A Study On The ESP Teaching Of A Secondary Vocational School In Yancheng

Hutchison & Waters(1987)pointed out that English for Specific Purposes(ESP)refers to English teaching related to a specific subject and occupation,that is,English language teaching based on the specific purpose and specific needs of the learner.With the rapid development of China’s economy and the acceleration of the globalization of the world economy,the society needs more and more compound talents who know both English knowledge and professional knowledge.ESP teaching pays more attention to cultivating the students’ English ability related to their future careers,and it will become the direction of English teaching in vocational colleges.At present,the research on ESP teaching mainly focuses on universities and vocational colleges.However,there are few researches on the status of ESP teaching in secondary vocational schools.Therefore,it is of great practical significance to investigate the current situation of ESP teaching in secondary vocational schools.This study aims to investigate two questions:(1)What is the status of ESP learning for secondary vocational students?(2)What is the current status of ESP teaching in secondary vocational schools? This study uses a combination of questionnaires and interviews to investigate 195 secondary vocational students in the third grade of four majors and 6 ESP teachers in Yancheng Kindergarten Teachers College.The questionnaires surveyed the overall situation of students’ ESP learning,curriculum setting,textbooks,classroom teaching,teachers and evaluation system.The interviews analyzed teachers’ understanding of ESP teaching so as to make up for the lack of questionnaires.Finally,the data was analyzed with Excel data processing tools.The survey results indicate that: First of all,secondary vocational students generally think that it is necessary to study ESP courses,and later they will use English knowledge related to their majors in their future jobs.Secondly,secondary vocational students are interested in ESP courses and concentrate their attention in class.Thirdly,the participation of secondary vocational students in ESP class is not very high.Most students will think about problems in the class,but only a small number of them will actively answer the questions.Finally,secondary vocational students have poor autonomy in learning ESP after class.Most students only learn occasionally or never take the initiative to learn ESP after class.In addition,the results further show that the current ESP teaching in secondary vocational schools has the following problems: firstly,the curriculum setting is unreasonable,lacks of scientificity and systematicness and the total class time is relatively insufficient.Secondly,the textbook is difficult and impractical,and the teaching content lacks of activity and fun.Furthermore,the teaching model is outdated.Most teachers mainly use the teaching method of reading and translation.The classroom teaching lacks of rich teaching activities,the interaction between teachers and students is insufficient,the atmosphere is not very active,and the teaching means are boring.In addition,the school’s ESP teachers are weak in teaching capacity.English teachers lack sufficient professional knowledge while professional teachers’ English skills are insufficient.Schools do not pay enough attention to ESP,and there is little training for ESP teachers.Finally,teaching evaluation is unreasonable.The evaluation subject is single,the method is simple and the content is narrow.In view of the existing problems,the author puts forward some strategies for improving ESP teaching in secondary vocational schools.Firstly,the schools should optimize ESP curriculum setting.Secondly,the schools should strengthen the construction of ESP teaching materials.Furthermore,the teachers need to change traditional teaching methods and enrich teaching means.In addition,the schools should strengthen the construction of ESP teachers.Finally,the schools should establish a scientific and effective evaluation system.In addition,there are some shortcomings in this study.The number of students and teachers participating in this study is limited.The design of questionnaire has some deficiencies and the analysis of survey data is not thorough.In the future,further research on ESP teaching can be conducted in order that the author will have a more objective and comprehensive understanding of ESP teaching in secondary vocational schools.