Transition of English Language Teaching in Saudi Arabia: A Critical Evaluative Study

Abstract

As the paper revolves around English language spread and teaching in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA), it becomes necessary to mention that there are influential socio-political reasons to consider, along with the internal economic factors. Therefore, such factors are crucial for researchers and pedagogues to study and deal with such issues mot only in KSA but across the globe. This paper tends to explore global socio-political factors that exerted an effect on KSA political forces that shaped the transformation process within the English language teaching programs. This paper adopts a critical approach to evaluate the extent literature on ELT status, current practices, programs, and future prospectsin KSA and call for a new evaluative approach that is more critical. Keeping the focus of the study in view, main research questions formulated were related to the status of ELT in KSA, the role of vision-2030 in changing the status of ELT, Saudi English workforce readiness to take up the future challenges of ELT, need of native teachers to teach English in KSA, etc. Main findings were: the status of English has changed in recent year, and it is going to change very fast in coming years to maintain pace with the Saudi vision 2030. In addition, it was found that the need of recruiting native teacher is not imperative anymore as the younger Saudi graduates are going to take up the teaching responsibilities quite independently.