El sistema de gestión de seguridad y salud en el trabajo

In the previous discussion, we discussed that according to the participants’ views the current EAP course objectives do not appear to address the actual needs of the learners. This section will provide a deeper investigation on issues related to the existing EAP course objectives as revealed from the findings. The current EAP course objectives were designed a number of years ago by a former programme director. According to the previous policy which was implemented during his service in the Ministry, he was responsible for designing course objectives, assessment procedures, and then discussing them with a panel of Heads of English Departments and level coordinators. Whatever issues related to the EAP courses objectives will only be discussed at the level of decision makers who in this case were the programme director, HODs of English departments and level coordinators. They attend meetings at the Ministry and can be updated on issues concerning course objectives. After the former PD left, another PD took over and she is actually used a different policy. Since she held the position, no change has been made to the course objectives as well as the other curriculum elements. The qualitative analysis of the interviews showed that there is awareness among EAP teachers that one of the main curriculum challenges in the EAP courses, lies in the lack of a systematic process to review the currently implemented course objectives which according to the teachers need to be modified. Abdul Aziz (Male, Omani, 5 years in CAS) provided a clear explanation on the issue commenting:

“If we have a culture of collaboration, a culture of providing constant update aligning the goals, the goals are a little outdated, a little

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unrealizable and unachievable. Let’s have something in this place, something better, something that will be much more useful not only to bringing a change to the course but even beyond that to the lives of the students”

The previous excerpt reveals there is an issue within the current EAP course objectives which need to be modified to cater for the students’ actual needs and the emerging needs of the other academic specializations which our EAP programme is supposed to prepare the students for. According to the analysis of the findings, issues related to the EAP programme goals and objectives were classified into three main categories which are EAP or ESP, Textbook driven course objectives, knowledge base orientation of curriculum.

EAP or ESP

In the context of the study the approach of the EAP programme at CAS colleges whether EGAP or ESAP is a matter decided by the institutional authorities. The main aim of establishing EAP courses was to prepare students linguistically and academically for their academic specializations. In their responses to (item 4) in the questionnaire, 80% of the participants either strongly agreed or agreed on a learner-centered approach as the guiding educational principal for EAP courses at the colleges. It was stated earlier that the actual needs of the learners are not being met because EAP courses were not designed based on a systematic process of needs analysis but on the perceived needs decided by decision makers. It cannot be said that the current EAP programme does not prepare students for their majors because there is evidence to suggest there is a level of competency. However, there are still other linguistic and academic needs which should be addressed by these courses. The majority of the participants alluded to the importance of integrating ESP materials since they regarded the current EAP courses as quite general not attending to the learners’ actual needs required by their academic disciplines.

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One of the participants stressed this issue in the open-ended questions in the questionnaire: The comment put forward suggested:

“There must be courses like (English for IT), (English for Engineering)…etc. Since all the higher education institutions in Oman are targeting the same general goal, the Ministry of Higher Education needs to cooperate with Technology Colleges in Oman as they have a clearer curriculum and plans”

The previous response exposes part of the issue within the EAP teacher experience in relation to the current curriculum. Our EAP courses are quite general in terms of the topics covered in the textbooks, learning tasks and activities required by students in the classroom. The only link with the students’ subject specializations is made through the formative assessment project which requires the students to write a one thousand words essay in a topic related to their majors. Most of the participants indicated there should be more relevance to the students’ academic disciplines and they also reported a number of issues pertaining to the formative and summative assessment plans which will be further discussed in the following sections.

The responses of the participants in the semi-structured interviews complemented the findings of the open-ended questions in this respect. Helen (Female, British, 3 years in CAS) pinpointed that the source of the problem with the current curriculum is that “A lot of materials are totally unrelated for anything they will ever

come across.” Helen seems to be right since all the topics presented in the current

EAP textbooks though of academic nature, are still general and do not relate to the students’ majors. Basma (Female, Omani, 7 years in CAS) provided a thoughtful assessment on this issue. She added:

“For me the issue in these courses isn’t a matter of challenge. It is a matter

of relevance. It is funny that some of these courses are called ESP courses like they are supposed to be for special purposes. So, IT students are supposed to study materials or courses related to IT but this isn’t

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happening. The same thing with Business students, they study exactly the same books, same materials, same vocabulary so how can we call this EAP. Yes, I understand that at the beginning we should have some extent of general curriculum, and then we go more specific towards the end but this isn’t happening”

As indicated in the previous response, the current EAP programme though is aimed at developing the students’ abilities to understand and express complex ideas on academic topics, it does not fully address the students’ linguistic and academic needs. Despite the last EAP course at CAS being titled, English for Specific Purposes, it is not essentially an ESP course as it does not fulfill its main objective which is providing exposure to subject-specific genres and lexis (English for Academic Purposes, Student’s Handbook, 2016).

Most of the findings obtained from the semi-structured interviews support the students’ need for these kinds of EAP courses provided at the colleges but these courses require further development to cater to subject-specific content of students’ academic disciplines. It is vital to create an alignment in our EAP programme to ensure that there is consistency between the existing course objectives and the rising curricular demands of the subject academic departments. However, the complexity associated with this alignment approach should determine to what extent EAP courses should either be more geared towards the vocational orientation of the job market or the academic orientation of the subject specializations.

Textbook Driven Course Objectives

There is another issue which was revealed in relation to the EAP programme goals and objectives. Currently, course objectives are textbook-oriented not based on a needs analysis process which is seen as an integral element in the planning and design of EAP programmes. One of the participants related to this issue in the open-ended questions of the questionnaire stating:

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“Existing EAP courses are solely built around textbooks rather than independent and well-designed learning objectives. Our look at ‘a course’ should move beyond a textbook, where the former is carefully planned around the learners’ needs and the latter is simply used as a learning tool. Plus the fact those EAP textbooks (or any other textbooks) might very likely have linear objectives to be achieved within a suggested time frame, a time frame that doesn’t necessarily go in line with the course objectives”

The previous response indicates that one of the issues pertaining to the current EAP course aims and objectives is that these are being decided by higher authorities of what they consider to fall within ‘the perceived needs’ of the learners. Decision makers in the context of the study appear to agree on the current textbooks matching the course objectives of the EAP programme. It would seem a great deal of the skills being emphasized in the course objectives are solely driven from the currently implemented textbooks. The following excerpt from the interview with Abdul Aziz (Male, Omani, 5 years in CAS) seems to indicate that EAP course objectives are based on the textbooks.

He commented:

“The other thing is that apparently something I sensed was that the whole goals and objectives are solely driven from the textbooks. They were not programme driven, they are not like Ok that is what we want to do, and these are our plans and these are the working procedures to reach those plans no’’

In the same vein, Ameer (Male, Omani, 4 years in CAS) shared a similar concern on the textbook driven course objectives for which he provided the following quote:

“All we have to do is follow rules and it is also interesting that you have mentioned textbooks and course objectives. We should have objectives before textbooks but in our case, it is the other way around. We have textbooks and based on these textbooks we draw our objectives. So, for instance, if a textbook doesn’t include a certain element in linguistics, we

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will definitely not see it in our course objectives. So, it should be the other way around. We should start with objectives and based on the objectives we choose books but in reality based on the books we draw our objectives. This is how I see it”

The analysis of the interviews indicated that a significant majority of the participants believe that the current textbook orientation of the EAP programme requires further revision and evaluation. This is due to the currently used textbooks having been in place for a long time and not being reviewed since then. This adherence to the textbooks does not account for the emerging needs of the students and the rising demands of the students’ academic disciplines. Abdul Aziz (Male, Omani, 5 years in CAS) referred to the knowledge-based orientation which focuses on the content of EAP textbooks rather than the academic skills the students require to develop. He clarified this issue in the following comment:

“My orientation, I am not a guy who is oriented towards building knowledge and stuff. I think knowledge comes from experience and exposure. I am a guy who is oriented towards projects because I believe in the power of involving the students in a particular task. That particular task will offer the scenario where the language is going to be used but beyond that students are going to have something much more sustainable and much more lasting than focusing on the knowledge. So, I would really like to be more oriented towards fostering skill base rather than knowledge base which I think somehow is of a misfortune in the way EAP curriculum is offered. There is more focus on knowledge rather than skills”

The analysis of the semi-structured interviews indicated that most of the participants have realized that the current textbook orientation approach which is adopted in the EAP programme is not effective because it contradicts the learner-centered approach. More focus should be directed in the area of materials design which necessitates EAP teachers be trained on how to design their materials to supplement the gaps within the EAP commercial

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textbooks. Further analysis and investigation will be provided on the issue of the textbooks in the following section.