131 © Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2019
D. F. Staub (ed.), Quality Assurance and Accreditation in Foreign Language
Education, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-21421-0_9
Chapter 9
The Accreditation of English Language
Teacher Education Programs in the Arab
Region: The Case of Sultan Qaboos
University
Khalaf Marhoun Al’Abri, Mahmoud Emam, and Fawzia Al-Seyabi
Abstract The chapter presents the case of the teaching English as a foreign lan-
guage (TEFL) program at Sultan Qaboos University (SQU) as an exemplary pro-
gram that has been successful to gain recognition from the US. The chapter begins
with describing the actions taken by the program that led to the success in obtaining
the recognition from the American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages
(ACTFL). To give a full picture of the process, the SQU program was described,
elaborating the six key assessments developed to provide evidence that its candi-
dates were meeting the ACTFL standards. It has been stressed that the process of
accreditation has led to creating a climate for accreditation with the need to focus on
evidence and assessment across all areas of the college and programs. The chapter
also points out to the cognitive and organizational restructuring that happened at all
the levels. The chapter closes with challenges that faced the program in gaining
recognition from ACTFL.
9.1 Introduction
In 2016, the College of Education (CoE) at Sultan Qaboos University (SQU) in the
Sultanate of Oman was “accredited without any further conditions” for a seven-year
period by the National Council for Accreditation of Teacher Education (NCATE),
which is now known as Council for the Accreditation of Educator Preparation
(CAEP). The accreditation decision was taken after the teacher education program
at SQU fulflled the basic and quality standards for teacher preparation and after
hitting the “target” level in feld experiences and faculty standards as evaluated by
the board of examiners, and based on the report prepared by the on-site visit team.
In this chapter, we refect on the case of the teaching English as a foreign language
K. M. Al’Abri (*) · M. Emam · F. Al-Seyabi
College of Education, Sultan Qaboos University, Muscat, Oman
e-mail: kabri@squ.edu.om