Causes of Private Tutoring in English: Perspectives of Saudi Secondary School Students and Their Parents

Ghazi N. Alotaibi

Abstract


The current study examined and described the views of secondary school students and their parents on the causes of private tutoring in English. These views were obtained through two group interviews with the students and parents separately. Several causes were brought up during the two interviews. These causes included difficulty of the English language, weak teacher performance, the need to pass exams with high marks, lack of parents’ follow-up of student school performance, social pressure, variability in student comprehension levels at school, weak English foundation in previous school years, repeated student absence from school, large classes, as well as English teachers’ heavy teaching loads. The study started with a description of the EFL educational system in Saudi Arabia and concluded with recommendations for the improvement of the school learning environment.


Keywords


Private tutoring; School learning environment; English

Full Text:

PDF

References


Abou-Rokbah, E. (2002). Readiness for self-directed learning in Saudi Arabian students. Unpublished doctoral dissertation,

University of Missouri-St. Louis.

Al-Ahaydib, M. D. (1986). Teaching English as a foreign language in schools of Saudi Arabia. Unpublished doctoral dissertation. University of Kansas, Lawrence.

Bray, M. (1999). The shadow education system: Private tutoring and its implications for planners. Fundamentals of Educational Planning, 61. Paris: UNESCO International Institute for Educational Planning.

Bray, M. (2005). Private supplementary tutoring: Comparative perspectives on patterns and implications. Hong Kong: The University of Hong Kong.

Bray, M. (2010). Researching shadow education: Methodological challenges and directions. Asia Pacific Education Review, 11(1), 3-13.

Dang, H. (2007). The determinants and impacts of private tutoring in Vietnam. Economics of Education Review, 26(6), 684-699.

Davies, S. (2004). School choice by default: Understanding the demand for private tutoring in Canada. American Journal of Education, 110, 233-255.

Dhafer, T. (1986). A survey of the English language supervisors’ and teachers’ perception of the English language curriculum in Saudi Arabia. Unpublished Doctoral Dissertation. Michigan State University, East Lansing.

Ireson, J., & Rushforth, K. (2014). Why do parents employ private tutors for their children? Exploring psychological factors that influence demand in England. Journal for Educational Research Online, 6(1), 12-13.

Jeffery, F. (2014, March 3). Private tuition becoming an increasing trend among teachers: An Arab News Report. Retrieved from http://www.arabnews.com/

Lee, C., Park, H., & Lee, H. (2009). Shadow education systems. In G. Sykes, B. L. Schneider, & D. N. Plank (Eds.), Handbook of Educational Policy Research (pp. 901-919). New York: Routledge.

Rubin, H. J., & Rubin, I. S. (1995). Qualitative interviewing: The art of hearing data. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.

Saudi Gazette Report. (2014, March 3). Experts call for steps to regulate private tutors. Retrieved from http://www.saudigazette.com.sa/

Tansel, A., & Bircan, F. (2006). Demand for education in Turkey: A tobit analysis of private tutoring expenditures. Economics of Education Review, 25, 303-313.

Williams, M., & Burden, R. L. (1997). Psychology for language teachers: A social constructivist approach. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Zaid, M. A. (1993). Comprehensive analysis of the current system of teaching English as foreign language in the Saudi Arabian intermediate schools. Unpublished Doctoral Dissertation. University of Colorado, Boulder.




DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.3968/n

Refbacks

  • There are currently no refbacks.


Copyright (c)



Share us to:   

 

Online Submission: http://cscanada.org/index.php/sll/submission/wizard


Reminder

How to do online submission to another Journal?

If you have already registered in Journal A, then how can you submit another article to Journal B? It takes two steps to make it happen:

1. Register yourself in Journal B as an Author

Find the journal you want to submit to in CATEGORIES, click on “VIEW JOURNAL”, “Online Submissions”, “GO TO LOGIN” and “Edit My Profile”. Check “Author” on the “Edit Profile” page, then “Save”.

2. Submission

Go to “User Home”, and click on “Author” under the name of Journal B. You may start a New Submission by clicking on “CLICK HERE”.


We only use three mailboxes as follows to deal with issues about paper acceptance, payment and submission of electronic versions of our journals to databases: caooc@hotmail.com; sll@cscanada.net; sll@cscanada.org

 Articles published in Studies in Literature and Language are licensed under Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 (CC-BY).

 STUDIES IN LITERATURE AND LANGUAGE Editorial Office

Address: 1055 Rue Lucien-L'Allier, Unit #772, Montreal, QC H3G 3C4, Canada.
Telephone: 1-514-558 6138 
Website: Http://www.cscanada.net; Http://www.cscanada.org 
E-mail: office@cscanada.net; office@cscanada.org; caooc@hotmail.com

Copyright © 2010 Canadian Academy of Oriental and Occidental Culture