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Reading, a complex and multi-faceted skill, is essential for life and academic success. While its mysteries still baffle first-language research, the nature of reading in a foreign language presents an even greater puzzle. However, given reading's importance for EFL students who study their specializations in English, and whose future employment may depend on their competence in it, researchers must continue to investigate foreign language reading and devise ways of improving students' capacity for it. Hence, this book, with its thorough coverage of up-to-date theory, practice and research, will be of great value in today's educational context. As they strive to understand reading and help EFL students to acquire it, researchers and language teachers will find much of value here.

Language learning is a complex and challenging endeavor. For students to achieve the desired proficiency in English as a Foreign Language (EFL) their institutions need to invest time, effort and huge resources in order to cater for different learning styles. To be cost effective, many language-teaching institutions strive to provide intensive foreign language (FL) instruction to reduce the time period needed to learn the target language. This explains the current interest in combining differe.

This study explored student and teacher attitudes towards English Medium Instruction (EMI) at the tertiary level in Oman, including its impact on learners’ Arabic use and socio-cultural identities. Data was collected through a 40-item Likert response scale questionnaire administered in English and Arabic to 415 students and 55 instructors at five tertiary-level institutions across the sultanate. Results indicate that participants identified a number of advantages of EMI, including increasing employment opportunities and facilitating communication in education and workforce settings. However, significant challenges, such as limiting student course content understanding and family communication about their studies, were also present. Teacher participants generally did not believe that EMI had any negative effects on learner identity and Arabic language use, although students held neutral attitudes about these issues and maintained that their content understanding would be enhanced through Arabic medium instruction. Despite these areas of divergence, independent samples t tests indicated that teacher and student participants held similar attitudes across most remaining questionnaire categories. Implications of these findings for EMI and L1 use at the tertiary level in Oman and in other similar education settings are discussed.

Technology-enriched classrooms have been claimed to produce enhanced learning opportunities for foreign language students. These technologies can be integrated into language teaching and learning inside the classroom or used for independent learning by students outside it. This study involves the use of digital-videos in Middle Eastern English as a Foreign Language (EFL) classrooms. It attempts to explore if using technology creatively in language teaching has the potential to enhance communication skills and other sub-skills in EFL classes. Omani EFL students, working in small groups, created commercials for products they chose to design and promote using digital videos. These were then presented to the class while each group was responsible for collaboratively writing a report the presentation of a commercial product and wrote about their experiences. Using data collected mainly from student questionnaires, this article reports on this experience from the points of view of students.

In Omani Arabic, terms of endearment are formed by women to project an identity that reveals not only intimacy and friendship, but also inferiority and subordination. Their use reveals gender differentiation whereby women are expected to assume an independent role that gives them power and detachment from families. This study documents the linguistic richness and creativity of Omani Arabic terms of endearment as used in Omani society.

Though diverse, the Arab world boasts a unique culture and native language, both of which are unlike those found in English-speaking countries. Perhaps due to the nature of these differences, Arab-Western relations have been described as existing on one of the world's great cultural fault-lines. Debate about the potential effects, both positive and negative, of English-medium education and the learning of English in the region's schools and universities is one expression of this. Even as debate continues, issues of politics, culture, social mobility, and identity are played out in the English language classrooms of the Arab world on a daily basis. The current volume explores some of the concerns related to the place of English and English-medium education in the Arab world. It examines issues of the relationship between English, Arabic, cultural identity and power in the region within a historical and contemporary framework; the experiences of learners from Arabic-medium secondary schools adjusting to English-medium colleges; and the challenges and potential rewards of promoting student-centered classrooms and technology in traditionally teacher-centered environments. These issues are explored from the perspectives of teachers, students, researchers and other stakeholders in Oman, Saudi Arabia, the UAE, and Sudan.

Textbooks are indispensable in most formal education settings. However, many teachers believe weak- nesses in textbooks can result in ineffective learning and teaching. This research uses a corpus-based approach to identify issues related to vocabulary with a particular focus on English textbooks in use in Omani schools. Word Smith Tools and RANGE concordance software are used to analyze these text- books. Findings indicate that there are irregularities in vocabulary loading and that the types, tokens, density and consistency ratio show inconsistencies. Moreover, in terms of the coverage of GSL and AWL word lists, the textbooks fall short of the ideal range of 95% to 98% coverage suggested by Nation (1990, 2001). In fact, vocabulary from large percentages of the texts are not found in any of the essential word lists. The paper suggests recommendations for consistent analysis and guidance in analyzing textbooks in order to improve their quality in terms of vocabulary introduction and loading.

The importance of pragmatic competence in language teaching and learning has been highlighted in many studies; however, scarcity of such studies in the Omani context can be easily identified. The study investigates how female Omani higher education students express compliments in English and whether these are pragmatically, linguistically and communicatively appropriate. The research data were collected from 51 female college students through a response-based questionnaire containing 18 social scenarios to test their responses on the linguistic accuracy and pragmatic appropriateness of compliments. Native speaker's ratings on these revealed that 61.02% of students' responses were linguistically deficient and 23.96% pragmatically incompetent. It was found that many students used linguistic and pragmatic considerations of complimenting from their mother tongue while communicating in English which resulted in infelicitous or defective performance of the speech act under examination. This entails an urgent need to integrate pragmatic and cultural knowledge into EFL skills courses in Oman, especially those that focus on speaking, in order to raise students' awareness of what is considered appropriate and acceptable in English and avoid serious cross-cultural errors in inter-language communication.

This paper reports an exploratory investigation into the importance that employed Omani school and college graduates believe English-language communication skills have for their workplaces and the difficulties they face when using these skills in a work environment. The study involved the administration of a 4-part questionnaire to 321 participants who had graduated from Omani schools and colleges and who were employed in organizations around the country. Results indicate that participants identified almost all skills and skill areas featured in the questionnaire as either vital or essential for their jobs, even though they claimed that they largely lacked the English language skills, or linguistic competencies, necessary to successfully use these in work situations. They also reported struggling with dealing with customers and colleagues from different sociocultural backgrounds in English. Implications of these findings for education and employment in Oman are discussed.

Although a number of researchers have focused on describing the unique linguistic features of various Omani dialects, relatively little attention has been paid to their cross-generational familiarity and use. The current study investigated this issue by exploring the abilities of 95 young (20 years or younger) Al- Hamra residents to provide the meanings and correct usage of 20 words identified as being characteristic of the traditional Al-Hamra dialect. Sixty-one elderly residents (60 years or older) were also asked to perform the same task for vocabulary representing the speech of younger residents. Results indicate a limited understanding of, and ability to use, words from the traditional Al-Hamra dialect among younger residents, with elderly respondents also struggling to understand vocabulary selected from the younger group's speech. Findings suggest that, in addition to limited cross-generational understanding of the speech typifying younger and older groups in the region, younger people may be losing familiarity with the traditional Al-Hamra dialect. The paper discusses factors that may impact on the situation, and offers ways, such as encouraging wider use of the traditional Al-Hamra dialect in the community and creating lexical resources of dialectical words and phrases, of helping preserve this part of Oman's unique cultural and linguistic landscape.