Perceived Requirements of MIS Curriculum Implementation in Bilingual Developing Countries

Abstract

This paper addresses additional requirements associated with implementing a standard curriculum of Management Information Systems (MIS) in bilingual developing countries where both students and workplace users speak English as a second language. In such countries, MIS graduates are required to develop bilingual computer applications and to communicate bilingually with the anticipated users of such applications. The additional requirements are considered from three perspectives: bilingualism technology for information system design, user bilingual communication for user involvement in system development, and student bilingual communication in the educational process. Modules of bilingualism technology are proposed for incorporating into standard MIS curricula implemented in a bilingual developing environment. The average estimated percentages of these modules represent 13.55% of the curriculum contents. A field study was carried out in a developing country where people communicate in bilingual English/Arabic. The study measures perceptions of senior MIS students and first-year alumni about these requirements. Despite several similarities in perception of both groups, results show differences in perceived required emphasis on bilingualism technology modules in each course area. Results show also differences in perceived needs for bilingual textbooks, teaching, and assessment methods within both groups according to the type of high school education. The research findings may be applied to other bilingual developing countries especially where local languages use subsets or supersets of Arabic alphabet, such as Urdu, Persian, Kurdish, and Swahili. ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR Copyright of Journal of Information Technology Education is the property of Informing Science and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts)