An analysis of Students’ Needs in an ESP Course
This research paper was written in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the Postgraduate Applied Linguistics Diploma, University of Lancaster, 2015-2018.
An Analysis of Students’ Needs in an ESP Course
By Najat Alshafie
An increasing number of Saudi universities implement English for specific purposes (ESP) programs for students who will specialize in different fields such as, medicine, science, engineering and business. Universities rarely conduct studies of the actual needs of students to design or develop the ESP courses. Administrators and/or senior professors usually design ESP courses according to what they feel the students need and do not take into consideration perspectives of students, teachers and other stakeholders like potential employers.
When I taught ESP, I noticed the dilemma of English language teachers explaining very specialized materials they cannot even comprehend and students not understanding what is being taught or feeling bored from irrelevant drills and exercises. I realized that there is a need for research of learners’ needs in ESP programs to design ESP courses based on task based language teaching (TBLT) to make learning relevant and meaningful to students.
The current study aims at investigating students’ needs in an ESP course in a Saudi university. The results of the study will be used for guiding the design of tasks based on TBLT. The paper consists of three sections: a literature review; study of needs analysis (NA); and tasks for ESP.
1.Literature Review
The aim of the study is to investigate needs analysis of an ESP course and suggest tasks based on TBLT. Consequently, the literature review consists of three subsections: ESP, NA and TBLT.
1.1. ESP
ESP refers to English language teaching and learning when the objective is that learners will be able to use English in a certain specialized field in a foreign or second language context. ESP needs careful research and design of pedagogical materials and activities for a specific group of learners within a specific context (Johns & Dudley-Evans,1991). In ESP courses all the content and skills should be related to the particular needs of students to perform well in their field (Paltridge & Starfield, 2013).
ESP teaching and learning is a challenge to teachers and students and there are sometimes problems of methodology, materials and assessment. Lack of materials makes institutes or teachers collect and design their own like in the case of Porcaro (2013) who devised an ESP reading curriculum for engineering in a Japanese university. In this regard, a study of adopting technology in teaching ESP at a Saudi university revealed that the lack of resources, support and communication besides attitudes of teachers and students impeded ESP program (Hakim,2007).
The role of ESP practitioners is to develop an appropriate pedagogy that is suitable to the needs of learners (Belcher, Johns & Paltridge, 2011). Teachers need to provide input materials, design output activities and judge according to certain criteria the suitability of both the input and output to achieve the learning objectives (Cheng, 2011).
Needs analysis of ESP plays a crucial role to determine to what extent, in what ways and for what purposes learners will use English in their academic programs in the university and future jobs (Porcaro, 2013). It is necessary to understand learners’ needs and expectations and transform them into learning objectives to guide and direct students' learning. Orr (1998) confirms ESP is driven by specific learning needs of language learners. The first step for the ESP curriculum is to identify learning needs of students to inform decisions about the ESP program.
1.2. Needs Analysis
NA is a set of procedures for determining language content and teaching procedures for specified groups of learners” (Nunan, 2004, p.215). NA is an integral part of course design in which leaners’ present proficiency and future needs are considered and a realistic account of language, ideas or skills are targeted throughout the course (Macalister &Nation, 2011).
NA should be carried out by using multiple research methods and sources. It is essential to include all stakeholders specifically learners and study what they perceive as their academic, professional and social needs. Research supports the significance of hearing learners’ voices. Jasso-Aguilar advocates “to critically examine the social context in which the actors live… allowing them to express their own voice and needs as opposed to researchers’, or institutions’” (1999,P.45).
In the same vein, Van Avermaet and Gysen (2006) state that we need to recognize “the societal domains in which learners want to function… which tasks are essential in the situations that are relevant to learners” (p.43). They argue that we should examine leaners’ subjective needs (expressed by learners) and objective needs (perceived by others like teachers or institution) and we establish a balance between them.
Joe (2011) reports on designing ESP for undergraduate students in Oman. Needs analysis was carried out to investigate learners’ needs and data was collected through interviews with teachers and an expert, document analysis of students’ writing, IELTS results and course materials. However, subjective needs of students’ were not examined. In conclusion, curriculum design starts with exploring learners’ needs to address them in all components of the curriculum like objectives, content, tasks, teaching methods and assessment.
1.3. TBLT
TBLT is an approach to language teaching and learning that “takes meaning as its starting point” unlike other approaches that “take language form as their starting point” (Willis& Willis,2007, p.177). TBLT is organized around tasks rather than language structures (Nunan, 2004). A task is “a viable unit around which to organize language teaching and learning opportunities” (Long & Crookes,1992, p.27). TBLT has been adopted since the 1980’s in Prabhu’s Bangalore Project that implemented learning English through communication using information, reasoning and opinion gap tasks (Beretta&Davies,1985). TBLT is supported by second language acquisition research and experiences of educators (Ellis, 2014).
TBLT advocates provide various definitions of task. Nunan (2004) defines a pedagogical task as:
a piece of classroom work which involves learners in comprehending, manipulating, producing or interacting in the target language… to convey meaning rather than to manipulate form. The task should have a sense of completeness, being able to stand alone as a communication act in its own right with a beginning, a middle and an end (p4).
Ellis (2009) highlights four characteristics of a task. First, meaning is the central focus. Second, there is a gap that needs to be filled. Third, learners complete the task by using their resources. Fourth, there is a clear outcome for the task. Nunan’s definition and Ellis’ criteria are adopted in this study.
There are two broad theoretical views that shape our perspectives to learning and how we approach tasks (Ellis, 2000). Tasks in the psycholinguistic perspective are “devices that provide learners with the data they need for learning”, so the design of tasks significantly affects “the kind of language use and opportunities of learning that arise” (p.193).
Socio-cultural theorists claim that when learners perform tasks, they con-construct the activities they work on depending on their socio-history and goals and interactions between them (Ellis 2000). This is similar to Breen’s (1987) who claims that the task as a workplan will be altered when learners act upon it during the task-in-process. "Learners perceive the task primarily through the present state of their individual ideational, sociocultural, and linguistic-textual knowledge" (p.339). Hence there are diverse outcomes of tasks.
There are different phases of a task, mainly pre-task, task and post-task. Willis (1996) emphasizes that pre-task phase is an opportunity for learners to recall previous learning and to learn from each other. In this phase the topic is introduced and defined by the teacher and learners are engaged in activities that help recalling words or learning new words that are needed for the task. Nunan (2004) presents a number of preliminary tasks like schema building tasks that introduce initial vocabulary, language and context for tasks.
Willis (1996) divides the task cycle into: task, planning and report. First, the learners perform the task. They then plan to present a report to the whole class on what they accomplished. Finally, they present the report to the whole class either orally or in writing. However, Samuda’s task design is different and has three basic components: input data, operations on tasks and outcomes as a sequence of interlocking stages, in which output from one created input for the next (2001). This basic task framework underpins a meaning to form to meaning progression that seeks to manage shifts in attentional focus as the task unfolds. The task initially highlights an area of meaning in order to create a semantic 'space' which learners' current resources may be able to fill only partially. As task demands are designed to push learners to fill this space while being engaged in the process of making meaning (‘space’ is similar to Ellis’s (2009) use of ‘gap’).
The post-task makes students reflect on their learning and performance (Nunan,2004). Willis and Willis (2007) suggest a focus on form at the end of the task because it assists learners make sense of the language they have used and highlights language they might experience in the future. In this final stage feedback on the learners’ performance at the reporting stage may be given (Willis,1996). However, Samuda (2001) is cautious about using pre-task and post-task phases because they might direct attention to language features before learners experience the need to use them. In designing my tasks, I will follow Willis’(1996) framework of: pre-task; task cycle that includes: task, planning and report and post-task in designing tasks in section 3 of the study.
2.Methodology
The methodology has four subsections: research questions, study context, research design and data analysis.
2.1.Research Questions
The study investigates students’ needs in an ESP Course in a Saudi university. The following research questions will be addressed:
1. What do students think of their needs of ESP?
2. What do teachers think of students’ needs of ESP?
2.2.Study Context
Basically, there are three ESP courses: Health, Engineering and Science Tracks and for each track there is a different textbook. The main objective of ESP is to prepare first year university students for their academic study. Consequently, ESP is designed to satisfy students’ needs for learning specialized terminology and basic concepts of their fields. I will just focus on Science Track ESP.I am familiar with it because I taught it in the academic year 2013/2014.
ESP lasts one semester (four months) and given in the second semester of the first year. Students study an ESP textbook prepared by the university for eight hours per week. ESP grades constitute part of the averages that determine students’ future study whether business or information technology (IT). Admission to IT needs a higher average than business.
2.3.Research Design
ESP programs mostly examine learners’ needs from the perspective of institution while students’ voices are unheard. In my study, I shed light on what students think about their needs. The selection of multiple methods and sources for my enquiry is in alignment with Van Avermaet and Gysen’s(2006) and Jasso-Aguilar’s(1999) arguments that when doing NA, we should examine leaners’ subjective and objective needs in a certain social context.
The overall purpose of my study is to investigate students’ needs of ESP. In order to achieve that, qualitative research methodology was employed to collect data and gain understanding of students' needs. The research methods used were questionnaires (open-ended questions) and two other qualitative methods: interviews and document analysis that consisted of ESP syllabus, textbooks and three teachers’ reports (Table1).
The purpose of using various research methods is to ensure the validity of the study by employing triangulation. Triangulation refers to using of a variety of methods or data sources to study a specific phenomenon (Gray, 2014). Greene, et al.(1989) explains that in triangulation “when two or more methods that have offsetting biases are used to assess a given phenomenon, and the results of these methods converge or corroborate one another, then the validity of inquiry findings is enhanced” (p.256).
Since it is necessary in NA to address multiple data sources, I included in my study first and second year students (IT and business) and ESP teachers. The questionnaires enabled me to explore the perceptions of a bigger audience of learners, which enhanced the breadth of the study while with the interviews I investigated students’ and teachers’ views in details and depth.
I wrote this research paper as a course requirement of the Postgraduate Applied Linguistics Program I attended at the University of Lancaster 2015-2018.
I designed an online questionnaire using Google Forms. Only some close ended questions and open-ended questions were analyzed for this study (Appendix1). The participants in the online questionnaire were 202 students who studied ESP in the academic year 2013/2014. Female students were the majority, 76%, while males were 24%. Half of the respondents were from Health Track followed by Science Track, 34%, then Engineering Track, 16%. The participants’ grade average in ESP was: A: 48%; B: 20%; C: 12%; D: 9%, F: 10% which indicated a high achievement rate.
In addition, I used interviews with students and teachers because “they can provide insights into people’s experience, beliefs, perceptions, and motivations” (Heigham &Croker (2009, P.187). There are three kinds of interviews: structured, unstructured and semi-structured (Dörnyei, 2007). I used semi-structured interviews because they permit probing for detailed answers and are particularly beneficial when the interviewer is familiar with the topic and open to developing other issues allowing participants to expand on their answers (Richards, 2009). I have taught ESP, so I was aware of the topic but I needed to research it in depth. Since I was using semi-structured interviews, I prepared an interview guide (Appendix 2).
The participants in the interviews were all females including: six first year students, seven second year business students, six second year IT students and three ESP teachers. Interviews with first year students were in-person while with second year were on the telephone. The interviews were conducted in English but Arabic was used when needed as interviewees were of different English language proficiency levels.
Some data from interviews were used in a previous TBLT assignment, but I added to them two more interviews with second year business students and the data from the open-ended questions of the questionnaires, which broadened the data pool.
2.4.Analysis of data
I transcribed the interviews of students and teachers and added to that qualitative survey data from open-ended questions (Brown,2001) and the information from the teachers’ reports. This large multisource data served as the textual basis for qualitative analysis, which involved identifying conceptual patterns or themes. I used a thematic analysis to search for common themes across the data conforming to King’s (2004) descriptions of the process. Dornyei (1997) explains, “coding involves highlighting extracts of the transcribed data and labeling these in a way that they can be easily identified, retrieved or grouped” (p. 250). The main themes identified were: resources; terminology and reading comprehension; teaching; leaners’ needs; learners’ satisfaction and teachers’ satisfaction.
2.4.1.Resources
ESP book has six business units: Getting Started, The Basics of Business, Operations, Marketing, Finance and Accounting, Leadership and five IT units: Information Systems, System Analysis, I.T Security, Programming and Decision Support Systems, of which the last two are frequently omitted.
A great deal of discussions involved ESP textbook and there was a general dissatisfaction with the content, organization and printing quality of the book. The book had two big unrelated divisions: Business and IT. It was designed this way because in the preparatory year the two majors are mixed under one umbrella, Science Track.
Almost all students and teachers were discontent with some aspects of the textbook because it did not have clear objectives, lacked organization and had some grammatical mistakes and some IT information was not current and it was not user friendly. A teacher clarified: “There are many technical, grammar and language errors.” Teachers and students felt that the book did not satisfy students’ needs in ESP and “ESP books should be changed with an emphasis on English for Business and so on for each major, not books that actually teach their major”, according to the ESP female coordinator.
Participants suggested to have colorful and attractive pictures, videos, more exercises and a glossary of new vocabulary besides having less difficult comprehension passages that are more attractive, relevant ones that are related to the society like local companies and success stories of famous business women and men in the area.
Teachers complained that they did not have any resources to assist them understand some of the complicated topics of business and IT that they did not have any background about. They said they relied on Google to find what they needed. They wished they had several resources in Business and IT and some consultation with specialized teachers in both majors. Another teacher affirmed, “No teacher's resources, audio or video aids were available to support learning and teaching!”
2.4.2.Terminology and Reading Comprehension
Since writing was covered in EAP, ESP was limited to learning vocabulary and reading about some topics related to business and IT. A lot of discussions revolved around learning vocabulary. Many students wanted more practice with the new vocabulary to understand them and know how to use them in context and demanded to have a glossary of terminology in the book. As for reading, there was a general consensus from all sources that the reading passages were difficult and they needed more exercises. One teacher mentioned that the reading comprehension passages were vague because they were extracts and out of context and the language of many reading passages was too difficult for students to comprehend.
A student mentioned that the exercises were not enough and not interesting and we needed ones to assist us remembering the big number of specialized words. In the senior teacher report, she wrote, “exercises are irrelevant, insufficient and out of context.” She added, “No activities are incorporated to allow… learners to assimilate information.”
In an interview with a second year business student I found out that a group of students designed two vocabulary activities for learning and remembering the words. They suggested that to the teacher and they had a competition between two teams in the class, which they enjoyed and benefited from. Then I interviewed the student who came up with the idea and she said she saw it on YouTube and mobile application. She and a group of students made vocabulary cards and a PowerPoint presentation. The game included acting out the word or asking questions about the word.
2.4.3.Teaching
Some students felt that many teachers were not capable of explaining to them the terminology and concepts because they specialized in English. Teachers admitted that it was hard for them teaching very specialized concepts in fields they did not study before and they relied on finding online resources from Google. According to one of the teachers both units Programming and Decision Support Systems were omitted because they could not been covered in the allotted time and the teachers also wanted that because they were full of computer jargon that was incomprehensible to them. Teachers felt they could teach ESP unless it is like the current ESP full of very technical jargon they could not understand. They said preparation was time consuming and elaborative work and when students asked them about other aspects of the topic, they would not be able to answer them as it was not their specialty or expertise.
Some students thought the best option was that content area teachers taught ESP because it was their field of study and they had experience in it. Therefore, they could elaborate on the subject, give extra examples and be capable answering their questions. Others suggested giving teachers training how to teach ESP terminology.
2.4.4.Learners’ Needs
Generally speaking, students thought that ESP was important to them because it would prepare them for their specialized study in the second year. They knew about its significance mostly from previous students and also some teachers stressed that. The fist year business students stated that they needed to know specialized terms that were commonly used in business to make it easier for them to understand the subjects in the second year. This was confirmed by business students in the second year who felt that what they discussed in ESP made it easier for them to understand some of the new concepts they took in management and finance courses.
The participants expressed only one perspective to learners’ needs that is also reflected by the ESP textbooks and syllabus. All viewed ESP to be limited only to preparing students to their academic study of their majors: business and IT. A second year business students affirmed, “The ESP doesn’t satisfy other needs; it just prepares us for second year study.”
Nevertheless, just few students mentioned realistic needs outside academia like working in a company. Another student suggested linking what they study in ESP with the real world by making field trips to other colleges and also companies to explore the issues they discuss in ESP. She suggested they could go to the business college on campus and meet the teachers and students there and know more about their future field of study.
When I read the ESP textbook, I realized that it was only oriented towards the specialized studies for the prospective fields. All the units and reading comprehension passages revolved around terminology, some content from business or IT and vocabulary and reading comprehension exercises.
Another significant issue came to light when interviewing students regarding choosing their major at the end of the first year appeared. A second year student said: “My average was high and I could have applied for IT and got accepted but I didn’t.” Then she explained, “I like business more and I hate IT and when I studied ESP in the first year, business was easy but IT was hard, so I made up my mind and applied to business.” On the contrary, one mentioned that she was considering transferring to the Engineering Track if possible or studying IT because when she studied ESP, she could not memorize information in business and she preferred to study IT in the future because it depended more on understanding and applying concepts.
This made me notice that there might be another hidden learners’ need in ESP that was related to taking a decision about their future study that would affect their career prospects and even the society. Saudi as a developing country needs certain specialties more than others like IT. The probability for a business graduate to find a job is less than an IT graduate and when it is a woman the chances drop. Is ESP giving students the right information about both fields or misleading them? That indicates that ESP can paly a role in students’ study choices. This finding resonates what Jasso-Aguilar (1999) argues for: a critical perspective in NA that takes into consideration the social context.
2.4.5.Learners’ Satisfaction
Second year business students felt positive about ESP and thought that their needs for specialized terminology and basic concepts were mostly satisfied. They mentioned some examples that they took in the second year that were discussed in ESP like “the four P’s”, leadership theories and Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs, etc. The high satisfaction can be associated with the high success rate. Almost half of the respondents to the questionnaire scored A and A+. Students revealed that the tests were in general easy and directly from the book.
Nevertheless, second year IT students felt that they did not benefit much from ESP as it was mostly oriented to business not IT. Students mentioned that they were studying some terms in another subject about computers simultaneously in the first Year and there was repetition in ESP that wasted time. The syllabus that was implemented reflected what they stated because 6 business units were taught while only 3 units of IT were taught. Thus, ESP curriculum was two thirds devoted to business and one third to IT.
2.4.6.Teachers’ satisfaction
Teachers were mostly dissatisfied with the curriculum, content, textbook, lack of resources and pacing of the units. Not only were students’ voices not heard but also teachers felt excluded from decision making and this was made clear in a report stating: “The administration needs to include teachers in decision making and listen to their feedback.” They said with resentment that they were asked for feedback many times but no one listened to them and no change had happened in ESP.
In conclusion, from this research of NA, it seems clear that subjective learners’ needs are different from the objective needs in the ESP course. Two tasks adopting TBLT approach will be suggested in the following section.
3. Tasks
In this section I will present the tasks I designed for ESP: Glossary of ESP Terminology and ESP Word Games. Based on the findings of the study of NA, I designed the tasks employing a TBLT approach.
3.1.Framework
The two tasks (Appendices 3 & 4) conform to Nunan’s (2004) definition of a pedagogical task presented in section 1.3.
Samuda (2001) differentiates between two types of pedagogical tasks. The first type is knowledge-constructing tasks that enable new form-meaning connections to be made. Forming Glossary of ESP Terminology represents this type because ESP words are new and the purpose is that students work collaboratively to find their meanings and use them in correct contexts.
The second type is language-activating/fluency-stretching tasks that activate, stretch and refine current interlangauge resource processing capacities. ESP Word Game task is of this type in which the students knowledge of the learnt terminology is activated and refined. Each team designs a word game associated with a set of ESP vocabulary. Then there will be a monthly contest in the class and they play the word games. The winning teams receive a certificate from the teacher.
Both tasks satisfy Ellis’ (2009) criteria for tasks (section 1.3). The meaning is a priority in both tasks since there is no direct teaching of any form. The glossary task has gaps related to finding the meanings of the new words and using them in meaningful sentences. The outcome is to make a PowerPoint presentation and a class glossary on Blackboard. Word games also have gaps because the students collaboratively design a word game and ask others to reach an outcome that is finding the correct answers. In working on the two tasks, students need to utilize their knowledge, skills and all their linguistic and nonlinguistic resources. For designing the tasks, I followed Willis’(1996) framework: pre-task; task cycle (task, planning and report) and post-task as explained in section 1.3 (Appendices 3 & 4).
3.2.Context
The context is an ESP English class in the Science Track of the Preparatory Year English Language Program in a Saudi university. Students are18 to 19 year-old female first year students. They take ESP in the second semester. The class is a heterogeneous group from intermediate English proficiency level to advance level and the ESP contact hours are eight hours per week.
3.3.Rationale for tasks
I designed the two tasks based on the results of the NA study. Some students expressed the need for a glossary for ESP terminology and more practice with the new vocabulary. Therefore, the tasks are related to that in accordance with Breen’s argument: “Tasks must accommodate objectives which can be seen by learners as directly in harmony with their own perceived and stated learning needs” (1987. p.352). The idea for the educational word games came to me when I interviewed students who were thrilled telling me about the game they made and played in their ESP class because most students like competitions.
The basic premise of TBLT is designing meaningful tasks to make learning relevant unlike TENOR (teaching English for No Obvious Reasons) that causes unfocused teaching, low motivation and graduates with low skills (Lambert, 2010). The proposed tasks integrate the four language skills: reading, writing, listening and speaking in a communicative meaningful task and involves using appropriate syntactical, morphological and pragmatic language choices. The main objective of the tasks is to develop students’ ESP vocabulary breadth referred to as size of vocabulary (number of known words) and depth of knowledge (how well words are known and used) (Schmitt, 2014).
In the tasks the goal of vocabulary acquisition and scaffolding will be achieved by employing technology including using online dictionaries and resources, PowerPoint, Google documents and Blackboard. The purpose is to develop learners’ digital literacy that is connected to “effective interactions around learning activities involving digital tools and environments” (Gillen, 2014,p.7) that are good opportunities for peer learning and the development of skills valued in the workplace (Jenkins, 2009). Gee (2004) asserts that new technologies and media “recruit forms of thinking, interacting, and valuing that are more compelling and motivating” p.34). It is argued that ESP can develop when a multimodal pedagogy is adopted (Plastina, 2013). Multimodality in learning processes enhance meaning making that promote learners’ involvement and motivation. Added to that, there is a demand from teachers in the university to use elearning and students are assessed on using Blackboard; thus the glossary tasks included using Blackboard.
Based on growing support from theory and practice for cooperative learning (Watanabe &Swain, 2007; Storch, 2002), the tasks I designed involve students working collaboratively. Dyadic task-based interactions “provide an important context for second language learning and play a unique and significant role in the process” (Philp, Adams & Iwashita, 2014, p. 190). Peer interaction through communicative tasks provides “a context for practice and meaningful use of the target language and greater opportunity for individual production” and “opportunities for negotiation of meaning and of form” (Philp,Walter &Basturkmen, 2010, p.261). Interactive tasks give learners the opportunity for self-other correction and this feedback makes them focus on form while accomplishing the task (Norris, 2009).
Finally, the tasks are integrative communicative tasks that involve using all the four language skills: reading, listening, speaking and writing. In making a glossary there is a written mode of communication when students post their contribution to the glossary while in designing ESP word games then playing them, they communicate orally with each other. Willis (1996) explains that communication tasks activities are ‘replication activities’ that replicate the features of real world communication where language users decide what to say, when and how to say it, and listeners don’t know what will be said.
In conclusion, the current study of NA in the ESP course has revealed actual needs of students in a particular social context that differ from what is perceived by the institution. Major changes need to be implemented on all levels in the light of the findings of the study. I included some recommendations in Appendix 5.
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Appendix 1
Students Online Questionnaire*
Dear students who studied the preparatory year 2013/2014,
I am currently conducting a study of students’ needs that studied ENG102 in the English Preparatory program. I hope you can answer the following questions with honesty and transparency. Keep in mind that all the answers will be confidential and private.
Thank you for your collaboration.
Lecturer:
Contact by email:
Survey Date: 10/06/2014
Important Note: This survey is only directed towards foundation year female and male students for the year 2013/2014.
1- What was your track in the preparatory year?
- Science Track
- Engineering Track
- Health Track
2- Gender?
- Male
- Female
3- What was your GPA for ESP course?
A+, A, B+, B, C+, C, D+, D, F, I prefer not to say.
4- What do you think are the positive aspects of the ESP course?
5- What do you think are the negative aspects of the ESP course?
6- What are your suggestions to develop the ESP course?
(including the curriculum, teacher, teaching methods, the use of technology,
management and exams).
* The questionnaire is translated and modified. The original questionnaire was in Arabic because the students’ native language is Arabic and not all of them would be able to express themselves well in English. Then it was translated to English to add it to this study. The questionnaire also included another section for the General English Language Course ENG 101 that is not included here because it is not related to the aim of the study. Only the open-ended questions about ESP are included here and some of the demographic questions.
Appendix 2
Interview guide for first year students
1. Why do you study ESP? What are your needs in ESP?
2. What do you think of the ESP course you are studying right now?
3. How has the ESP course satisfied your needs?
4. What are the difficulties you are facing with the ESP course?
5. What do you think of the textbook you are using?
6. What do you think about the teaching of ESP?
7. What are you planning to study in the second year?
8. What factors has affected your decision?
9. What do you suggest to improve the ESP course?
Interview guide for second year students
1. How did the ESP course you studied last year benefit you in your study in the second year?
2. How did the ESP course satisfy your needs?
3. Prompts: academic, career, life
4. What aspects in the ESP course that had a limited benefit to you in the second year?
5. What do you think about who is more suitable to teach the ESP course, the English language teacher or a specialist in the field?
6. Why do you think so?
7. What do you suggest to improve the ESP course of the Preparatory Year?
8. How did the ESP course affect your decision in choosing your current field of study?
Interview guide for ESP teachers
1. What do you think of the ESP course?
2. What do you think are the students’ needs in the ESP course?
3. How does the ESP course satisfy the students’ needs?
4. What are the advantages of the ESP course?
5. What are the disadvantages of the ESP course?
6. What are they difficulties you faced with the ESP course?
7. What do you suggest to improve the ESP course?
Appendix 3:
Task 1
Glossary of ESP Terminology
Why?
The textbook does not have a glossary for ESP terminology, which makes it difficult for students to learn the new vocabulary. You are a team of language experts that will make the ESP glossary and publish it online on BlackBoard. The Glossary you create will be shared with other ESP classes and teachers this year and in future years.
What?
You are going to make a glossary for ESP terminology to share it with other students in your class and other classes studying ESP. The glossary will benefit students and teachers this year and the coming years because it will be used as a resource by the English Language Department. You will enter vocabulary on a glossary on Blackboard and teach other groups your vocabulary in class.
How long?
The whole Semester: 3 months and a half. Every week two hours and a half will be devoted for this project.
How?
You will work in a group of three students organized by the teacher. Here are the steps that you need to follow:
1. The teacher gives each group a set of colored vocabulary cards. Colors make it easier to identify the different sets of vocabulary.
2. Students read and research the assigned vocabulary using resources: textbook and online resources to come up with definitions for the words and use them in meaningful sentences.
3. Each group of students goes to another group to teach them their words and learn their.
4. As a homework, groups prepare a PowerPoint presentation using the other group set of vocabualry not theirs.
5. In the second class, each group presents their terminology and meaningful examples and ask other students to contribute with giving more examples.
6. Students give feedback about the other groups presentations, how they feel about the terminology and task and what they learnt.
7. For homework, each groups enter the vocabualry on a glossary set by the teacher on Blackboard and post their powerPoint presentations and this is updated weekly.
8. A Google document will be created by the class including the ESP glossary that will be updated weekly in order to share it with other classes and teachers.
Task Cycle
Task 1
Glossary of ESP Terminology
Procedure
Target Structures
Skills
Pre-task Phase
-Teacher divides students to groups of threes to discuss what they know about glossaries and how they are formed and why they are used.
- Each group discusses with the whole class their answers.
-Teacher shows them some glossaries from books she brings to the class and online examples using the Smartboard.
-Teachers discuss with students characteristics of good glossaries.
-Teacher introduces the class project of creating a glossary for ESP terminology, give them instructions and answer their questions.
-Teacher post instructions for the task and criteria on blackBorad for reference.
ESP Vocabulary
Grammar:
Present simple tense
Passive present simple tense
Listening
Speaking
Task
-Teacher distributes colored cards. Each card has one word and gives a number of cards for each group. Each group has a set of vocabulary cards with the same color but different from other groups. Colors make it easier to identify the different sets of vocabulary.
-Students work in groups of three chosen by the teacher doing the following tasks:
-Reading and researching
Pairs discuss the assigned vocabulary and use resources: textbook and online resources to come up with definitions for the words and using them in meaningful sentences.
-Exchanging vocabualry sets
Each group of students goes to another group to learn their words and theach them theris as a homework.
Same as before
Reading
Writing
Listening
Speaking
Planning
-Groups prepare for a PowerPoint presentation using the other groups vocabualry not theirs.
Same as before
Reading
Writing
Listening
Speaking
Reporting
-Students present vocabulary and meaningful examples and ask other students to contribute with giving more examples.
Same as before
Speaking
Listening
Post-task
-Students give feedback about the other groups presentations, how they feel about the terminology and task.
-For homework, each groups enter the vocabualry on a glossary set by the teacher on Blackboard and post their Powerpoint presentations on Blackboard. Add the vocabualry to the Google document.
Same as before
Listening
Speaking
Appendix 4
Task 2
ESP Word Games
ESP Word Games
Why?
Students find it hard to learn ESP terminology. You are a team of educational games experts that is called by the English Language Department to design some challenging games to boost students’ learning and motivation.
What?
Designing challenging educational word games to learn ESP terminology.
How long?
There will be three ESP word game contests, in the beginning of each new month, and the teacher will announce the exact days.
Each contest is expected to take two classes:
One class for designing and preparing the games.
One class for playing the games.
How?
In the first class:
-You will discuss your experiences with word games as a whole class (only in the first contenst).
-Teacher will show you a video of a word game that you will play in the class (only in the first contest).
-Each team chooses its members; each team should have 3-4 members.
-Your team designs a word game for a set of ESP vocabulary given to you by the teacher.
-Each game needs to have a name and a written set of rules on a poster.
Homework:
-A list of all ESP vocabulary will be posted on Blackboard by the teacher and you need to study it, so your team can win the word game contest.
In the second class:
-You play the game with the other groups and you announce the winners.
-The teacher will give them a winning certificate.
-Students give feedback about the other groups’ games, what they like and what they need to work on.
Task Cycle
Task 2
ESP Word games
Procedure
Target Structures
Skills
Pre-task Phase
-Teacher discusses with the students if they know any word games they played with friends or individually and when they played them and why.
-Teacher shows them a video of a word game then discusses it with them.
-Teacher plays with the class a word game dividing them to two teams.
- Teacher asks them how they felt about their experience and what they think of educational games.
-Teacher gives instruction for the task and answer their questions.
ESP Vocabulary
Grammar:
Imperatives
Present simple
Use of adverbial clauses.
Listening
Speaking
Task
-Each team chooses its members; each team should have 3-4 members.
-Each team designs a word game for a set of ESP vocabulary given by the teacher.
-Each game needs to have a name and a written set of rules.
Homework:
-A list of all ESP vocabulary will be posted on Blackboard by the teacher and you need to study it, so your team can win the word game contest.
Same as before
Reading
Writing
Listening
Speaking
Planning
- In the second class:
Each team prepares for their game and writes the rules on a poster.
Same as before
Reading
Writing
Listening
Speaking
Reporting
-Each team plays the game with the other groups and you announce the winners.
-The teacher gives the winners a winning certificate.
Same as before
Speaking
Listening
Post-task
Students give feedback about the other groups’ games, what they like and what they need to work on.
Listening
Speaking
.
Appendix 5
Recommendations
Taking in consideration the findings of the needs analysis study, I will suggest some recommendations to develop the current ESP program. They are as following:
1. Doing wide scale research for NA involving all stakeholders: students of all years and graduates, English teachers and content teachers, employers, parents, etc. The result of NA should lead to changes in ESP according to the actual academic, career and social needs of students.
2. Adopting TBLT approach and training teachers to use tasks that makes learning meaningful and interesting to satisfy needs of students.
3. Making a forum on Blackboard for teachers and administrators to discuss the actual needs of students, present new ideas, overcome obstacles, etc. This can be a channel for direct communication that would benefit everyone. Students’ representatives can be also included. In the same vein, having regular meetings between administration, teachers’ and students’ representatives to provide input and insights to students’ needs.
4. Providing students and teachers with better textbooks and resources (online or paper books), videos, audios, etc. Both teachers and students have access to the university library and there are online books. A list of references could be recommend by subject matter teachers or a librarian for ESP teachers.
5. The need for first year students to take a decision about their major should be satisfied by providing them with more information about the majors, either in classes or during the activity hours (2 hours per week if not used for tests). This can be done by brining speakers from companies, students, or teachers to share their knowledge and firsthand experiences with students.
6. Some major top-down decisions need to be addressed like the structure of the Science Track and the content of ESP because the current ESP course consists of two unrelated fields: business and IT. Is it in the best interest of students to join them together in ESP before they specialize in them or is it better to change ESP to target less specialized content? If the content is very specialized is it best to be taught be English language teachers or specialized teachers? Course designers need to consider that “the attainment goals match the language learning needs of particular groups of learners” and “needs are tied to local contexts and may change over time (Van Avermaet & Gysen, 2006, p. 18,19).