correlational relationship between psychological resilience and both of psychological adaptation and purpose in life among university students in the preparatory year, and to make sure of the relative contribution of psychological resilience in predicting psychological adaptation and purpose in life. The sample of the study consisted of(304) university students in the preparatory year from both sexes. They were chosen by the random cluster sample method, and their ages ranged between(18-19) years. The study concluded that there is a strong and positive relationship between psychological resilience and psychological adaptation for preparatory year students, where the level of significance (0.000) and correlation coefficient (0.491), and there is a strong and positive relationship between psychological resilience and purpose in life for preparatory year students, where the level of significance (0.000) and correlation coefficient (0.549). The results of the study also showed that psychological resilience interprets a percentage of(24%) of psychological adaptation. Also interprets psychological resilience interprets a percentage of (30%) of purpose in life.

Assessing the ESP Needs of Saudi Engineering Undergraduates: A Diagnostic View

The recent development in the field of science, technology and commerce has revived the significance of English language teaching and learning in Saudi Arabia. The Saudi educational policies are envisioned to configure the students’ communicative competence in English to the demands of the specific professional disciplines as well as the global market. Engineering undergraduates studying at Saudi public universities rely on the Preparatory Year Programme (PYP) to meet their English language needs. However, it seems that no empirical study to date has been conducted to analyse the English language needs of the engineering undergraduates. This study aims at analysing the English for Specific Purposes (ESP) needs of engineering undergraduates studying at a Saudi university. It intends to identify what academic tasks they often carry out in English. The researcher adopted a mixed-methods approach by employing a questionnaire and interviews to collect data from 257 engineering undergraduates and 32 content-subject teachers. Quantitative data analysis was performed using SPSS, while qualitative data were analysed through NVivo software. The participants’ perceptions of target tasks were compared and examined to see if there are significant differences between the groups based on the specialty of department or year of study. Overall, 27 tasks were identified as most frequently performed by undergraduates across all engineering departments at the university. The findings also revealed significant differences in the undergraduates’ responses across all four levels of study. The findings suggest incorporating those tasks into the current ESP syllabus which are aligned to the immediate needs of undergraduates of engineering departments.

BOOK REVIEW Paul Nanu and Emilia Ivancu (Eds.) Limba română ca limbă străină. Metodologie și aplicabilitate culturală. Turun yliopisto, 2018. Pp. 1-169. ISBN: 978-951-29-7035-3 (Print) ISBN: 978-951-29-7036-0 (PDF).

BOOK REVIEW Paul Nanu and Emilia Ivancu (Eds.) Limba română ca limbă străină. Metodologie și aplicabilitate culturală. Turun yliopisto, 2018. Pp. 1-169. ISBN: 978-951-29-7035-3 (Print) ISBN: 978-951-29-7036-0 (PDF).

Üniversite öğrencilerinin yabancı dil öğrenme algıları: bir devlet üniversitesi örneği

Öğrencilerin yabancı dile bakışları; yabancı dil öğrenme istekleri, amaçları, ihtiyaçları, önyargıları ve öğrenme ortamlarıyla oldukça yakından ilişkilidir. Yabancı dil öğrenenlerin yabancı dile bakış açılarını bilmenin yabancı dil öğretmenlerini ve araştırmacıları daha donanımlı hâle getireceği açıktır. Günümüzde yabancı dil öğrenmede karşılaşılan en önemli sorunlardan birinin motivasyon eksikliği olduğu da yapılan araştırmalarda ortaya konulmuştur. Dolayısıyla öğrencilerin yabancı dil algıları, tutumları, inançları, yabancı dile bakış açıları ve motivasyonları arasında bir ilişki olduğu düşünülmektedir. Bu çerçevede mevcut çalışma üniversite öğrencilerinin Türkiye’de yabancı dile bakış açılarının ortaya çıkarılmasını hedeflemektedir. Çalışmaya 2016-2017 akademik yılında bir devlet üniversitesinin farklı lisans programlarında hazırlık ve birinci sınıflarında öğrenim gören toplam 200 öğrenci katılmıştır. Likert tipi anket kullanılarak toplanan verilerin SPSS 20 programında betimleyici istatistikleri çıkarılmıştır. Toplam beş boyuttan oluşan araştırmada üniversite öğrencilerinin yabancı dile olan genel bakışı, yabancı dil öğreniminde ana dili kullanımına yönelik algıları, temel dil becerilerine olan bakış açıları, yabancı dil öğrenmede amaç ve olumlu tutumlarının olup olmadığı değerlendirilmiştir. Araştırma sonucunda üniversite öğrencilerinin büyük çoğunluğunun genel anlamda yabancı dile karşı olumlu bakış açısının olduğu, yabancı dili büyük oranda sınıf ortamında öğrendikleri, yabancı dil öğrenme sürecinde mümkün olduğunca Türkçeden yararlanma eğiliminde oldukları ve dil öğrenme motivasyonunu önemsedikleri ortaya çıkmıştır. Bunlara ilaveten araştırma sonucunda özellikle yabancı dilde konuşma ve yazma becerilerine karşı öğrencilerin önyargılı olup olumsuz bakış açısı geliştirdikleri belirlenmiştir. Ayrıca araştırmaya katılan öğrencilerin yarısından fazlasının yabancı dili öğrenmede dışsal motivasyona sahip oldukları sonucuna varılmıştır.

Adaptive recommendation system using machine learning algorithms for predicting student’s best academic program

Some of the educational organizations have multi-education paths such as engineering and medicine collages. In such colleges, the behavior of the student in the preparatory year determines which education path the student will join in the future. In this paper, an adaptive recommendation system is proposed for predicting a suitable education path(s) for a student in college preparatory year. The adaptability is achieved by automatically applying different data mining techniques for extracting relevant features and building a tailor-made model for each education path. The problem formulated as a multi-label multi-class binary classification problem and the dataset automatically translated into one-versus-all (for binary classification). As a case study, the proposed model is applied to predict student’s academic performance in the faculty of engineering at AL-Azhar University. It recommends a suitable engineering department among seven engineering departments for each student based on his academic performance. The data of each department (i.e. educational program) is fed to the recommendation system. Then, the relevant set of features for each department is selected and a machine learning algorithm with the best performance is selected for the recommendation process of each department. The obtained results showed that the proposed model recommends the best machine learning algorithm (i.e. model) for each faculty department, find the relevant data that are important in the recommendation process and recommend the student with the suitable engineering department(s) with high accuracy.

Assessing the ESP Needs of Saudi Engineering Undergraduates: A Diagnostic View

The recent development in the field of science, technology and commerce has revived the significance of English language teaching and learning in Saudi Arabia. The Saudi educational policies are envisioned to configure the students’ communicative competence in English to the demands of the specific professional disciplines as well as the global market. Engineering undergraduates studying at Saudi public universities rely on the Preparatory Year Programme (PYP) to meet their English language needs. However, it seems that no empirical study to date has been conducted to analyse the English language needs of the engineering undergraduates. This study aims at analysing the English for Specific Purposes (ESP) needs of engineering undergraduates studying at a Saudi university. It intends to identify what academic tasks they often carry out in English. The researcher adopted a mixed-methods approach by employing a questionnaire and interviews to collect data from 257 engineering undergraduates and 32 content-subject teachers. Quantitative data analysis was performed using SPSS, while qualitative data were analysed through NVivo software. The participants’ perceptions of target tasks were compared and examined to see if there are significant differences between the groups based on the specialty of department or year of study. Overall, 27 tasks were identified as most frequently performed by undergraduates across all engineering departments at the university. The findings also revealed significant differences in the undergraduates’ responses across all four levels of study. The findings suggest incorporating those tasks into the current ESP syllabus which are aligned to the immediate needs of undergraduates of engineering departments.

Evaluation of a School-led Sustainable Class Wide Intervention Programme to Improve Elementary Children’s Social Emotional and Academic Performance

ABSTRACT Short term experimental studies by DiPerna and colleagues have demonstrated the efficacy of the Social Skills Improvement System (SSIS) to measure and improve the social skills and academic functioning of students from Preparatory year to Grade 3 and to decrease problem behaviours. This longitudinal school-led project applied the multi-tiered assessment and intervention components of the SSIS to achieve sustainable outcomes. In each of three project years up to 16 teachers completed the SSIS Performance Screening Guide for approximately 380 students, with nearly half having special needs. Students screened by their teachers as having low levels of prosocial behaviour were assessed using the comprehensive SSIS Rating Scale. The collective data informed the social skills goal priorities among 10 skills targeted and taught by classroom teachers using the SSIS Classwide Intervention Programme (CIP). Intervention effectiveness indicators included change in prosocial behaviour, academic achievement, problem behaviours, wellbeing, and attendance. Students showed marked improvement on all outcome indicators across the three project years, resulting in an improved school climate. Limitations to the evaluation are discussed, followed by recommendations for other schools to adopt similar interventions to achieve sustainable improvement in students’ social skills and other outcomes, and school climate.

A Study on the Perceived Media Literacy Level of Preparatory Year Students in a University Setting

Media literacy is defined as the ability to encode and decode the symbols transmitted via media and to synthesize, analyze and produce mediated messages. Media literacy raises questions about the impact of media and technology, which has the potential to increase individuals’ awareness about the effects of media on daily life. The aim of media literacy is to help students become competent, critical and literate in media forms because they need to interpret what they see or hear and prevent the interpretation from controlling them. Therefore, perceptions of students about their media literacy is a topic that requires attention at various education levels. The present study aimed to identify preparatory year program students’ self-perceptions about media literacy and to explore whether they benefited from mass media in learning a foreign language, English in this context. Data were collected using Media Literacy Level Determination Scale developed by Karatas (2008). Open-ended questions that aimed to reveal students’ perceptions of media literacy were asked with a view to supporting the data obtained from the scale. Both data collection tools also aimed to find out the factors associated with media literacy. The findings of the study are believed to open a perspective for the stakeholders in language teaching process by providing insight into the university students’ stance towards media literacy.

The Perceptions and Beliefs of Saudi Preparatory Year Program Learners Towards Learning English: A Case Study

The Perceptions and Beliefs of Saudi Preparatory Year Program Learners Towards Learning English: A Case Study

Sleep and Fatigue of Elite Circus Student-Artists During One Year of Training.

The development of elite circus artists requires extensive technical and artistic training, as well as a commensurate level of physical preparation in readiness for a demanding professional career as a performance artist. While sport research has identified the importance of monitoring sleep and fatigue in athletes to optimize performance and to prevent illness and injury, not a single study of circus artists exists. This study provides a longitudinal examination of sleep and fatigue in elite circus student-artists. 92 student-artists (60 male, 32 female) were analyzed at 4 strategic time points over a preparatory year. At each time point, sleep parameters (duration, quality and latency), ratings of perceived exertion (RPE), wakefulness, and fatigue were obtained using questionnaires. Student-artists attained an average nightly sleep of 8 hours, 27 minutes, exceeding the recommended durations for general populations and those self-reported in athletes. The majority of the artists also indicated acceptable sleep latency (87%) and quality (83%) scores. Sleep parameters remained consistent throughout the year despite significant variations in training load and fatigue. Sleep parameters were not substantial predictors of overall fatigue. Fatigue covaried with yearly variation in sessional training loads. Although improvement in sleep could be postulated as a means to mitigate fatigue, it is likely that strategies aimed at optimizing the loading profile and additional recovery techniques be a first line approach.

Investigating the Impact of Mnemonic-based Instruction on Saudi University Students’ Attitudes Towards Vocabulary Learning

Vocabulary learning plays an essential role in foreign language learning. It is also central to language teaching and is of paramount importance to a language learner. Mnemonic is a technique that is used to instruct vocabulary and it helps learners remember better. The association of images and sounds with mnemonics can make it more powerful and effective to help language learners remember better and for a longer time, this can be achieved through applying a method called the keyword method. This study was designed to investigate university Saudi students’ attitudes towards the mnemonic keyword method. By employing a survey research design to discover the attitudes of the students enrolled in the preparatory year program at Taibah University. A questionnaire about ‘Students’ Attitudes towards Keyword Method (SAKM) having four Likert scales was used as an instrument for data collection from a sample of 40 students. Descriptive statistics (mean, median, mode, standard deviation.) and independent-sample t-test were exploited to analyze the data. The results of the study showed that Saudi students have positive attitudes towards the mnemonic keyword method that was used to instruct vocabulary.