Challenges and Predicaments in Teaching “English for Science” in an ESP Classroom: A Research Study to Pinpoint Problems and Solutions (Published)
The age-old methods of English Language Teaching (ELT) have been taken over by new approaches of language teaching which quest for relevance and reality in a language. This quest and the demand for novel trends give rise to the English for Specific Purpose (ESP). ESP is an approach to delivering content knowledge and equipping the learners to perform effectively in a target situation. This study aims to investigate the challenges and the obstacles in the English for Science classroom at King Khalid University (KKU), Abha, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA). This paper explains the historical overview of ESP and suitable methods of teaching ESP courses. A quantitative research methodology has been applied to obtain data from 20 English language teachers who have been teaching English for Science for the past five years or more on different Science campuses at KKU. The detailed analysis of the data reveals that there are numerous crises and issues faced by the ESP teachers. The most common of them is motivation on the part of the students, constructive prerequisite courses, lack of learning skills, and an interactive classroom. The researchers have explored these challenges in detail and finally suggested some guidelines to overcome the crises.
Keywords: ESP, English for Science, professional English, students’ motivation, teaching techniques.
Necessity of Need Based English Language Curriculum for Agriculture Students (Published)
Citation: Sarap N. S, Nilima Sarap Lakhade and Sawant P .A., (2022) Necessity of Need Based English Language Curriculum for Agriculture Students, International Journal of English Language Teaching, Vol.10, No.3, pp., 1-7
Abstract: This study investigates the needs of ESP (English for Specific Purposes) learners for English communication, particularly the needs of First Year B.Sc. (Hons) Agriculture Students from State Agricultural Universities (SAUs) in Maharashtra. This study was conducted with the specific objective whether to introduce ESP material in the agriculture curriculum. Learners’ responses clearly indicate that the current English course is vitally useful for them. According to them writing skill has the lion’s share in the course. While, listening, speaking and reading were got somewhat less allocation. Majority of the student respondents used to read books related to agriculture and several went for magazines, novels and newspaper. So also, some of the learners found to read materials like online materials, comics, literary works, poems, etc. Almost all the learners preferred supplementary material to be added to present English course. This means that the present English language course has a fair scope for improving to match the entire needs of the learners i.e. in-study, post-study, professional and social needs. The study implies that there is an imperative need of inclusion of ESP as supplementary material to present English course prescribed to B.Sc. (Hons) Agriculture degree course.
Keywords: Agriculture English, Curriculum, ESP, Needs
An ESP Course Design for Postgraduate Students of Engineering at Badji Mokhtar Annaba University (Published)
This paper aims at designing a technical English course for postgraduate students of Engineering at Badji Mokhtar Annaba University. The course design is based on thorough needs analysis taking into consideration needs analysis concepts forwarded by Hutchinson and Waters (1987) and Dudley-Evans and St.Johns (1998). Through a pilot study, the postgraduate students of engineering at Badji Makhtar Annaba university declared that they need to have courses in technical English in order to read and understand the newly updated researches in English, to take part in classroom discussions and to be able to write their own final doctoral project article without referring to experts for the translation from French into English. Thus English for Specific Purposes (ESP) course design is expected to be beneficial to the aforementioned group of learners. The needs analysis in this action research was conducted through the use of different tools. The results revealed that all postgraduate students of Engineering need to learn an ESP course for the development of the predominant skills of reading and writing first, followed by speaking and listening and translation as a fifth skill.
Keywords: ESP, Engineering students, Technical English, academic needs, course design
Intercultural Exchanges and Soft Skills Development in the Info-Tech-Enabled EFL Classroom (Published)
The present research study assesses the impact of an ICT-enabled English language environment on students’ intercultural exchanges and soft skills development. The major objective is to see whether an English course content that makes use of blogs, podcasts, and Internet-aided presentations allows intercultural encounters and boosts personal and professional development. The qualitative comments from the end–of–course interview are examined with regard to students’ reflections on their learning experience. Research findings show that the use of ICT-enabled class content does not bring about any considerable changes in students’ cultural practices, but stirs and triggers personal and professional changes (changes in attitudes) and allows learners to develop empowering soft skills, including personal development skills, communication skills, and conflict resolution skills.
Keywords: ELT, ESP, Information Technology, Intercultural Exchanges, Soft Skills
Finding the Nexus between Students’ Profiles and Attitude towards ESP: The Case of Vietnamese Medical Students Purposes (Published)
The aim of this research is to determine the relationship between students’ profile and their attitude in learning English as a foreign language. The respondents were 82 second year undergraduate students studying medicine at Thaibinh University of Medicine and Pharmacy in Vietnam. The research instrument is a Likert questionnaire including two parts: Bio Data and Attitude towards ESP. The study was basically a quantitative research utilizing the descriptive-correlational method and SPSS software to describe and investigate the relationship between students’ select profile variables and their attitude towards English for Specific Purposes (ESP). The findings from this study illustrated that there is a significant relationship between Thaibinh medical students’ attitude towards ESP and their mothers’ education, number of years of studying English, grades in EGP (English for General Purposes) and ESP and native language. Findings also revealed that the profile variables not related to the students’ attitude towards ESP are fathers’ educational attainment and sex.
Keywords: ESP, Medical Student, Relationship, attitude, profile
Developing Productive Transferable CommunicationSkills among ESP Learners Developing Productive Transferable Communication Skills among ESP Learners (Published)
The demand for English for Specific Purposes (ESP) is expanding with the continuing increase of international communication in various fields, especially in countries where English is taught as a foreign language. ESP students need to be trained well to develop transferable oral and written communication skills in English. A proposed unit is designed by the researcher to develop transferable communication skills of a group of ESP learners at King Marriott Higher Institute for Computer Science, Alex., Egypt. Participants of the study sat for a pre-post oral/written communication skills test. Independent samples t-test proved that treatment was effective. The researcher comes to the conclusion that the training on transferable communication skills is ideal since it permits ESP learners to fundamentally enhance their oral and written communication skills as well as apply the content knowledge in the field of their professional practices
Keywords: ESP, oral communication, transferable skills, written communication
Needs Analysis of the English Language Secondary Hotel Students in Jordan (Published)
This study aimed to identify the English language needs for secondary school students’ hotel stream in 2012/2013 in Jordan. More specifically, it attempted to address the following question:What are the English language needs of the hotel stream students in Jordan?The sample of the study consisted of 146 students, 27 teachers from schools of the Ministry of Education and 24 hotel employees in Jordan.To answer the question of the study, a questionnaire was developed by the researcher and addressed to the students, teachers and employees.The findings of the study revealed that there are some real special English language needs and interests for the students in hotel stream in Jordan, these needs and interests motivate and encourage students to learn and build their self –confidence toward the learning process. It is recommended that curriculum designers make use of the resulting identifying these needs and to conduct similar studies for other secondary streams in Jordan and in other countries in the world.