ESP Learners Research Articles

ESP for College English in Agricultural Universities ─ with Yunnan Agricultural University as an Example

With the introduction and supplementation of ESP, especially with the publication and application of an ESP coursebook named Comprehensive English for Agriculture in the New Century, we have gradually revitalized College English in YAU, for ESP has effectively bridged students’ daily English learning and their desirable acquisition of special terms and knowledge pertinent to their respective majors. Through deepening reforms and renewing practices of College English teaching and learning, ESP has been becoming more and more popular with teachers and students in YAU. This paper discusses and analyzes how to make progressive teaching and learning with the book, how to stimulate and maintain students’ interest in learning and using English with hyperlinks attached to each unit, and how to integrate ESP teaching and learning with CET-4 and CET-6. Besides, this paper also depicts the difficulties like the shortage of qualified ESP teachers, the adaptation of teachers and students to the innovative and challenging practices, and comes up with some initiatory countermeasures to overcome the obstacles.

The Relationship between Iranian ESP Learners’ Translation Ability and Resilience in Reading Comprehension

The present study was an attempt to investigate the relationship between Iranian ESP Learners’ translation ability and resilience in reading comprehension. More specifically, the study aimed to study the resilience cognitive and meta-cognitive effect on raising L2 reading comprehension through translation. Secondly, the study aimed at pursuing the views and attitudes to find out the extent to which resilience in reading comprehension can predict ESP learners’ translation ability. In order to test the null hypotheses, three phases were taken into consideration. First, 120 female adult sophomores majoring at Iran University of Medical Sciences were chosen through a homogeneity test. Second, the participants’ translation ability was measured through a translation task and also the validity of this instrument was confirmed by the three professors of the university, and the translation Toolkit Evaluation of UTAH University was used to evaluate the translated works. Next, the participants' reading comprehension ability was determined and finally, Connor and Davidson’s (2003) resilience scale was used to find out the level of resilience in reading comprehension of ESP students. The results of data analyses firstly revealed that there was a statistically significant relationship between Iranian ESP learners’ translation ability and their resilience in reading comprehension. Secondly, it was revealed that there was a significant positive relationship between Iranian ESP learners’ translation ability and their reading comprehension. The findings of the present study could have implications for EFL teachers and learners in the Iranian context.

An e-Portfolio-based Model for the Application and Sharing of College English ESP MOOCs

The informationalized knowledge sharing of MOOCs not only promotes the change of teaching concept and the reform of teaching methodology, but also provides a new opportunity for the teaching resource integration and sharing between different universities. The present study has constructed an e-Portfolio-based model for the application and sharing of college English ESP MOOCs. In this model, college English ESP MOOCs developed by different universities have been put into the e-Portfolio-based platform for application and sharing, and those MOOCs will be applied in the specific ESP teaching and learning processes. It is hoped that the application of the model will accelerate the development, application and sharing of teaching resources, and the coordination and innovation of knowledge between universities, and advance the professional interaction and the cultivation of interdisciplinary talents based on formative assessment.

The Role of Translation in Developing ESP Learners’ Reading Comprehension Skills- A Case Study of Medical Students at Najran University-KSA

Reading comprehension is developed through successful interaction between the reader and the text. This interaction is the major factor that plays the crucial role in comprehension. ESP has a strong and palpable presence in the curricula of Saud universities due to a range of considerations. It is used in different domains such as medicine, engineering, and allied health. It is well known, that any use of L1 in English language instruction has always been a matter of hot debate. This study aims to shed some fresh light on the importance of translation as a pedagogical tool in developing reading comprehension skills of ESP medical learners at Najran University- KSA. Undeniably, the students experience bewilderment and great difficulties in grasping the enormous quantity of medical terms and texts as a result of their extreme weakness in English. The level of most Saudi students in English is very low and their knowledge of vocabulary is extremely limited. Studying medical terminology is the foundation for studying any health-related field. Medicine has a language of its own, and mastering it is a complex task. So, regarding ESP medical courses, the students resort to machine translation, because they cannot absorb the medical texts and terms properly. There are so many shortcomings with respect to machine translation This study investigates the effect of using translation in ESP medical classes with the objective of helping students in comprehending terminologies and texts. It also aims at motivating them and meeting their learning needs. Moreover, the study aims to help students concentrate on the standardized terminology and avoid the imperfections of machine translation.

Formulacity in ESP Teaching: A Case of Doing a Balancing Act Between Form and Meaning

Abstract Grammar teaching has never belonged to mainstream ESP teaching/ learning practices. However, this apparent lack of concern with grammar in ESP materials runs counter to both subjective and objective needs of ESP learners. The first part of the paper presents students′ views on deficiencies of coursebooks for teaching English for Medical Purposes (EMP) as well as author’s reflective thinking on the needs of medical undergraduates of vocational schools in Poland. It is suggested that some of the deficiencies of the materials might be remedied and the students′ needs better taken care of if explicit teaching of formulaic language is introduced into ESP classroom environment. It is hypothesized that explicit teaching of formulaic language may stimulate grammar development in the long term and foster communicative competence of ESP learners in the short term. Therefore, the second part of the paper proposes pedagogically relavant classification of medical formulaic sequences motivated by the lexicogrammatical features of Medical English. The third part of the paper shows in what way the proposed classification of formulaic sequences might help teachers of medical English design tasks that are conducive to the development of formulaic competence of students of English for Medical Purposes.

REFUSALS IN THE PRODUCTION OF SERBIAN ESP LEARNERS

Pragmatics plays a very important role in the process of communication, and the speech act of refusal is performed on a daily basis and in a variety of situations, which is why it has been one of the key topics in discourse pragmatic research over the past several decades. The present paper is aimed at establishing which pragmatic strategies Serbian ESP learners use in producing refusals, depending on the social status of the interlocutors. To this end, twenty B1-B2 level ESP students aged between 20 and 22, majoring in Information Science or Mathematics were randomly selected. The research is based on a survey consisting of twelve discourse completion tasks (DCTs), involving the communication situations of refusing a request, an invitation, an offer and a suggestion (of which only the former two are analysed here). The data obtained are classified, analyzed and interpreted based on a modified version of Beebe, Takahashi and Uliss-Weltz’s (1990) taxonomy of refusal strategies. The overall results of the research show that the production of the ESP learners tested significantly differs from native speakers' production of refusals. The largest differences are observed with respect to the frequency of usage of direct refusals, providing excuses, reasons and explanations, as well as with respect to adding statements of alternative.

Defining the Role of Assessing Strategies to Evaluate Individual Language Differences within ESP Students

Defining the Role of Assessing Strategies to Evaluate Individual Language Differences within ESP Students Ali Siddiqui, Rosy Illyas, Rehana Ali Jokhio Abstract The paper focuses to present an unavoidable relation of assessment with evaluation within an ESP course. This relation is principled to visualize a criterion of an ESP learner, who is possessed with different individual language skills. The four language skills, namely; Listening, Speaking, Reading and Writing are in themselves unique to their essence within individual ESP learner. Therefore, every ESP learner who is taking a course must need to be assessed within these skills in order to qualify the course and become eligible for required demand of job employment. Along with this, there are other necessary factors within an ESP learning like; psychological stability and available resources. These are necessary for successful functioning of learning as well as teaching process within an ESP course. These factors also need to be evaluated for the beneficial outcome of course. Therefore, the significance of assessment and evaluation within an ESP design cannot be denied. Full Text: PDF DOI: 10.15640/ijll.v5n2a16

Vocabulary Learning Strategies of English for Specific Purposes Students at Agricultural University of Georgia

The importance of teaching ESP to students not majoring in English is discussed. The role of vocabulary learning inESP is emphasized. The article attempts to add an insight to Georgian experience of teaching English to studentsof Agriculture to the existing studies on the use of vocabulary learning strategies in ESP. The students shouldbecome aware of the importance of language learning strategies and get trained to use them appropriately. Thepurpose of this study was to investigate the attitude of students towards vocabulary learning methods offered bythe textbook and the teacher, as well as the awareness of and the preferred vocabulary teaching /learning strategiesamong Agriculture University students while they were taking an English for Specific Purpose (ESP) course.Respondents comprised 107 students at Agriculture University of Georgia students. An ESP vocabulary learningquestionnaire was administered to the randomly selected students who enrolled in the English for Agriculture as arequirement. It revealed that students are not sufficiently satisfied with the existing state of teaching ESP vocabulary.A conclusion has been made that vocabulary learning strategies have to be purposefully taught, to improve theexisting situation.

Evaluating Lexical Cohesion in Nigerian Newspaper Genres: Focus on the Editorials

Applied linguists paying scholarly attention to newspaper genres have often argued that findings emerging from such studies would be of pedagogical significance because most of the newspaper genres share certain conventional features with school genres. Similarly, this study explored lexical cohesion in newspaper editorials, and it is understood that the findings could help learners in handling persuasive writings. The study sought to identify the dominant sources of lexical cohesion in the editorials, and also to examine how lexical cohesion is utilized to achieve coherence in the editorials. Drawing on Systemic Functional Linguistics (SFL), the study applied Eggins’ (2004) model of lexical cohesion and analyzed 30 editorial texts of 20, 354 words drawn from three major Nigerian newspapers: The Guardian, The Nation, and Vanguard. The analysis revealed 2, 685 ties across 849 sentences. The data demonstrated that the major types of lexical cohesion in the editorials include: repetition (49.5%), expectancy relations (15. 8%), class/sub-class (11%), and synonymy (10.8%). It was further revealed that lexical cohesion devices, which formed into chains (586) and isolated ties (837), were utilized in building coherence in the editorial texts. It was finally shown how findings of the study could be beneficial in ESP, EAP, and EGP learning, especially in persuasive writings. Keywords: Editorials, Lexical cohesion, Newspaper Genres, Nigerian Newspapers, School Genres

Implementing Self Access Material for Promoting Learner Autonomy In Teaching ESP

This research used qualitative research design. Fraenkel and Wallen (2006) define qualitative research as documenting or portraying the everyday experience of individuals by observing and interviewing them. In this case, the researcher interviewed, observed teaching and learning ESP process and documentation by collecting document needed. Finally, Teacher as facilitator is easy to develop learners autonomy in teaching ESP by utilizing Self Access Material in form of providing relevant videos, providing software and online sources, producing in-house material development, making authentic podcasts accessible, promoting CALL, turning workshop recordings into self-access activities and using authentic music resources. By fostering self access material and implement it by using nine strategies namely setting objectives, selection of materials, methods, teacher’s role, teacher-learner relationship, learning environment, homework, presentation and talks and evaluation, teacher is able to trigger the learners to develop the ESP materials given.Keywords: Learner autonomy, self access material, ESP.

The Impact of Mobile Learning on ESP Learners' Performance

The Impact of Mobile Learning on ESP Learners' Performance

The ESP Technology-Supported Learning Environment

This paper discusses the implementation of computers and the Internet technology in the learning environment within the ESP context. Designing and implementing digital technology in the teaching and learning process is one of the most demanding tasks. The use of technologies in the ESP classroom enables students to be active and collaborative, which contributes to improving learning achievements and increasing learning outcomes. The ultimate goal is to improve the quality of learning experiences, as well as to produce a highly social and authentic, supportive and productive learning environment that allows students the construction of relevant knowledge. The study examines students’ perceptions towards the implementation of digital technologies in the classroom. The results of the research show that students have very positive attitudes towards computers and the Internet technologies and their integration in the ESP learning environment.

ESP Writing for Tourism: A Genre-based Approach in Teaching Writing to Iranian University Students

This article aims at investigating the effectiveness of using a genre-based approach in teaching ESP writing to the Iranian intermediate learners. To achieve its objectives, this research benefited from 60 sophomore female university volunteers who were then categorized into two groups of experimental (genre) and control (non-genre). During the instruction process which lasted 16 teaching hours, the experimental group received a genre-based teaching approach. In this condition, the participants were to evaluate six authentic tourist information texts which lasted for six successive sessions. They were encouraged to find out the major constituent moves previously discussed in class. At last the ESP learners had the opportunities for producing texts of the same genre following the rhetorical structure of the tourism texts extracted from brochures already analyzed in class. With regard to the non-genre group, a common teaching approach was applied in which the participants received the same six authentic texts. The activities included cloze exercises, sentence joining activities and error-correction exercises. No attention, either explicit or implicit, was allocated to the kind of genre and its constituent moves. The participants in this group had also opportunities to compose pieces of writing by making use of the six authentic texts. The design of the study considered two major variables: a) move index and b) texture index in relation to method variable. Move index investigated how well the participants performed on the use of appropriate move structures. The texturing index examined how well the writing assignments were textured. Taking the two groups into consideration, and in order to discover if general writing proficiency improves through using a genre based teaching, a two-way ANOVA was used to measure these variables in the participants' pretest and posttest. The results obtained from this study revealed that the participants in the genre group outperformed the non-genre group in their use of allowable move structures and texturing criteria. It was revealed that making use of the genre-based approach is beneficial in developing ESP writing skill of intermediate students. DOI: 10.5901/mjss.2016.v7n2s1p470

Grammar Learning Strategies Applied to ESP Teaching

There are difficulties in learning ESP because of the characteristics of ESP and learners’ low grammatical competence. Grammar knowledge plays important roles in cultivating grammar competence, especially for ESP learning. There is the connection between grammar and learning strategies. Cognitive approach (deductive and inductive learning), communicative approach, and drills are beneficial to grammar learning. ESP grammar learning strategies can be classified into cognitive strategies, metacognitive strategies, affective strategies for learning grammar, and social strategies for learning grammar. Teachers can apply some strategies to ESP teaching.

Dynamic Assessment of Incidental Vocabularies: A Case of Iranian ESP Learners

Dynamic assessment (DA), stemmed from both Vygotsky’s (1978) learning theory and Feuerstein’s (1979) theory of mediated learning experiences, is an alternative to static assessment. It focuses on both instruction and assessment aiming at promoting learning through mediation. DA has been widely researched in different linguistic areas, but there is paucity of research on its practice in ESP contexts. Accordingly, this study investigated the effectiveness of DA on incidental vocabularies emerging in technical reading textbooks, written for electronic engineering students. The study employed a quasi-experimental research design. Due to sample selection problems, an intact group of 25 BA electronic students were selected from the University of Zanjan. A pre-test was administered to check whether they had previous knowledge of the target words, incidentally acquired during the reading activity. As for the instrument stage, DA procedures were utilized in order to individualize participants’ assessment. Following DA implementation, a post-test similar in content to pre-test, was administered to the same participants. The significance of DA for the enhancement of incidental vocabularies was to make participants aware of the strategies of identifying, evaluating and monitoring vocabularies (Nassaji, 2003) through mediation process. The results indicated that participants' incidental vocabulary learning promoted dramatically using DA, which employed structured hints for the mediation process. The results of this study can inform both teachers and learners to provide a step by step procedure to promote both teaching and assessment of ESP learners' vocabulary. Keywords: Dynamic Assessment, Incidental Vocabulary Learning, ESP Learners, ZPD, mediation

Exploring the Role of M-Game as a Seat of ESP Reading in the Iranian TVT

To direct m-game to be a possible didactic option for Iranian TVT (Technical Vocational Training) trainees, in this study m-game-mediated (Mobile Game-Mediated) materials delivery was incorporated into the conventional teaching method in the blended ESP reading skill platform. So, 52 male trainees fromTechnical and Vocational College of Isfahan were selected by convenience sampling. Afterwards, 48 trainees were defined as homogeneous using Englishtag Test to learn ESP in 16 triads under two different blended learning scenarios in 18 sessions in the academic year 2014-2015. While the first group of the trainees practiced in the blended learning situation with ready-made displaying device and materials, the second-group trainees practiced the same content through the medium of their own self-made PDA (Personal Digital Assistant) and materials; in this way, their learning performance assessed continuously in and outside the classroom. To employ tree-prong approach, interest survey and focus-group interview were embraced, as well. Overall, descriptive and inferential analyses of the collected data disclosed that trainees who were involved in the process of materials development were more excited and learned more than their counterparts who practiced via prefabricated devices and materials. Consequently, self-made (vs. prefabricated) m-game-mediated blended platform was found to be more liable to teaching and learning ESP reading skill.

Research in ESP teaching and learning in French higher education: developing the construct of ESP didactics

Cet article aborde la question de la recherche sur l’enseignement-apprentissage de l’anglais de spécialité (ASP) en France et présente les premières étapes d’un travail sur le développement d’un cadrage théorique spécifique à ce champ de recherche. Nous nous interrogeons ainsi sur la pertinence du développement du concept de didactique de l’ASP, cadre théorique spécifique à la recherche sur l’enseignement-apprentissage de l’ASP, et sur ses liens avec la didactique des langues et de l’anglais, d’une part, et avec la recherche en ASP, d’autre part. Nous proposons une analyse des différentes acceptions des concepts clés relatifs à l’enseignement-apprentissage des langues, avant de dresser un panorama de l’enseignement-apprentissage des langues dans l’enseignement supérieur français, et de l’ASP en particulier. La recherche est ensuite abordée à travers l’analyse des travaux présentés au sein du Groupe de travail Didactique et ASP du GERAS, analyse qui nous permet de souligner la variété des contextes et des approches, et d’identifier un certain nombre de thématiques et de préoccupations communes.

Signalling intertextuality in business emails

This study looks at the contribution of intertextuality to a text's coherence by examining the ways in which writers make use of recurrent words and phrases to signal instances of intertextuality in business emails. The data are a corpus of discourse flows comprised of two sets of interconnected emails read or written by two Hong Kong-based professionals. Key words and phrases in the corpus are identified using corpus linguistics software and then studied in context to determine whether they signal instances of intertextuality and, if so, whether they are predominantly used to signal prior or predicted texts. It is found that key words and phrases are associated with intertextuality and its directionality. The findings are also discussed in terms of how the power relations pertaining between the writer and reader influence the choice of language used and their wider implications for learning and teaching ESP.

The Application of Contextual Expressions to Improve Effectiveness of Learning in ESP Classroom

This thesis discusses vocabulary as a key factor to increase effectiveness of ESP pedagogy. Contextual expressions are the main line of context, and form the principal clues for the textual anticipation and key word-meaning inferring. The thesis compares the different effects of the conventional word-list and contextual expressions as used in textual anticipation, and finds that contextual words have positive effect on pre-text leaning, oral and writing interaction and word-meaning inferring. The thesis also discusses the recognition of contextual words and makes in-depth analysis of the logical deducing process, aiming to raise students’ contextual awareness over ESP learning and develop their independent and autonomous capacity. The discussion recommends the inference strategy based on contextual expressions and core and peripheral words, in order to achieve some degree of independence from dictionaries.

Presentation as Employability Soft Skill to ESP Learners in the English Language Institute at King Abdulaziz University

This paper recasts the notion of soft skills and the importance of these skills in the success of professional career to ESP learners. As a matter of fact, it offers a great deal of understanding of the concept of soft skills, employability and communication. In addition, it proposes much attention to presentation as being a communication tool to ESP learners to achieve employability in many professions. Whereas communication is the foundation for most skills, presentation acts as the tool to facilitate communication to be delivered in an appropriate way. Moreover, the paper covers a number of challenges that faces ESP learners in presentation and some effective solutions to overcome difficulties that they might encounter. While the intended aim is to get employed, the researcher argues that mastering soft skills in general and presentation in specific is essential to ESP learners to perform wonderfully in any sector. Nevertheless, it will help greatly in the production of society. By the same token, it shed lights on the most appropriate strategies approached to attain a beneficial and professional presentation every time. Finally, a suggested training program for English Language Institute (hereafter ELI) learners at King Abdul Aziz University on presentation is proposed by the researcher to help learners acquire presentation skill.