This paper tried to investigate the differences between two groups of students who have been admitted to the English departments based on two different methods of admission. The first group (A) was admitted directly to the department based on their high school GPA, while the other group (B) was admitted based on the level of their replacement test which placed them into the intensive English program. The results of the study showed that more (22.2%) of the students, who directly admitted to the department, were at risk of failure. On the other hand, students who have studied in the intensive English program before being admitted to the English department, showed better result since (4%) of the students were at risk of failure. The answers of the rest of questions on this paper were in favor of group (B). Finally this paper presented some valuable suggestion which are useful for English department administrator.

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This study investigated the extent to which scaffolding techniques improve Saudi English-language students’ speaking abilities. The study’s main aims involved determining why most Saudi students do not want to participate in communication tasks and activities and identifying other ways to encourage teachers and students to be more active during speaking classes. A mixed-methods technique, a special rubric, and an attitude questionnaire to collect this study’s data were used. The participants included 50 students from Level 3 in the Department of English Language and Literature at the College of Languages and Translation at Al-Imam Mohammed Bin Saud Islamic University. The experiment lasted for 7 weeks. A teacher met with each group for 2 hours per week. The participants were divided into two groups and experimental and a control group of 25 students each. The experimental group used various scaffolding techniques in each session—which allowed the learners to use their existing knowledge, skills, and strategies in several contexts and for many purposes when speaking. The control group received standard speaking instruction, in which the teacher gave the students time to speak freely without intervention. An independent-sample t test for was used of the analysis. The posttest results showed that the experimental group’s speaking ability improved after the pretest. Moreover, the posttests’ overall results indicated that the experimental group outperformed the control group. This result emphasized the usefulness of using new techniques to teach speaking to nonnative speakers.

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