This study investigated English teachers' use of learners' L1 (Arabic) in college classrooms in Kuwait. The purpose of the study was three-fold: (1) to describe the functions for which L1 was employed by the teachers, (2) to explore the affective, sociolinguistic, and psycholinguistic factors that may have led teachers to use L1 in L2 teaching, and (3) to measure the teachers' attitudes toward using L1 in teaching English as a foreign language (EFL). 60 EFL teachers at the Language Center in a college in Kuwait agreed to participate in the study. Data collection methods included recorded interviews and a grounded survey that was derived from the data of the interviews. Data analysis methods utilized Ethnograph 6.0, a software program, in order to search for common patterns of L1 use in the teachers' interviews. Analysis of the survey utilized the Microsoft Excel Software Program to generate the means, percentages, and standard deviations for each of the survey items. The survey results indicated that the teachers used L1 in L2 classrooms as a teaching tool and for classroom management. The participating teachers also indicated that affective, sociolinguistic, and psycholinguistic factors have contributed to their L1 use in L2 teaching. However, the results also showed that the participating teachers exhibited mostly negative attitudes toward L1 use in L2 teaching. This contradiction between classroom practice and attitudes entailed implications for language teacher education programs to better equip EFL bound graduates with appropriate teaching strategies and classroom techniques to use L1 in appropriate ways in the EFL classroom.

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The study aimed to investigate the learning styles and multiple intelligences of English as foreign language (EFL) college-level students. “Convenience sampling” (Patton, 2015) was used to collect data from a population of 250 students enrolled in seven different academic departments at the College of Basic Education in Kuwait. The data elicitation instrument was derived from two standardized surveys: one on learning styles (Oxford, 1998) and one on multiple intelligences (Christison, 1998). Data collection utilized the Google Forms interface to facilitate participants’ access and responses to survey items through their mobile phones. Data analysis identified the participants’ general learning styles and multiple intelligences. The Microsoft Excel software program was used by the researchers to generate means, percentages, ranks, and standard deviations. Results indicated that while the participants’ dominant learning styles were global, extroverted, hands-on, and visual, their dominant multiple intelligences were interpersonal, visual, and kinesthetic. Implications for pedagogy included recommendations to accommodate students’ visual learning styles and multiple intelligences through the use of visual stimuli like PowerPoint presentations, charts, and graphs. In order to accommodate students’ extraverted and hands on learning styles as well as their interpersonal and kinesthetic intelligences, the researchers recommended the use of group activities such as role plays, simulations, and debates. Implications for future research included conducting learning styles and multiple intelligences studies in other colleges in Kuwait.

The study measured the awareness and use of metacognitive reading strategies among English as a foreign language (EFL) students at a medical college in Kuwait. The college offers a four-year Bachelor of Science in Nursing (BSN) and a two-year Associate Degree in Nursing (ADN). Data collection involved distributing the Metacognitive Awareness of Reading Strategy Inventory (MARSI) online through Google Forms to a sample of 80 students (Mokhtari & Reichard, 2002). Data were analyzed for strategy use, variations in strategy use between the BSN and ADN students, and the most and the least frequently-used strategies by the participating students. Microsoft Excel software generated the means, percentages, rankings, and standard deviations of strategy use. Findings indicated that the participating students were overall highly aware of metacognitive reading strategies. Moreover, the results showed that while the participating students were high users of problem-solving and global strategies, they were medium users of support strategies. The results also indicated that years of studying English showed a possible impact on the variations in strategy use between the participating students at the BSN and ADN programs. Finally, the analysis revealed that while the most frequently-used strategies among the participants were problem-solving strategies followed by global strategies, the least frequently-used strategies were support strategies. Implications for pedagogy included the need for English teachers to first identify their students’ awareness of metacognitive reading strategies. Second, English teachers can implement evidence-based instruction to maximize the use of students’ metacognitive reading strategies.

This classroom-based study was conducted in Kuwait to investigate the impact of text structure strategy (TSS) instruction on the ways in which 54 English as a foreign language (EFL) college students approached expository and medical texts. Data collection involved two surveys, fieldnotes, class observations, and group interviews. A system of codes and categories was developed from the recurrent patterns and commonalities in the interview data and classroom observations. Two surveys were distributed in 2 intervals, 8 weeks apart, which focused on identifying text structure strategies such as introducing the concept of text structures, asking guided questions, identifying signaling words, and using graphic organizers, as well as the extent to which the participants applied text structure strategies to approach expository medical texts. Data analysis involved using the Microsoft Excel program to generate two tables and descriptive statistics including the means, standard deviations and percentages of the results of the two surveys. Findings indicated that the participants benefited from TSS instruction in strategies that involved group discussions rather than strategies that relied on individual class work. Moreover, a large percentage of the participants applied most of what they learned in analyzing expository texts into reading medical texts. Implications were drawn for EFL teachers to conduct action research studies on text structure strategy for EFL learners and to apply TSS instruction in class in group and pair work which are suitable for EFL leaners. Finally, EFL researchers were invited to conduct classroom-based studies of TSS instruction.