Designing an ESP Course

Designing an ESP Course ESPcourse designneeds analysis April 2007 Volume 3 Issue 1 Article 6.

PDF File April 2007 home Article Title

Designing an ESP course for Chinese University Students of usiness Autor

!ao "ia#ing !io

!ao "ia#ing $or%s at the Faculty of Foreign &anguages' ei#ing (ormal University )*huhai campus+ $here she teaches college English to non English ma#ors, She is interested in ESP' E&- methodology' and genre./ased instruction, She can /e contacted at gracehaiyanhotmail,com

A"stract

Despite the gro$ing demand for English for Specific Purposes )ESP+ instruction in China' ESP courses are still limited to learning specific le1icon and translating te1ts, ith the continued e1pansion and participation in the international /usiness arena' much attention should /e dra$n to the design of ESP courses $hich can help to prepare learners for future professional communication, 3n response to these needs' this article is an attempt to provide a guided approach to ESP course design for Chinese senior /usiness students at tertiary level, 3t first revie$s current literature and case studies related to ESP course design, hen designing an ESP course' the primary issue is the analysis of learners4 specific needs, 5ther issues addressed include6 determination of realistic goals and o/#ectives integration of grammatical functions and ac8uisition s%ills and assessment and evaluation, Although ESP conte1ts vie$ these issues from their o$n perspectives' the proposed frame$or% for ESP course development is argued as /eing of /enefit to teachers $ho may encounter pro/lems in ESP course design, #e$ %or&s' ESP' course design' needs analysis, Intro&uction

ith the glo/ali9ation of trade and economy and the continuing increase of international communication in various fields' the demand for English for Specific Purposes is e1panding' especially in countries $here English is taught as a Foreign &anguage, Even though ESP courses have /ecome popular recently in China and many institutions and universities offer ESP courses for senior students' for years the instruction has /een limited to speciali9ed le1icon and sentence structures' an approach $hich fundamentally ignores the learners4 personal interests, -his often leads to lo$ motivation in their English studies and' in turn' poor performance later $hen they use English in their future profession, 3n response to these pro/lems' it is important to help students adapt to today4s competitive society' meaning that university English faculties need to design ESP courses that can /est prepare learners for future professional communication, Designing a ne$ ESP course involves issues such as $hat to teach' ho$ to teach or $here to start, ased on an integrated approach' this paper puts for$ard a sample ESP course frame$or% and critically analy9es the core elements of ESP course design6 needs analysis course goals and o/#ectives course details materials design and finally' assessment and evaluation, (iterature re)ie%

-he of the ESP influenced movement is of the fast development of the $orld of economy and gro$th has /een greatly /ya result E&- methodology and the development Applied &inguistics, -he first dominating approach to ESP course design focused on the grammatical and le1ical items of a particular field of English, ith the popularity of Communicative &anguage -eaching' language use /ecame the %ey emphasis in the ESP $orld' %no$n as the functional.notional approach, 3n the early :0s' it $as found that there $as a certain need underlying a particular language use and in addition' the process of learning and learning s%ills needed to /e ta%en into account )Dudley.Evans ; St "ohn'