Research On Ideas And Practice Of ESP In Taiwan Tertiary Education

After World War II,with expansion in business,science,technology and culture,people around world need a language to communicate in the international affairs.For many complex reasons,both in history and in politics,English soon became lingua franca which has been widely accepted and used in the world.At the same time,it brought about tremendous changes in English teaching.English for Science and Technology(EST),which appeared in the 1960 s,was an important part of the English for Specific Purposes(ESP).After that,ESP courses extended to various areas.Courses such as English for Academic Purposes(EAP),Legal English,English for Business and Economics(EBE),English for Medical Studies,English for Vocational Purposes and many other ESP courses have sprung up swiftly.The development of ESP in mainland China started at the late 1970 s.Though its appearance attracted the attention in intellectual circles,ESP developed slowly in Chinese tertiary education.In these years,the rapid development in both economic globalization and internationalization of higher education brought challenges to college English teaching.It has been found that,in tertiary education,English for General Purposes(EGP)is hard to meet the demand of growing thirst for integrated talents.Meanwhile,the role of English acting as a tool of communication became increasingly manifest.In order to strengthen the efficiency of English Teaching in our tertiary education,many experts and researchers pointed out that ESP is likely to become an important direction for English teaching development in the future(Cai,2004).However,the current situation of ESP development in mainland China is not good enough.There are a number of aspects need to be improved,such as the faculty,textbooks development,course design,the support of school administration,etc.The ESP development in Taiwan area is quite successful.The ESP practice in Taiwan possesses advantages in application of theory,curriculum provision,teaching materials adoption,etc.In order to explore the situation of ESP practice in Taiwan,the author has conducted a case study on Tamkang University(TKU).As a famous private university with a long history,TKU emphasizes the academic study and the cultivation of integrated talents of science and culture.ESP courses are conducted with an extensive scale in TKU.By integrating qualitative research into quantitative research,this study adopts multiple research approaches,i.e.document analysis,classroom observation and semi-structured interview.The data collection and analysis involves ESP curriculum arrangement and the syllabus design.The author observed 10 representative ESP courses,and interviewed the course lecturers and 18 students from the classes.The present thesis combines the definition,origin and teaching principles of ESP to analyze the collected data.The aim of this study is to explore how ESP courses are designed and executed in TKU.Focusing on syllabus design and materials development,the study tries to find problems and challenges of ESP practice.Moreover,the application of ESP theories and solutions adopted by ESP practitioners have been illustrated.Meanwhile,teachers? ideas,perspectives,attitudes towards ESP have been presented.Their discussions on key issues also have been synthesized.Through the illustration of the situation of ESP teaching and the genuine perspectives of ESP practitioners in TKU,this thesis attempts to analyze the merits and demerits in TKU ESP practice.In this way,the findings of the research can provide implications and references for ESP practice in tertiary education.