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European Journal of Education Studies ISSN: 2501 - 1111 ISSN-L: 2501 - 1111 Available on-line at: www.oapub.org/edu Volume 3 │ Issue 11 │ 2017 doi: 10.5281/zenodo.1066178 ELT MATERIALS FOR GENERAL FOUNDATION ENGLISH: A POST-USE EVALUATION Faiz Sathi Abdullahi PhD, Associate Professor of Applied Linguistics, Department of English Language and Literature, Al Zahra College for Women, Muscat, Sultanate of Oman Abstract: It is generally acknowledged that the college/university foundation programme, often instituted as a one-year course of instruction, plays a crucial role in preparing students for graduation to their various academic departments, which are usually located within the same educational institution. Foundation studies programmes in Oman are delivered to cater for the disciplinary, and almost invariably the closely related academic English language needs of the academic departments in addition to the requisite basic computer literacy and mathematical skills. The present study sought to evaluate two sets of teaching-learning ELT materials at a higher education college in Oman on a post-/in-use basis by the teachers of three general to intermediate level English language courses vis-à-vis the first set of Linguaphone courses forming the core, and of an IELTS Preparation course using the second set, respectively. All the courses were instituted in the General Foundation Programme (GFP). The main research instrument was the Checklist for ELT Materials Evaluation, adapted from Mukundan et al, 2011, that comprised 55 close-ended items and two open-ended items. It was discovered that 16 evaluative items relating to the use of Linguaphone course materials in the main were rated as Good as expected, in the interest of target language/speaker authenticity , 9 items as “dequate , and items as Weak , cf. cultural sensitivity). On the other hand, 43 items relating to the use of the IELTS Preparation course book were evaluated Good/Excellent , with the remaining items being evaluated as only “dequate/Weak . The teachers also highlighted aspects of both sets of materials that worked well with their respective classes of students, as well Copyright © The Author(s). All Rights Reserved. © 2015 – 2017 Open Access Publishing Group 399 Faiz Sathi Abdullah ELT MATERIALS FOR GENERAL FOUNDATION ENGLISH: A POST-USE EVALUATION as areas of their use that required improvement. While it was rather tempting to follow up the respective separate evaluation of the two sets of materials with a comparative one of the corresponding merits, or demerits as the case may be, it was determined that this would not be fair given the different levels, teaching-learning objectives, and content make-up of the courses, among other factors. On the global level, however, it was concluded that both sets of materials needed supplementary materials and/or adaptation work on the part of the teachers, with the Linguaphone courses requiring more resourcefulness on the part of the teachers as they endeavoured to meet the teaching-learning outcomes of the courses of instruction concerned. Keywords: general foundation studies; post-use ELT materials evaluation; ESL textbook evaluation checklist; language learning materials selection and adaptation; materials and methods in ESL/EFL 1. Introduction It is generally acknowledged that the college/university foundation programme, often instituted as a one-year course of instruction, plays a crucial role in preparing students for graduation to their various academic departments, which are usually located within the same educational institution. In the Sultanate of Oman, Foundation studies are currently called the General Foundation Programme across the country, and generally cater for the English language, as well as basic computer literacy, or ICT (Information and Communication Technology) and mathematical skills required by the academic departments of each higher learning institution. It is noteworthy that the bulk of the teaching-learning time is taken up by English language courses, and GFP students are generally expected to attain a level of competence in the language equivalent to IELTS (International English Language Testing System) Band 5.0 (See Oman Academic Standards for General Foundation Programs, or OAS for GFP, 2008, p. 5). For viewing / downloading the full article, please access the following link: https://oapub.org/edu/index.php/ejes/article/view/1219 . European Journal of Education Studies - Volume 3 │ Issue 11 │ 2017 400