Developing supervisory practices of teaching the English language in light of the knowledge economy

Fahad AlShareef

Abstract

This study aimed to detect the requirements for developing supervisory practices to teach the English language in light of the knowledge economy in the city of Riyadh, by identifying the supervisory practices in teaching the English language, that education experts see as consistent with the era of the knowledge economy; and then determine the requirements to develop it, and disclose all obstacles that prevent development, and detect statistically significant differences between the arithmetic mean of the estimates of the study sample, of educational teachers and supervisors, on the focus of the study; that are attributable to the variables: occupation title, educational qualification, years of experience, training courses. To achieve the objectives of the study, descriptive analytical approach was used and this study was applied to a stratified random sample consisting of (15) educational supervisors and (100) English language teachers at the secondary level, in Riyadh, in the second semester in 1435 AH; and the study tool was a questionnaire comprising of (50) items; distributed on three themes. After verification of the validity and reliability of the questionnaire it was directed to supervisors and teachers of English in secondary schools in Riyadh, and the statistical treatment of the data of this study was conducted. The study resulted in identifying, (17) terms reflecting supervisory practices on teaching the English language that are consistent with the era of the knowledge economy, (19) terms reflecting the requirements to develop it, and (14) terms reflecting the development obstacles. The study revealed the presence of statistically significant differences between the mean responses of the supervisors and teachers in favor of the supervisors in the three study focuses, and no presence of statistically significant differences between the average responses of the study sample according to academic qualification in the three study focuses, and the presence of statistically significant differences between the average responses of the study sample according to years of experience in supervisory practices; in favor of those who had experience of ten years or more, and no presence of statistically significant differences between the average responses of the study sample according to years of experience in the requirements of supervisory practices and in the obstacles of developing it, and the presence of statistically significant differences between the average responses of the study sample according to training courses in supervisory practices and in the obstacles of requiring it, in favor of four training courses or more, and no presence of statistically significant differences between the average responses of the study sample according to training courses in the requirements of developing it. In light of the findings, the researcher recommended providing the requirements to develop practices to activate these supervisory practices; to be make it possible to activate and apply them, and to overcome the obstacles of developing supervisory practices to teach the English language in light of the knowledge economy, and the need to find solutions to these obstacles; so as to activate and apply these supervisory practices