ABSTRACT
The teaching of English in Lebanon has witnessed steady expansion since 1946, the year the government of the newly independent Lebanon introduced English as a foreign language (EFL) into the Lebanese public school system on par with French, the language of the former colonizer (Shaaban & Ghaith, 1999). However, during the last 25 years, English has been experiencing exponential expansion at all levels of education, primary, secondary, and tertiary. This new state of affairs has been motivated by the realization among all sectors of Lebanese society of the importance of proficiency in English for pursuing higher education and for getting better jobs in the modern world, where English is becoming the de facto universal lingua franca (Crystal, 1997; Heller, 1999; McArthur, 1998). Together with this phenomenal spread of English has come questions about the quality of English language education being offered and the preparation and professionalism of the English language-teaching community.
