Introduction
The learning process is meant to achieve certain planned outcomes even before the actual teaching begins. While teaching English literature courses is an interesting one, there is always a major challenge when it comes to proficiency levels, especially for learners whose English is not their first language. The common practice in most schools across the globe is combining the native speakers of English and English as a foreign language (EFL) learners and using the same pedagogical approaches to teach them. The ultimate effect of this is that native speakers tend to perform better than EFL learners. A study by Seawright (2014) showed that using the same teaching methods for both native and EFL speakers shows some disparities in performance, with the EFL learners being ranked at the lowest struts of the academic performance echelon. Cognizant of this, this study will seek to identify the cause of this disparity and recommend necessary actions.
Alnwaiem et al. (2021) stated that the proficiency levels of EFL learners are usually lower than that of their native counterparts. Some of the major challenges associated with EFL English literature teaching include lack of confidence, low motivation, inadequate teaching, insufficient in-service training, underqualified teachers and instructors, among others. Besides this challenge, students' proficiency levels have been cited as among the most critical of the challenges which EFL English literature learners experience. When the program does not reflect a student's real level of proficiency, then there is a great likelihood of having a misalliance between the selected text and the learner's language capability. The ultimate result of this is that there would be a negative impact on the implementation of the course.
The English literature program is among the most demanding as far as language proficiency is concerned. Unlike other programs where the teacher can mix different languages to suit the learner, the English literature program can be best handled by using only English as the language of instruction. Therefore, this specificity of the program poses a challenge to a learner whose English is not their first language. Thus, learners need to have sufficient command of English to ensure that they are able to maintain the pace and workload of the English literature program. In addition, English literature is not a frivolous academic discipline but one that requires utmost dedication and determination. As a result, the major point of contention is when a decision is required to determine the proficiency levels of students in order to qualify them for the study of English literature program. EFL students are rather anxious about learning English literature, although they perceive it as a difficult one to comprehend and understand independently without the teacher's assistance. Since the understanding of English literature for EFL learners is quite a difficult task, the study proposes the need for education providers to avoid the prescription of books that are above the average learner's ability so as to encourage the EFL students to study the program with pride and determination. They should not perceive it as a punishment but as a means to make them better students by having the right materials for different proficiency levels such as beginner, intermediate or advanced.
In Kuwait, the teaching of English takes an organized model since most of the learners do not speak English as their first language. A study by Alnwaiem et al. (2021) showed that the English proficiency levels among learners in Kuwait is significantly low as English is taught and trained as a foreign language and is not taught as a second language. Once the learners graduate, they rarely use English. Cognizant of this, there is the need to improve the methods used to teach English in Kuwait since English is a global lingua franca, and there is the need to heighten the expectations of the learners by introducing newer methods of teaching and training English and considering the English language a second as opposed to a foreign language.
Research Questions
The proposed study will seek to answer the following research questions as they relate to English literature teaching to EFL learners in Kuwait.
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What are the challenges that teachers in Kuwait face while teaching English literature to EFL learners?
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What are the beliefs of Kuwaiti instructors regarding ELT to non-native speakers?
Significance of the Study
The proposed study seeks to assist educational policymakers, teachers, and all stakeholders concerned with teaching EFL students of English literature to understand the various challenges faced and recommend possible mitigation steps. Addressing such challenges will improve educational outcomes. Further, the proposed study aims to help education stakeholders in Kuwait understand the impact of teachers’ beliefs concerning English language teaching (ELT) as well as their knowledge of English in teaching. Additionally, the findings of the proposed study will help the EFL learners to do better in their studies by equipping them with better skills and insight, which will make them better prepared for the challenges that they may encounter in their learning progress. Although EFL learners may have some level of understanding of the grammar of the intended language, they may still not have the requisite training to address their demands. The proposed study will make recommendations to authors of course materials, curriculum designers and related stakeholders to incorporate elements in the teaching instructional materials that emphasize the knowledge of the current teaching strategies, instructor preparation and skills development. Altogether, the study aims to improve English proficiency levels in Kuwait.
Literature Review
Perceptions Students and Educators Have Towards English
English is one of the most commonly spoken languages in the world. The language has advanced into a universal mechanism of interaction for individuals from different cultural and racial backgrounds. In most nations across the world, English is considered a medium of instruction in most educational institutions. In Saudi Arabia, for instance, public universities and other learning instructions of high education have made it a requisite for learners to do an English proficiency test to determine their admissibility (Matsuda, 2017). Kuwait's Ministry of Higher Education has put extra effort into ensuring that the English language is taught, not as a second but as a foreign language to have as many people as possible develop proficiency.
Recent research on the teaching of English and applied linguistics have mainly concentrated on the perceptions students and educators have towards English and how the different perceptions have affected English language and literature teaching and policymaking. Philipson (2012) proposed the anti-linguistic imperialism theory to explain the diversity of the English language, the linguistic biodiversity, as well as the socio-economic inequality that exists between different nations. The theory further looks at the role played by English in the development of pedagogy ideas. Crystal (2017) opined that English is a very prominent language that possesses astounding status since it is a global lingua franca. In this sense, English carries some form of authority that no other language has ever accomplished. More than before, different nations need to engage each other, which has necessitated the continued usage of English as a lingua franca for business and international relations. Fundamentally, the explicit and implicit meaning of this is that since English is considered a global lingua franca, which has been necessitated by the rise in globalization, the attitude of people towards English has significantly shifted.
Crystal's (2017) arguments are supported by Holliday (2015), who explained that the changed such kind of a shift in attitudes and practice towards the English language has changed the perception of the language in schools, with the teacher taking a pivotal role. This is expressed through English pedagogy as well as evaluation of related issues that happen in the classroom. Further, the pedagogical approaches are now shifting the focus on the issue of native versus non-native speaker varieties. Mahboob and Elyas (2014) asserted that a majority of native English speakers are considered the “standard for English-language learners, with their English language skills” being used by non-native speakers as the measure of their English proficiency.
ELT Instructional Materials
Traditional ELT instructional tools and materials coupled with the pedagogical methods are not effective for the tutoring of English to non-native speakers. Most countries, such as Kuwait, whose language is considered a foreign language, have adopted foreign ELT instructional materials and pedagogical approaches used by countries such as the UK, where English is the first language. Therefore, these approaches and materials have provided ineffective for learners whose first language is not English. Mahboob and Elyas (2014) noted that such materials have not been able to meet the rampant and versatile needs of most of the English language learners whose first language is not English. Similar arguments were raised by Matsuda (2017), who stressed the need to use an EIL-informed approach by teachers, especially when teaching English.
The proficiency in the English language varies from one EFL student to another based on their attitude towards it. Richards and Schmidt's (2010) stated that the attitudes of various speakers of various languages are determined by their languages or those of others. Negative or positive language expression may be indicative of feelings of language simplicity or difficulty, social status, beauty, level of importance or learning facility. Further, attitudes about a particular language may indicate the way other people feel about speakers of the language. Similar sentiments were shared by Elyas (2014), who opined that the attitude a speaker has toward a particular language could affect their acquisition of a foreign language or second language. Therefore, attitudes toward the English language by students can affect their reception and acquisition of the language. Attitudes toward the various policies of English education in the community determine the extent of proficiency acquisition in schools. Therefore, for Kuwait students, a positive attitude may ensure that the language is easily received and acquired.
Research Methodology
The proposed study will be qualitative in nature and will use a narrative research approach. Secondary data will be collected from textbooks and journal articles which were published between 2010 to date. The recent sources will be necessary since the researcher intends to deal with current data that is reflective of the current situation. The desk search method will be used to analyze this data. For primary data, semi-structured interviews will be conducted. The interviews will be conducted on a sample size of 10 teachers who teach English literature to ELT students. The interview questions will be set so as to capture data on the challenges that teachers experience in teaching ELT learners, as well as their views regarding ELT. Further, the interview questions will be open-ended to offer a rich outline of the research topic and address as much as possible of the various realities and issues that touch on the collective perception and extent of English teaching and learning in Kuwait. The sample will be obtained from various Kuwait universities, both private and public. The sample will be formed by teachers who are currently working as English literature instructors in the selected institutions of higher learning in Kuwait. The demographic information will include the names of universities and colleges where the respondents teach but will not include the respondents’ names in order to protect the confidentiality and maintain anonymity in accordance with the guidelines for this study. The participants will include both females and males. Collected data will be qualitatively analyzed by use of themes that the researcher will obtain.
While the researcher expects that everything will go as planned from the start to completion, she anticipates some challenges, such as getting the required number of employed English literature instructors. Getting a sample of 70 English literature instructors in Kuwait may be problematic, but the researcher will ensure that this is achieved by preparing in advance and using referrals to get the expected participants.