English Language Teaching in Saudi Arabia: A World System Perspective

Abstract

The paper investigates how English Language Teaching has been adopted to support Saudi Arabia’s integration with Wallerstein’s modern world system, to back its progress from periphery to semi-periphery zone, and to push it from semi-periphery to core zone. To this end, the paper unravels the confluence of the socio-political and economic factors of globalizing Saudi Arabia and analyzes Saudi English Language Education Policies documented in the official papers and textbooks to show how they have been designed to gain Saudis’ consent to accept English simply as a tool to be used at the personal, state, and religious levels.