The central issue to be addressed in this paper pertains to the current major and persistent constraints facing English education in Saudi Arabia. These constraints are observed in several areas, including students' beliefs, aspects of curriculum, pedagogy, and administrative processes. Addressing these considerations will enable the people involved to continue to advance in the right direction, and will also enlighten them to the fact that identifying, analyzing, and suggesting corrective action for the existing problems or issues would be beneficial in bringing about much-needed curriculum reform. This awareness will also pave the way for, and aid in, the acquisition of resources to ensure a better future for English as a foreign language in Saudi Arabia, kindling bright hopes for the country and enhancing the country's ability to actively participate in the international community.

This is a comprehensive review of the salient key features of the actual English instructional practices in Saudi Arabia. The goal of this work is to gain insights into the practices and pedagogicapproaches to English as a foreign language (EFL) teaching currently employed in this country. In particular, we identify the following central features of the Saudi English teaching portfolio: a) an overview the features of EFL teaching in Saudi Arabia, b) features of the actual teaching of the four macro-language skills, c) features of the actual teaching of language-related skills, and d) features of evaluation methods. By putting forth an inclusive, aggregate picture of the actual English teaching practices implemented in Saudi EFL classrooms, we hope to reveal and elucidate the total reality of the major modes of EFL pedagogic practices and assessments in Saudi schools.

Learning English as a foreign language (EFL) is both a promising endeavor and a challenging undertaking. All language learners encounter unique challenges in the process of learning English, and Saudi EFL learners are no exception. This article identifies the unique and multifarious challenges Saudi EFL learners face, and explores the multidimensional causal factors in the progression of the challenges they face most commonly. The analysis first tackles the considerable challenge of accurate spelling, followed by a discussion of the challenges Saudi EFL learners encounter when learning to read and write in English. This discussion addresses challenges in sociolinguistic competence and English pronunciation arising from multivariate factors, and concludes by offering measures to help Saudi EFL learners overcome these characteristic challenges and promote their trajectory toward successful acquisition of EFL.

Abstract-Achieving optimal success in teaching English as a second language (ESL) or English as a foreign language (EFL) requires teachers to demonstrate varying essential characteristics that consist of several underlying and interacting constructs. The purpose of this article is to orient the reader and succinctly identify the key variables that lead ESL/EFL teachers to distinctive success. It clearly delineates the characteristics of successful ESL/EFL teachers embedded within five central dimensions, along with their underlying structures. It also provides common taxonomies of successful EFL teachers' attributes without burdening the reader with unnecessary detail concerning the many other validated attributes associated with ESL/EFL teachers' salient attributions of success. To this end, this discussion contributes to a theoretical understanding of the development of successful ESL/EFL teachers and to improved knowledge of the key characteristics of successful ESL/EFL teachers.

This study was designed to investigate the adequacy of EFL learners' abilities in three major dimensions of digital literacy skills and whether self-assessments of competence were consistent with their actual performance. It also identified factors that affected learners' use of the selected digital literacy skills. To this end, 60 Saudi EFL learners (41 male and 19 female) responded to a five-part, cross-sectional questionnaire of 36 items categorized according to the three dimensions of digital literacy skills. They also engaged in 11 predetermined real-time Internet search tasks. The participants' on-screen online search activities were recorded and subjected to a search log analysis. Short, semi-structured post-search interviews were conducted to capture the participants' reflections on the search process. The data was analyzed with descriptive statistics and paired t-tests. The participants' success in searches was measured by the total number of tasks completed accurately. The results indicated that the participants were ill-equipped to efficiently handle the three key L2 digital literacy skills. Participants' low self-perceived ability to use them adequately was consistent with their actual poor online search performance. Further, the participants scored low in search accuracy, with the exception of search results interpretation skills and, to some extent, skills to evaluate a website's usefulness, and exhibited a wide range of areas for improvement and challenges in Web information search. The implications of the study and potential areas of future research are discussed.