Creating ESP-Based Language Learning Environment to Foster Critical Thinking Capabilities in Students’ Papers

Alina O Karapetian

doi:10.12973/eu-jer.9.2.717

Abstract

<p style="text-align:justify">The purpose of this research is to experimentally evaluate how the “flipped classroom” model used to deliver Business English, which is commonly an integral part to the ESP course at tertiary schools of Economics in Ukraine, to the students majoring in Economics fosters students’ critical thinking skills and improved their academic performances and what students’ perceptions of this model are. The learning environment used a multimedia-based textbook entitled “Business skills through English”. This was experimental research which used a mixed-methods approach. Students’ critical thinking skills and academic performance (learning outcomes) were the variables for this study. Placement tests, needs analysis questionnaires, Course Satisfaction Questionnaire, a test to assess the students’ critical thinking skills were used to collect the statistical data. Cronbach Alpha coefficient was applied to interpret the test on critical thinking data and SPSS AMOS statistical package programme was used to analyse the consolidated data. The study found that the “flipped classroom” model used to deliver ESP and Business English to the students majoring in Economics has the potential to provide a better learning experience for the students and teaching experience for the teachers. This model fosters students’ critical thinking skills by involving them in problem-solving-based learning and improves their academic performances by increasing their responsibility for learning results and stimulating them to use different learning styles. Overall, the above model substitutes a teacher-centered with a student-centered approach that engages learners in the true-to-life business world and language environment. In this way, learning Business English and ESP at higher educational institutions in Ukraine is a move from just training memory (memorizing professionalism-related English vocabulary and doing grammar drills) to applying language as a learning medium in the specifically designed vocational contexts.</p>

Highlights

Creating a learning environment that fosters students’ critical thinking capabilities addresses the recent trends in the modern system of occupational training in tertiary school
The study found that the “flipped classroom” model used to deliver ESP and Business English to the students majoring in Economics has the potential to provide a better learning experience for the students and teaching experience for the teachers
The above model substitutes a teacher-centered with a student-centered approach that engages learners in the true-to-life business world and language environment. In this way, learning Business English and ESP at higher educational institutions in Ukraine is a move from just training memory to applying language as a learning medium in the designed vocational contexts

Summary

Introduction

Creating a learning environment that fosters students’ critical thinking capabilities addresses the recent trends in the modern system of occupational training in tertiary school. These trends are about obtaining knowledge independently and about the use different ways of gaining it, using a variety of information sources, to carry out a critical analysis of the information obtained based on the comparison of opposite views and approaches to form their attitude to a certain problem, to present and question their point of view, to make the right decisions. Practical experience of teaching the subject “Foreign Language for Specific Purposes” reveals several contradictions that impede the development of critical thinking of future professionals, namely: 1) the increase in the volume of information, but at the same time, a certain information deficit, in particular, of foreign language professionallyoriented educational materials for the development of critical thinking; 2) highly specialized focus on the textbooks made by teachers, the emphasis on the acquisition of professionally-oriented topics and terminology but insufficient

Objectives

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Discussion

Conclusion