Investigation On The Teaching Of ESP In Higher Vocational Colleges

ESP is short for English for Specific Purposes and it generally refers to the teaching of English for a clearly practical purpose. It is based on a rigorous needs analysis of learners. ESP rose in the 1960s and it developed very fast in its theory and practice during these 40 years. Meanwhile its rapid development of ESP resulted from the worldwide continuous enthusiasm in English learning. Higher Vocational Education is one kind of specialized education that belongs to higher education. It aims at cultivating professional, skill-oriented, actual practical and application-oriented talents. It just conforms to the general teaching objectives of English in higher vocational colleges, which is cultivating the language-using ability in specific fields.In order to understand the current situation of ESP teaching in High Vocational Colleges, I carried out an investigation in five representative high vocational colleges from different area in China by questionnaires and interviews, which involve students, teachers, textbooks, methodology, etc. A lot of students and teachers are involved in the questionnaire and interview. The first-hand information was collected and analyzed. The investigation shows that, compared with the teaching of College English, the teaching of ESP is relatively weak, many problems exist in its teaching arrangement, teaching staff, teaching methodology and construction of teaching materials.After analysis of the results of investigation, I reflected upon the ESP teaching in high vocational colleges. And then, based on relative language theories and learning theories, I introduced the key issues and principles in ESP teaching, and pointed out that the first thing to do in ESP is the need analysis, which is the premise for the design of a syllabus, textbooks compilation, methodology and evaluation. The marrow of ESP lies in the fact that it emphasizes the analysis and satisfaction of different needs of different learners to improve the teaching efficiency. We should follow the requirements of ESP in analyzing the learners' needs, designing the courses, making the syllabuses, compiling the textbooks and exploring the teaching methodology.At the end of the thesis, the author points out the limitations of the investigation and research, and introduced the next steps he is going to do in this field: in order to make the teaching of ESP better, emphatical study should be placed on application after this research, courses should be designed based on the actual needs of the students, a model of ESP should be explored and developed as well.