Basic Education Learners Perceptions of the Four-Year EFL Program at Taiz University

الملخص

 This paper investigates the various components of the Basic Education EFL program at Taiz University and how responsive these components are to the needs and expectations of the student teachers enrolled in the program. 78 level four students majoring in English as a foreign language participated in this study. The data was obtained by means of a 25-item questionnaire designed and administered by the researcher in the academic year 2010-2011. This paper sought to answer the following three questions. 1) To what extent is the current EFL program able to adequately address the language skills of the learners? 2) To what extent are the prospective teachers familiar with the teaching methods and approaches considered vital for teaching English as FL? 3) Does the weightage given to the various components of the EFL Program meet learners needs and expectations? Findings revealed that the current EFL Program needs to deal with its weaknesses. It should, for instance, adequately address the language skills of the learners. Further, the number of the courses taught in Arabic should be reduced and the English courses, on the other hand, should be increased. All in all, the current structure of the Basic Education English program needs to be revised and fundamental changes need to be made. The paper concludes with some recommendations that should help bring about some crucial changes so as to make this program more responsive to the needs and expectations of the learners.