Importance Of English In Education Essay

Learning a foreign language has become a critical factor that impacts the future of any country; specially, the English language which is now considered to be a global lingua franca. The growing importance of English has been observed in virtually all countries of the world. Egypt is one of the countries in which English has a strong and a palpable presence in all its sectors. This perceived growing position of English stems from the development which Egypt has witnessed in recent years on many levels, including the number of founded international establishments and the efforts exerted by the Egyptian government to expand economic relationships with other countries as the Egyptian government and Egyptian business needs people who can conduct high-level negotiations in English. In the light of these facts, learning English in Egypt is important and a valuable commodity. The recognition of the importance of English in the sphere of education is evidenced by teaching it as a major subject in all public and private schools at all stages from the primary to the secondary stages. Also, it is used as a medium of instruction in all Egyptian university colleges such as science, medicine, engineering, pharmacy, and other technical subjects. Moreover, English is included as an important subject in most of vocational

According to Richards and Lockhart (1996, p.30) "teachers ' pedagogical knowledge is founded on goals, values and beliefs that teachers hold in relation to the content and process of teaching and their understanding of the systems in which they work and their roles with in it". These beliefs are the trigger to lots of teachers ' decisions and action and hence form what is called "the culture of teaching" (Richards et al. 1992, p. 84). Therefore, teacher 's beliefs are assumed to be constituted by a set of principles and are stemmed from a teacher 's personality, past experiences, and their professional experience as a teacher.