Exploration of the Second Time Development of ESP Materials: Classroom Practice and Teachers’ Roles

Abstract

This study investigates teachers’ second time development of ESP materials in the context of ESP curriculum reform in a Chinese university where a newly published series of textbooks are used. Data collected from classroom observations were analyzed to reveal teachers’ practice in the second time development of materials. Semi-structured interviews with ESP teachers were conducted to disclose the hidden agendas of teachers by a thorough thematic analysis. Results show that teachers’ second time development techniques mainly include omitting the “Researching Task” part, supplementing more “critical thinking” tasks, glancing through the “Reading Strategies” and simplifying the interpretation of discipline-related content. More advanced development strategies such as adding more discipline-related knowledge, changing the instructional sequence, reconstructing or creating certain contents are seldom used. The overall second time development practice indicates that teachers would rather simplify the teaching process than make it meaningful. Inability, laziness, the lack of awareness, and fear of making mistakes are the main causes of teachers’ rudimentary development practice. This study then suggests that institutions and teacher educators should offer special programs that can improve teachers’ skills in the second time development of teaching materials, take measures to enhance ESP teachers’ disciplinary/content knowledge, and enforce rigorous management so as to make the second development of ESP materials more effective and thus improve the quality and efficiency of ESP teaching and learning.