This study of 87 Saudi female university students aimed to discover whether they experience difficulties learning to listen to spoken English. Acknowledging that listening is an important part not just of learning a new language but also of day-to-day communication, data was collected using an online questionnaire. Participants were asked to respond to a series of statements designed to test four constructs relating to their attitudes to learning English language skills in general (a); learning listening skills specifically (b); their attitudes towards listening activities (c); and (d) their attitudes towards improving their listening skills. The results showed that most of participants felt that speaking and listening were the most important skills to learn, but listening was also the most challenging. Reading was felt to be the most effortless skill to learn, as well as the most commonly used, suggesting that frequency of use contributes to students’ perceptions of the ease of learning a skill. Participants’ difficulties with learning to listen to English were associated with speech rate, pronunciation, nervousness, limited vocabulary, and lack of background information. However, students also expressed positive attitudes towards improving their listening skills. Understanding students’ attitudes to listening skills and their problems with listening may help teachers improve the way they teach these skills. This may in turn improve students’ listening comprehension not only in universities but also in schools.

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Oral and written feedback have been found to be useful in learning English as a Second Language (L2). Yet it is not clear what form of feedback L2 learners prefer. This study therefore investigated 47 Saudi female university students’ attitudes to both oral and written feedback. The data was collected by an online questionnaire consisting of three constructs: a) attitudes to written feedback; b) attitudes to oral feedback; and c) attitudes to written versus oral feedback. In terms of the first, the results showed that most participants expressed positive attitudes to written feedback, which they would be happy to receive on all the mistakes they make in their writing. Most participants were also positive about oral feedback and wanted their teacher to correct all their speaking errors, including errors of grammar, pronunciation and vocabulary. However, participants did not want to be corrected in front of other students as this could make them nervous. Overall, most participants agreed that oral feedback helped them improve their English skills more than written feedback. But despite such a positive attitude, most participants still found oral feedback embarrassing. Knowing students’ perceptions of corrective feedback (CF) is vital, because negative attitudes to feedback could harm the language learning process.

Principals’ supervision has been an important aspect of school leadership, which has aimed to improve the overall quality of teaching in schools by improving the work of individual teachers. This study has identified a need to fill an existing gap in the teaching supervision literature, as researchers have overlooked the possibility that principals’ mastery of the English language may affect the supervision of English language teachers. It therefore examines whether Saudi female principals who did not major in English language face difficulties supervising English language teaching in secondary schools. This study was carried out over a week. The data was collected from five female principals working in secondary schools by means of semi-structured interviews. The results showed that the main obstacle faced by principals supervising English language classes was understanding the English language itself. Data collected by the study show the need for Saudi Arabian principals to be aware of their limitations in understanding English when supervising English language teachers; having this information can be crucial for improving supervision and planning successful supervisory practices. Moreover, it can help principals evaluate themselves and review the way they supervise English language teachers.

This study of 87 Saudi female university students aimed to discover whether they experience difficulties learning to listen to spoken English. Acknowledging that listening is an important part not just of learning a new language but also of day-to-day communication, data was collected using an online questionnaire. Participants were asked to respond to a series of statements designed to test four constructs relating to their attitudes to learning English language skills in general (a); learning listening skills specifically (b); their attitudes towards listening activities (c); and (d) their attitudes towards improving their listening skills. The results showed that most of participants felt that speaking and listening were the most important skills to learn, but listening was also the most challenging. Reading was felt to be the most effortless skill to learn, as well as the most commonly used, suggesting that frequency of use contributes to students’ perceptions of the ease of learning a skill. Participants’ difficulties with learning to listen to English were associated with speech rate, pronunciation, nervousness, limited vocabulary, and lack of background information. However, students also expressed positive attitudes towards improving their listening skills. Understanding students’ attitudes to listening skills and their problems with listening may help teachers improve the way they teach these skills. This may in turn improve students’ listening comprehension not only in universities but also in schools.