‘English as a modern foreign language’: investigating primary learners and their parents’ views in Omani primary schools

ABSTRACT

This article considers students in Grades 3 and 4 and their parents’ views regarding learning English as a modern foreign language (MFL) in the primary school, through questionnaires in the Muscat region and AL Dahira region, and interviews with students. This study found that Omani people are interested in language learning. Parents were willing to help their children in their learning of English. Given that earlier studies highlighted the benefits of learning an MFL at primary school, learning English at an early age has gained interest in Oman. Students were highly motivated in the MFL classroom due to the learning context activities, tasks and support from their parents. Teachers’ contributions also influenced students’ positive attitudes to learn English. However, the English curriculum also reveals some difficulties with learning vocabulary, and productive skills (speaking and writing), which suggests that policymakers should frame the primary curriculum according to the needs of MFL Learners.

KEYWORDS:

• Modern foreign languages (MFL)
• attitudes
• motivation
• students
• parents
• Oman

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).