LEARNING ENGLISH IN SAUDI ARABIA: A SOCIO- CULTURAL PERSPECTIVE (Published)
This study aims at investigating the cultural factors which predispose Saudi students towards learning English in Saudi Arabia from the point of view of Saudi teachers and students. The researcher attempts to examine these factors from Islamic social perspectives by raising questions that examine how positive these factors are and how they encourage and motivate students to learn English language. These cultural factors are : Islam, national identity, globalization, westernization, Saudi teenagers’ attitudes and beliefs, motivation, travelling, social websites, knowing the purpose of learning, need for communication, native speakers’ teachers, and the learning of Arabic language by native speakers of English .The qualitative descriptive research method was used. Two data-gathering tools were used for data collection: a questionnaire and an interview. The total number of the subjects was 226 participants. The analysis of the collected data shows that the most influencing factors upon learning English in Saudi Arabia are traveling abroad to learn English, knowing the purpose of learning English and Saudi teenagers’ beliefs and attitudes . The least influencing factors upon learning English in Saudi Arabia are Islam and westernization.
Keywords: English Language Learning, Islamic Culture, Saudi Arabia, Western Culture