TEXTS FOR ACADEMIC AND FUNCTIONAL PURPOSES

Lists, e.g., lists of ‘things to do’

Procedures e.g., recipes, instructions on how to create an art or craft work

Notes, Letters, Email, Notices and Forms e.g., notes of excuse, notices for notice boards, letters or email to a friend, teacher or principal to ask for information or feedback

Information Reports e.g., report on a product/

service project proposal/ brochures for the public on given topics/ lab reports.

Explanations e.g., explaining rules of a game or sport, how and/ or why an event or social problem occurs

Expositions e.g., online forum supporting/

disagreeing with a position; reviews of computer games or movies, explaining why these were interesting advertisements.

Write a report on a laboratory and scientific projects (or scientific

Relate the topic to their knowledge and experience.

Use key words, phrases or clauses to introduce the main idea

Sequence paragraphs in the article.

Organize facts, ideas and/ or points of view in a way appropriate to the purpose and audience.

Edit papers for grammar and style problems.

Write a good introduction and a conclusion to article.

Take notes that demonstrate the main points.

Explain the content of graphs, tables, charts and diagrams.

Write a proposal about future plans.

Write a letter of application.

Note,

No particular order is advocated for the teaching of these texts. Pupils should also be encouraged to express themselves creatively and personally through writing.

Write a report about an action in the past.

Write a paragraph from notes.

+ Check spelling accuracy

+ Apply spelling rules and conventions consistently

+ Plan by identifying the purpose, audience and context.

+ Use appropriate cohesive devices (e.g., connectors, pronouns) to indicate relations between different sentences.

Table 6 lists all the skills and sub-skills, genre and tasks considered applicable for grade 11 as found by this study. The chart synthesizes the language uses and features resulting from the analysis questionnaires, textbooks analysis and the interviews that were conducted in chapter four.

The fulfillment of the learners’ needs by English for general purposes EGP requires consideration of methodology. With a major focus on developing learner ability to use language appropriately, the student-centered approach is suggested for teaching EGP for grade 11 Omani EFL learners. The findings of this study suggest that, teachers and other ELT specialists in Oman need to think about the teaching-learning process in terms of their students, rather than the kind of essentialist and static terms that are dictated by theory-based methods and approaches. The student-centered approach is being welcomed, resulting in positive learning experiences in EFL contexts. For example, Nunan (2001) identifies the involvement of learners in making meaning with both their teacher and their peers as a key factor in determining success. For its principles and other reasons, which are given presently, the students-centred approach is recommended for the design, implementation and teaching of the grade 11 Omani EL program. It is a response to the suggestions made by the interviewees, who suggested that ‘we have to look at the way

English is taught how it is taught? What resources are there to support it? And to get the students feedback not only to the curriculum, so we need everyone to be involved in the process.’

Region-wide, ambitious educational innovations can only succeed if the teachers, who can potentially act as supportive agent, operate along agreed principles and have the means and the competence to intensively coach and teach. Borg (2003) described teachers as ‘active, thinking decision makers who make instructional choices by drawing on complex, practically-oriented, personalized, and context-sensitive network of knowledge, thoughts and beliefs’ (p. 81). This can be achieved according to Al-Husseini (2004) by involvement and training.

To make the most of the training program, the ministry should conduct a nationwide training needs analysis for the Omani EL teachers in schools. The training priorities for these teachers should be based on an empirical investigation of their urgent wants, lacks and necessities. Training, therefore, has to keep up with the teachers as refresher courses, especially for those teachers who are resistant to change. The Ministry of Education should also implement national or international intensive English language proficiency upgrading courses for teachers with poor or weak English. These programs should be focused and accompanied with teaching methodology sessions. The Ministry of Higher Education and Omani universities should collaborate to implement an effective and up-to-date BA program for preparing undergraduates to teach EFL using the most appropriate teaching methodology that matches with the principles and philosophy of the Omani EFL curriculum. In addition, it is essential that the Ministry of Higher Education, which certifies any English language BA program in the country, liaise closely with the English language section.

Conclusion

This article presented a framework for analyzing students’ language learning needs in a nationwide context for the purpose of establishing better learning objectives, and designing content, material and methodology for English language courses. Recent needs analysts namely Al-Husseini (2004), Long (2005) and Nelson (2000) reported that until now, few—if any—studies have been conducted to analyze the learning needs of a whole society or a nation. The societal approach of NA adopted by this study, particularly with regard to sampling, data collection and analysis, may be applicable to further studies in similar contexts around the world.

In order to put needs analysis on a theoretical and empirical base, Long (2005) calls for

“replication with different populations in different sectors” (p.12) as well as a new methodological approach (Krohn, 2008). The present study provided an example of a new unexplored population or context in two ways. Firstly, no attempt has been carried out to systematically study the language needs of school students in the Arab world (Kandil, 2009), or more specifically in the Omani domain to the best knowledge of the researcher. However, the findings of this study cannot be confidently said to represent the language needs of the Arab world because there are differences among EFL learners in the different Arab countries which may produce different needs analysis profiles. This is due to the fact that varieties of English are often used, emphasized or present within different contexts in a particular culture. Secondly, it investigated the learning needs at high school level or pre-university students, which has not been tackled yet. Most of the NA studies investigated the learners’ needs at university or college level, such as Al Busaidi (2003), Shuja'a (2004), Al-Husseini, (2004) and Keen (2006).

A particular innovation of this study was its utilization of two types of triangulations:

methodological triangulation and data triangulation (Krohn, 2008). Multiple sources, such as, students, teachers, supervisors, and heads of the departments were approached during data collection. In addition, varieties of data were gathered and compared using multiple methods, such as questionnaires, interviews, and content analysis. The current study also provided a methodological empirical example of an assertion made by Waters and Vilches (2001) and Richards (2001) that involving decision makers, such as, language specialists, supervisors, heads of the departments, administrators, employers, and so forth, is very fundamental to be initially familiarized at the foundation building stage. It is also important for the success of implementation of any study, since they decide whether to accept, reject or modify the implementation of the study findings.

The findings revealed that a gap existed between the content of the grade 11 curriculum and the perceived needs of the students. The Grade 11 EL curriculum provided little space for students to develop writing competence. This study concludes that any innovation or reform in ELT practise should be based on a meaningful collaboration among various concerned stakeholders, including students, teachers, and other institutional administrators.

The results of this study can be used as a reference for EFL teachers, supervisors and other stakeholders to discover the role their students can play in the decision-making process of their curriculum development. The study helps shift the focus of English teachers’ attention towards the specific skill-training that is most important for their particular audience. Further researches on the English language needs analysis of Omani students should highlight students’ “lacks” and necessities. Further studies should attempt target situation discourse samples, such as students’ homework, quiz or exam paper analysis to determine the actual areas of weakness that are common with Omani students

in Grade 11. An attempt should also be made to study the textual analysis of the types of readings Omani students encounter in their studies.

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The Effect of Narrative Structure on Learner Use of English Tense and