Introduction

The Department is under the supervision of the Ministry of Higher Education whose governance is enacted through two main positions: the Programme Director (PD) and the Assistant Dean for Academic Affairs and Scientific Research. The PD manages the academic aspects while technical and operational aspects are managed by the College’s deanship represented by the Assistant Dean for Academic Affairs and Scientific Research. At the execution level, the hierarchal structure at the level of the English Department is as follows: Head of Department (HoD), followed by the coordinators of the programs mentioned above and then instructors. The HoD and the coordinators are engaged in teaching and they deal with managerial and administrative tasks at the level of Department and across CAS. The instructors mainly perform the teaching duties but generally, all CAS instructors are expected to take part in three main areas: teaching, community service, and scientific research. In addition, some instructors could be nominated to represent the Department in the College committees.

The English Language Department seeks to provide quality education in English for the College undergraduate students and to promote understanding between cultures. The Department aims to be one of the best institutes in the Sultanate of Oman in the development of standards of excellence and innovation in the implementation of teaching, professional development and mutual understanding between cultures. The English Department consists of teachers from different cultures who dedicate their efforts to teach English. The Department teachers seek to promote students’ autonomy in learning and using English as a second language by providing students with resources that stimulate them to achieve their education and professional goals.

The Department offers the two components of English Language Skills and Study Skills, which are parts of the General Foundation Programme (GFP) offered jointly with the General Requirements Department and the IT Department. In addition, The English Department offers three main credit programs: Year One and Year Two for students aiming at obtaining BSc and one program for diploma students.

General Foundation Programme (GFP):

This program is the pathway to College programs (BBA and IT). In other higher education institutions in Oman, GFP is a separate unit but at CAS it is part of the responsibility of the English Department and it is delivered by the same teachers involved in teaching the other English programmes. The GFP has four main components: Basic IT courses offered by the IT department, Basic Math courses offered by the General Requirements Department, and English and Study Skills components integrated in the courses offered by the English Department (see Appendix A for more details). Students admitted into the GFP of the CAS are required to sit for an English placement test carried out during the orientation week of the Autumn/Fall Semester. Students will be streamed into four levels (D [beginner], C [pre-intermediate], B [intermediate], A [upper-intermediate]) in light of their performance in the test. Streaming is helpful in determining students’ skills that require improvement and also in shaping the extra-curricular activities and teaching methods used for each level. A, B, and C levels encompass 20 contact hours per week while D level consists of 24 contact hours per week for a period of 15 weeks per semester. In all levels, students practice skills of reading, writing, listening and speaking.  

The GFP has been under review and it is about to finish the first phase of the academic accreditation process; the quality audit phase.

First Year Program:

This is a credit program, which is offered to first year students who have passed the foundation program requirements. First Year program aims to improve students’ skills in the English language as well as to develop students’ research skills. The program consists of two levels, each of which consists of 150 contact hours over 15 weeks. For the first semester in year one, students need to take ENAP1001 (English for Academic Purposes 1) which accounts 10 teaching hours. In the second semester and after fulfilling the requirements of ENAP 1001 students are allowed to take ENAP 1002 (English for Academic Purposes 2) which accounts 10 teaching hours.

ENAP 1001 and ENAP 1002 consist of four skills: Reading, Writing, Listening, and speaking. These skills are taught integrally in both semesters. The used text books in year one are Inside Reading 1, English for Academic Writing 2 and Lecture Ready 1 (with iTools). These textbooks are used in both semesters in which the five first units to be covered in ENAP1001 while the successive five units to be covered in ENAP1002. Supplementary materials are other sources that teachers can rely on while teaching these books to help maintain the comprehensive understanding of the targeted skills.

 The assessment in the first year program is based on the needed assessed areas that combine students’ overall learning and their implementation of this learning in their specific specializations. The decision on how, when and what to assess is to be made each semester after the meeting conducted with other first year level coordinators with the program director in Muscat.

The current regime of first year assessment is divided into continues assessment and final exams. Continues assessment is to be based on writing a research project and giving a five-eight-minute presentation on the project. The aim of the research project is to enable Y1 students to deeply explore an interesting topic that is linked to one of the themes covered in their textbooks. Students are supposed to write a research project around 500 to 600 words addressing topics related to the courses. The final exams are designed to test students’ overall understanding of the taught skills during a semester. The final exam consists of speaking that is done a week before the other tested skills which are writing, language knowledge, reading and listening.

Second Year Program:

The Year 2 program consists of two levels and is designed for students with IELTS equivalence of 5.5 - 6.0. It builds upon the work on academic reading, listening, speaking and writing undertaken in Year 1 and aims to develop students’ ability to understand and express relatively complex ideas about academic topics. It also aims to provide exposure to subject-specific genres and lexis.

The courses (ENAP2001, ENIT2002, ENBS2004) are allocated 8 contact hours per week for a semester of roughly 15 teaching weeks.

Course objectives

The course has the following specific objectives:

• To enable students to follow and to participate in a classroom discussion of an academic topic in which they are required to advance and argue a case;

• To enable students to follow and participate in lectures through strategic listening, note-taking and clarification strategies;

• To enable students to read and reflect on short academic texts using a range of reading strategies and an understanding of academic lexis

• To enable students to compose longer academic essays

• To enable students to read subject-specific genre texts

• To support students in their understanding of subject-specific lexis

• To enable students to carry out simple research tasks

Learning outcomes

At the end of the course, students should be able to:

• Write descriptions, explanations and arguments clearly

• Organise information in a logical order: use and recognise signal words

• Research and report on information using citations

• Synthesize ideas from different reading sources

• Carry out a small research through one research procedure (interview, survey, observation, etc.)

• Distinguish between general and specific details

• Distinguish between theories and supporting information in readings

• Summarise key points in a reading

• Listen for main ideas and details in talks

• Apply effective strategies to learn academic vocabulary

• Hold in-depth discussions on familiar topics.

Coursework and assessment

The course assessments are varied to ensure students are exposed to more than just one means of assessment.

Methods include written exams, interviews, research projects, coursework, and presentations.

Diploma Program:

This program is offered to students who wish to obtain diploma and for students whose academic achievement (in terms of GPA) does not allow them to continue to a bachelor s degree. The program consists of one level and includes 60 contact hours over 15 weeks. Assessment in this programme is portfolio-based. Students are expected to complete a number of tasks that ultimately enable them to build a portfolio that they could use in their search for job after finishing the Diploma programme. Hence, the course provides a good link between college and the workplace. In addition, the assessment includes a mid-tem administered towards the middle of the semester and a final exam that summatively assesses the learning that has taken place throughout the semester.