Linguistic Needs for Arab learners of English

Abstract

Language shapes both how we understand and how we negotiate our world; learning a second language provides both a deep awareness of differences (linguistic and cultural) and a means to bridge them. Linguistics needs and requirement of the second language L2 give communicative capacities to the learners, and the study of foreign languages fosters precisely these capacities. The subject of linguistic needs analysis (LNA) has not yet received sufficient attention from researchers and language teaching professionals in the Arab world. As a result, Arab learners rarely have input in their language teaching context. This paper is an attempt to draw the attention of educators, language teaching professionals, and other interested parties to the dilemma of a large number of the Arab learners of the English. Students are not adequately prepared, from a linguistic point of view, to pursue their university education with a great deal of efficiency. The core of the problem lies in the pre-packaged language teaching curricula that are usually imported for the students and are not based on their needs. In this paper we will shed some light on this subject by offering a generic and critical reflection on some of the LNA-related educational ailments that are ubiquitous in the Arab world. I will begin with a brief theoretical introduction about the concept of linguistic needs analysis and present two LNA taxonomies that, if implemented, should provide English language instructors with a well-rounded idea about their learners' needs. Then, I will draw on my life-long experience as a language teaching professional and professor of English Arabic translation to the graduate and post graduate students, in order to provide a generic and critical examination of LNA in the Arab world. Finally, I will present some recommendations that may help educators and other interested parties to improve the process of foreign language instruction for Arab learners' of English needs.