Bridging ESAP and disciplinary needs in an English curriculum for advanced EST undergraduate students in China

Abstract

The shifting of English education at tertiary level in China from the traditional General English (GE) education which tends to focus on the fundamental knowledge of English language, basic language skills and standardized tests to ESP (English for Specific Purposes)-oriented education that pays attention to the needs of the most important stakeholder of education, the students. ESP-oriented education considers needs analysis to be the foremost important step for designing a curriculum especially for students who are non-English majors. ESP curriculum design thus begins with the various stakeholders, i.e. program management, course designers and teachers, and the disciplinary faculty, thoroughly analyzing the disciplinary requirements for students. This study reports a case study of EST (English for Science and Technology) curriculum revision for a school of science and engineering set up as part of a special national project at a top university in China. The purpose of the revision is to enhance the education of specific academic genres and research skills and to correlate these aspects with the disciplinary needs and subjects. Due the limitation of credits, the number of English subjects was at a minimum, which posed great difficulty in the process of curriculum design. Extra-curricular sessions are added to provide students with more opportunities to learn and practice specific EST and research skills in conjunction with their disciplinary programs such as paper reading and presentation and thesis writing.