A Survey Study Of ESP Teaching In Higher Vocational Colleges

With the rapid and extensive economic and social development in China,higher vocational and technical education has been made a corresponding development.As an important component of higher education in China,it is different from general higher education because it is vocation-oriented and its objective is to cultivate practical talents in production,technology,service and management etc.Thus application and practicality is the distinguishing features of ELT of higher vocational and technical education.However,ELT of higher vocational and technical education has followed the teaching model of four-year undergraduate education for a long time.As an approach to language teaching that the contents and methods of ESP courses are determined by functional and practical English requirements of the learner,it can help learners acquire the specific abilities within the limited time.ESP is not only in accordance with the training goal of ELT of higher vocational and technical education,but also can meet the social needs for practical talents of English.Therefore it is reasonable and feasible to apply ESP approach into ELT of higher vocational and technical education.Nowadays English for General Purposes has attained wonderful results,while ESP teaching remains a weak part.Problems exist in various aspects,such as teaching arrangement,teachers,methodology,and textbooks.In order to understand the current situation of ESP,an investigation was carded out in three Higher Vocational Colleges in Dongying with questionnaires and interviews,which involve learners' needs,ESP teaching mode,teaching hardware,etc.At the same time,the results of teachers' interviews conducted the survey supplement.Based on the results of the investigation, some effective suggestions for improving ESP teaching and meet students' needs are proposed in the three basic aspects:integration in course design,integration in teaching method,and professional development for ESP teachers.To finish the thesis,the limitations of the current study due to the limited space and time was pointed out,and inspiration for further teaching was also suggested.