Because ESP focuses on teaching specific language and communication skills, ESP course design usually includes a stage in which the course developers identify what specific language and skills the group of language learners will need. The identification of language and skills is used in determining and refining the content for the ESP course. It can also be used to assess learners and learning at the end of the course. This process is termed “needs analysis”.
Needs analysis, is carried out to establish the “what” and the “how” of a course, is the first stage in ESP course development, followed by curriculum design, materials selection, methodology, assessment, and evaluation. However, these stages should not be seen as separate, proceeding in a linear fashion. Rather, as noted by Dudley – Evans and St John (1998), they are interdependent overlapping activities in a cyclical process. This conceptual distinction is neatly encapsulated by the following diagrams from Dudley – Evans and St John (1998, p.121) showing how needs analysis is often ongoing, feeding back into various stages.
Figure 8: Linear vs. cyclical processes of needs analysis (Dudley – Evans and St John )
Due to NA we determine what and how of our course and can then proceed to design it. We should also keep into mind that as Dudley-Evans and St. John note, these stages are not linear, but rather interdependent, overlapping activities in a cyclical process and NA is often ongoing, feeding back into various stages [1, p.121].
BUT, WHAT DO WE MEAN BY “NEEDS”?
According to the language-centered approach: it is “the ability to comprehend and/or produce the linguistic features of the target situation.” Target needs: what the students needs to do in the target situation. Learning needs: what the students needs to do in order to learn.
| Target Needs – A) Necessities: according to the demands of the target situation, this is what the learner has to know in order to function effectively in that situation. | B) Lacks: according to what the learner already knows, we decide what necessities aremissing. There is a gap between the existing proficiency and the target proficiency. |
| C) Wants: according to what we have considered from an objective POV, we have to say that „a need does not exist independent of a person. |
Gathering Information About Target Needs Different ways in which information can be gathered about needs: E.G.: Questionnaires Interviews Observation Data collection Informal consultations. *Important: the choice will depend on the time and resources available. And, needs analysis is not a once-for-all activity. It should be a continuing process.
ESP Challenges and Problems
“Course designers and teachers encounter problems related to the design of the ESP course, the tasks, assignments, and the teaching methods.” (Belinda Ho, 2011). Next, we are listing some factors related to teaching English for specific purposes and challenges you may encounter when teaching.
RELATED TO ESP STUDENTS: –In the ESP course the students are expected to have at least an intermediate level of general English.
–In practice we have to deal with mixed-ability groups in terms of both level of language competence and professional competences.
–Some students are very good at English; other students are very good at professional areas (i.e., know carrier content very well but do not possess good command of English).
Student’s English proficiency in ESP classes.
–English proficiency: difference in students’ proficiency in the same university and among different universities has a negative impact on teaching ESP.
–Ss find that ESP is too different from general English.
–Though if some of them do not have good knowledge of general English they would like to spend much more time studying grammar, revising tenses, articles, etc.
RELATED TO TEACHERS :
–In the majority of cases ESP teachers are not specialists in the students’ professional fields. That is why the primary issue in ESP teaching is the struggle to master language and subject matter. –When designing a topic syllabus is that the ESP teacher is not a specialist in the specific area (e.g. engineering). -Lack of theoretical framework to support teaching English for specific purposes.
-ESP classes do not precede the topics in the special subjects, as the ESP teacher is not a subject specialist, this can lead to misunderstanding.
RELATED TO ENVIROMENT: Lack of teaching materials,
-In many ESP training institutions now, technical facility for teaching ESP is mainly a
CD player; meanwhile, PowerPoint and electronic lessons are rarely used. –The ESP materials are often developed by teachers with no specialized knowledge, so the quality of those materials is not high.
Teacher and Student lack of technology skills:
If the English teacher is not competent in electronics and the learners are not competent in English and electronics how can them possibly communicate in the different aspects of the learning/teaching process? How can an ESP teacher cope with the issues he/she meets in his/her job?
Hutchinson and Waters (1987) provide part of the answer. ESP teachers do not need to learn specialist subject knowledge. They require three things only: -A positive attitude towards the ESP content; -A knowledge of the fundamental principles of the subject area; – An awareness of how much they probably already know. In other words, the ESP teacher should not become a teacher of the subject matter, but rather an interested student of the subject matter. Nevertheless, some teachers are able to develop sufficient knowledge of a subject to teach confidently from the subject-specific texts. But even the most dedicated ESP teacher will realize that his knowledge of a subject has limits and may feel the need for closer cooperation with the subject teacher, perhaps developing a team.
Whant to know more? Here you have a Full Research article on Difficulties in Teaching English for Specific Purposes: Empirical Study at Vietnam Universities, https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/EJ1101357.pdf
In the next entry wwe will look at: E-learning in ESP Class and Teaching on line!
Think ESP: English for Specific Purposes 