Effectiveness of the Remedial Courses on Improving EFL/ESL Students’ Performance at University Level in the Arab World

Abstract

Many hypotheses have been passed by professors in the language teaching profession concerning the effects of remedial courses in enhancing the skills of students in the English language. Most people share the sentiment that remedial courses are quests in vain when it gets to improving the skills of students learning English as a first or second language (EFL/ESL). Others claim that the teaching strategy is the key to attaining the positive results in students taking remedial courses. This research looks into evidence presented by other researchers about the effectiveness of remedial courses. The research material used is mainly secondary. Through a comprehensive exploration of the information from various researchers, the paper has presented those researchers’ findings on the issue. The research hypothesis is, ‘remedial courses have no effect in increasing the performance of EFL/ESL students.’ The research findings indicate that the remedial courses in the Arab universities have been ineffective in increasing English language skills of students learning EFL/ESL.