Keywords

1 Introduction

English is the dominant language of a diverse array of fields (Altbach, 2010; Bisong, 1995; Crystal, 1992, 1997, 2002; Graddol, 2006; Phillipson, 1992). It is due to the links between English and social and economic development that the language is integrated into education systems in various nations worldwide. This is certainly true of the Arab Gulf states, where English acts as a lingua franca for communication between the Gulf Arabs and the non-local “expats” and “host workers” that often numerically dominate their societies. Within this context, English is taught as a school subject from the first grade, with instruction either in or about the language usually continuing up until the postdoctoral level.

In the Sultanate of Oman, English is urgently required by the job market. Al-Issa (2007) states that “Oman needs English – the only official foreign language in the country – as a fundamental tool for ‘modernization’, ‘nationalization’ and the acquisition of science and technology” (pp. 199–200). Hence, the government has spent a great deal of resources on supporting English instruction in the country since a formal education system was introduced in 1970. However, this huge investment has yet to yield the expected gains (Al-Issa, 2011; Al-Mahrooqi, 2012; Al-Mahrooqi & Asante, 2010; Moody, 2009, 2012). In particular, tertiary-level graduates are often reported as being weak in English and with communication skills that are inadequate for the job market. This lack of English language skills is commonly cited as one of the major causes of the high unemployment rate among Omani graduates.

Unemployment due to graduates’ lack of the kinds of skills demanded by the job market, including those involving proficiency in English, presents a serious challenge both in Oman and the other Gulf states. A lack of employment opportunities has been described as a root cause of numerous national, social, political and psychological problems. According to Siddiqi (2011), social deprivation resulting from unemployment “fuels unrest, which in turn, leads to even higher unemployment as new private investments are deferred or cancelled” (p. 34). Unemployed youth, Siddiqi continues, run a “significant risk of demoralization, loss of self-esteem and mental health problems” (p. 34). Hence, unemployment’s impact is far-reaching and serious.

In the Arab world, this issue has been magnified by the events of the Arab Spring starting in 2011. Unemployment and social deprivation have together produced the spark that triggered popular demonstrations and/or civil war and the ousting of Arab leaders in Syria, Yemen, Egypt, Libya and Tunisia. In the Arab Gulf, demonstrations did not reach these proportions. However, the region has a high rate of unemployment in some counties, and, given their relatively small populations, this might prove to be problematic in the not too distant future. There is particular reason to worry since the Arab Gulf is currently facing two main challenges that may exacerbate the issue of unemployment: a booming young population and rising socioeconomic challenges due to globalization, accelerating modernization and, more recently, unstable oil prices.

In the face of these challenges, Maclean (2010) states that it is vital for educators and trainers and the world of work to cooperate to achieve sustainable development. Sustainable development can be conceived of as a construct that involves pursuing development that will improve the quality of life now while also protecting the planet for the future (Nnabuo & Asodike, 2012). Central to achieving sustainable development is the provision of quality education for all, with a particular focus on the development of the kinds of literacy skills that are required for people to actively participate in society and in the decisions that affect them.

This paper acknowledges the vital link between educators and the world of work in decreasing unemployment and promoting sustainable development by examining issues related to one of the most important graduate skills demanded by private industry in the region: English language proficiency and communicative competence. In doing so, it presents several theories of language proficiency and communicative competence before exploring the ways in which these are developed in Omani schools and universities. A number of challenges arising from the teaching of English in these contexts are highlighted, with implications for employability and sustainable development, including recommendations for bridging the gap between graduates’ English language skills and the demands of the workforce, discussed.

2 English Language Proficiency and Communicative Competence

Communication is a complex process which cannot be removed from its sociocultural context (Craig, 1999). The act of communication is affected by a speech community’s social and cultural norms, with sociocultural competencies – including stylistic appropriateness, non-verbal communication and so on – as important for meaningful communication as the actual exchange of linguistic symbols itself. Consequently, language instruction in outer and expanding circle nations is often as concerned with the explicit development of sociocultural understandings of the target language culture(s) as it is with core language skills. In many contexts where EFL/ESL instruction occurs, language learner communicative competence has become one of the main teaching goals (Usó-Juan & Martínez-Flor, 2006, 2008).

Communicative competence is concerned with the development of language learners’ sociolinguistic and discourse skills in addition to their overall linguistic proficiency (Van Ek, 1986; Widdowson, 1983). Richards (2006) highlights four main aspects of communication competence including knowledge about the ways language is used to achieve different purposes and functions, understanding how setting and participants impact language use, the ability to both produce and understand a variety of text types and understanding different types of communication strategies learners use to overcome limitations in their language abilities.

Linguistic knowledge is central to almost every model of communicative competence. According to Canale and Swain (1980) and Canale (1983), linguistic competence is comprised of grammatical and discourse competence. The former is concerned with learner knowledge of lexical items, morphology, phonology, syntax and so on, while the latter is related to the ability to create logical and meaningful written and spoken texts. Linguistic knowledge is essential for learners to improve their language proficiency, though they also need pragmatic competence, or the ability to use the language effectively and appropriately in real-life settings (Ji, 2008), to develop communicative competence.

Bachman (1990) claims that pragmatic competence involves both illocutionary and sociolinguistic competence. The former encompasses the ability to create meaning in a communicative event and to understand the intended meaning of a message, while the latter is concerned with socially appropriate language use in different contexts. Authors such as Thomas (1983) and Leech (1983) further divide pragmatics into pragmalinguistics, or the resources that a language provides for conveying specific illocutions, and socio-pragmatics, which relates to the “sociological interface” of pragmatics. Following Van Ek’s (1986) addition of sociocultural and social competence to Canale and Swain’s (1980) model, authors such as Coperías Aguilar (2009), Kramsch (1993), Savignon (1972, 1983, 2002) and Tedick and Walker (1994) accentuated the importance of cultural features in their conceptualization of communicative competence.

Within multi-national and multi-cultural contexts, multidialectal proficiency (Canagarajah, 2006; Sharifian, 2009; Sharifian & Jamarani, 2013) is also central to communicative competence. Multidialectal proficiency relates to an awareness of different dialects and language varieties based on geographical, socioeconomic status and/or membership of a certain social group. Prominent examples include the different varieties of Arabic across the member states of the Arab League or the stereotypically different pronunciations between people from the United States’ northern states and those raised in the “Deep South”. Differences, as these examples suggest, are often associated with word choice, grammatical structures, pronunciation, intonation and so on.

As stated above, English plays a prominent role across Arab Gulf societies (Charise, 2007). It can be seen as a gatekeeper to academic and social success by helping determine access to education and employment opportunities (Findlow, 2006). In Oman, English is in great demand in the job market in both the public and private sectors. This is due to a number of reasons, including Oman’s strong historical ties with Britain, government policies identifying English as a strategic resource that can be exploited for economic benefit, the links between English and the acquisition of knowledge and technology, the widespread use of English as a lingua franca, if not a second language, across many parts of Omani society, and English’s dominance as a language of instruction at the tertiary level (Al-Issa, 2007; Al-Mahrooqi & Tuzlukova, 2014; Renard, 2010).

While government policy and education institutions largely recognize the importance of English to Omani society, the country’s citizens are often reported as having low levels of English communicative competence (Al-Mahrooqi, 2012; Moody, 2009). As a result, Omani school and college graduates have been characterized as having limited English skills to the extent that this negatively impacts upon their levels of employability (Al-Mahrooqi & Denman, 2014). This issue hampers graduates’ chances of finding suitable jobs in both the private and public sectors after graduation so that policies of Omanization that seek to replace foreign workers with nationals are seriously affected. It also results in high levels of youth unemployment and a lack of economic development and workforce effectiveness, with the former concern highlighted by the fact that, in a country of around 4.8 million people, the Omani workforce features around 1.8 million foreign workers (Al-Mahrooqi & Tuzlukova, 2014; Al Mukrashi, 2017) who largely use English as their dominant means of communication. This is a trend that raises concerns about long-term economic growth and social stability in the country, with unemployment being a pressing concern especially in light of the events of the Arab Spring.

In order to increase the pace of Omanization and economic growth, the Omani government places heavy emphasis on teaching English in schools and universities. The national government recognizes the importance of English for employment across almost every sector of the economy – a situation that is likely to intensify with the push for economic growth in more service-oriented industries and a move away from an over-reliance on fossil fuels – and seeks to equip school and university graduates with outstanding English communicative skills, especially in speaking and writing (Al-Jadidi, 2009).

3 English Proficiency and Communicative Competence in the Omani Education System

As described in the introduction to this book, formal education arrived in Oman relatively recently and did not truly take hold in the country until Sultan Qaboos came to power in 1970. With the spread of a free universal government education system, the focus gradually shifted from ensuring that almost all of Oman’s people had access to schooling to the quality of education provided. As a result, by 1998 the General Education curriculum started to be phased out in favour of the new Basic Education curriculum in which English is taught from the first grade of primary school.

Issan and Gomaa (2010) state that the Basic Education system was introduced in order to create a skilled local workforce that can operate successfully in an increasingly competitive and globalized economy. Part of the enhancement of Omani students’ skills is the development of their English language abilities in order to ease their transition to the workforce and higher education institutions where English is the dominant language of instruction (Mustafa, 2012; Roche & Harrington, 2013).

The Basic Education system features ten grades across Cycle 1 (grades 1–4) and Cycle 2 (grades 5–10), with these being complemented by Post-Basic Education (grades 11–12) which is the “bridge” between Basic Education and the demands of higher education and the workforce (Ministry of Education (2004, 2010a, 2010b). In order to do this, the Post-Basic Education system, according to Al-Issa and Al-Bulushi (2012), focuses on developing learners’ social, communication, interpersonal and information technology skills. English is taught from the first grade in Basic Education, as opposed to grade 4 in the General Education system. English classes in Basic Education are aimed at developing students’ communicative competence and, in this way, could be seen as a response to the traditional teacher-centered, hierarchical classrooms that have been described as characterizing teaching in the country.

However, despite these reforms, Basic Education is yet to yield the expected results, with students’ English language achievement continuing to fall behind international standards. The failure of Basic Education to equip learners with adequate English language proficiency and communication skills has been widely reported (Al-Issa, 2011; Al-Mahrooqi, 2012; Moates, 2006; Moody, 2009, 2012). The inability of government schools to develop their learners’ English language proficiency can be seen in the high percentages of school graduates who are required to enrol in tertiary-level English language foundation programs before commencing their majors. For instance, Al-Mahrooqi (2012) reported that around 70% of all students entering Sultan Qaboos University (SQU) – the only public university in Oman and its most prestigious tertiary institution – do not display sufficient English language proficiency on an entrance exam to bypass compulsory enrolment in the English foundation program. As SQU generally accepts the best students in the country, it is perhaps no surprise that this figure increases to 90% in some private tertiary institutions (Al-Mahrooqi, Abrar-ul-Hassan, & Asante, 2012).

Once these students complete their studies in the foundation program, they often do not seem to appreciate the importance of English for their current studies and future careers. Hence, a majority of students often do not spend adequate amounts of time developing their English proficiency. Universities and colleges across the country have been described as not equipping students with the communicative and other skills demanded by the workforce (Al-Dhafiry, 2003; Al-Mahrooqi & Tuzlukova, 2012a, 2012b; Al-Shaqsi, 2012). This not only directly impacts these graduates’ chances of obtaining a post-graduation job, but also creates a considerable burden on the national budget and the availability of skilled and trained personnel available for the job market.

In addition to these university graduates, high school leavers seeking employment with no other qualification than their diploma also often fail to find suitable jobs, especially in the private sector, due largely to their inadequate English skills (Al-Dhafiry, 2003; Al-Mahrooqi et al., 2012; Al-Shaqsi, 2012). In this way, secondary- and tertiary-level graduates with low levels of English proficiency and communicative competence often swell the ranks of the young and unemployed which can have a deleterious effect on national development, threaten social stability and hinder sustainable development (Gonzalez, Karoly, Constant, Salem, & Goldman, 2008; Issan & Gomaa, 2010).

4 Employment in Oman and Sustainable Development

Due to Oman’s strong historical ties with Britain, English has had a long presence in at least the country’s urban areas since before the period of modernization beginning in 1970 (Al-Busaidi, 1995). This presence became to widen after the current ruler, Sultan Qaboos, came to power. As stated above, the language is now taught from grade 1 in the Basic Education system and is also the dominant language of higher education and the lingua franca across Omani society. English is also extensively used in the private sector, while more government jobs now require the language (Al-Mahrooqi, 2012; Al-Mahrooqi & Asante, 2010; Al-Mahrooqi et al., 2012; Tuzlukova & Al-Mahrooqi, 2011). Proficiency in English has, in this way, come to be associated with social mobility and professional success within the sultanate. However, it is equally true that a lack of proficiency in English can be a huge disadvantage to graduates.

As discussed above, the consequences of high unemployment in any given society can be disastrous. These, according to Siddiqi (2011), can include widespread social, political and psychological problems in a country or community that faces high rates of unemployment, and may even result in the kinds of political unrest that have been witnessed across much of the Arab world, in addition to certain areas of Europe, since 2011. However, it must be noted here that limited English language skills alone are not the sole reason for the lack of job opportunities for many graduates in the Gulf region. The literature suggests that unemployment in the region is associated with the following factors:

  1. 1.

    Low-quality education (Siddiqi, 2011)

  2. 2.

    Shortage of skills needed by the job market (Siddiqi, 2011)

  3. 3.

    Problematic work ethics (Siddiqi, 2011)

  4. 4.

    Nepotism (i.e. getting a job is not based on individual meritocratic achievement) (Ediagbonya & Oyadongha, 2013)

  5. 5.

    A sense of entitlement to well-paying office jobs among citizens (Siddiqi, 2011)

  6. 6.

    Dependence on hydrocarbons for national income and subsequent lack of economic diversification (Siddiqi, 2011)

  7. 7.

    Availability of cheap foreign labour (Forstenlechner & Rutledge, 2010)

  8. 8.

    A bloated or saturated public sector because most nationals prefer to be employed by the government rather than in the private sector (Forstenlechner & Rutledge, 2010; Siddiqi, 2011)

  9. 9.

    Private sector preference for a cheap expatriate workforce (Forstenlechner & Rutledge, 2010)

  10. 10.

    Public sector provision of more secure work, with better pay, benefits and more generous pensions (Siddiqi, 2011)

  11. 11.

    Inadequate collaboration between the public and private sectors (Voith, 2013)

  12. 12.

    Lack of consistent and reliable statistics on the number of unemployed individuals in many of the region’s countries (Forstenlechner & Rutledge, 2010)

While a number of social, historical and political factors contribute to many of these issues, it is clear that a major element needing urgent reconsideration and evaluation is the region’s education system. This should, as is the hope of Oman’s Post-Basic Education system, prepare future generations for a smooth transition from school life to university and the workplace. It is important to equip school and college graduates with both qualifications (theoretical or academic knowledge) and practical, technical and/or vocational skills since the job market needs basic skills and workplace competencies. For example, adequate literacy skills are of fundamental importance, not only for employment but also for lifelong learning. They underpin all employability skills and have a direct connection with people’s happiness and success, including their “economic well-being, aspirations, family life, health and civic/cultural engagement” (Clark & Formby, 2013, p. 1). Hence, they are vital for any job market (Macey, 2013) and are also essential in fostering a society capable of achieving sustainable development.

Nnabuo and Asodike (2012) state that education for sustainable development is a lifelong process that results in the creation of an informed and involved citizenry that possess the knowledge, values and problem-solving skills to “participate in decisions about the ways we do things, individually and collectively, locally and globally, that will improve the quality of life now without damaging the planet of the future” (p. 4). To achieve continued sustainable development, the authors contend that concrete steps must be taken to increase the level of numeracy and literacy in society as, without these, development and its sustainability cannot be realized. A UNESCO report focusing on the issue of education in Afghanistan (n.d.) argues that, while education in general is central to the process of lifelong learning that is a necessary component of sustainable development, it is the development of literacy skills in particular that most actively contributes to this through increasing the ability of people to actively participate in society and thus contribute to societal happiness and general well-being.

5 Conclusion: English Language Proficiency and Sustainable Development in Oman

Clearly, sustainable development cannot be achieved in the Gulf region without addressing a plethora of social, cultural and political issues that have been presented above. Chief among these is the provision of quality education that equips learners with the kinds of English and Arabic language proficiency skills and communicative competence that is required to find jobs after graduation and to actively participate in society by shaping the important decisions that affect them.

One clear focus of achieving these literacy skills is, of course, the education system. Employers in the Gulf and around the world believe it is the job of educational institutions to equip their graduates with the vital skills listed above. Remedial training provided by employers, while potentially beneficial, has a limited effect due to constraints on time and exposure to new skills. The link between the rising generation and employment, therefore, has to start from school. In the words of Voith (2013):

The primary goal of education should be to provide young people with the means to lead an independent and self-supporting life. This includes preparing them for a career. In addition to teaching general knowledge subjects, schools should offer opportunities to explore career choices, be these academically or practically-oriented. Young people must early discover what skills they have, what work they would like to do, and whether their skills are compatible with the labour market. (p. 4)

Voith (2013) suggests the provision of school- or center-based career counselors and adds that education systems should build “networks with real life employers to provide students with opportunities to find out what their options might be” (p. 4). She also recommends providing apprenticeships through a dual-track education system of vocational and professional education and training – a system that has proved effective in Switzerland by reducing unemployment there to around 3% at the time of writing, while it remains much higher across many other nations in Europe.

Taking this, and the particular exigencies of Omani society highlighted above and developed elsewhere in this book, into consideration, suggested solutions to increase employment among new graduates and help bridge the gap between graduates’ skills sets, including their English proficiency and communicative competence, and the demands of the workforce include raising awareness of the importance of new graduates accepting employment in any job while looking for more appropriate or promising opportunities. This is an important issue in Oman and, indeed, across many of the nations of the Arab Gulf, where graduates believe that they are automatically entitled to relatively high-paying office jobs upon graduation. While these expectations are perhaps less apparent in Oman than in some neighbouring nations, it is nonetheless important that family and community attitudes towards graduates taking “beginner level” jobs for graduates change. Not only will this reduce graduate unemployment levels, but it will also allow Omani graduates to develop skills and knowledge across all levels of their industry/organization, which will form the basis of career progression and efficiency during the rest of their careers. Graduates taking lower-level positions within an organization should also be provided with graduate skill training that will allow employees to upgrade their skills in line with shifting industry trends and organizational needs. These could be complemented across Oman by the provision of critical intensive upskilling courses for unemployed graduates which can be provided in training centers across the country.

In addition, it may also be necessary for Omani education systems across all levels to be revamped by integrating employability skills, including English language proficiency and communicative competence, into them. Many of the studies reported above highlight the gap between the skills that graduates develop and those demanded by the workforce in Oman. This is especially true for English language proficiency, with graduates’ levels of English often reported as being insufficient for successful performance in the private sector in particular.

By implementing these, and similar, steps, educators and the world of work can act together to decrease graduate unemployment by ensuring that all those who come through the Omani education system are ready to actively participate in society and are equipped with the kinds of skills demanded by employers. Macey (2013) offers these employability skills as including:

  • Self-management – readiness to accept responsibility, flexibility, time management, readiness to improve [one’s] own performance

  • Teamworking – respecting others, cooperating, negotiating/persuading, contributing to discussions

  • Business and customer awareness – basic understanding of the key drivers for business success and the need to provide customer satisfaction

  • Problem-solving – analyzing facts and circumstances and applying creative thinking to develop appropriate solutions

  • Communication and literacy – application of literacy, ability to produce clear, structured written work and oral literacy, including listening and questioning

  • Application of numeracy – manipulation of numbers, general mathematical awareness and its application in practical contexts

  • Application of information technology – basic IT skills, including familiarity with word processing, spreadsheets, file management and use of Internet search engines etc.

It is interesting to note that, of these employability skills, communication and literacy, numeracy and problem-solving have all been highlighted as of vital importance in contributing to lifelong learning and to the achievement of the kind of citizen participation in societal decisions that is at the very heart of sustainable development. Of course, focusing exclusively on developing learners’ English language proficiency and communicative competence runs the risk of ignoring the importance of the literacy skills required in their first language/s and also of the many concerns about employability of Arab Gulf and/or Omani graduates highlighted above. However, as English is so central to educational, and eventual professional, success across many domains in Oman and the wider Gulf region, there can be little doubt that taking concrete steps to help develop learners’ English language proficiency is one important key in decreasing graduate unemployment and contributing to the formation of a societal context in which sustainable development can take hold.