A Study On The Teaching Of English For Special Purposes In Vocational Colleges

In the 30 years since the reform and opening up, along with the development of our society, English becomes increasingly popular. And in China today, except Chinese, English has even become one of the most frequently used communicative languages in social communication. Thus, the society is putting forward a higher requirement for employees with English knowledge. Those with pure language knowledge or just with specialty knowledge cannot meet the requirements of the modern age. Rather, talents mastering both English and a specific major knowledge are becoming increasingly popular. ESP teaching in colleges and universities is the very adaptation of English teaching to this age.However, contrasting with the great efforts and time spent on it, the achievements of ESP teaching so far, are not as satisfactory as has been expected. Especially that of vocational colleges for non-English majors is in a dilemma nowadays. In fact, some vocational colleges or departments have cancelled ESP courses, or are considering doing so. What has caused such a situation of ESP in vocational colleges? As an English teacher in vocational colleges, the author of this thesis intends to conduct a thorough and careful investigation and study of the present ESP teaching in vocational colleges in the hope of finding out the answer.ESP, as an approach of English teaching, cannot go without needs analysis. Based on the needs analysis theory of"society needs"and"learners'needs"held by Shu Dingfang (2004), the author carries out a survey of ESP teaching in three vocational colleges for non-English majors of Weifang area. The three vocational colleges include Shandong Vocational College of Science and Technology, Shandong Transport Vocational College as well as Shandong Vocational College of Economics and Business where the author works. In addition to questionnaires from 177 ESP students and interviews with ESP teachers, the innovation of this thesis lies in the collection and analysis of 15 pieces of advertisement of employment from some famous companies in and out of Shandong province (http://www.zhaopin.com;http://www.51job.com/, 2010.2.20). The purpose of the survey is to find out the real needs of both the society and learners by revealing and analyzing the problems existing in present ESP teaching in such aspects as: course design, teaching materials, ESP teachers, teaching methods and evaluation. Causes for these problems are analyzed from the perspective of society needs and learners'needs.Through the analysis of the survey result, the author finds out that the problems of present ESP teaching in vocational colleges mainly lie in the following aspects: (1) Students in the same class are of different levels in their English study, which causes the different motivations of the students in learning English and also causes difficulty in the teacher's teaching; (2) Most students have definite goals of learning ESP to facilitate their future jobs but their improper attitudes towards it decrease their motivation in learning ESP; (3) Course design of ESP in vocational colleges is not proper; (4)The ESP materials now in use are not suitable for the students; (5) Traditional teaching methods cannot arouse the students'interest in learning ESP; (6) There are no special ESP teachers in vocational colleges; (7) The present ESP evaluation mechanism places ESP in a position subordinate to College English and major study, thus reducing the students'efforts in its study.The present research comes to the conclusion that needs lacks and needs conflicts are the main causes for the above problems. For needs lacks, above all, no unified syllabus of ESP teaching for non-English majors has been available so far throughout the country, which makes each factor in the whole process of ESP teaching lack criteria to abide by, especially that of vocational colleges. Secondly, the study of vocational college students is closely related to their future job-hunting. However, in the process of learning ESP, there are no such standard or nationwide exams as CET Band 4 or PETS, which can help the students to get certificates in their job-hunting. Meanwhile, as the last procedure of ESP teaching, the non-assessed character of ESP evaluation mechanism also plays a very crucial part in deciding what kind of attitude the students have towards ESP as well as how much time and effort is spent on ESP from the very beginning. Also, there are neglects of students'needs and teachers'needs by the college and the teacher from course design, materials choosing to teaching methods, etc.For needs conflicts, there is conflict between the college and the requirements of the government in whether ESP courses should be set or cancelled; conflict also lies in among students'needs and the college needs as well as the teacher's needs in course design and choosing materials as well as arranging ESP teachers and teaching methods, etc.At the end of the thesis, some practical suggestions are put forward accordingly through the combination of needs analysis and the author's own experience of ESP teaching. For example, the author considers the cooperation of English teachers and major teachers to compile ESP materials and the application of genre analysis in ESP teaching will be of practical use. The author sincerely hopes that this study will be of some help to improving the present ESP teaching in vocational colleges so that the ESP teaching will be really helpful for students'future work. Meanwhile, it is also the author's intention to call for more attention to ESP teaching from every facet of the society through this thesis.