Determination of the specific needs for ESP course and materials design: a descriptive study at Osmangazi University, Eskişehir

Abstract

English for Specific Purposes (ESP) is a relatively new concern in second language acquisition history. ESP has been defined as an approach to language teaching which tries to meet the needs of particular learners. Today, many educational institutions all over the world design English language programs and courses designed specific for their students’ needs as to their fields of study. This study sought to develop criteria for designing ESP courses and materials that are to be employed by the Foreign Languages Department of Osmangazi University. Beside the current application of the Technical English course delivered to the Engineering Faculty students at the Preparatory School for the last 2 years, students of three more faculties are going to need similar ESP courses starting from the 1998-1999 Academic year. The aim of this study was to develop ESP course design criteria by identifying the needs of the students at the Faculty of Medicine, the Faculty of Science and the Faculty of Economics and Administrative Sciences, and to compensate for the lack of addressing specific issues in the current Preparatory Program offered by the Foreign Languages Department of Osmangazi University. In this study, the opinions of the Prep school and engineering faculty students as well as the director of the Foreign Languages Department and professors from the Faculties of Engineering, Medicine, Science, and Economics and Administrative Sciences were asked. The materials used in this study were questionnaires and interviews. Similar questionnaires were administered for three groups of students, each consisting of 25 students. The same interview was given to all the informants, the director of the Foreign Languages Department, 6 professors from the faculties. To analyze the data, first frequencies of questionnaires’ results were determined, their percentages, means and standard deviations were calculated and the results were transformed to figures. Interview results were put in paragraph form after the questionnaire results. According to the students and professors, the most important skills in their fields of study were reading and writing.. This result was something that the researcher expected since most of the previous research revealed the same fact. Vocabulary learning activities appeared to be as important as activities employed to improve students’ reading and writing abilities. Subjects and informants also indicated that an ESP course should be an integrated one and that a grammar instruction component should be inserted to such an integrated structure. To sum up, in an ESP course and materials design process, the most important skills seem to be reading and writing. Sub-skills can only be determined according to the specifications of the students’ field of study. Grammar instruction cannot be denied. Vocabulary learning tasks appear to be the most wanted and needed activity. In terms of texts to be used, all students and professors prefer simplified texts including the general technical vocabulary related to their own field of study.