CASE STUDY: ATTITUDE AND NEEDS ANALYSIS IN A CLIL UNIVERSITY CLASS (original) (raw)

The article was published at the Conference Proceedings of the "CLIL Methodology in University Instruction: Online and in the Classroom", 13-14 February 2009, University of Urbino. Acknowledging the new international working demands, following the major expansion that the European Union has recently undergone and the overall globalization, the methodology of CLIL in teaching and learning English seems to be the best solution for university students, since its benefits may be seen in terms of cultural awareness, internationalisation, language competence, preparation for both study and working life, and increased motivation. The curriculum of the department of Marketing and Operations Management of the University of Macedonia, in Edessa includes the following compulsory subjects at the 1st and 2nd year of studies: “Academic Vocabulary in English and Reading Comprehension Skills” - English I, “Writing for Academic Purposes in English” - English II, “Vocational English” - English III and “Presentation skills”- English IV. The English teachers attempt to develop learning material by selecting contemporary authentic texts from worldwide known financial magazines and websites and by designing activities so as to improve specific skills. In the course “Academic Vocabulary in English and Reading Comprehension Skills” students are introduced to a variety of authentic financial texts, such as newspaper articles, articles published on the Internet, book extracts etc, in order to enrich their vocabulary, familiarize them with the different written genres and improve different techniques of reading. The course “Writing for Academic Purposes” focuses on developing students’ abilities to classify, organize, compose and formulate a text in a coherent way. The different parts of a thesis, content and form (preface-introduction-chapters-conclusion-notes-indexes-references) are also explored. The courses “Vocational English” and “Presentation skills” are conducted mostly via Information Communication Technology. Among others, students write their Curriculum Vitae in English by using the site of European Commission, a motivation letter, a thank you letter to their employer, a report about a colleague and, as an assignment, they are asked to present an international company (using PowerPoint). Accepting the aforementioned and focusing on the learner’s active participation, this research aims at observing and investigating learners’ needs and views by engaging them in the process of self assessment and evaluation of the course. More specifically, the aims of this research are: to introduce self-evaluation and self-assessment in ESP learning and teaching and more importantly to study and explore learners' attitudes and needs in terms of the usefulness of the various activities, materials, tools, lesson plans, class organisation methods adopted in content teaching in a foreign language. In the case of the department of Marketing and Operations Management, content teaching refers to business and financial issues.