Teaching English for Specific Purposes (ESP) to the Students in English Language Teaching (ELT) (original) (raw)
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Problems in Teaching English for Specific Purposes (Esp) in Higher Education
2014
English for Specific Purpose appeared due to the awareness that general English course was not suitable for the learners’ need, especially in higher education. In the teaching of ESP, the materials are focused on the learners’ needs or their specific fields of study and it is assumed that they have basic language skills of general English. The purpose of this study was to analyze the problems that arise in teaching English for Specific Purpose (ESP) in higher education. The writer investigated the problems and the causes by reading many literature reviews related to the topic. The findings showed that there are five main problems in ESP. They are related to (1) teaching pedagogy, (2) the teachers ,(3) the design of the course, (4) students’ ability and (5) students’ needs. Some suggestions are also given to solve the problems in teaching English for Specific Purpose in higher education.
SOME CHALLENGES FOR TEACHERS OF ENGLISH FOR SPECIFIC PURPOSES (ESP).PDF
The aim of this study is to investigate the most common challenges that the teachers of English for Specific Purposes (ESP) face while developing an ESP course or during the teaching process. To achieve the goal of this paper, some of the main ESP theories directly related to this study are introduced and analyzed. It was found out that the most common challenges an ESP teacher encounters are; selecting the teaching materials, designing a course, lack of collaboration with the subject teachers and learners' low general English level which have been discussed in detail in this paper. In addition, this study tries to provide possible solutions to these challenges obtained from the data collected from the survey, from the literature review and theory. Moreover, this study tries to emphasize the importance of the in depth needs analysis, which can be carried out before the ESP courses. The main source of this study was the survey which was carried out among the teachers of ESP at Ishik University (IU) and Fezalar Educational Institution (FEI) in Iraq.
Challenges Faced When Teaching English For Specific Purposes
2013
Introduction: English for Specific Purposes - generally shortened to ESP - is a part of teaching the English language that includes Business English, Technical English, Scientific English, English for medical professionals, English for waiters, etc. In other words, teaching / learning ESP actually means focusing on meeting the specific needs of learners in terms of their professional activity or study discipline. As such and given the specificity of the teaching / learning situation, it may use a methodology that differs entirely or partially from that used when teaching General English. Aims: The purpose of this article is to highlight and present not only the challenges faced when teaching such courses, but also the strategies and means of making the most of this learning situation.. Materials and methods: The teacher must at all times bear in mind the particularities of the educational situation , which, on the one hand, translate into a need for teaching language appropriate to ...
English for Specific Purposes: Role of Learners, Teachers and Teaching Methodologies
Abstract This article aims at presenting insights regarding the peculiar role of learners, teachers and teaching methodologies to address to the specific needs of English for Specific Purposes (ESP) programmes. It has been found out that adulthood teaching demands that ESP teaching should not be restricted only to instructional setting but other modes, such as self-access study, project work, cooperative learning etc. should be incorporated in the program. It has also been reported that ESP learners should be actively involved in the process of the choice of the content materials, curriculum development and teaching methodology to ensure maximum commitment and motivation of the program participants. The following five key roles have been identified for ESP practitioners who need to discharge their work as a 1) teacher, 2) course designer and material provider, 3) collaborator, 4) researcher and 5) evaluator. ESP teachers have to bear the extra burden of the content area of the learners as well. Additionally ESP practitioners have a challenging task because they are not in the position of being the 'primary knower' of the carrier content and in most of the cases ESP learners may know more about the content than the teachers. The findings strongly suggest that ESP teaching calls for an extremely professional behavior on part of ESP teachers who need to update their knowledge by remaining constantly in touch with the research in the various fields of ESP. It is suggested that no single teaching methodology can be sufficient to address diverse and peculiar needs of ESP learners and ESP practitioners have to pick and choose from a host of teaching methodologies to run an effective ESP course. It may be summed up that as the learners’ personalities as well as the learning contexts are diverse and specific, there is an unavoidable need to choose matching pedagogical methodologies. Key words: English for Specific Purposes; Practitioner; ESP learners; Needs Analysis
The Challenges of Teaching for English Specific Purposes in Higher Education
2018
English for Specific Purposes appeared due to the awareness that general English course was not suitable for the learners’ need, especially in higher education. In teaching ESP, the materials are focused on the learners’ needs or their specific fields of study and it is assumed that they have basic language skills of general English. The purpose of this study was to analyze the challenges that arise in teaching English for Specific Purpose (ESP) in higher education. This article is aimed at describing some of the learning problems esp. A lot of the problems from the teachers, materials production, the error of learner assessment. In order to minimize these effects, some solutions are offered. The solutions are increase the ability of lecturers ,materials development, and the course evalution.
TEACHING ENGLISH FOR SPECIFIC PURPOSES AND TEACHER TRAINING
The need for a lingua franca of science, technology, education, and business has led to the worldwide demand of English for Specific Purpose (ESP). The field of ESP has rapidly developed recently to become a major part in English language teaching and research. Therefore, the needs to understand the requirements of other professions and willingness to adapt to these requirements make a specific group of learners prepare differently from those learning general English, because they need English for specific purposes rather than using it in daily life. Thus the ESP approach provides opportunities to the learners to acquire English naturally, which means that, by working with language in a context that they comprehend and find interesting. But, what is the situation in Albania? Are the university classes in Albania applying this approach and what efforts are they making about ESP application, since students are in need of learning not only English for general purposes. Therefore, this paper aims to discuss some basic concepts of the 'English for Specific Purposes' (ESP) approach to language teaching, types of ESP, the ways how ESP teachers should be trained so that they can be professionals an well-prepared to meet learners` needs, and lastly a comparison is made between the "General English" teacher and the so-called ESP practitioner proposed by Dudley-Evans and St. John under the headings of teacher, collaborator, course designer and materials provider, researcher, and evaluator.
English for Specific Purposes: Its Definition, Characteristics, Scope and Purpose
Abstract The present study is an attempt to understand English for Specific Purposes (ESP): an extremely significant branch of ELT by encompassing various linguists’ efforts to define it, tracing its historical growth, discussing its characteristics, and trying to find out its scope and purpose to address the specific needs of EFL/ESL learners. Though lots of contradicting views have been reported in defining ESP but there seems an agreement finally that it is confined to the teaching of English to the learners who have specific goals and purposes: these goals might be professional, academic or scientific. Thus it is not the specific discipline that is primary in ESP but the specific goal of specific learners. The same has been reinforced by the discussion related to its absolute and variable characteristics. Historical growth of ESP has also been traced and it has been reported that though it is considered a modern approach ESP textbooks existed even in the sixteenth century. It is found out that the purpose of an ESP course is to enable learners to function adequately in the target situation. Thus an ESP program should be aim-directed, learnerdirected and situation-directed. An ESP course should have the following three features a) authentic material, b) purpose-related orientation and c) self-direction. Keywords: English for specific purposes, characteristics, specific needs, authentic material
In this present age of rapidly developing international scientific collaboration and business, courses of foreign language for specialist purposes are becoming more and more popular. These courses are conducted on the basis of the approach called English for Specific Purposes (ESP). This approach assumes that the language teaching will be adjusted to the specific linguistic and communicative needs of the particular learners with special attention being paid to the context in which they use, or will use, English language. In order to tailor the course to the learners' needs, the ESP course should be preceded by an analysis of the learners' needs as related to their future professional work and plans for the future, as well as to their preferred styles of learning. This needs analysis should also include within its scope some target situation analysis, which means the identifying of the features of the particular situations in which the students will use the foreign language, and also some discourse analysis, that is to say, the analysis of the language used in these situations. The source of information on the students' needs are students themselves, and both their teachers and their future employers. Methods of collecting the information include questionnaires, interviews and talks. All these procedures aim at maximization of the effectiveness of the teaching process. The aim of this work is to present both a theoretical and a practical basis for the methodology which underpins courses of ESP, and explain what makes them different from courses of General English, as well as considering some of the methodological implications for language teachers. Introduction After the collapse of communism in Poland in 1989, a great trend has been observed within the country in the learning of the English language, especially the English language necessary for academic or professional purposes. The reason for this has been related to the opportunities given to scholars and students to participate in international conferences and projects, as well as the opportunities for them to teach and to study at prominent universities abroad. The work market abroad has been opened up for Polish specialists in various professions. With the inclusion of Poland to the European Union in 2004, the borders were abolished and visa-free tourism developed rapidly. However, in order to be able to function actively in all these enterprises a good command not only of general English, but also specialist English, is required. This includes the knowledge of vocabulary and linguistic structures used in the target academic and work settings. Nowadays, in this era of global scientific and professional cooperation where English is the leading language both for communication and for the dissemination of knowledge, the need for the courses teaching of a specialist English language (ESP) is stronger than ever before. As a result of all this English for Specific Purposes has developed into being one of the most prominent branches of EFL. There are two main areas in ESP: English for Academic Purposes (EAP), which prepares students for studying in foreign universities, and English for Occupational/Professional Purposes (EOP/EPP), which prepares learners for functioning in a particular profession. It covers subjects ranging from engineering, law, medicine or computer science to tourism and business management. The general classification of ESP courses, according to the scientific disciplines or professional areas they cover, is shown in Figure 1.