Teaching English for specific purposes at Russian universities: problems teachers have to cope with

Abstract

Any university performance is assessed according to the job placement of its graduates who according to the Russian Federal Educational Standard of higher vocational education must acquire professional skills as well as skills of using Russian and foreign sources of information and being active representatives of domestic companies in business dealings with their overseas partners. Thus, in comparison with English for general purposes taught at Russian schools, students at non-linguistic universities learn English for specific purposes. Since an ESP course is a very demanding one, the paper deals with the main challenges ESP teachers cope with.