EXAMINATION OF THE FOUNDATION PROGRAM ENGLISH LANGUAGE AND INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY COURSE MATERIALS FOR CONTENT ALIGNMENT AND LINGUISTIC SUPPORT OF STUDENTS

This paper reports on the results of a project conducted at the Centre for
Preparatory Studies at Sultan Qaboos University as a part of a large scale
study that explored transitional challenges of the Omani foundation program
students. Acknowledging the claimed synergy of teaching and research
(Prince, Felder & Brent, 2007), the authors are particularly concerned with
linguistic, contextual and practical aspects of core text books and course
materials currently in use at Sultan Qaboos University’s foundation program
English Language (FPEL) for Science Writing and Information Technology
(IT) courses. They also focus on such aspect necessary for mitigating students’
transitional challenges and enhancing their' learning performance and digital,
linguistic and content literacies (Literacy for life, 2006), as the extent of the
courses matching in terms of learning outcomes specified by the standards
and reflected in materials used to address them. The findings of the project
that utilized online software and tools for text analysis and text analytics
suggest that the implementation of cross-disciplinary dialogue within the
framework of the foundation program can be a workable solution to better
respond to students’ transitional needs and facilitate the process of their
adjustment to a new educational environment