The Impact of Foundation Year on Students’ Language Skills in English Department

الملخص

The main purpose of this study is to determine the impact of a foundation year in an English Department and its role in developing students’ language skills. The main research questions for this academic study are: Does a foundation year have a positive impact on students’ language skills in English Department? Does a foundation year prepare students for their academic studies in English Department? It is believed in the English department that having an active foundation year is highly beneficial. To obtain data, an open-ended survey is used involving 110 non-native English students (57 male and 53 female) who graduated from the foundation year at the University of Leicester and the University of Nottingham, prior to starting their academic studies in the Department of English at both universities. In order to analyse the data obtained, the researcher used a mixed methods research approach, including both quantitative and qualitative methods. The researcher follows the work of Chen (2021) as an adopted model. The current study concludes that the foundation year has a positive impact on students’ language skills and academic performance, and prepares students for their academic studies in the English Departments.