English For Specific Purposes Course Research Articles

ОСОБЛИВОСТІ ПЛАНУВАННЯ ТА ПРОВЕДЕННЯ КУРСІВ АНГЛІЙСЬКОЇ МОВИ ДЛЯ ВІЙСЬКОВИХ

The article is devoted to the peculiarities of planning and conducting dpecial courses of English languafe which would be oriented on the improvement soldiers’ communicative skills. The author underlines that within modern conditions the security and safety of our country needs a highly-qualified military professionals. Thus, the change should involve the training of the English language teachers, able to plan and conduct ESP (English for Specific Purposes) courses for different purposes, including «English for the Military Forces». The purpose of the study is to reveal the features of the planning and conducting ESP courses for the Military Forces. The obiect of the research work is the author’s written syllabus for the ESP course for the military forces. It is made the stress on the fact that nowadays the Ukrainian army transforms according to NATO standards, which must be resulted in the cooperative international activities. One of the important steps is the training of the soldiers and command staff, able to communicate with foreign collegues in English because it it is necessary for the performance and execution of common combat tasks along with the troops of the Alliance. Mastering English during the planned ESP course gives the carreer opportunities for our soldiers because they will be able to become the world-class class specialists. This could be realised due to the especially planned ESP Courses, which could be conducted on the base of the educational institutions considering the peculiarities of the work with the students within the Multicultural Educational Society. The article contains the author’s syllabus, which includes the content which should be mastered by the soldiers and command staff. The prposed tasks from the ESP course are based on the non-standard methods of teaching military forces including problem-solving methods of teaching, active, creative forms and methods such as the project method, «brainstorming», discussions, the method of podcasts, the associative method, training in collaboration or cooperative learning, sliding, case-study and role-playing games, argumentative essay writing, concept maps, webs, charts, flipped classroom, content and language integrated learning (CLIL) etc. Key words: ESP (English for specific purposes), English for the military forces, methods of teaching, modern technologies of teaching English, English language courses.

Effective approaches in teaching English for specific purposes

Nowadays the English language is the language of international communication. It is used by representatives of various professional spheres. Consequently, there is high demand for ESP (English for Specific Purposes) courses. ESP focuses on the specific needs of learners who require English for their professional or academic pursuits. This study aims to explore the most effective teaching methods for English for Specific Purposes (ESP) as well as present an overview of various teaching approaches and highlights their effectiveness in ESP courses.

Enhancing technical vocabulary acquisition: a multimedia strategic approach for English for specific purposes during COVID-19

ABSTRACT This study focuses on developing specific vocabulary learning strategies to assist the receptive knowledge of English for Specific Purposes (ESP). It aims to provide a practical framework for teaching technical vocabulary. The study introduced the Multimedia Strategic Vocabulary Learning (MSVL) model and investigated its effects on teaching technical vocabulary to pre-engineering students in online courses during the early wave of COVID-19. A total of 88 Saudi undergraduate students randomly assigned to control and experimental groups were treated with an intact pre-engineering ESP course for ten weeks. Vocabulary learning strategies from Schmitt's (1997) vocabulary taxonomy were adopted and incorporated into two stages of the vocabulary acquisition process. The experimental group was treated with the MSVL model through multimedia and explicit vocabulary learning instructions in online classes using Blackboard Learning Management System (LMS) to assist them with specialized vocabulary acquisition. The dependent measure in this study was the participants’ receptive knowledge of technical vocabulary, which was assessed using the pre-test, post-test, and delayed post-test. The findings indicated that using the MSVL model significantly improved the experimental group's receptive knowledge of technical vocabulary. This study's guidelines help educators create multimedia resources for ESP learners, preparing them for their professions.

English for Specific Purposes, English Proficiency, and Academic Achievement in English-Medium Instruction: A Mediation Analysis

The implementation of English-Medium Instruction (EMI) at higher education institutions pose challenges for the students in achieving content mastery and improving English proficiency as the two most expected outcomes. English for Specific Purposes (ESP) is designed to provide English and learning support for EMI students in achieving the EMI “dual benefits.” This study aimed to examine the relationship between ESP, English proficiency, and academic achievement of EMI students at a university in Indonesia and the mediating effect of English proficiency on the relationship between ESP and academic achievement. This quantitative study employed empirical institutional data about ESP course grades, English proficiency scores, and the overall grade point average of 246 EMI students at a faculty of social science at a state university in Indonesia. A regression analysis using a process by Hayes was performed as the analytical tool. It was found that ESP positively predicted both EMI students’ academic achievement and English proficiency. English proficiency was shown to partially mediate the relationship between ESP and the academic achievement of the EMI students. Both ESP and English proficiency is crucial in enhancing the EMI students’ disciplinary knowledge understanding. Recommendations for more collaborations and language and learningsupports and further studies are provided.
 Keywords: English for Specific Purposes, English proficiency, academic achievement, English-Medium Instruction, higher education

Teaching English for Specific Purpose Through a Book Entitled “Communicating at Work: Principles and Practices for Business and the Professions”

This study aims to investigate the experience of teaching ESP (English for Specific Purpose) courses for students of the communication science study program at Mbojo Bima University. Dominantly, ESP teaching uses an English book entitled "Communicating at Work". This book was written by Ronald B. Adler and Jeanne Marquardt Elmhorst and was printed in the fifth edition and published by The McGraw Hill Companies. The subtitle of this book reads "principles and practices for business and the professions". Researchers use Narrative research to describe the knowledge of teachers. One of the campuses that uses this book is Mbojo Bima University and in the view of researchers it is very suitable for the needs of communication science students as a reference for ESP courses. Teaching with this book reflects the life of the work career. There are several descriptions of the reviews contained in it, including materials on how to communicate in the world of work involving cultural aspects, language skills and strategies for dealing with the world of work. The weakness of this book is that the use of English is at an intermediate level. However, overall ESP teaching books using this book are very helpful in explaining ESP concepts. The basic things about English in general have been taught in the previous semester and this ESP course is used as a complement.

How do Finnish and Chinese students’ diverse pedagogical experiences shape feedback interpretation?


 Due to the dissemination of joint degree programmes in higher education, more students from different educational backgrounds are exposed to the same teaching and assessment without sharing a common pedagogical culture. Since this is relatively new in Finland, little is known about how students with diverse backgrounds experience assessment compared to their Finnish classmates and how this affects their overall performance. Having as a starting point an English for Specific Purposes course offered in Finland and China, this qualitative study focuses on the role of feedback through seventeen in-depth interviews. Themes such as grades and peer feedback were interpreted based on the educational background to which the students have been previously exposed. These findings indicate that the teacher should be aware of their previous pedagogical experiences and how these affect feedback in the classroom. Additionally, peer feedback needs to be addressed explicitly by the teacher during the lessons and create more scaffolding opportunities to avoid potential misinterpretations.

PEDAGOGICAL ASPECTS OF FORMING ENGLISH LANGUAGE PROFESSIONALLY ORIENTED COMPETENCE OF FUTURE DOCTORS THROUGH THE PRISM OF COMMUNICATIVE EXERCISES

Abstract. The article covers the issues of the practical use of English language communicative exercises as a constituent of medical students’ professional competence. The core of foreign language competence as an integral part of the professional competence of health care specialist is identified. The development of a medical student’s foreign language competence is an essential concept of the professional education in higher educational medical establishments and is implemented through mastering the specifics of language competence at its phonetic, lexical and grammatical levels of study. The emphasis is placed on the need of educational communicative exercises analysis as a core component of English for Specific Purposes (ESP). The issues of special subject contents within the course of ESP, choice of teaching materials, advance of students’ communicative component in the mastering of the English language skills are reviewed. The main elements of the medical students’ communicative competence are defined; science-based classification system of exercises for the formation of communicative competence is regarded; the necessity of lexical mastering for adequate opinion formation is emphasized. Both theoretical and methodological aspects of testing students’ foreign language professional competence in the process of studying professionally oriented English are highlighted. It has been found that the practical use of the communicative exercises makes it possible to develop speech skills and abilities, thus providing an opportunity to evaluate, express own opinions and promote self-development and self-actualization of medical students.

Dialog chatbot as an interactive online tool in enhancing ESP vocabulary learning

PurposeBased on an experimental study on English for Specific Purposes (ESP) students, at the Business Department at the University of Bisha, the purpose of the study is to examine the effect of chatbot use on learning ESP in online classrooms during COVID-19 and find out how Dialogflow chabot can be a useful and interactive online platform to help ESP learners in learning vocabulary well.Design/methodology/approachThe research paper is based on an experimental study of two groups, an experiential group and a controlled group. Two tests were carried out. Pre-tests and post-test of vocabulary knowledge were conducted for both groups to explore the usefulness of using the Dialogflow chatbot in learning ESP vocabulary. A designed chatbot content was prepared and included all the vocabulary details related to words' synonyms and a brief explanation of words’ meanings. An informal interview is another tool used in the study. The purpose of using the interview with the participants was to elicit more data from the participants about using the chatbot and about how and in what aspects chatbot using the conversational program was useful and productive.FindingsThe findings of the study explored that the use of chatbots plays a major role in enhancing and learning ESP vocabulary. That was clear as the results showed that the students who used the chatbot Dialogflow in the experimental group outperformed their counterparts in the control group.Research limitations/implicationsThe study displays an important pedagogical implication as the use of chatbots could be applied in several settings to improve language learning in general or learning ESP courses in particular. Chatbot creates an interesting environment to foster build good interactions where negotiation of meaning takes place clearly seems to be of great benefit to help learners advance in their L2 lexical development.Originality/valueExamining and exploring whether the use of chatbots plays a major role in enhancing and learning ESP vocabulary in English as Foreign Language setting.

An analysis of teachers’ questioning strategies during the classroom interaction in English for specific purposes

This research aimed to find out the questioning strategy used by lecturer in teaching English during the classroom interaction especially in online learning process. The method used in this research was descriptive qualitative. The participant in this study was an English lecturer at UBHI PGRI Tulungagung who teaches the English for Specific Purposes course. The researcher used purposive sampling by taking one lecturer as a participant. To gather the data, the writer used observation and interview. Based on the data analysis, it was found that the lecturer used several questioning strategies, based on four questioning strategies categories suggested by Wangru (2016). The findings of this study showed that probing and redirecting strategies were most frequently employed by the lecturer, then prompting is quite often used by the lecturer, and repeating was the strategy employed the least. The conclusion of the questioning strategy is the lecturer commitment in teaching English during the classroom interaction to find out whether students understand the material or not and also arouse interest and curiosity about a topic, develop an active learning approach, the end stimulate students to ask themselves and others, to check on students understanding, to obtain information and control the class.

AUGMENTING COMMUNICATIVE AND COLLABORATIVE SKILLS IN AN ESP ONLINE GROUP PROJECT

Rapid technological advancements have resulted in a more user-friendly conducive virtual learning environment. Despite a vast corpus of research on online learning utilising an asynchronous online forum (OF) to improve English, studies on OF to improve English and develop 21st-century skills of communication and collaboration at the university level in Malaysia are still limited. This paper reports the use of OF via a learning management system (LMS) as a platform for teaching and learning in an English for Specific Purpose (ESP) course. This study comprised 26 participants from a public university to look at how OF was implemented in an ESP course to enhance communication and collaboration. Data from interviews and reflective journals were obtained from the participants during their involvement in OF. The findings of this study demonstrate that using OF helps students enhance their 21st century skills like communication and collaboration. It is evident that OF can become a recommended platform for enhancing students to improve 21st century skills based on the promising responses received from the participants in this study. The findings also suggest that OF is relevant for engagement of the language learners and may be worthy to be implemented in English courses or other courses tertiary level.

Introduction to Academic Writing Course (MBBS)

The demand for the study of second or foreign-language English is extremely high, which places a heavy burden on educational resources in many nations. Specific vocabulary and abilities pertaining to professional communities and academic fields are needed for ESP courses. Internationally, English is used extensively in higher education. The demand for academic English courses has grown significantly (Jordan, 1997).English, the universal language of science, is now known as English for Specific Purposes (ESP) in non-English speaking nations (Ghanbari, 2010). The teaching of English as a Second Language (ESP) in Sindh is a growing field. Learning English for a specific purpose is an essential part of language instruction at the higher educational level, with the objectives being to learn specialized vocabulary, increase subject knowledge by reading in English, and be able to use the language in a potential profession or study area by getting ready for some common situations, like carrying out higher level studies, attending an interview, or conducting professional conversations (Varnosfardani, 2009).Many English language courses in academic contexts are built on the premise that language should be connected to the purpose for which students are expected to use the language after their studies. For medical students, the purpose of an ESP course is to support them in there is academic work and future jobs. English is particularly significant in medical learning because medical textbooks and professional publications are predominantly written in English (Bensoussan, Collado, Viton, & Delarque, 2009).English as the primary language for international communication is now generally acknowledged. Determine the issues with ESP classes by carefully examining the attitudes and views of students and teachers. Learning a second language is generally seen as distinct from learning one’s native tongue, and it is frequently believed that factors affecting one’s ability to learn a second language have no bearing on the development of one’s native tongue.Knowledge of a second language affects one’s capacity to manage information in the native tongue. Contemporary cognitive and psycholinguistic models of bilingualism claim that the two languages interact, even during language-specific processing. Understanding the interaction between two languages is crucial since it is still being determined how acquiring a second language impacts native-language function.Background of the study:At an average age of 18, Dow Medical University in Sindh students enter medical college straight out of high school. To evaluate students, the educational system mostly uses teacher-based assignments, exams based on memorization, and norm-referenced tests. The majority of students develop passive learning habits as a result. The major language of instruction in Sindh’s secondary school system is urdu; beginning in grade 4, English is introduced as a second language. Because the medical school curriculum is delivered in English, all first-year students receive an intensive English course in addition to their other premedical requirements, regardless of their level of language proficiency.Students are soon made aware of the necessity to acquire effective learning abilities when they realize how much more academic pressure there is when they enroll in the university.Statement of the problem:As a result of the English language barrier, medical students learning in an EFL environment have been seen to struggle with their medical schoolwork. The students are familiar with the specific vocabulary and grammatical patterns used in this context of the English language.

Instagram as a learning tool to improve technical vocabulary for sports science students

The present paper shares a learning and teaching experience built on a project-based methodology using Instagram accounts to improve technical vocabulary in the ESP classroom. Participants were 75 undergraduate sports science students who attended our English for Professional and Academic Communication ESP course at the Universidad Politécnica de Madrid (Spain) and participated in the project during the spring semester of 2022. To achieve our objective, the participants were divided into 16 self-arranged groups, each expected to develop a fitness project based on Instagram accounts. At the end of the experience, participants were invited to complete an ad hoc designed questionnaire giving their opinion about the use of Instagram accounts as a learning tool to acquire specific vocabulary in the field of sports science. The learners reported high positive perceptions towards using Instagram to develop technical vocabulary. This paper recommends observing quality standards when integrating Instagram content into English for Specific Purposes (ESP) courses.

Značaj engleskog jezika za posebne namene i njegova rastuća uloga - studentska poimanja i stavovi

The knowledge of the English language, as a global lingua franca is necessary for following professional literature, communicating with foreign business partners, as well as correspondence and various forms of written expression. An important aspect of language education on the higher educational level is learning English for a given purpose. ESP (English for Specific Purposes), as a subfield of the English language, that is distinct and special, is an excellent means for individuals to connect and communicate within a certain profession. The primary objective of a foreign language learning curriculum, utilising a communicative approach, is to equip students with the requisite knowledge and practical skills to effectively communicate in a second language. The aim of this paper is to examine to what extent university students are motivated to learn ESP, as well as to what extent they are aware of the importance of ESP for the profession they have chosen. This paper also aims to determine whether students, who after many years of learning English continue to study it at the university, have any particular expectations from the ESP course in the first year of study, whether there are certain difficulties with the acquisition of professional terminology, as well as to what extent the students are satisfied with the achieved success. The paper employed quantitative research as a research methodology to evaluate the set hypothesis by statistically analyzing numerical data. Questionnaires were used to collect data which then were analysed using descriptive statistics in order to provide exact and reliable information.

INTEGRATING ‘UNDERLINE’ TECHNOLOGY IN TEACHING ESP REMOTELY

The article is devoted to the problem of integrating digital tool Underline into the remote classes in the framework of English for specific purposes course (ESP). Underline is a Google Chrome extension that is regarded as a reading tool. It enables students to develop their vocabulary while browsing foreign language content (article, forum etc). The aim of the article is to describe, Underline and assess its effectiveness in ESP remote class. To achieve this goal, we examined the options of Underline precisely and singled out its advantages. When studying the effectiveness of Underline, we conducted a survey based on an anonymous questionnaire created in Google Forms. The research was carried out among the students of 4th year of study of the Institute of Physical Education and Sports during the first semester, the 2023-2024 academic year at LNU Taras Shevchenko National University. The results of the study revealed that Underline facilitates students to process English language content on the Internet greatly. Thus, it has made reading online more enjoyable and attractive. Moreover, it has improved students’ motivation in dealing with reading professionally-oriented texts and contributed to autonomous learning of new words using Underline mobile application.

Integrating content and language in ESP teaching

This paper presents and describes an English for Specific Purposes (ESP) course designed for second year forestry students using the principles of Content and Language Integrated Learning (CLIL). Starting with a theoretical overview of what CLIL stands for, the discussion continues with a presentation of the ESP course aimed at the efficient acquisition of the target language and of the content knowledge represented by specialized terminology. Examples of activities that engage the four language skills, i.e. reading, listening, speaking, and writing, are also provided before the concluding remarks, which reveal some advantages and limitations of applying the CLIL strategy in teaching ESP.

Towards a communication-focused ESP course for nursing students in building partnership with patients: A needs analysis

With the growing popularity of English for Specific Purposes (ESP) nursing courses worldwide, considerable work has gone to identifying the English language learning needs of nurses and nursing students, with their perceptions well documented. However, needs analyses grounded in students' communicative behaviors in performing nursing tasks are still in their fledging stage. This study offers an ethnographic discourse analytical account of role-play conversations collected from 100 college nursing students in China. It explores nursing students' communicative practices by identifying the communication patterns that students adopt in a simulated scenario of giving a patient an injection. Findings show students' awareness of patients’ concern and preferences, and their informational skills such as giving instructions, negotiating treatment options, and explaining medical procedures. Yet students demonstrate a great reliance on prescribed phraseology, struggling to adjust their nursing plan based on differing patient needs. This study sheds light on the specificity of ESP nursing courses and the challenges complicated by the changing nature of the global healthcare landscape, where patient-centered care is prioritized. It also provides implications for ESP curriculum development and highlights the importance of learner-centered tailor-made language instruction.

Translation-based task in an ESP classroom: Tlemcen University as a case study

Integrating translation in English for specific purposes (ESP) teaching and learning is a crucial issue since the last decade of the 20th century. This paper aims to analyse the role of translation as a helpful tool for ESP classes on the use of translation in ESP teaching and learning. Therefore, a case study is employed to describe the necessity of using translation in ESP classes, especially, for third-year computer science students at the University of Tlemcen. A mixed method was used; a questionnaire was administered to ESP teachers in the Department of Science and Technology, and classroom observation on third-year students of computer science was conducted. The results revealed that computer sciences students at the University of Tlemcen faced various hindrances when dealing with professional resources which are mainly at the level of content due to the nature of ESP courses they were exposed to during their studies.
 Keywords: Computer science; ESP; ESP courses; students; translation.

English for Specific Purposes: An Overview: Definitions, Characteristics and Development

This paper discusses the importance of English for Specific Purposes (ESP) and traces its historical growth. It comprises the attempts of linguists to define it, each from a different prospective. This review also attempts to find out the purpose of ESP and its scope and how ESP courses are different from General English (GE) courses as well as the features and the requirements of an ESP course. It also discusses the needs analysis that is a crucial requirement for an ESP course and the importance of ESP courses for students as well as professionals. It discusses the teaching and learning process of an ESP course and highlights the fact that the creation, planning and structuring of an ESP course is a very challenging mission because it has to be tailored to the requirements of its learners. 
  

Distance Training of Pragmatic Competence of Law Students via Legal Cases in an English for Specific Purposes Course

The priority of the competence approach aimed at developing professional competency of higher education students reflects the labour market need for graduates with the skills required by their speciality and relevant to the interrelated disciplines. In the case of law students, such skills include awareness of both domestic and foreign legal systems, as well as full communicative competence in the foreign language they are going to use. A key component of foreign language communicative competence is pragmatic competence—that is, knowledge about how a foreign language is used appropriately in a legal context. The research conducted contributes to the issue of pragmatic competence training by means of a practice-oriented method—that is, the case method. The significance of the case method is determined by the twofold goal of developing pragmatic competence via pseudo-real legal situations that provide students with legal knowledge, as well as stimulate them to be effective communicators in the legal sphere. The study took place at SPbPU and involved 120 s-year law students. The experiment conducted was aimed at comparing the case method and traditional methods used for teaching Legal English, particularly the first legal advice strategy—a component of pragmatic competence. A specific feature of the experiment was that it was organized in the form of distance learning. To collect and analyse the data of the study, a qualitative and a quantitative method were applied. The results of the study showed a high efficiency of the case method for fostering pragmatic competence in an ESP course for law students in comparison with traditional methods, which were not very efficient. Besides, the experiment showed that an on-line format may be an adequate methodological means of effectively achieving the goal in a foreign language training for professional needs in a course with a time limit.

Descriptive and inferential statistical analysis of expectations and needs of engineering students and graduates: a case study at the University of West Bohemia

Abstract A good command of English for Specific Purposes (ESP) among Czech engineers seems to be of crucial importance since the engineering field has been developing rapidly and the Czech labour market is becoming increasingly international (Eurostat 2020). The authors of this article, who supervise the ESP courses offered to the students of the Faculty of Mechanical Engineering (FST) at the University of West Bohemia (UWB) in Pilsen (Czech Republic), attempt to meet the changing needs of the engineering field by conducting needs analyses among students, university graduates and prospective employers, and keeping their ESP courses’ syllabi up-to-date and relevant to their engineering students. This paper presents a comparative analysis of a questionnaire that was distributed in the year 2021 among UWB engineering students and graduates. Having analysed the responses that dealt with graduates’ needs and students’ expectations of using ESP in a workplace, the authors noticed several discrepancies between the answers they received from the students and those they received from the graduates. Based on the analysis, a hypothesis that current students sometimes have misconceptions about their future work life has been formulated. To confirm this hypothesis, in the next stage of the research, selected students and graduates are to be interviewed to gather additional information. The authors also wish to examine this hypothesis by having prospective engineering employers reply to the same survey questions.