View metadata, citation and similar papers at core.ac.uk brought to you by CORE provided by Newcastle University eTheses Language Planning in Oman: Evaluating Linguistic and Sociolinguistic Fallacies By Muhammad Arfan Ismail A Thesis Submitted in Fulfilment of the Requirement for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Applied Linguistics School of Education, Communication and Language Sciences, Newcastle University March 2011 Declaration I declare that all the material which is not my own, has, to the best of my ability, been acknowledged. The material in this thesis has not been submitted previously by the author for a degree at this or any other university. Signed:___________________________________________________________ II Acknowledgements I would like to begin by thanking Almighty Allah for the intellectual fortitude and steadfastness that has allowed me to complete this thesis. Peace and blessings upon his Messenger, Muhammad, a model of knowledge, teaching, learning and virtue. To my long suffering wife, who has put up with too many long nights and lonely evenings over the past six years, I offer my sincere and heartfelt thanks. To my parents for making me who I am and instilling within me the core values that underpin my own academic integrity and honesty; my debt is perpetual. To all the students, staff and administrators at the College of Applied Sciences in Salalah, Oman, I offer thanks for their time, patience and assistance. In particular I need to thank Dr Ibrahim Al-Mounla and Mona Kashoob for assisting me with the translation of the student questionnaire from English to Arabic. To Hani Hussein and Simon Kometa I offer my sincere thanks for assistance with the PASW statistical package. For assisting me in finding references in more obscure locations, I thank Linda Kelly. Finally I need to make mention of my supervisor, who has guided me over the past six years from my initial thoughts and perspectives to the conclusion of this thesis. I thank Vivian Cook for his extremely positive and always timely feedback to my work, for his dedication to the role of doctoral supervisor and for showing me what a world-class scholar looks and behaves like. I am truly in his debt, and know that this thesis would not be at the standard it is without his interventions. III Abstract English is increasingly being chosen as the medium of education at the tertiary level in education in the Arabian Gulf. In Oman a decision was taken to switch the medium of education in all colleges of applied sciences from Arabic to English. To assist students with the switch the Ministry of Higher Education requested all colleges to establish foundation years with the focus on teaching English. This study is an analysis of that decision from both macro language planning and a micro sociolinguistic perspectives. Three contentions were used to measure the efficacy of the practices in the College of Applied Sciences in Salalah, Oman. These were the native speaker fallacy, the L2 fallacy and the English medium fallacy. The study adopted a case study framework and analysed each of the preceding fallacies with a view to establishing their individual and collective veracity. Data collected included 370 student questionnaires, 15 questionnaires distributed to native speaker teachers and 10 to non- native speaker teachers. There were also interviews with leading stakeholders involved at the College level. The results of the study suggest that of the three fallacies, the native speaker fallacy was not seen to be in evidence at the college whilst the other two were. Amalgamating the findings leads to the conclusion that there are a complex array of factors involved in a decision to switch the medium of instruction from Arabic to English and the establishment of an English foundation programme to facilitate this decision. The results do not corroborate a view of reality that posits that external forces are responsible for enforcing an imperialistic agenda. What the findings of the IV study do support is the need for research based decision making, to avoid situations where perspectives devoid of academic merit become the norm. V Contents Declaration .................................................................................................................... II Acknowledgements ...................................................................................................... III Abstract ........................................................................................................................ IV Contents ....................................................................................................................... VI List of Tables ............................................................................................................. XII List of Figures ........................................................................................................... XIII Chapter One ................................................................................................................... 1 Introduction .................................................................................................................... 1 1.1 Overview ......................................................................................................... 1 1.1.1 Definitions................................................................................................ 1 1.2 Measuring LI ................................................................................................... 3 1.2.1 Further definitions ................................................................................... 4 1.2.1.1 The native speaker fallacy ................................................................ 5 1.2.1.2 The L2 fallacy ................................................................................... 6 1.2.1.3 The English medium fallacy ............................................................. 6 1.2.2 Sub-questions .......................................................................................... 7 1.3 Structure ......................................................................................................... 7 Chapter Two ................................................................................................................ 10 Defining the Context: Education in Oman and the Colleges of Applied Science ....... 10 2.1 Introduction ................................................................................................... 10 2.2 Brief history of Oman ................................................................................... 10 2.3 Education in Oman ........................................................................................ 12 2.4 English language teaching in Oman .............................................................. 14 2.5 Colleges of Applied Science ......................................................................... 16 2.6 Foundation year programme ......................................................................... 18 2.7 In-sessional courses ....................................................................................... 20 2.8 Course design ................................................................................................ 21 2.9 Teaching staff ................................................................................................ 23 2.10 Organisational structure ................................................................................ 24 2.11 Conclusion ..................................................................................................... 25 VI Chapter Three .............................................................................................................. 26 The Native speaker Fallacy .......................................................................................... 26 3.1 Introduction ................................................................................................... 26 3.2 The native speaker: reality or construct? ...................................................... 27 3.2.1 Initial definitions .................................................................................... 30 3.3 The native speaker fallacy deconstructed ...................................................... 33 3.3.1 The standard language ........................................................................... 35 3.3.2 Standard English- myth or reality? ........................................................ 38 3.3.2.1 Definitions ...................................................................................... 38 3.3.2.2 In defence of Standard English ...................................................... 40 3.3.2.2.1 Critical period hypothesis ............................................................ 48 3.3.2.2.2 Language students‘ language preference ..................................... 50 3.3.2.2.3 Logical preferences? ................................................................ 52 3.3.2.3 Rebuttals to the native speaker only argument ............................... 59 3.3.2.3.1 Near-native competence .............................................................. 60 3.3.2.3.2 The standardisation argument ...................................................... 60 3.3.3 Linking the discussion to language teaching ......................................... 68 3.4 Conclusion ..................................................................................................... 70