Evaluation of EFL Students’ Reading Proficiency in the College of Technological Studies in Kuwait (Published)
The research is an evaluation of the English language program implemented in the College of Technological Studies (CTS) in Kuwait. It tried to measure the improvement of the students’ reading proficiency upon completing the mandatory EFL courses (Eng. 101 and ESP course 170) which are mandatory courses offered by the program to all students joining the college. The research instrument consisted of three reading passages which move from the easier to the more difficult. A sample of 155 students (72 males and 83 females) was randomly chosen from the population of all the students in the CTS who successfully completed the two mandatory English courses offered by the English program. Participants were required to read the passages and answer the questions on each passage. Results showed that the participants’ performance in all three passages was far below expectation as the number of participants who gave correct answers in all three passages is below fifty percent. These results suggest that the English program implemented in the CTS does not equip the students with the required reading skills that enable them to read and comprehend the simplest reading passages. With these results, the paper recommends that the English program needs to be subjected to rigorous evaluation in order to pinpoint the weaknesses.This evaluation should reconsider the curriculum implemented and the teaching methods used in teaching the reading skills.
Keywords: EFL, Evaluation, college of technological studies