English For Specific Purposes Teachers Research Articles

Developing Communicative Competence in Students of Higher Medical Schools

AbstractCommunicative competence has been the central point of a great number of English for specific purposes (ESP) studies. However, its relevance to second language acquisition by medical students and attainability are still to be established as the critical evaluation of the present findings may help to create a valuable inventory for practical use in a classroom. The review set out to explore the present-day concept of communicative competence with regard to ESP teaching and ways of its development in students of medical universities. It analyzed the structure of the concept of communicative competence generally viewed as comprising both linguistic and extralinguistic constituents. Special emphasis was placed on the aspect of enhancing competitive competence through students’ involvement in oral communication. One of the most effective ways of developing communication skills in ESP classes in medical schools is exposure to authentic communication using Internet facilities. The videos should be thematically adjusted to the students’ professional needs and correlate with their level of linguistic and professional expertise. This approach helps to accomplish a number of teaching goals such as providing students with the information about the framework of speech events iterative in medical and academic spheres, communication patterns used in them, and raising their professional and socio-cultural awareness. It also aims to develop their ability to perform speech activities within a wide range of professional and academic contexts. The review made it possible to identify efficient reproductive and productive teaching methods to be employed.

THE PORTRAIT OF AUTHENTIC MATERIAL IN TEACHING ENGLISH FOR SPECIFIC PURPOSES (ESP) AT SMK NEGERI 2 CIREBON

The aim of this research is to investigate teaching and learning English for Specific Purposes (ESP) at SMK Negeri 2 Cirebon using the authentic materials. The method which used in this research is descriptive qualitative research. The techniques of collecting data are observation, interview and document study to know the process of teaching and learning ESP using authentic materials. The population in this research is students of hotel accommodation program. The sample of this research was a hotel accommodation class and an English teacher. The validity data in this research are credibility, dependability, transferability and conformability. Credibility refers to triangulation data of the observation, interview transcriptions and documents. Dependability refers to parallels prove, transferability refers to study previous document and conformability refers to the research objectivity. The result of this research shows that the process using authentic materials in teaching ESP works good, because the teacher selected the authentic learning materials appropriately relevance with students’ needs and interests. Therefore, the teacher has positive response and the students also have the positive responses to the teaching and learning ESP using authentic materials. In this research, the researcher found good portrait of authentic materials toward teaching and learning ESP at hotel accommodation program and the positive response between teacher and students about teaching and learning ESP using the authentic material. Keywords: ESP, Authentic Materials, Teaching Speaking

PROMOTING LESSON STUDY AT ENGLISH FOR SPECIFIC PURPOSES (ESP): TEACHER’S BEST PRACTICE CONTEXT

English for Specific Purposes (ESP) is an exciting movement in language education. It widens the opportunities for English teachers and researchers to explore the curriculum, course planning and implementation of ESP education. However, there are several problems in teaching ESP. one of the most problems is students’ engagement in the class because they felt learning English unrelated to their major. Therefore, this research concerns to investigate the implementation of Lesson Study in Teaching English for Specific Purposes (ESP) to sharpen the students’ critical thinking. Lesson Study has been a precious motion for recent decades, principally for the sake of teachers’ professional development and students’ critical thinking. This research involved 5 ESP teachers. They acquired equal chance to be a teacher model and observer in the LS process. This research conducted in 2 cycles with three phases; Plan, Do, and See. This research employed observation and document analysis as the tools to collect the data. This Lesson study was implemented into two stages, planning and implementation. However, it can encourage the students to participate actively along the learning process because cycle 1 can provide student’s participation 90% and in cycle 2, 95% of students involved in the learning process.

PROMOTING LESSON STUDY AT ENGLISH FOR SPECIFIC PURPOSES (ESP): TEACHER’S BEST PRACTICE CONTEXT

English for Specific Purposes (ESP) is an exciting movement in language education. It widens the opportunities for English teachers and researchers to explore the curriculum, course planning and implementation of ESP education. However, there are several problems in teaching ESP. one of the most problems is students’ engagement in the class because they felt learning English unrelated to their major. Therefore, this research concerns to investigate the implementation of Lesson Study in Teaching English for Specific Purposes (ESP) to sharpen the students’ critical thinking. Lesson Study has been a precious motion for recent decades, principally for the sake of teachers’ professional development and students’ critical thinking. This research involved 5 ESP teachers. They acquired equal chance to be a teacher model and observer in the LS process. This research conducted in 2 cycles with three phases; Plan, Do, and See. This research employed observation and document analysis as the tools to collect the data. This Lesson study was implemented into two stages, planning and implementation. However, it can encourage the students to participate actively along the learning process because cycle 1 can provide student’s participation 90% and in cycle 2, 95% of students involved in the learning process.

An investigation into English language use in the Vietnamese hospitality industry: The language of money exchange

Within the tourism and hospitality industry in Vietnam, English is now a dominant means of communication between staff and guests who come from different countries. The ability to communicate effectively in English is therefore an important attribute for those employed within the industry. Courses in English for Specific Purposes (ESP), such as English for Tourism and Hotel (English for Tourism Management/English for Hotel Management), are now part of English language programmes in Vietnamese educational institutions. These courses emphasise the importance of developing high-level English language communication skills for students. However, the teaching of these courses has mainly been conducted in the classroom environment, using textbooks which are written and published outside Vietnam. Given that recent research has focused on the need to teach language as it is used in authentic contexts, it is important for the teaching of ESP to understand how English is used in a real-life setting in the Vietnamese tourism and hospitality sector.
 This paper reports on the findings from a study which obtained and analysed hundreds of examples of authentic English language used by guests and staff in four different hotels in Vietnam. For illustrative purposes, the paper focuses on the language of interactions related to currency exchange, and examines the implications of the study findings for the teaching of ESP in Vietnam.

Personal learning environment: an experience with ESP teacher training

ABSTRACT English for Specific Purposes (ESP) teacher development has become a crucial issue in ESP teaching and research. How to equip ESP teachers with necessary knowledge and skills in the digital era becomes a hot topic. A Personal Learning Environment (PLE) is a potential pedagogical approach to realize learning-centered in ESP teacher development. This paper is an exploratory research which attempts to integrate Learning Management System (LMS) with Personal Learning Environment for the training of ESP teachers at tertiary education in China. Based on the previous research on the seven-factor technology, pedagogy, and content knowledge (TPACK) framework and the five-factor skill Framework for ESP teachers in China, a PLE-ESP platform was built in the form of a website (www.esper.cn). The platform was evaluated with 20 ESP participants within a two-month pilot study. A survey about the value and flexibility of the platform was carried out, the result of which indicated an improvement on the skills required in ESP teaching, learners’ self-regulated learning competency and their ICT literacy. Recommendations were made for future research on the successful integration and maintenance of PLE and LMS.

НАВЧАННЯ ГОВОРІННЯ З АНГЛІЙСЬКОЇ МОВИ ЗА ПРОФЕСІЙНИМ СПРЯМУВАННЯМ: ХАРАКТЕРНІ ОСОБЛИВОСТІ, НАСЛІДКИ ТА РОЛЬ ВИКЛАДАЧА

English for Specific Purposes (ESP) has always been an important area for many scholars. Teaching ESP has become increasingly crucial in Higher Education nowadays as it can be applied to various English language courses for Occupational Purposes. The aim of teaching ESP is to meet the learners’ needs so that they can perform particular tasks. The article sets out to explore teaching English in ESP lessons. A central issue is teaching speaking, namely characteristics of teaching speaking in ESP, implications for the materials and classroom practices and the role of ESP teacher in teaching speaking. In the article there have been distinguished the main characteristics of teaching speaking in ESP lessons which form a system of principles necessary for effective ESP teaching. Moreover, the author considered implications for materials and classroom practices which are crucial in planning ESP lessons. Finally, role of ESP teacher can vary according to learners’ needs. That is why teaching specific speaking skills requires a profound knowledge of specific disciplines as a teacher is not always a “minor knower” of that particular discipline.

Revisiting English for Specific Purposes (ESP) in Indonesian Vocational High School (VHS): A Current Situation in Curriculum 2013

This qualitative study tries to revisit the concept of ESP in VHS under the latest curriculum applied in Indonesia; curriculum 2013 or K-13. The researcher discovers current issues and several suggestions of ESP in Indonesian VHS context. Theoretically, English in VHS should employ ESP approach, but practically, it tends to be more general. The vague concept of ESP in the Indonesian VHS is one of the reasons in developing this study. On the other hand, government with its purpose of AEC (ASEAN Economic Community) eagers to make VHS students ready to work to compete with the foreign workers. However, since the implementation of K-13, English in VHS tends to have more general topics rather than in the previous curriculum (KTSP; curriculum 2006). As a result, it makes the concept of ESP in VHS more vague. The result of document analysis and observation, the researcher found several issues dealing with ESP. They are issues in course design, ESP teachers, ESP objectives, approach, and materials, and also learning assessment. Considering the major issues dealing with ESP in VHS, several countermeasures about redesign of ESP teaching in Indonesian VHS were suggested by the researcher.

Issues Affecting Selection and Evaluation of ESP Teaching Materials

The paper will point out a range of obstacles and challenges English lecturers encounter when teaching English for Specific purposes (ESP) and when deciding which course book and teaching materials would best suit their students in tertiary education. Other issues relating to ESP will also be considered such as what exactly ESP means, main characteristics of ESP courses, their teachers and students. This paper will also include analysis of actions that need to be taken in the evaluation of ESP materials as suggested by various authors on the subject. There will be an example of the specific requirements of teaching materials in Maritime English and their evaluation. The aim is to give an overview of theoretical perspectives and methodologies for the evaluation of teaching materials and to encourage ESP teachers to design evaluation techniques for their type of ESP course.

The Use of Subtitled Movies for Vocabulary Acquisition in ESP Settings: Insights from an Experimental Study in Algeria

Research in the field of second language acquisition indicates that exposure to subtitled movies as comprehensible input generally enhances the acquisition of vocabulary. This paper reports on an experimental study which seeks to explore the effects of using subtitled movies on the vocabulary acquisition of English for Specific Purposes (ESP) university students in Algeria. The aim is to possibly find empirical evidence using ESP programs in Algeria as a case study. In order to achieve this aim, a sample of participants were recruited for the research and were randomly divided into control group, those who were asked to watch a movie without subtitles, and treatment group, those who were exposed to the movie with subtitles. The two groups were later asked to complete a Vocabulary Test (VT), which involved thirty vocabulary items identified from the movie. The VT was quantitatively analyzed using the one-way ANOVA procedure to determine the statistical significance of vocabulary acquisition. The findings indicate that using subtitled movies clearly enhances the learning of new vocabulary, and that the vocabulary acquisition of the treatment group is much greater than the acquisition of the control group. As a conclusion, it is noted that these results are generally congruent with current theory in the field. It is recommended that ESP teachers in Algeria need to encourage the use of multimedia in their language classrooms towards enhancing their learners’ vocabulary acquisition.

TEACHING PART OF SPEECH AND WORD GROUPS AS UNITS OF MEANING IN ESP SPEAKING CLASS

English for Specific Purposes (ESP) is known as a learner-centeredapproach to teach English as a foreign or second language. Students learnEnglish for a specific purpose, represented by studying subject matter, togain and develop appropriate knowledge and skills through English. Theyhave to perform task in English, meanwhile they are also supposed to bemastered in speaking skill. The objective of this paper is to build thestudent’s speaking ability effectively by using English. Teaching part ofspeech and word groups as units of meaning are used in the class. Theyhave to know the words first and then able to classify them as basic oftheir speaking. The activities include in some parts, they have listeningsection to start the activity, then grouping the students and asking themto tell the information in front of the class. The aims of this activity are toencourage their competence in English speaking and also make theminvolve in speaking class. Thus, this paper aims to give a clear explanationand a deeper insight about teaching part of speech and word groups asunit of meaning, stimulate all of teachers of ESP to implement thematerial in their teaching processes and make them realize in choosing theappropriate material to teach their students.

Flipped classroom for English biomedical research paper writing based on collaborative teaching

English biomedical research paper writing is a key skill for biomedical postgraduates as it directly determines the publicity of their research findings and their international academic influence. It belongs to the field of ESP (English for Specific Purposes), and has the characteristics of diversified students, specialized and complicated teaching content, and a curriculum with time and space constraints. Based on the characteristics, needs analysis of this course as well as years of discipline construction and teaching research, the flipped classroom for English biomedical research paper writing based on collaborative teaching is put forward, which has combined the advantages of both collaborative teaching and flipped classroom: it integrates the knowledge expertise of biomedical teachers and English teachers to meet the requirements for ESP teachers; in the meantime, it has broken the time and space constraints of traditional classroom through after-class knowledge input and in-class knowledge extension and deepening, blazing new trails for course delivery. Key words: English for specific purposes (ESP); English biomedical research paper writing; Collaborative teaching; Flipped classroom

‘WHO AM I?’ INTERROGATING MY IDENTITY AS ESP TEACHER: PERSONAL NARRATION

The notion of English for Specific Purposes (ESP) program which integrates language and content at one go could be challenging for language teachers as their expertise is only on the language, not the content. Consequently, it affects ESP teachers’ identity. This study takes a deeper look on a teacher’s personal experience teaching ESP that contributes to ESP teacher’s identity construction. It is a qualitative research using narratives as the approach, written records are taken as the main data. In the study, there are three participants in the research; two are ESP teachers and another is the researcher herself as she also involved in the teaching ESP. The study has revealed that the identity construction of ESP teachers is mainly built through two dimensions: students-related challenge and institutional challenge. To deal with students, teachers are no more as the primary source to knowledge; meanwhile, it is highly possible that students have more understanding than the teachers. To deal with institutional challenge, developing general English curriculum into more specific purposes is demanding for teachers. In addition, teaching ESP for more than one major in a semester adds to its complexity.

‘WHO AM I?’ INTERROGATING MY IDENTITY AS ESP TEACHER: PERSONAL NARRATION

The notion of English for Specific Purposes (ESP) program which integrates language and content at one go could be challenging for language teachers as their expertise is only on the language, not the content. Consequently, it affects ESP teachers’ identity. This study takes a deeper look on a teacher’s personal experience teaching ESP that contributes to ESP teacher’s identity construction. It is a qualitative research using narratives as the approach, written records are taken as the main data. In the study, there are three participants in the research; two are ESP teachers and another is the researcher herself as she also involved in the teaching ESP. The study has revealed that the identity construction of ESP teachers is mainly built through two dimensions: students-related challenge and institutional challenge. To deal with students, teachers are no more as the primary source to knowledge; meanwhile, it is highly possible that students have more understanding than the teachers. To deal with institutional challenge, developing general English curriculum into more specific purposes is demanding for teachers. In addition, teaching ESP for more than one major in a semester adds to its complexity.

Qualifying Teachers’ of English for Specific Purposes to Meet the Global Challenges

As institutions of higher education prepare graduates to strive for the more competitive job market, teachers of English for Specific Purposes (ESP) play a pivotal role to nurture and facilitate students’ English competence for career advancement. It is commonly hypothesized that ESP teachers require more than that of general English instructors are capable of in language teaching-related pedagogy. However, limited numbers of such studies have been conducted in Indonesia as a potentially developing country in the world. This quantitative study aims to portray ESP teachers' perceived qualifications, benefits of the program instruction, and its relevance to meet the challenges of the globalization. Initial findings of this study reveal that almost all of the respondents acknowledged the necessity of ESP teachers to demonstrate capacity in educational principle, language learning theory, Linguistics competence, material and media design, classroom management, intercultural understanding, language assessment, and classroom-based research inquiry. It is perceived that successful ESP teaching is significantly required for graduates to excel the job market, increase professionalism at work, and facilitate the nation competitive edge. Furthermore, ESP programs are considered relevant to meet the present and future challenges of globalization. More elaborative findings will be obtained, specifically addressing difference-variance of perceptions according to respondents’ education background and teaching experience.

Curriculum Design and Teaching Practice of ESP: A Case of Electric Power English at NEEPU

The value of English for Specific Purposes (ESP) courses lies in the fact that it is in essence a practical educational activity addressing certain specific needs. This paper carries out a descriptive case study of an ESP course “Electric Power English” offered in Northeast Electric Power University, which deals with the aspects of curriculum design and teaching practice. This paper reports the development of a curriculum comprised of English for General Purposes (EGP) courses, bridging EGP courses and ESP courses, and aims at giving some inspiration for the solution of common problems in ESP teaching practice.

English for Specific Purpose and English Teachers’ Devlopment: An Examplary Research on Binzhou University

This paper investigates into ESP (English for Specific Purposes) and the development of specified teachers and concerns about their relationship on Binzhou University. For this, we make a questionnaire and interview for specified teachers in Binzhou University. According to the results of the questionnaire and interview this paper analyzes the merits and faults on this aspect for surveyors and suggests the directions for the specified teachers of ESP. I hope this paper could enrich the concerning research for ESP and specified teacher development and provide a certain experience for the same level universities.

ESP发展中的瓶颈：师资，课程——以长春中医药大学为例

ESP (English for Specific Purpose)为培养具有国际视野的外向型人才服务，为国家“一带一路”、“亚投行”等重大战略构想服务，中医药要实现现代化发展和国际化发展目标，为维护、促进人类健康做出贡献，这一切都离不开ESP教学，离不开既具有专业知识、又具备很好外语交际能力的复合型人才的培养。然而，同国内其他类别的专业英语教学相似，高等中医药院校的中医英语教学还处在刚刚起步和探索阶段，在理论和实践两个层面上还存在一定瓶颈问题。本文以长春中医药大学为例，以ESP教学理论为指导，采用案例分析、文献综述的研究方法，对目前制约ESP健康发展的教师队伍建设、课程建设等方面的问题开展研究，力争寻求瓶颈问题的破解方法，为培养适应时代发展需求的高质量中医药人才服务，为推进中医药现代化和国际化进程服务，从而最终为建构适应我国高校实际的创新型ESP教学模式做出有益尝试。 In order to meet the needs of the state “One belt one road”, the “Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank” and to accomplish the great strategic plan by training foreign-oriented specialized talents with the international vision, domestic universities and colleges become more and more to realize the importance and its strategic significance and focus on ESP (English for Specific Purposes) personnel training. Traditional Chinese medicine is on the way to its realization of modernization and its international goal to make a great contribution to the health for mankind based on the ESP teaching and training those compound talents with good expertise and excellent communicative ability in English. However, traditional Chinese medicine teaching in higher institutions is still on the rise and on the experimental stage similar to those domestic colleges in specialized English teaching with some difficulties in both theory and practice as its bottleneck of ESP teaching. The paper aims to research the following three aspects as forming ESP teachers, curriculum design based on methods of ESP teaching theory, case study and literature review by taking Changchun University of Traditional Chinese Medicine as a case in order to solve those problems as bottleneck. In this way, we can do our utmost to pave a way for the new renovation in the domestic ESP teaching with high quality and those talents in traditional Chinese medicine on the way to its modernization and internationalization.

Linguacultural Features of Teaching English for Specific Purposes in Cross-Cultural Interactions

Teaching English for specific purposes to non-linguistic students presents some challenges due to several factors. They are determined by the growing demands of the global economy towards the level of professional competence, diversification of the employers ‘demands to the employees and the need to account for the cultural peculiarities of regional economies. The authors present a study of organizing the process of English for specific purposes teaching considering linguacultural features. The authors assess the role of English in the modern world and the global economy. English continues to change the language behaviour of people around the globe and is currently the primary tool for large-scale bilingualism. The article analyses the main linguacultural features of different regional business communities’ representatives. The article outlines the primary courses design requirements: the communicative orientation and integrating the linguacultural features of professional communication. The authors substantiate the need to develop a methodological, theoretical and practical basis for the implementation of the linguacultural component of the course for the university students.

Oral Communication Apprehension Among ESP Students in Algeria

Communication Apprehension has attracted a lot of research especially about students’ behaviour in the classroom and ever-increasing body of research has accumulated indicating that there is a pervasive relationship between this communication variable and various aspects of the academic experience. The main purpose of this article is to examine the level of Communication Apprehension (CA) among Third-Year Political Science students studying English for Specific Purposes (ESP) at Chlef University, and then investigate the main factors that lead to their CA in the ESP classroom. For the purpose of the study, the researcher used a mixed research method. The instruments that were used for data collection in the study are a questionnaire administered to 50 students and an interview conducted with 4 ESP teachers. The findings of the study revealed that most students had high level of CA with the relative contribution of two main reasons: instructional and psychological factors to the situation. Finally, some suggestions and recommendations on how to reduce communication apprehension among ESP students and improve their speaking skills were stated. Communication apprehension is a phenomenon that needs to be further investigated in the context of Political Sciences where students might be involved in situations where various cognitive and cultural elements work together.