An Experimental Study On Competence-based Education In ESP Teaching At Higher Vocational Colleges

Along with the deepening of global economic integration, the speed to act oninternational convention has accelerated in all fields in China. As one of the most importantlanguages for communicating with the outside world, English has been paid attention by thewhole society. However, the talents that only have a command of English can no longer meetthe requirement of social development. The inter-disciplinary talents that can not onlycommunicate in English, but also have a good command of special English are gaining moreand more favor. Under this background, all sorts of higher vocational schools have offeredEnglish for specific purposes（ESP）in recent years.So far, though remarkable achievements have been made in English teaching in highervocational schools, it still has a long way to go to achieve the teaching target of highervocational schools, having not formed distinct features and the advantage in quality. The mainreason is that the teaching mode of ESP that is suitable for higher vocational education has notbeen improved. The mode does not meet the requirement for fostering talents in highervocational schools and has affected the realization of the objectives of English teaching. Inhigher vocational schools, the teaching mode of ESP has mainly followed the practice inpublic English teaching in curriculum arrangement, teaching method, selection of teachers,etc. This has deviated from the idea of higher vocational education that is employment andcompetence-based, having neglected the cultivation of comprehensive abilities and qualitythat are needed by occupational posts.In recent years, more and more higher vocational schools have chosen competence-basededucation as the theoretical basis guiding ESP teaching. Through introducing the idea“ability-orientation” into ESP teaching, with the frame of competence-based teaching theoryas guidance, taking the ESP teaching in the property management specialty as an example andadopting the research methods, such as documental summarizing method, questionnairemethod and experiments, the author tries to find a teaching mode to foster students’ abilitiesin using English practically.To achieve this aim, the author has done experiment in two classes of the property management specialty in Grade2010in Baotou Vocational Technical School. The teachingmethod for the controlled class is the traditional one that is teacher-centered, with oralteaching as the main teaching method. The teaching method for the experimental class isguided by the ideology of competence-based education, with task-based teaching as the mainteaching method.After a school term’s experiment, the author found that the ESP teaching method guidedby the idea of ability-orientation adopted in the property management specialty has improvedstudents’ ability in communicating professionally. Besides, the application of the mode hasalso helped the students develop other vocational abilities. This ability-orientation mode canbe effectively applied in the ESP teaching in Baotou Vocational Technical School and otherhigher vocational schools.