The Foundation Program
English Department
Curriculum Evaluation 2007-2008
Interviews with Client Colleges Faculty
Summary of Feedback
Prepared by
Mu Mu Winn
(Curriculum Coordinator)
With input from
Foundation English Curriculum Committee Members
Lynn Hassouna, Berta Huszar and Constandinos Demetriades
June, 2008
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TABLE OF CONTENTS
Page
1. Client Colleges Faculty Interviews
Introduction
2
Selected departments from CAS
2
Selected department from CBE
2
Acknowledgements
3
2. Summary of Interview with Faculty from the Dept. of Social Sciences and the Dept.
of Chemistry and Earth Sciences, College of Arts & Sciences
4
3. Summary of Interview with Faculty from Department of Biological and
Environmental Sciences, College of Arts & Sciences
11
4. Summary of Interview with Faculty from the Department of Accounting and
Information Systems, College of Business and Economics
15
Appendix A
18
Interview Questions
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1. Client Colleges Faculty Interviews
Introduction
As part of an ongoing evaluation of the curriculum for Foundation English Program in 2007-2008,
the Curriculum Committee decided to interview representative faculty from some of the colleges
which admit a significant percentage of students who pass the Foundation Program. The College of
Arts and Sciences and the College of Business and Economics were chosen as the most relevant
sources of information regarding English language needs of ex-Foundation students and possible
improvements to the program.
Selected departments from CAS
The Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences was contacted by email, requesting interviews with
faculty members. The Heads of three departments were also informed, and a request made for two
representative faculty from each department to attend the interviews. These departments were Department of Social Sciences, Department of Chemistry and Earth Sciences, and Department of
Biological and Environmental Sciences. Arrangements were made through the administrative staff
of the Director of the Foundation Program, Dr. Khalid Al Ali, and the administrative staff of the
respective departments from CAS to confirm nominated faculty names, dates and times for the
interviews during June, 2008.
Selected department from CBE
A similar request was made to the Dean of the College of Business and Economics, and the Head
of the Department of Accounting and Information Systems was contacted to request a possible
meeting with two representative faculty. Arrangements were made through the administrative staff
of the Director of the Foundation Program, Dr. Khalid Al Ali, and the administrative staff of the
Accounting and Information Systems Department to confirm nominated faculty names, date and
time for the interview in June, 2008.
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Acknowledgements
This report on the interviews with faculty from client colleges is the result of the good will and kind
cooperation of the teaching staff from both the CAS and the CBE. We are grateful to the Dean of
CAS, Dr. Siham Al Qaradawi and to the Dean of CBE, Dr. Mohammad K. Najdawi for being
supportive in this curriculum project, and to the Director of the Foundation Program, Dr. Khalid Al
Ali, as well as the Head of the English Department, Robert Kennedy, for providing encouragement
and assistant in contacting the departments concerned. Many thanks to the Heads of Departments:
Dr. Dr. Fadwa El Guindi, Professor Elmetwally Al Sayed Nour, Dr. Hamda Al Naemi, and Dr. Nitham
M. Nindi for their co-operation in nominating representative staff to attend the interviews. Special
thanks to the faculty members of both CAS and CBE, Dr. Abdal Karim Al Amir Hasan, Professor Jan
Kwak, Dr. Nisreen Al-Hashimi, Dr. Mahmood Kardosha, Dr. Roda Al Thani, Dr. R.P. Sundarajj and
Dr. Helmi Hammami for giving us their valuable time and for responding to our questions with
enthusiasm and helpful suggestions during the interviews. Their helpful responses and
recommendations are greatly appreciated. Last, but not least, special thanks to the Foundation
English Program Curriculum Committee members, Lynn Hassouna, Berta Huszar and Constandinos
Demetriades for conducting the interviews and for contributing to this report.
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Summary of Interview with Faculty from the Department of Social Sciences and the Department
of Chemistry and Earth Sciences, College of Arts & Sciences
Date: Thursday, 19 June, 2008
Time: 10: 00 AM – 11:00 AM (Department of Social Sciences)
11:00 AM – 12:00 PM (Department of Chemistry and Earth Sciences)
Interviewers: Lynn Hassouna and Berta Huszar (English Department, Foundation Program)
Interviewees: Dr. Fadwa El Guindi and Dr. Abdal Karim Al Amir Hasan (Department of Social Sciences)
Professor Jan Kwak and Dr. Nisreen Al-Hashimi (Department of Chemistry and Earth Sciences)
Interview Questions and Responses
Question
1. Do you think it is important for students
to familiarize themselves with
academic English before they join your
degree program? If yes, why do you
think it is important?
Social Sciences Department
Dr. Hasan, Dr. El Guindi
Chemistry Department
Dr. Nisreen, Dr. Kwak
The department does not teach in English.
Next year they are adding four new courses which will
be taught in English only with non-bilingual teachers.
At present, teachers who are bilingual do help
students when English require, primarily for research.
Research is done primarily to gather additional
information to write surveys/ questionnaires. Students
need to use a “checkbox” for recording information.
General English is best, not ESP.
Students need basic vocabulary in English and Arabic.
Everything is done in English.
All materials, including textbooks are in
English with no modifications; therefore,
excellent reading skills are necessary.
There is no need for academic English
because the concepts will be taught in
context.
General English is best not ESP.
General English is best not ESP
2. Do you think the Foundation Program
should teach general academic English
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or English for Specific Purposes
(ESP)? What benefits do you see for
our students if studying one or the
other?
3. What percentage of students have
problems with your courses due to a
Students hire people to translate the book if English
materials are used.
lack of language skills?
4. Which English language skills do you
regard as important for students in the
degree program in relation to your
college? (Reading, writing, listening,
speaking, note-taking, paraphrasing,
summarizing, vocabulary, grammar,
etc.)
Reading – intermediate
Writing – good, not excellent
Listening – yes, very important at least intermediate
level of understanding
Speaking – very important because S’s need to do
interviews in most classes. They are shy and lack the
confidence to approach people. Part of that is cultural
(for the girls), but when they visit medical facilities they
need to question nurses and patients about medical
issues. Communication skills must be practiced.
Two types of students: Very good and
very poor. In any given class, the ratio is
about 50 – 50. We do not know what high
schools they come from so we can’t say
that it is lack of preparation. The
students who have native ability in English
or are bilingual do much better.
Listening is not such a problem –
definitely writing is the biggest problem
They need more writing … more detailed
correction.
S’s are unable to explain even in simple
sentences what is in a diagram.
Basic writing skills, trained by repetition.
Spelling and other mistakes look
unprofessional
Prof. Kwak: “Written English is so
important because if I see a professional
paper with grammar, capitalization and
sentence mistakes, I give it no credibility.”
5. Which skills that they need for your
college do most students generally do
----------- weak in most
----------- weak in most
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well in?
6. Which skills that they need for your
college do students usually have
difficulty with?
No note taking skills at all.
No note taking skills at all.
Analysis and critical thinking.
They are not using their brains
Reaction essays and analysis essays
Critical thinking & reading (ability too slow)
Listening a lower need
Students cannot break tasks down.
“They need simple questions. We can’t
give them long essay questions because
they spend too long reading them.”(Kwak)
“We have to simplify everything, ie.Test bank questions are modified
(removing negative statements)” (Kwak)
7. What level of English proficiency would
“Of course, we would like the highest
capabilities possible.”(Kwak)
Intermediate, at least.
you expect from students who are
admitted to your degree program (e.g.
intermediate/ advanced reading skills,
intermediate/advanced writing skills,
proficiency in listening and oral
communication, etc.)?
8. Do most of your students find it easy to
cope with the language demands of
HIGHER LEVEL THINKING
THINKING ON THEIR OWN
WRITING
NOTE-TAKING
FLUENCY IN READING
your college program? Can you tell us
where the problem areas are?
9. How much English is needed to do
course work? E.g. number of text
AN INCREASING AMOUT –
NEXT YEAR, 4 NEW CLASSES IN
ALL
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books in English, reference books,
ENGLISH ONLY
lectures, research projects, number of
presentations, term papers, etc.?
10. What kind of written texts do students
have to write and in what proportion?
E.g. Research papers (10%), literature
reviews (10%), essays (30%), lecture
ANALYTIC AND POSITION PAPERS
A COMBINATION OF analytic tasks:
you read, you saw the film
…. How would you interpret the relationship
RESEARCH AND TERM PAPERS
notes (20%), laboratory reports (5%),
summaries / reviews, etc.
11. How much listening / speaking is done
in English? Can you be specific here in
terms of what they listen to and which
situations they have to speak English?
12. To what extent are students expected
to use the internet for research / finding
“We have gotten away from group work and shared
tasks because it is so difficult to determine how each
student contributes independently.” (El-guindi)
Speaking to one another in class is not a priority,
but S’s do need to speak when they conduct
interviews and gather research.
How much internet research?
They use periodicals and data bases more than the
internet.
information? Do they have problems
here? Are they expected to access,
read and understand journals in
Who teaches them? - There is a course for this and
we take trips to the library, where the librarian can
teach basic skills.
There is not a great deal of collaborative
or group work. Most classes are
structured around a lecture.
Information and concepts need to be
presented and explained.
Listening and note-taking are required.
Students find and prepare their own
materials. Teachers teach the science;
there is no time to teach basic research
skills.
English?
13. Is plagiarism a problem? If yes, why do
you think students plagiarize?
Plagiarism is a problem in Arabic and in International
Affairs – two S’s got in serious trouble
Summarizing and paraphrasing skills are non-existent.
“Plagiarism is huge problem and we
explain the necessity of not doing that.
Points are taken off for a “perfect”
paragraph.”(Kwak)
S’s lack the ability to put information in
their own words. They need practice
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summarizing and paraphrasing. It is
easier to copy and paste. It also looks
“better” to them that their own words.
14. Are students expected to work
collaboratively in class or on projects,
or are they mostly in traditional lecture
NO
SINGLE PROJECTS,
TRADITIONAL CLASS STRUCTURE
environments and evaluated for their
NO
SINGLE PROJECTS,
TRADITIONAL CLASS
STRUCTURE
individual performance in exams?
15. What is the official English language
entry requirement for your college? Do
you accept students with TOEFL 450 +
and a Foundation pass?
16. Which group of students do better at
their studies:
(1) students who gain admission directly
“Although, recently, students have been coming
directly to the department to ask for entrance without
attending the Foundation, we abide by the University
regulations.”(El-Guindi)
We abide by the University regulations.
We do not have access to this information.
“If we were given a survey form to fill at the
BEGINNING OF THE TERM, we could collect this
data.”(Hassan)
We do not have access to this
information
because they meet the minimum
English language requirements (e.g.
TOEFL 500+)
(2) students who gain admission after
passing Foundation with a 450 +
TOEFL score.
17. Please provide some
suggestions/recommendations to help
the Foundation English Program
1. “To collect relevant data on student progress,
you could send the questionnaire to all faculty
at the start of a term. At this point, after
students have left us, we cannot track this
1. “We recommend a more intensive
writing program. Students need to
be aware of the mistakes they are
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develop a better curriculum to meet the
English language needs of students
studying in your college programs.
down.”(Hassan)
making.”(Kwak)
2. “We suggest that the Foundation Program
have teachers from each discipline in the
university come visit classrooms. (A program
of guest speakers).They could introduce Level
4 students to their programs and use technical
vocabulary to demonstrate how academicallybased the university is. This could motivate
students and let them know that real work is
required.”(Hassan)
2. Note-taking requires the
knowledge of differentiating “what is
important and what is not important. We
have given up on teaching it. Most
teachers are posting their notes on BB”
The skill is disappearing. Students sit
passively in the class.
Conclusions (for Department of Social Sciences):
The areas which Foundation English should be concentrating on, in relation to Department of Social Sciences, are:
1. General English not ESP.
2. Vocabulary building skills.
3. Communication skills, especially listening and speaking skills (for conducting interviews).
4. Developing critical thinking skills.
5. Developing analytical skills for reading and writing.
6. Summarizing and paraphrasing skills to prevent plagiarism.
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Conclusions (for Department of Chemistry and Earth Sciences):
The areas which Foundation English should be concentrating on, in relation to the Department of Chemistry and Earth
Sciences, are:
1. General English, not ESP.
2. Intensive writing program teaching basic mechanics, e.g. spelling, punctuation and sentence structures.
3. Reading for research; basic research skills.
4. Note-taking skills.
5. Critical thinking skills.
6. Summarizing and paraphrasing skills to prevent plagiarism.
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Summary of Interview with Faculty from the Department of Biological and Environmental
Sciences, College of Arts & Sciences
Date: Thursday, 26 June, 2008
Time: 8:30 AM – 9:30 AM
Interviewers: Lynn Hassouna; Mu Mu Winn (English Department, Foundation Program)
Interviewees: Dr. Mahmood Kardosha; Dr. Roda Al Thani (Department of Biological and Environmental Sciences)
Interview Questions and Responses
Question
1. Do you think it is important for students to familiarize themselves
with academic English before they join your degree program? If
Response
Yes. They need to be familiar with scientific English.
yes, why do you think it is important?
2. Do you think the Foundation Program should teach general
academic English or English for Specific Purposes (ESP)? What
benefits do you see for our students if studying one or the other?
3. What percentage of students have problems with your courses
due to a lack of language skills?
ESP. They need to know how to write in scientific
language. ESP will help them to understand and use
scientific vocabulary and academic structures.
70% – 90% of students in the first and second year have
problems in writing.
4. Which English language skills do you regard as important for
students in the degree program in relation to your college?
(Reading, writing, listening, speaking, note-taking, paraphrasing,
summarizing, vocabulary, grammar, etc.)
Writing and note-taking.
Dr. Kardosha: “….the consistency of scientific reports is
very important for our students”
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5. Which skills that they need for your college do most students
generally do well in?
6. Which skills that they need for your college do students usually
They do well in speaking. They can do good presentations.
Dr. Kardosha: “We have students with excellent speaking
level.”
They have problems with note-taking and writing reports.
have difficulty with?
7. What level of English proficiency would you expect from students
who are admitted to your degree program (e.g. intermediate/
Intermediate level is OK (for freshmen) for reading and
other skills.
advanced reading skills, intermediate/advanced writing skills,
proficiency in listening and oral communication, etc.)?
8. Do most of your students find it easy to cope with the language
demands of your college program? Can you tell us where the
problem areas are?
All courses are 100% given in English, so it’s difficult for
them. The problem area is writing.
Suggestion – Post Foundation courses (English 1 & 2)
could help us with special English for science. They could
teach good writing skills in a scientific context.
9. How much English is needed to do course work? E.g. number of
text books in English, reference books, lectures, research projects,
All course books, reference books are in English. Lectures
are in English. All presentations are in English.
number of presentations, term papers, etc.?
10. What kind of written texts do students have to write and in what
proportion? E.g. Research papers (10%), literature reviews (10%),
essays (30%), lecture notes (20%), laboratory reports (5%),
Research papers are required only in the advanced levels.
Lecture notes are provided by the teachers, as the
students are not good at taking notes.
summaries / reviews, etc.
11. How much listening / speaking is done in English? Can you be
specific here in terms of what they listen to and which situations
they have to speak English?
Lectures, discussions and presentations are all in English.
They can follow the lecture most of the time but they don’t
take notes. They speak in English when giving
presentations.
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12. To what extent are students expected to use the internet for
research / finding information? Do they have problems here? Are
They can find information on the Internet. However they
usually copy and paste the relevant information.
they expected to access, read and understand journals in English?
13. Is plagiarism a problem? If yes, why do you think students
plagiarize?
Yes, plagiarism is a problem.
In the lower levels they are allowed to copy and paste
relevant information as long as the selected data is
accurate and they cite the source of information. Even so,
organizing the information is a problem.
However in the higher levels ‘copy and paste’ is not
allowed – they must present the information in their own
words. E.g. in a research report, no plagiarism is allowed.
14. Are students expected to work collaboratively in class or on
projects, or are they mostly in traditional lecture environments and
evaluated for their individual performance in exams?
In the lab, they work in teams so lab work is collaborative.
Other activities have traditional lecture environments.
15. What is the official English language entry requirement for your
college? Do you accept students with TOEFL 450 + and a
500 +TOEFL is a requirement but Foundation pass with
TOEFL 450 is accepted.
Foundation pass?
16. Which group of students do better at their studies:
It depends on their background – the schools they
attended. No clear information available.
(3) students who gain admission directly because they meet the
minimum English language requirements (e.g. TOEFL 500+)
(4) students who gain admission after passing Foundation with a 450
+ TOEFL score.
17. Please provide some suggestions/recommendations to help the
Foundation English Program develop a better curriculum to meet

ESP (scientific) vocabulary and writing should be
introduced.
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the English language needs of students studying in your college

programs.


Students should have more practice in writing by
doing production type exams (not multiple-choice
all the time).
Training in team work (collaborative work) needed.
e.g. each member of team is assigned a different
task for one project.
Students also need training in ICT tools such as
excel for Bio-Statistics reports.
Conclusions (for Department of Biological and Environmental Sciences):
The areas which Foundation English should be concentrating on, in relation to the Department of Biological and
Environmental Sciences, are:

Development of scientific vocabulary in English.

Writing skills in a scientific context. E.g. report writing skills for a research paper. (Suggestion: Post-Foundation courses
should have a special program for science students).

Developing note-taking skills.

Reading and searching for information.

Developing basic research skills - searching for and evaluating information.

Developing ICT skills for reporting statistics.

Paraphrasing skills to prevent plagiarism.
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Summary of Interview with Faculty from the Department of
Accounting and Information Systems, College of Business and
Economics
Date of interview: Sunday, 29 June, 2008
Time: 11:30 AM – 12:30 PM
Interviewers: Mu Mu Winn, Dinos Demetriades (Foundation Program English Department)
Interviewees: Dr. R.P. Sundarajj and Dr. Helmi Hammami (Department of Accounting and
Information Systems, CBE)
Summary of Feedback collected from Interview Transcripts:
1. One major issue is that students have difficulty understanding basic principles. Therefore, it
follows that they can’t apply principles to different situations. This seems to be caused by a
lack of critical and logical thinking. They have been used to being spoon fed at school
and the English Foundation Program has not been successful in weeding out their poor
academic study habits.
2. Writing is another major problem, from basic sentence structure and poor grammar to
linking ideas and concepts in reports, term papers, etc. Students need more practice in time
concepts and using the appropriate structures/tenses for the context in which they are
reporting something. Dr. Sundarraj said that none of his students could write a report.
3. Linked to general writing problems, students seem to have difficulty in knowing how to
structure reports logically and coherently. Formatting is not an issue, but students do not
have an awareness of an overall theme, or supporting main points with relevant details.
They also lack awareness of concepts of audience and background or shared knowledge
between writer and audience.
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4. Reading is an issue in that students are not able to show an in depth understanding of
written texts which may have relevance to their research. In addition, they are not able to
evaluate the information.
5. Working collaboratively is an important part of the Business and Economics teaching
methodology. (We have talked about this a lot in terms of ICT but we haven’t really applied it
to any other parts of the curriculum in Foundation English Program). Perhaps we should
structure collaborative work formally into our curriculum.
6. Paraphrasing and summary skills were not seen as particularly problematic because
Business and Economics teachers do not specifically measure or monitor such skills.
However, plagiarism was seen as a major problem. Examples mentioned were ‘copy and
paste’ reports; hired shadow writers. Perhaps plagiarism is a problem because students
cannot paraphrase or summarize successfully.
7. We had similarly contradictory responses in relation to note taking. Students could follow
lectures easily enough (80% according to Dr. Helmi), but they weren’t able to take notes
from the lectures. Students don’t necessarily need to rely on notes as they are expected to
use other sources of information.
8. Business and Economics students don’t seem to have a problem working independently
provided that they are given some direction beforehand.
9. Speaking, listening and presentation skills do not seem to be a major problem. In fact most
do well in presentations, especially female students.
10. Business and Economics College programs do not see a pressing need for ESP.
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Conclusions:
The areas which Foundation English should be concentrating on, in relation to Business and
Economics, are:
1. Developing critical thinking skills.
2. Developing basic writing skills, including the use of appropriate sentence structures.
3. Developing skills in logical organization of information in writing reports.
4. Reading for research; evaluating information from written texts.
5. Strategies to prevent plagiarism.
6. Developing skills in summarizing and paraphrasing.
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Appendix A
The Foundation Program
English Department
Interview questions
(For needs analysis and curriculum development- Foundation English Program,
2007-2008)
The following questions may be discussed during interviews with representative faculty from college
programs at Qatar University.
Questions:
__________________________Section 1________________________________
18. Do you think it is important for students to familiarize themselves with academic English
before they join your degree program? If yes, why do you think it is important?
19. Do you think the Foundation Program should teach general academic English or English for
Specific Purposes (ESP)? What benefits do you see for our students if studying one or the
other?
20. What percentage of students have problems with your courses due to a lack of language
skills?
__________________________Section 2________________________________
21. Which English language skills do you regard as important for students in the degree program
in relation to your college? (Reading, writing, listening, speaking, note-taking, paraphrasing,
summarizing, vocabulary, grammar, etc.)
22. Which skills that they need for your college do most students generally do well in?
23. Which skills that they need for your college do students usually have difficulty with?
24. What level of English proficiency would you expect from students who are admitted to your
degree program (e.g. intermediate/ advanced reading skills, intermediate/advanced writing
skills, proficiency in listening and oral communication, etc.)?
25. Do most of your students find it easy to cope with the language demands of your college
program? Can you tell us where the problem areas are?
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__________________________Section 3________________________________
26. How much English is needed to do course work? E.g. number of text books in English,
reference books, lectures, research projects, number of presentations, term papers, etc.?
27. What kind of written texts do students have to write and in what proportion? E.g. Research
papers (10%), literature reviews (10%), essays (30%), lecture notes (20%), laboratory
reports (5%), summaries / reviews, etc.
28. How much listening / speaking is done in English? Can you be specific here in terms of what
they listen to and which situations they have to speak English?
29. To what extent are students expected to use the internet for research / finding information?
Do they have problems here? Are they expected to access, read and understand journals in
English?
30. Is plagiarism a problem? If yes, why do you think students plagiarize?
__________________________Section 5________________________________
31. Are students expected to work collaboratively in class or on projects, or are they mostly in
traditional lecture environments and evaluated for their individual performance in exams?
__________________________Section 6________________________________
32. What is the official English language entry requirement for your college? Do you accept
students with TOEFL 450 + and a Foundation pass?
33. Which group of students do better at their studies:
(5) students who gain admission directly because they meet the minimum English language
requirements (e.g. TOEFL 500+)
(6) students who gain admission after passing Foundation with a 450 + TOEFL score.
__________________________Section 7________________________________
34. Please provide some suggestions/recommendations to help the Foundation English
Program develop a better curriculum to meet the English language needs of students
studying in your college programs.
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