ESP Classes: Sharing a Report

Authors

  • Alireza Bonyadi Faculty of Education, University of Malaya
  • Moses Samuel Department of Language & Literacy Education, University of Malaya

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.11113/lspi.v3n2.38

Abstract

English for specific purposes, ESP, has been taught in Iran’s higher educational centers for years. For certain reasons, however, these courses have been marginalized and less exposed to expert’s criticism and evaluation. To evaluate the effectiveness of these courses in assisting the students to achieve the desired educational objectives, non-participant observations of ESP classes in two of the country’s institutions of higher education were carried out. Based on our observations, we found that developing the reading skills was the main objective of these classes. Moreover, it was found that the students in their struggle to comprehend the assigned reading texts had problems in recognizing the basic sentence structure, the grammatical functions of gerunds, polysemous words and passive voice. The level of difficulty of the texts was found to be the source of reading problems as well. Considering the findings from the observed classes, the paper offers some practical suggestions for qualitative promotion of the classes.

References

Ancic, J. and Shaw-Manencia. 1999. Using ESP texts as Supplementary Materials for English Language Literature students. In English for Specific Purposes: Contradictions and balances. (Ed.). Tokic, B., Davis, M.and Jemersic. J. retrieved November 15, 2006, from http://www.britishcouncil.hr/English/contradictions-and-balances.html.

Broughton, G., Brumfit, C., Flavell, R., Hill, P. and Pincas, A. (eds.). 1994. Teaching English as a Foreign Language. London. Routledge

Creswell, J. W. 2008. Educational research: Planning, Conducting, and evaluating Quantitative and Qualitative Research. New Jersy: Pearson Education.

Darian, S. 2001. Adapting Materials For Language Teaching. Forum. 39(2): 2-10.

Dudley Evans, T. & St. John, M. J. 1998. Developments In English For Specific Purposes: A Multi-Disciplinary Approach. Cambridge: Cambidge University Press.

Gatehouse, K. 2001. Key Issues in English for Specific purposes (ESP) Curriculum Denelopment. The Internet TESL Journal. VII(10): Retrieved December 18, 2006,from Http://www.iteslj.org.

Graves, K. 2001. A Framework Of Course Development Processes. In Hall, D. R. & Hewings, A. (eds.). Innovations in English language Teaching. London: Routledge.

Hutchinson, T., Waters, A. 1993. English For Specific Purposes: A Learner-Centered Approach. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Jeanette, S. Decarrico. 2001. Vocabulary Learning and Teaching. In Teaching English As A Second Or Foreign Language. M. Celle-Murcia. Ed.). Boston: Heinle& Heinle Publishers. 285-301.

Maley, A. 1990. New Lamps For Old: Realism And Surrealism In Foreign Language Teaching. In Currents of Change in English Language Teaching. (Ed.). R. Rossner and R. Bolitho. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Nunnan, D. 1999. Second language Teaching and Learning. Boston: Heinle & Heinle Publishers.

Richards, J. C. 2001. Curriculum Development In Language Teaching Cambridge. Cambridge University Press.

Robinson, P. 1991. ESP Today: A Practitioner’s Guide. New York: Prentice Hall.

Siderova, J. 1999. Writing an ESP Course-book, In English for Specific Purposes: Contradictions and balances. Ed. Tokic, B. Davis, M. and, Jemersic, J. Retrieved March 9, 2003. 167-174. from http://www.britishcouncil.hr/English/contradictions-and-balances.htm.

Xenodohidis, T. H. 2002. An ESP Curriculum for Greek EFL Students of Computing: A New Approach. ESP World. 1(2). Retrieved November 29th, 2006 from http:// www. esp-world.info/index.html.

Yong, C. 2006. From Common Core To Specific. Asian ESP Journal Online. 1(3): 24-47. Retrieved October 28, 2007. From http://www.asian-esp-journal.com/June_2006_yc.php.

Downloads

Published

2018-01-08

Issue

Section

Articles

How to Cite