Tariq Elyas

Saudi Arabian educational history: impacts on English language teaching

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to critically examine the history of education in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and its impact on modern teaching practices. It explores the relationship between traditional practices, teacher identity and English language teaching within an increasingly complex context.Design/methodology/approach – The authors undertake a critical review of education in Saudi Arabia utilising critical reflexivity and their local social knowledge as a means of interrogating practice, research of the field, and related texts.Findings – The paper indicates a direct link between historical teaching practices in early Saudi Arabia and the current teaching of English. It suggests the concept of “hybridity” as one way for local English teachers to construct identities that meet the contextual challenges.Practical implications – This paper has implications both locally and internationally. It provides insight into teaching practices preferred by teachers and students in an Arabian context. Th...

Customer Churn in Mobile Markets: A Comparison of Techniques

The high increase in the number of companies competing in mature markets makes customer retention an important factor for any company to survive. Thus, many methodologies (e.g., data mining and statistics) have been proposed to analyse and study customer retention. The validity of such methods is not yet proved though. This paper tries to fill this gap by empirically comparing two techniques: Customer churn - decision tree and logistic regression models. The paper proves the superiority of decision tree technique and stresses the needs for more advanced methods to churn modelling.

Critiquing of higher education policy in Saudi Arabia: towards a new neoliberalism

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to critically examine the impact of 9/11 on education in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. The authors take a historical approach in order to speak more broadly about higher education policy in Saudi Arabia and show how the post 9/11 context of education in Saudi Arabia has led to a new paradigm in educational policy, which has moved away from what McCarthy et al. call “safe harbors” in schooling and education.Design/methodology/approach – The authors first define neoliberalism and then describe its manifestations and impact on the Saudi Arabian educational context, particularly post‐9/11. The authors also describe the arguments against adopting a neoliberal approach and suggest a new neoliberalism that addresses the needs of a glocalized Saudi higher educational community.Findings – A neoliberalism paradigm has been adopted by education policy writers and university academics. In addition, the university learners have enthusiastically embraced neoliberalism and globaliza...

A Glocalized or Globalized Edition? Contextualizing Gender Representation in EFL Textbooks in Saudi Arabia: A Critical Discourse Analysis Perspective

This chapter sought to investigate aspects of gender in one of the currently used English language series, namely New Headway Plus: Special Edition within the conservative context of Saudi Arabia. The series is used for female/male adult language learners from beginner to intermediate levels in King Abdulaziz University at the foundation year program, Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. In effect, the research analysed the images in the series in terms of gender positioning in images from a Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA) perspective. The findings revealed that the series is biased in terms of gender representation. First, there was a huge gap between the number of male and female images. Second, males were depicted in a wide range of social contexts in their single images compared to females. Third, males had a higher status than females in the single images in all the books under investigation. Finally, the body language of males in the series indicated laboriousness in the work environment, while females’ body language communicated a combination of relaxed and dreamy gestures. At the end, we suggest the need for a glocalized edition where images of females are empowered with greater equality and equity.

Impact of Smartphone Based Activities on EFL Students’ Engagement

Teachers all over the world strive to keep their students engaged, and research has shown that task engagement can be elevated by utilising technology to complete classroom activities. Reasons suggested for this is that technology’s alignment with students’ interests, as well as the stimulatingly transformative effect that technology can have on activities. Due to current students’ preferences, authors now encourage incorporating mobile phones into the classroom, claiming that it will improve task engagement. However, this has not been empirically proven. Therefore, this mixed method quasi experimental study examined whether two groups completing identical activities, where one group using their smartphones, would have any difference in their engagement with the given activities. The results indicated that a statistically significant difference in the initiation times and distraction between experimental and control settings. Although no significant emotional difference was observed between the groups, the students themselves indicated a significant difference in their emotional attitude towards smartphone activities as compared to paper-based ones. The smartphone group managed to engage with activities, thereby overcoming many factors which affected the control groups’ engagement levels.

Curriculum Design Quality Assurance of Distance Education in Saudi Electronic University

Over the last decade, considerable progress has been made in the development of distance education across the world. Historically, distance learning began in the 19th century, when Sir Isaac Pittman, a professor from England, began teaching shorthand by correspondence, where he would send the contents and exercises to students via the new Penny Post system and the students would in turn submit the assignments by mail as well, which the professor would then grade and return (Moore & Kearsley, 2005).

A Critical Review of the CELTA Syllabus within the Context of Saudi Arabia

Abstract The focus of this paper is on the cultural aspects of the internationally, well-recognised and accepted international teacher training course known as Certificate in English Language Teaching to Adults (CELTA), or rather, the lack of it. In what follows, we will first discuss the various aspects related to the importance of culture and its inclusion in the field of English Language Teaching (ELT). Next, we will discuss the main highlights of the CELTA course and its main components and present a practical suggestion for implementing a short ‘culture’ component that can be easily integrated into the course where it will increase cultural awareness amongst new teachers embarking on a career abroad in a foreign country and hopefully achieve pedagogical competence when working abroad.