I have been conducting a research and interviews with university students in Morocco. I wanted to find out the current state of their English education and also their potential needs in learning English. We met with dozens of current students who are attending a national university, and asked them some questions regarding English learning. Here’s what we found so far:
The public educational system is not providing a high quality language learning experience
Their experiences in public high schools and universities have not been so good. The courses are focusing too much on study of grammar and vocabulary and they are done in lecture format. They rarely get to speak or interact in their classes using English. The student to teacher ratio is quite high. Teachers in these public institutions are not native English speakers, and they are not well trained in communicative approach or teaching EFL. This is a difficult setting to improve one’s English to a professionally competent level.
Students want to have more interactions and fun
Because courses are mostly run by one teacher giving a lecture, they don’t find it stimulating or interesting. Some students who joined our English Club activities in the past complimented us by saying how interesting and effective they were to just have topical conversations and play games. Students want to express themselves and be able to interact. In fact, interaction is an important key in any kind of effective learning. Some students we interviewed have studied at private language schools and had good experiences. But they were still a part of large classes of 15-16 students.
They are interested in using the internet to learn English
When asked what were some good options for them to improve their English, some students mentioned that they could perhaps use Skype or Facebook to connect with some English speakers. They also mentioned watching American films and reading books and newspapers on the internet. These are indeed good ways to learn. How they can get beyond casual conversations and greetings on Skype or Facebook and get real help for things they really need to improve English is a big question though.
If they really want to learn, they feel they must spend a lot of money at private institutions
In the end, many of the students we met said that in order to really improve their English, they should perhaps go to well known language schools. But those can be expensive and not as effective as thought to be with larger classes and access to native instructors being limited only in the classrooms. Also, unless they have money to invest into this, it’s not an option for them.
We are looking at all these needs right now to design a new English program that can address some of these issues. Stay in touch with me to hear about our latest development of this new program offering.
To give away some of the concepts of the program: It will be a small group learning environment of maximum 8 participants with two native American instructors. The focus will be on communication skills in business and professional environment. You will hear more about this. I’m personally quite excited about this program that will strive to set a new standard for language instruction in Morocco.
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