ESP Classroom Discourse

Under the background of today’s globalization,English,as a lingua franca,is gaining more and more attention all over the world.Therefore,English education is attached to much more importance than ever,especially in countries where English is taken as a foreign or second language.Meanwhile,with the development of society,requirements from all walks of life are getting increasingly higher,especially with regard to personnel training,as well as recruiting interdisciplinary talents who are expected to be proficient in both foreign languages and professional knowledge.Thus,as a branch of ELT(English Language Teaching),during the recent decades,ESP(English for Specific Purposes)has gradually become a research hotspot for its orientation to the cultivation of language talents equipped with specific professional qualifications.Based on the previous research results at home and abroad,this study attempts to take a further step into ESP classroom with the goal of identifying the status quo of ESP classroom discourse and the factors influencing ESP classroom teaching.Three specific research questions are put forward,around which the whole research process is designed and implemented,including:(1)How do different discourse modes come to exist in ESP classroom?(2)How are the interactions(e.g.turn,question,feedback and negotiation)of ESP classroom discourse distributed?(3)What factors influence the effectiveness of ESP classroom discourse in achieving its teaching goals?This case study of BE(Business English)classroom teaching is carried out by adopting both qualitative and quantitative research approaches aiming to gain a better and concrete description of ESP classroom discourse.Meanwhile,four research instruments are developed for data collection and analysis,including the classroom interaction observation scale,the modified SETT(Self-evaluation of Teacher Talk)framework,questionnaire,and interview.Among them,the first tool is adopted for the assistance of early data collection.Through the tripartite analysis of ESP classroom discourse,the study draws the following conclusions:(1)in authentic ESP classroom,the teaching mode is variant and classroom context mode and material mode appear in each teacher’s class;(2)on average,learners’ turns and teacher’s turn account for 45.0% and 55.0% respectively and learners expect more output opportunities;among all the teachers’ questions and feedbacks,referential questions account for 57.4%,and over 90% feedbacks are content-focused;besides,clarification request is the most effective way of stimulating learners’ contribution among the mentioned meaning negotiation ways;(3)from the learners’ perspective,the teacher is the most influential factor of ESP classroom discourse,with a mean score of 4.42,while physical environment is rated as the least important factor with a mean score of 3.25;from the teachers’ view,the factors can be concluded as three aspects: learners(e.g.learners’ language proficiency,prior knowledge,comprehension ability,learners’ personality and willingness of participation),materials and teachers themselves,specifically,including their own teaching belief and educational philosophies that exert invisible impact on their teaching practice.On the whole,from the findings above,though ESP classroom discourse is constructed by both the teacher and learners,teacher’s talk still plays a significant role and takes much longer time in the class for language input and professional knowledge transmission.Despite the fact that learner-centeredness is constantly emphasized,there is still a long way for us to go.