Online published on 28 February, 2020.
Globalisation and new information technologies are rapidly increasing the returns to education at a time when there are massive inequalities in education opportunities. This means for millions of the disadvantaged groups who have little or no access to education, due to poverty, cultural berries, geographical locations, language loads, etc. globalisation clearly points in the direction of rapid marginalisation and the gap widens between the disadvantaged groups and others. Nobody needs to be convinced that the only starting point to reversing this direction and bridging the gap is through the provision of good quality education to all.
Education in Yemen, where the majority of its population are disadvantaged and live in rural and tribal areas, in found to be more urban biased. The problems is intensified in the field of English language education. The great adherence to western approaches and theories excluded the rural and tribal learners and teachers in Yemen. The textbook is urban biased and above the learners’ level, and, therefore, negatively affects the rural and tribal learners’ attitude to education in general and English language in particular. Furthermore, the English teachers in the concerned areas are ill-equipped and theirproficiencyof English isvery low. Theseprogrammesare found to beuseless in thereal teaching context in the disadvantaged areas in Yemen. When English teachers have low English language proficiency, the training programmes present very intricate and difficult topics in methodology. This big gap between the training programmes and what English teacher need in rural situation, contributes to the low proficiency in English of both the teacher and the learners in rural and tribal areas in Yemen.
The present study aims at designing a teacher development programme for English teachers and an English proficiency course for learners in the disadvantaged areas in Yemen. The materials are based on indigenous approachesand culturally appropriate themes for the tribal and ruralcontext, to enhance the teachers’ and learners’ proficiency in English.
To start with, the study begins with a literature review of education and ELE for the disadvantaged all over the world with special references to teaching English in tribal and rural areas. Next it makes a survey of education in rural areas in Yamen. This is followed by a survey of ELE in the area (Raimah) selected for the study. All these lead to designing materials for teachers of English and materials for learners of English. Next, thesematerials are tried out, modified, experimented and its results assessed.
The thesis is divided into six chapters. Chapter-I deals with the statement of the problem, scope of the study, the needs for the study, the hypothesis and the research instruments. Chapter-II is devoted to education and English language education for the disadvantaged all over the world. It provides a global survey which is divided into two parts: the first is devoted to education for the disadvantaged; the second part devoted to English language education for the disadvantaged. Next, it provides a local survey of education in Yemen with special reference to the dis advantaged. Chapter-III IS DEVOTED TO THE SURVEY OF English language education in the target area-Raimah. Chapter-IV deals with the preparation of the materials. The survey provides a foundation for this chapter. The materials are tried outand experimented on groupsof primary English teachersand students in Ramahand necessary modifications were made. This chaptergives adetailed description of the materials and the principles behind these material.
