Some Empirical Perspectives on Foreign Language Learning in Sudan

Abstract

This study attempted to provide a general view of the situation and perspective on foreign language learning and teaching at the tertiary level in Sudan, with special focus on English and German. It further explored motivation and reasons for majoring in English and German among Sudanese students and the level of satisfaction in studying theses languages as major disciplines. Additionally, students’ knowledge of foreign languages and their preferences for learning certain foreign languages have been reported. In order to achieve the objective of this study, a questionnaire was administered to a sample composed of 148 students majoring in English and 73 Students majoring in German, at the University of Khartoum. The obtained results revealed that Sudanese students in both departments were highly satisfied in majoring in English and German, however students were majoring in English mostly due to personal interest, while there were more students majoring in German due to entry requirement than those in the English department. Furthermore, students have shown varying degrees of interest in learning other languages such as Chinese, Spanish, French and Italian. Finally, based on the findings of the study, a number of proposals have been made, which might contribute to the improvement of foreign language learning and teaching in Sudan.