Determination of the specific needs for ESP course and materials design: a descriptive study at Osmangazi University, Eskişehir

^E R S iT Y , ESKLSEI

A T H E S IS PRESEM TED BY ■

HUSEYIN TEZCAN

TO THE INSTITUTE· OF ECONOMICS AND SQClAL SCIENCES

IN PARTIAL FULFiLLMSNT OF THE REQUIREMENTS

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IN TEACrtl-NG EN G LISH A S U Y F O R E IG N LANGUAGE

UNIVERSITY, ESKISEHIR

A THESIS PRESENTED BY

HÜSEYİN TEZCAN

TO THE INSTITUTE OF ECONOMICS AND SOCIAL SCIENCES

IN PARTIAL FULFILMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS

FOR THE DEGREE OF MASTER OF ARTS

IN TEACHING ENGLISH AS A FOREIGN LANGUAGE

BILKENT UNIVERSITY

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Author:

Materials Design: A Descriptive Study at Osmangazi University, Eskişehir

Hüseyin Tezcan

Thesis Chairperson: Dr. Tej B. Shresta

Bilkent University, MA TEFL Program

Committee Members: Dr. Patricia Sullivan Dr. Bena Gül Peker Marsha Hurley

Bilkent University, MA TEFL Program

English for Specific Purposes (ESP) is a relatively new concern in second

language acquisition history. ESP has been defined as an approach to language

teaching which tries to meet the needs of particular learners. Today, many

educational institutions all over the world design English language programs and

courses designed specific for their students’ needs as to their fields of study.

This study sought to develop criteria for designing ESP courses and materials

that are to be employed by the Foreign Languages Department of Osmangazi

University. Beside the current application of the Technical English course delivered

to the Engineering Faculty students at the Preparatory School for the last 2 years,

students of three more faculties are going to need similar ESP courses starting from

the 1998-1999 Academic year. The aim of this study was to develop ESP course

design criteria by identifying the needs of the students at the Faculty of Medicine, the

Faculty o f Science and the Faculty of Economics and Administrative Sciences, and

to compensate for the lack o f addressing specific issues in the current Preparatory

from the Faculties of Engineering, Medicine, Science, and Economics and

Administrative Sciences were asked. The materials used in this study were

questionnaires and interviews. Similar questionnaires were administered for three

groups of students, each consisting of 25 students. The same interview was given to

all the informants, the director of the Foreign Languages Department, 6 professors

from the faculties.

To analyze the data, first frequencies o f questionnaires’ results were

determined, their percentages, means and standard deviations were calculated and the

results were transformed to figures. Interview results were put in paragraph form

after the questionnaire results.

According to the students and professors, the most important skills in their

fields of study were reading and writing.. This result was something that the

researcher expected since most of the previous research revealed the same fact.

Vocabulary learning activities appeared to be as important as activities employed to

improve students’ reading and writing abilities. Subjects and informants also

indicated that an ESP course should be an integrated one and that a grammar

instruction component should be inserted to such an integrated structure.

To sum up, in an ESP course and materials design process, the most

important skills seem to be reading and writing. Sub-skills can only be determined

according to the specifications o f the students’ field o f study. Grammar instruction

cannot be denied. Vocabulary learning tasks appear to be the most wanted and

MA THESIS EXAMINATION RESULT FORM

July 31, 1998

The examining committee appointed by the Institute of Economics and Social

Sciences for the thesis examination of the MA TEFL student

Hüseyin Tezcan

has read the thesis of the student.

The committee has decided that the thesis of the student is satisfactory.

Thesis Title: Determination of the Specific Needs for ESP Course and Materials Design: A Descriptive Study at Osmangazi University

Thesis Advisor : Dr. Bena Gül Peker

Bilkent University, MA TEFL Program

Committee Members . Dr. Patricia Sullivan

Bilkent University, MA TEFL Program

Dr. Tej B. Shresta

Bilkent University, MA TEFL Program

Marsha Hurley

We certify that we have read this thesis and that in our combined opinion it is fully adequate, in scope and in quality, as a thesis for the degree of Master of Arts.

Patricia Sullivan (Committee Member)

P.

Approved for the

Institute of Economics and Social Sciences

MetinHeper' Director

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

I would like to express my gratitude to my thesis advisor, Dr. Bena Gül

Peker, for her invaluable suggestions, patience and enthusiastic encouragement.

I am deeply grateful to Dr. Patricia Sullivan who provided me support and

encouragement throughout this research project and gave me feedback for more than

eight months.

I would like to thank MA TEFL Instructor Marsha Hurley who contributed to

the writing of this thesis.

I am grateful to Dr. Tej Shresta for his continual moral support during the

program.

I owe much to the administration of Osmangazi University who gave me

permission to conduct this study in their institution.

I also owe special thanks to the Director of Foreign Languages Department at

Osmangazi University, Professor Zekeriya Altaç, who contributed to my study

willingly and gave permission to conduct my study in his department.

I am specially indebted to Professor Atalay Barkana, Professor Ö. Adil

Atasoy, Dr. Hasan H. Erkaya, Dr. Salih Fadıl, and the students from the Engineering

Faculty and the Preparatory School for their support and participation in my study

willingly.

My greatest thanks to my family for their continuous support and

understanding throughout this study. And my special thanks to my parents who

TABLE OF CONTENTS

LIST OF FIGURES... xi

LIST OF TABLES... xii

CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION... 1

Background of the study... 2

Statement of the Problem... 4

Purpose of the Study... 5

Significance of the Study... 6

Research Questions... 7

Definition of Terms... 8

CHAPTER 2 REVIEW OF THE LITERATURE... 9

Introduction...9

Teaching English for Specific Purposes... 9

History of Teaching ESP...10

Analysis of Learners’ Needs... 12

From Theory to Practice: Course Design in ESP... 16

Approaches to Course Design... 19

Design Factors in EST Courses... 19

Sociological Factors... 19

Linguistic Factors... 19

Psychological Factors... 20

Pedagogic Factors...20

Language-Centred Course Design... 22

Skills-Centred Course Design ... 24

Learning-Centred Course Design... 26

Types of Syllabi...28

Materials Design in ESP... 30

A Materials Design Model... 32

CHAPTERS METHODOLOGY...35

Introduction... 35

Subjects and Informants... 35

Materials...37

Procedures...37

Data Analysis... 38

CHAPTER 4 DATA ANALYSIS... 39

Overview of the Study... 39

Data Analysis Procedures... 40

Results of the Questionnaires...41

Group 1- Prep School Students... 41

Section 1: Personal Information...41

Section 2; Learning Experience... 41

Section 1: Personal Information... 62

Section 2; Learning Experience... 63

Section 3: Language Skills... 74

Section 4: Textbook...81

Section 5: Learning Tasks... 86

Group 3- Freshmen Students Who did not Take the Technical English Course...89

Section 1; Personal Information 89 Section 2: Learning Experience 89 Section 3; Language Skills... 97

Section 4; Textbook... 103

Section 5: Learning Tasks... 106

Results of the Interviews...108

The Director of the Foreign Languages Department... 108

Professors of the Faculties o f Science, Medicine, and Economics and Administrative Sciences... 109

Professors of the Engineering Faculty... CHAPTERS CONCLUSION... I l l Summary of the Study... 111

Discussion o f the Findings...113

Design Factors in ESP Course Design...113

Course and Materials Design... 114

Language Skills... 114

Tasks... 114

Necessity for Grammar Instruction... 114

Teaching of Grammar Points...115

Reading Materials... 115 Vocabulary...115 Institutional Implications...116 Limitations... 116 Further Research... 117 REFERENCES... 118 APPENDICES... 1 Appendix A: Group 1 Students Questionnaire Questions...119

Appendix B. Group 2 Students Questionnaire Questions...128

Appendix C: Group 3 Students Questionnaire Questions... 139

Appendix D; Interview Questions... 148

FIGURE

CHAPTER 1

1 Classification o f ELT... 8

CHAPTER 2 1 An integrated needs analysis procedure... 13

2 A needs analysis using using the Communicative Needs Processor... 14

3 Necessities, lacks and wants processor... 14

4 Factors affecting ESP course design... 1 g 5 A language-centred approach to course design processor 22 6 The learner-restricted syllabus processor... 23

7 A skills-centred approach to course design processor... 25

8 A learning-centred approach to course design processor... 27

9 Types of syllabi... 28

10 The basis of an EAP syllabus... 30

11 A materials design model processor...33

CHAPTER 3 1 Sources of data... ... 36

TABLE

1 Is technical English necessary? (Group 1)... 41

2 Students opinions on the adequacy o f the Technical English course... 42

3 The contribution o f the Technical English course to students’ performance of language skills... 44

4 Students’ opinions about the usefulness of listening skills as to their departmental courses... 45

5 Students’ opinions on the importance of speaking skills 46 6 Students’ opinions on the necessity of reading skills... 48

7 Students’ opinions on the importance of writing skills 50 8 Students’ opinions on the necessity of an ESP grammar course 51 9 The similarity of the departmental courses and the Technical English textbook... 52

10 Should there be a similarity between the subjects of the departmental courses and the course book used in the Technical English course 52 11 Opinions on the activities and exercises in the course book 53 12 Students’ opinions about the subjects in the Technical English course book...55

13 Favourite subjects for a future ESP course book...58

14 Respondents’ preferences on learning tasks...59

15 Is technical English necessary? (Group 2 )...63

16 Efficiency of the Technical English course design... 63

17 Students opinions on the adequacy o f the Technical English course 64

18 The contribution of the Technical English course to students’

performance of language skills (Group 2)... 66

19 Students’ opinions on whether their knowledge of English related

to their field of study is sufficient... 67

20 Respondents’ rate of understanding of lectures in English 68

21 Possible reasons for not understanding lectures in English 68

22 Respondents needs for Turkish explanations... 70

23 Comparison of comprehension of general English to specific English 71

24 Possible reasons for better understanding o f specific English 72

25 Importance of the activities in respondents’ field of study 73

26 Students’ opinions about the usefulness of listening skills 75

27 Students’ opinions on the importance of speaking skills 76

28 Students’ opinions on the necessity o f reading skills... 77

29 Students’ opinions on the importance of writing skills...79

30 The similarity of the departmental courses and the Technical English

textbook... 81

31 Should there be a similarity between the subjects of the departmental

courses and the course book used in the Technical English course 82

32 The similarity between the activities in the departmental courses and those

in the course book used in the Technical English course 82

33 Opinions on the activities and exercises in the course book... 83

34 Favourite subjects for a future ESP course book...84

36 Is technical English necessary? (Group 3) 89

37 Students’ opinions on whether their knowledge of English related

to their field of study is sufficient... 90

38 Difference between the language performance of students who took

the Technical English course and those who did not 90

39 Students opinions on the necessity of an ESP Grammar course 91

40 Respondents’ rate of understanding of lectures in English 92

41 Possible reasons for not understanding lectures in English.... 92

42 Respondents needs for Turkish explanations... 94

43 Comparison of comprehension of general English to specific English 94

44 Respondents needs for Turkish explanations for parts of lectures in

English...95

45 Importance of the activities in respondents’ field of study 96

46 Students’ opinions about the usefulness of listening skills... 97

47 Students’ opinions on the importance of speaking skills...99

48 Students’ opinions on the necessity of reading skills...lOO

49 Students’ opinions on the importance of writing skills... 102

50 Should there be a similarity between the subjects of the departmental

courses and the course book used in the Technical English course 103

51 Favourite subjects for a future ESP course book... 104

CHAPTER I; INTRODUCTION

English for Specific Purposes (ESP) is a relatively new concern in second

language acquisition history. The results of the Second World War, with an

enormous expansion in scientific, technical and economic activity on an international

scale, created a whole new mass of people wanting to learn English, not for the

pleasure or prestige of knowing the language, but because English was the key to the

international currencies of technology and commerce. The English language that is

spoken all over the world varies considerably, and in a number of different ways

depending on different contexts. Therefore, it should be possible to determine the

features of specific situations and then make those features the basis of the learners’

course (Hutchinson & Waters, 1987). Such is the goal of ESP.

Most of the research in the area of English for Science and Technology

(EST), being one of the major branches of ESP, has offered solutions to the

problems and needs of native speakers with regard to scientific and technological

issues. EST covers that area of written English which extends from the ‘peer’

writing o f scientists and technically oriented professionals to the writing aimed at

skilled technicians (Trimble, 1985). Obviously, there are many studies on teaching

language skills within a technical context; however, most of them are for native

speakers of English or those who are non-native but have a good command of

English. Hutchinson and Waters (1987) define ESP as an approach to language

teaching which tries to meet the needs of particular learners, and suggest that course

courses specifically for their students’ needs. In Turkey, however, the problem which

has come into prominence, as a result of both an increase in educational opportunity

at universities where the medium o f instruction is English and the opening of 19 new

universities in different cities o f Turkey, is that a large number of students entering

universities often lack the ability to actually use English language and to understand

its use, whether it is in the spoken or the written form. The subjects in these students’

fields can only be satisfactorily studied if the students are able to read technical and

scientific textbooks in English. The development of English for Specific Purposes

(ESP) was brought about as a result of an increasing demand for English courses

fitted to the institutions’ specific needs. That sort of an association between the

profession of teaching English and the specialist areas of higher education becomes

even more complex when one takes the chronically problematic issues in language

teaching in Turkey into consideration.

First of all, it is almost impossible to find language teachers specialized in

ESP in Turkey since it is a relatively new concern even in countries where English is

the native language. The problem is not only the quality, but also the quantity of

teachers. There are so many branches in contemporary sciences of all kinds that it

seems hopeless at the beginning to design tailor-made courses for each of the

departments of a university since the number of language teachers employed in

Foreign Languages Departments of these universities is not enough. Each field has

its vocabulary and learning strategies to be dealt with in ESP courses and serious

teaching, however, can be solved to some extent through classifying and reducing the

amount of subjects by concentrating them under more general titles that are common

in a number of fields of study.

One of the Turkish universities that has inevitably found itself in need of ESP

instruction is Osmangazi University in Eskişehir. This university has six faculties,

three vocational schools, and three institutes. The Foreign Languages Department

serves the language needs of all these units, and provides the students of two of these

faculties with a one-year general English course as the Preparatory School. Students

who successfully pass the Prep School are accepted to the faculties where the

medium o f instruction is English.

As a result of the complaints and suggestions from the professors and

students of Engineering Faculty, the administrative staff of the Foreign Languages

Department decided to design a Technical English Course in the Prep School in the

1996-97 academic year. This course is an example of the above solution for the

variability of subjects in that what is included in the course in terms of context is

general Engineering terminology. Since the Technical English course was introduced

in the 1996-97 Academic Year, the same course and teaching materials have been

used to serve the needs of 8 departments of the Engineering Faculty: Chemical

Engineering, Industrial Engineering, Electrical Engineering and Electronics, Civil

Engineering, Mining, Mechanical Engineering, Architecture, Metallurgical

Engineering and Geological Engineering. According to the syllabus of the Technical

with the vital technical vocabulary for their further studies in the Engineering

Faculty. The course syllabus was designed parallel to the integrated skills classes in

terms of syntactic content, and consisted of 20 chapters. Each chapter consisted of a

deductive introduction of new structures and grammar points, and reading passages

that are paraphrased from technical texts and include common technical terms,

reading comprehension questions, figures, and pictures. From the 1998-99 Academic

year on, students of the Faculty of Science, the Faculty of Economics and

Administrative Sciences and the Faculty of Medicine will optionally take the English

Preparatory Program according to a recent decision made by the university senate.

The administrative staff of the Foreign Languages Department is now responsible for

designing new courses for the new groups of students whose language needs are

different from those who currently take the Technical English Course.

Statement of the Problem

The Foreign Languages Department of Osmangazi University now

experiences an inevitable shift from the Technical English Course to several ESP

courses that will be designed according to the needs of the new population of

students from the Faculty of Medicine, the Faculty of Science and the Faculty of

Economics and Administrative Sciences. As a result o f this shift, the following issues

need to be addressed:

■ The Foreign Languages Department does not have syllabi for ESP courses for

■ In the department, there are no instructors specialising in the area of ESP.

Therefore, the material to be selected or prepared should be easy to handle by any

EFL teacher.

■ The content of the materials in terms of both vocabulary and grammar, class

hours in a week, the texts to be paraphrased and the skills to be included in the

course are issues to be dealt with.

Purpose of the Study

As can be observed, there exists a series o f problems to be dealt with.

Therefore, the purpose of this study is to develop ESP course design criteria in order

to meet the needs of the students at the Faculty of Medicine, the Faculty of Science

and the Faculty of Economics and Administrative Sciences, and to compensate for

the lack of addressing specific issues in the current Preparatory Program offered by

the Foreign Languages Department of Osmangazi University. It is presupposed that,

through this study, the Foreign Languages Department will possibly have less

difficulty in dealing with the demands of ESP from different faculties and in offering

them the courses they are in need o f

This study also attempts to involve the target population as directly as possible

in the design process. The opinions and suggestions o f the students and professors of

the three faculties mentioned above will play a vital role in determining the profile

of the courses and materials to be used, which actually indicates and defines the

Languages Department of Osmangazi University; that is, the students of the

Faculty o f Medicine, the Faculty of Science and the Faculty of Economics

and Administrative Sciences, and

• to develop a set of guidelines to be used in planning specialised ESP courses

and course material by faculties.

Significance of the Study

The Department of Foreign Languages o f Osmangazi University is in urgent

need o f responding to the demands of the Faculty o f Medicine, the Faculty of

Science and the Faculty of Economics and Administrative Sciences related to their

students’ need o f ESP. Since the class hours for ESP courses in the department is

standardized as three hours a week, the course book and supplementary materials

have to be selected and / or designed accordingly. This study will supply the Foreign

Languages Department with the needed guidelines for tailor-made course design,

syllabi and material development models. Also the other universities in Turkey that

experience the shift towards English-medium instruction will be able to make use of

the findings and suggestions of this study. Moreover, professionals in the area of

ELT and course designers in educational institutions will presumably employ the

guidelines for designing ESP courses in Integrated Skills programs that will be

I. What specific needs are to be taken into consideration in an ESP course and

materials design?

1. Which language skills are to be focused on?

2. Should grammar be included in the course content?

3. If so, should grammar be taught deductively or inductively and what

grammar points should be included in the course book?

4. In what ways are the vocabulary items to be selected and how should

they be introduced?

5. What kind of reading materials are more suitable for the needs of the

the following tree diagram may give a more or less clear hierarchy of the terms to be

used even though it is obviously not a clear-cut and comprehensive classification of

the different types of language teaching.

Figure 1; Classification ofELT (Hutchinson & Waters, 1987, p.43)

Throughout the study, ‘ESP’ will be used as the umbrella term to include all the

contexts o f English language teaching other than General English since the overall

objectives of English for Academic Purposes, English for Science and Technology

and others are similar. In other words, since all these branches of ESP try to design

language courses through which the specific needs of the target population are met,

the criteria suggested throughout the study are applicable for all the subdivisions of

The first chapter introduced the general view o f English for Specific

Purposes (ESP) in a historical perspective along with background information for

the study, the statement of the problem leading the researcher to conduct this study,

and the purpose and significance of the study. The concern o f this chapter is to

review the literature on course, syllabus and materials design in ESP, providing a

general introduction for the definition and development of ESP, the central concepts

behind these, such as needs analysis and design factors, and criticism o f the

approaches to course design. Syllabus, as the most important part of the course

design, will be part of this chapter. The parts of this chapter can briefly be listed as:

a) Teaching English for Specific Purposes, b) History of Teaching ESP, c) Analysis

of Learners’ Needs, d) From Theory to Practice: Course Design in ESP, e) Design

Factors in EST Courses, f) Approaches to Course Design, g) Materials Design in

ESP, and h) Types of Syllabus.

Teaching English for Specific Purposes

Hutchinson and Waters (1987) define English for Specific Purposes (ESP) as

a phenomenon that emerged from a number of divergent trends instead of a coherent

development preceded by careful planning. Those trends evolved as a result of three

main factors: the demands of the new world of the technology and commerce

dominated by the United States, the revolution in linguistics in the form of a “...

shifted attention away from defining the formal features of language to discovering

the ways in which language is used in real communication.” (Widdowson, 1978 as

learners including their needs, interests, and their attitudes to learning as an outcome

of this revolution in linguistics.

As English became the lingua franca for international currencies of

technology and commerce, there appeared a new group of learners who knew what

they needed English for and urged ELT professionals to meet these new

requirements. In addition, the traditional goals of linguistics, describing the rules of

English usage, went through a radical change as a result of the works of linguists

such as Swales, Selinker, Trimble, and others (cited in Hutchinson & Waters, 1987)

who seemed to focus on the description of real-life situations varying in accordance

with the converging needs of individuals in different areas. This led designers to the

identification of needs of individuals in different areas. ‘Tell me what you need

English for and I will tell you the English that you need” (Hutchinson & Waters,

1987) became the guiding principle of ESP.

History of Teaching ESP

ESP has undergone three main stages of development. In the 1960s and early

1970s, Strevens, Ewer and Swales, as cited in Hutchinson & Waters (1987),

introduced the concept of register analysis as a means to identify the grammatical

and lexical features specific to a field of study. They tried to find out language forms

more frequently used in scientific English studies than in general English courses

and identified the tendency on particular forms such as the present simple tense, the

passive voice and nominal compounds. Teaching materials in this type of syllabus

were based on linguistic features.

In the second stage of development, there appeared a shift in focus from

of these pieces of research was to discover the ways organisational patterns are

realised. Throughout this stage, target situations in which learners would use the

language were identified and linguistic features of these situations were outlined. He

prepared a detailed profile of learners in terms of communicative purposes, setting,

means of communication, language skills, functions, and structures. This

development lay the foundations of needs analysis processes in syllabus design.

The third stage implies a radical change of emphasis from the surface forms

of language into details of thinking processes that lie behind the language use,

whether at sentence or discourse level. The attempt of previous stages was to

discover the linguistic features of target situations but there were no studies to

identify learning strategies underlying language usage. Françoise Grellet (1981),

Christine Nutall (1982) and Charles Alderson and Sandy Urquhart (1984) made

contributions to works on reading skills, shedding light on the skills and strategies,

common reasoning and interpreting processes enabling learners to extract meaning

from discourse. Guessing the meaning from context end exploring cognates would

help the learner to cope with the surface forms. Basing their designs on cognitive

learning theories, these designers emphasised reading and listening skills and aimed

at helping learners to reflect and analyse the ways meaning is produced from spoken

or written discourse. Consistent with this progression in a learning-centered

approach, the design developed out of studies in the process of language learning. In

this last stage, the distinction between language use and language learning is made

clear and the course design is developed accordingly. Before looking at the actual

course design procedures, I will now focus on the key issue that is the first step in

Analysis of Learners’ Needs

McDonough (1984) proposes that the idea of analysing the language needs of

the learner as a basis for course development has become almost synonymous with

ESP in recent years. He exemplifies reports of teaching programmes in operation

from different parts of the world that are explicit in their claims of ‘relevance’ and

‘suitability’ for specific groups of learners. He quotes a number of such statements

to illustrate this explicitness;

\..in response to the needs o f these students... ’

(a course in EST)

'' ...the centrality o f the learners ’ needs... ’

(an Industrial Language Training Course)

‘... to design courses ... that have relevance to the students' needs in relation to

academic studies at the university... ’

(a programme in English for medical students)

‘... The Language Centre was set up in order to cater fo r special language needs o f

the students... ’

(an EST course)

‘... the foreign language needs of industry and commerce... ’

(in Europe)

(McDonough, 1984, p.29)

McDonough (1984) also states that above statements are based on the key

assumption that the learner is at the heart of any teaching programme. He tabulates

Figure 1; An integrated needs analysis procedure (McDonough, 1984, p.40)

Hutchinson and Waters (1987) consider ‘target needs’ as an umbrella term

and make a distinction between necessities, lacks and wants that are hidden under

the term target needs. They define necessities as the type of need determined by the

demands of the target situation. They give the example of the situation of a

businessman or -woman who might need to understand business letters, to

communicate effectively at business conferences, to get the necessary information

from sales catalogues and so on. They point out that this businessman or -woman

will presumably need to be familiar with the linguistic features that are commonly

used in the identified situations. They also give the example o f this procedure by an

adaptation from Munby (1978) that shows the necessities for a learner who works as

Sample ‘communication activities’

Related ‘micro-functions’

7.1.1 Attending to customers’ arrival 7.1.1 1. Intention 2. Prohibit 3. Direct

etc.

Language forms (productive)

I will bring the menu. ~ I am afraid we are full/closed. Please follow me.AA/ill you sit here please.

7.1.2 Attending to customers’ order 7.1.2 1. suggestive 2. advise 3. describe

etc.

May I suggest th e ... ? May I recommend th e ... ? You may find t h e ... too hot/spicy.

7.1.3 Serving the order etc. 7.1.3 1. question I s ... for you, sir/madam?

T h e ... ?

Figure 2; A needs analysis using the Communicative Needs Processor (Hutchinson

& Waters, 1987, p.55)

According to Hutchinson and Waters (1987), identifying the necessities

alone is not sufficient, since the concern in ESP is with the needs of particular

learners. In order to be able to decide which of the necessities the learner lacks, we

need to know what the learner already knows. One target situation necessity might

be to read texts in a particular subject area. How well the learners can do it already

will determine whether they need instruction in doing this.

O B JE C T IV E (i.e. as perceived by course designers)

S U B JE C T IV E (i.e. as perceived by learners)

NECESSITIES The English needed for success in Agricultural or Veterinary Studies

To reluctantly cope with a ‘second-best’ situation

LACKS (Presumably) areas of English needed for Agricultural or Veterinary Studies

Means of doing medical studies

WANTS To succeed in Agricultural or Veterinary Studies

To undertake Medical studies

Hutchinson and Waters (1987) consider necessities and lacks as being the

objective part of the target situation needs, and claim that the learners have a view as

to what their needs are, which they call ‘wants. ’ They draw, at this point, our

attention to the fact that the learners’ views will conflict with the perceptions of

other interested parties: course designers, sponsors, teachers and so on.

As can be seen from Figure 3 above, objective and subjective views conflict,

with a consequent de-stabilising effect on motivation. Hutchinson and Waters (1987)

insist that there is little point in taking an ESP approach that is based on the principle

of learner involvement, and then ignoring the learners’ wishes and views. They

suggest a number o f ways in which information can be gathered about needs;

questionnaires; interviews; observation; data collection e g. gathering texts; informal

consultations with sponsors, learners and others. They advise that more than one of

these methods should be used due to the complexity of the needs. They also state

that needs analysis is not a once-for-all activity, and that it should be a continuing

process in which the conclusions drawn are constantly checked and re-assessed. In

the next section, the realisation of the theories in actual course design approaches

that also act as suggestions to professionals who are interested in ESP course design

From Theory to Practice; Course Design in ESP

/ keep six honest serving-men.

(They taught me all I knew.)

Their names are What and Why and When And How and Where and Who.

(Rudyard Kipling, cited in Hutchinson & Waters, 1987, p.21)

It is argued that, for the ESP teacher, course design is often a substantial and

important part of the workload whereas it plays a relatively minor part in the life of

the General English teacher where courses are usually determined by tradition,

choice o f textbook or ministerial decree. According to Hutchinson and Waters

(1987), designing a course is fundamentally a matter of asking questions in order to

provide a reasoned basis for the subsequent processes of syllabus design, materials

writing, classroom teaching and evaluation. They claim that, from general to specific

and from theoretical to practical, a very wide range of questions is to be asked. They

state that some of these questions will be answered by research and that others will

rely more on the intuition and experience of the teacher, yet others will call on

theoretical models. They use Kipling’s ‘honest serving men’ to outline the basic

questions;

Why does the student need to learn?

Who is going to be involved in the process? This will need to

cover not just the student, but all the people who may have

some effect on the process, teachers, sponsors, inspectors, and

so forth.)

Where is the learning to take place? What potential does the

■ When is the learning to take place? How much time is

available? How will it be distributed?

■ What does the student need to learn? What aspects of

language will be needed and how will they be described?

What level of proficiency must be achieved? What topic areas

will need to be covered?

■ How will the learning be achieved? What learning theory will

underlie the course? What kind of methodology will be

employed? (p.21-22)

Hutchinson and Waters (1987) investigate these basic questions by

considering them under three main headings: Language descriptions, theories of

learning and needs analysis. At this point, they emphasize that the interdependence

of these three factors in the course design process is of greatest importance. They

Figure 4; Factors affecting ESP course design Processor (Hutchinson & Waters,

1987, p.22)

As Figure 4 suggests, the starting points of the main contributions to an ESP

course design are the simple question words. By asking ‘what’, the description of the

language to be taught is intended to be reached. ‘How’ takes the designer to learning

theories or the methodologies to be followed. And finally, ‘who’, ‘why’, ‘where’,

and ‘when’ supplies the information about the needs of the learners and institutions.

After identifying English for Science and Technology as a major sub­

division of the ‘field of teaching English for Special Purposes (ESP)’, Mackay and

Mountford (1978) define the principal factors involved in designing course materials

relevant to learners in the fields of science and technology. They first investigate the

role of English for non-native speaking scientists and technologists, and having done

that they specify the factors involved in the design and planning of courses. The first

learners and the educational and curriculum setting into which teaching of English

must fit. Such information is essential as a background to the more directly linguistic

considerations affecting course content. That is, we cannot decide what we are going

to teach until we know to whom and why teaching is required. Since English for

Science and Technology is a major branch of ESP, factors affecting the course

design in terms of learners’ needs would apply for any other ESP occasions. In the

following part, I will quote some suggestions as to the effective factors in EST

course design.

Approaches to Course Design

Design Factors in EST Courses

Mackay and Mountford (1978) classify the factors involved in designing

EST courses under four headings: sociological, linguistic, psychological and

pedagogic. They explain the effects of these factors on corse design as follows:

Sociological Factors

Acquiring information about the kind of learner for whom the program is to

be developed and the uses to which he will be required to put English is the initial

step. Therefore correct data relating to age, previous experience of the target

language, and the learner’s specialisation and attainment within it can be collected by

standard sampling techniques and the administration of a carefully planned

questionnaire.

Linguistic Factors

The selection of the linguistic content of the language to be used for

particular purposes depends on an adequate and appropriate description of the

with appropriate description is one that not only takes account of the code features of

the language system but the communicative features of language use. Such a

description cannot be arrived at only by making lists of items found in selected texts.

On the other hand, such lists can be utilised to ensure that particular code features are

stressed in the materials - features of syntax and lexis that typify the communicative

patterns such as defining, describing, explaining, classifying, making deductions,

hypotheses, etc. which are found to be characteristic of that particular type of text.

Psychological Factors

Course materials designed through the suggestions of structural linguistics

have the tendency to follow the operational tenets of behaviourist learning theory.

This involves an emphasis on formation o f ‘correct’ habits, the ability to compose

correct sentences through a knowledge of the language system for which drills and

exercises are devised. This is usually achieved by a situational presentation in order

to make the language meaningful. This step is then followed by repetition type

exercises to master the rule in question. The emphasis is thus on usage, i.e. on the

teaching of the structural characteristics of the language system. However, since the

period when these assertions were made, there have been many changes in the

learning theories. Therefore, factors introduced here may not be taken as valid

criteria.

Pedagogical Factors

In order to devise pedagogic procedures that will actually develop target

skills, what language skills are being focused on or need to be focused on must be

clarified. The traditional division of language skills is not sufficient to enable us to

broadcasts, taking an active part in oral seminars, report writing based on

experimental procedures, reading instructional material to supplement information

gained in the Li, and so on” (Mackay and Mountford, 1978).

Materials that have been prepared without the learner group’s characteristics

having been taken into consideration, based on unsuitable or irrelevant samples of

language and units of description, will have low motivational value for the student.

It is important that classroom methodology be evolved to cater for the specific

motivation and intellectual maturity of the kind of learner who is adding a foreign

language to a scientific or technological training.

Mackay and Mountford (1978) note that design factors in EST course

materials preparation process may be summarised by answering following questions;

Sociological·. What are the characteristics of the learner and what

are the learner’s requirements for learning the

language?

Linguistic. What kind of descriptive apparatus is appropriate to

account for the language used by scientists and

technologists?

Psychological·. Orientation to what theory of learning is appropriate

in EST to reflect our concern with the teaching of

communicative as well as linguistic competence?

Pedagogic. What skills are to be taught, in what order, and how

are the relationships between skills to be authentically

Language-Centered Course Design

Hutchinson and Waters (1987) categorise the approaches to course design,

particularly in ESP, under three headings. The simplest kind of course designs, and

probably the one most familiar to English teachers, in this categorisation is

language-centered course design that is particularly prevalent in ESP. They explain

that the purpose of the language-centered course design process is to draw as direct a

connection as possible between the analysis of the target situation and the content of

the ESP course. It proceeds as follows;

Figure 5; A language-centered approach to course design processor (Hutchinson & Waters, 1987, p.66)

Hutchinson and Waters (1987) list a number weaknesses of the language-

centered approach. First, though it might be considered as a learner-centered

approach as it starts from the learners and their needs, it is not in any meaningful

situation. Instead of the whole of language, only a restricted area of the language is

taught. As can be seen from Figure 6, the learner is regarded merely as a way of

locating the restricted area of the language.

LANGUAGE

LEARNER

General English

LANGUAGE

LEARNER

Language-centered ESP

Figure 6: The learner-restricted syllabus Processor

(Hutchinson & Waters, 1987, p.67)

When needs analysis is considered, the learner should be considered at every

stage of the process. However, in this approach, the learning needs of the students

are not taken into account. Therefore, it is not learner-centered, but simply learner-

restricted (Hutchinson and Waters, 1987). The second restriction of language-

centered process is its static and inflexible procedure that takes little account of the

conflicts and contradictions that are inherent in any human endeavour. Once the

initial analysis of the target situation is done, the course designer is locked into a

relentless process. Here, researchers ask these two critical questions; what if the

initial analysis is wrong and what if some crucial element is not taken into account?

The third alluring feature of this model is its systematicity. By this feature, it

are that is criticised by the researchers is that it gives no acknowledgment to factors that

must inevitably play a part in the creation of any course. Data are not important in

itself unless they are interpreted, and by interpreting, all sorts o f information that

not revealed in the analysis itself are used. However, in this approach, an analytical

model is being used inappropriately as a predictive model. An analysis of what

happens in a particular situation is being used to determine the content of pedagogic

syllabus and materials. The fifth weakness of the approach is that its analysis of the

target situation is only at surface level, which means that it reveals very little about

the competence that underlies the performance.

To sum up, the logical, straightforward appeal of the language-centered

approach is, in effect, its weakness, and it fails to recognize the fact that learning is

not a straightforward, logical process.

Skills-centered Course Design

This approach to course design developed out of two basic principles, the

first principle, the theoretical one, is that certain skills and strategies lie behind

language behavior. Therefore, going beyond the surface performance into the

competence, the objectives are stated accordingly as performance or competence

objectives. The second principle, the pragmatic one, evolved as a result of the

distinction between goal-oriented and process-oriented courses (Widdowson, 1981).

An ESP course should not be geared towards the achievement of a set of

objectives but towards the development of degrees of proficiency in a continuous

process without any interruption. In this approach, language is considered in terms

of the processes within the learner’s mind, and the point of departure in the design is

objectives they are set out in an open-ended way to pave the way for a higher level

of achievement. As Hutchinson and Waters (1987, p.70) point out the skills-centered

approach still approaches the learner as a user of the language. The processes it is

concerned with are the processes of language use, not of language learning. The

procedure of a skills-centered approach to course design is set out in Figure 7 below:

Figure 7; A skills-centered approach to course design Processor (Hutchinson

& Waters, 1987, p.71)

It is useful to introduce briefly the learner-centered approach here as it can be

covered under this section with respect to the principles of skills-centered course

design. Nunan (1988) tries to answer the question “Why don’t learners learn what

teachers teach?” and sets out the ways in which “teachers and learners and teaching

and learning can be brought closer together”. To this end he introduces the concept

‘learner-centeredness’. The foundation of this approach is based on and comprised

of theories o f adult learning, communicative language teaching, and the concept of

more interested in learning language to succeed in fulfilling immediate goals than

learning language for language’s sake, Nunan states that this approach appears to be

consistent with the principles of adult learning. Brindley (1984) supplied a

framework for introducing learner-centered principles, introducing the theory and

practice of a communicative needs processor that was a less formal procedure for

both making the learners sensitive and getting input from them to develop the

curriculum. As for the concept of language proficiency, it refers to the ability to

perform real-world tasks with a predetermined degree of skill.

In brief, a skills-centered course design brings about certain advantages but it

also has some drawbacks that may, however, be compensated for through a detailed

study.

Learning-centered Course Design

The underlying principle of this approach is that learning is an internal

process independent of learners’ knowledge and their ability and motivation to use it

(Hutchinson and Waters, 1987). Language learning is not taken solely as a mental

but social process. Since it involves negotiation between individuals and society and

in the learning process, there are not only learners to consider. Hutchinson and

Waters reject the term learner-centered in favour of learning-centered, emphasising

that what they want to discover is not only the competence behind performance but

also the way learners require it. This approach considers learners at each stage of the

design. The process here is a negotiated one in which the target situation has an

effect not only on content but also on methodology, materials, and evaluation

procedures, all these being influential on one another. Moreover, it is a dynamic

developments. Thus, as can be seen in Figure 8, it does not follow a linear shape

from the first analysis to the completed course.

Figure 8: A learning-centered approach to course design Processor (Hutchinson

& Waters, 1987, p.74)

In this type of design, the emphasis is on the integration of language skills

within a framework wherein one of those skills is given primary importance to be

developed depending on the specified purposes for a group of learners, whereas

others appear in varying proportions, helping to master over that skill. This

integration has some implications for methodology, students’ attitudes and other

of the syllabus. It can be concluded that the suggestions of the researchers lead us to

a course design where the needs, lacks and wants of the students play one of the

primary roles.

In this study, the learner-centered course design will be taken as a model as

ESP considers learners’ needs as its primary concern.

Types of Syllabi

There have been a wide variety of syllabi employed over the last few

decades. These can be classified as illustrated in Figure 10 below:

Figure 9; Types of syllabus (According to Jordan, 1997)

1. Grammatical/Structural: This type appears to be the oldest kind of syllabus. It

stresses aspects of grammar, and then supplies practice for those aspects.

2. Notional/Functional. “This lists conceptual meanings {notions, e g. time, space,

quantity) expressed through language (logical relationships, etc.), and the

communicative purposes {functions) for which we use language (e g. greetings,

1997, p.60) This type of syllabus is usually called ‘the communicative

approach’.

3. Situational. In this type of syllabus, the situations in which the target language

will be used are listed and the specific aspects of the language needed for these

situations are analysed.

4. Topic-based: This type of syllabus is comparable to the situational syllabus.

Topics related to the students’ fields of study are selected and appropriate

language items are analysed.

5. Content-based: It focuses on the particular requirements o f specific academic

disciplines.

6. Process-based: The learner, learning process and preferences are focused on.

The negotiation process where the final selection is made by students is part of

this kind of syllabus. Such a syllabus considers the questions:

“Who does what with whom, on what subject-matter, with what

resources, when, how, and for what learning purpose (s)?”

(Breen, 1984, as cited in Jordan, 1997, p.62)

7. Procedural/Task-based: Teaching-learning process is aimed at cognition and

process and what is focused on is a task or problem that needs to be intellectually

challenging so that students maintain their interest on the task. Focus on meaning

is also important.

8. Learning-centred/Negotiated: Learner, being focused on, is responsible for

making a number of decisions in this type of syllabus (Nunan, 1988). The

such as tailor-made syllabus for an individual or adapted syllabus in terms of

perceived needs, are possible.

9. Skills-based: This kind of syllabus is often based on one or more of the four

traditional language skills. It generally emphasises the constituents of the skills.

Figure 10: The basis of an EAP syllabus (Jordan, 1997, p.64)

Jordan (1997) maintains that an eclectic approach that is a combination of

other syllabus types is likely to be employed in the teaching of English for Academic

Purposes. He calls such an approach ‘multi-syllabus’, which is illustrated in Figure

11 above.

Materials Design in ESP

It would be agreed that it is not reasonable to expect much from a course

answer to the question of how appropriate materials are designed to support an ESP

course design will be sought in this section.

Hutchinson and Waters (1987) propose that one of the most characteristic

features of ESP in practice is materials writing. ESP teacher, contrary to general

English teacher, may well spend most of his or her time writing materials.

Hutchinson and Waters (1987) list a number of reasons for this:

1) A demand from the institution or the teacher to provide teaching materials fitting

into the specific subject area of particular learners,

2) Difficulty in purchasing or importing available published materials,

3) To enhance the reputation of an institution or an individual, which is a non-

educational reason.

They also state that producing in-house materials is an established tradition

for ESP teachers. These in-house materials are generally employed in particular

institutions for the students of that institution though they may well be used by other

institutions or even published. They argue that material writing process may be

helpful to make teachers more aware of the features of teaching and learning. They

accept the fact that material writing is a de facto task for the majority of ESP

teachers.

Hutchinson and Waters (1987) identify some principles to define the

materials purpose to supply a guidance to materials writers in the actual writing

process.

a. Materials provide a stimulus to learning. Good materials do not

b. Materials help to organise the teaching-learning process, by

providing a path through the complex mass of the language to be

learnt. Good materials should provide a clear and coherent unit

structure that will guide teacher and learner through various

activities in such a way that the chances of learning are

maximised.

c. Materials embody a view of the nature of language and learning.

Materials should truly reflect what the author thinks and feels

about the learning process.

d. Materials reflect the nature of the learning task. Therefore, they

should try to create a balanced outlook that both reflect the

complexity of the task, yet makes it appear manageable.

e. Functionally, materials can be very useful in broadening the

basis of teacher training, by introducing them to novel

techniques.

f They also provide models of correct and appropriate language

use. However, this should not be taken as the only purpose. That

is, materials should not be the kind of beginner’s guide to

applied linguistics, (p. 107-108)

A Materials Design Model

By considering above principles, Hutchinson and Waters suggest a model

that can be used for writing tailor-made materials (Figure 9). By supplying this

model, they provide a coherent framework to integrate the various aspects of

Figure 11; A materials design model Processor (Hutchinson & Waters, 1987, p. 109)

Input. A text, dialogue, video recording, diagram or any piece of

communication data depending on the needs defined in the analysis.

Content o f focus·. Language is a means of conveying information and feelings

about something, not the purpose itself Non-linguistic content should be exploited

to generate meaningful communication in the classroom.

Language focus'. While the purpose of teaching is to enable the learners to

use language, it would be unfair to force them to participate in communicative

activities until they have enough of the necessary language background. Good

materials should involve both opportunities for analysis and synthesis. In language

focus, learners have the chance to take the language to pieces, study how it works

and practice putting it back together again.

Task. The principle objective of language learning is the use of language.

Therefore, materials should be designed to lead towards a communicative task in

which learners use the content and language knowledge they have built up through

The primary focus of the unit is task. The model acts as a vehicle that leads

the learners to the point where they are able to carry out the task. The language and

content are determined by the input and are selected according to the needs of the

learners to cope with the task. An important feature of the suggested model is that it

creates coherence in terms of both language and content throughout the unit. It

provides the base for more complex activities by constructing a fund of knowledge

and skills. At this point, it is necessary to look at the types of syllabus, since it is a

vital construct of course design process.

To sum up, designs of course, syllabus, and materials are all interrelated

processes, and lacking o f one of these may prevent the designers to reach an ideal

ESP instruction. All the interfering and determining factors in all of these processes

are to be thoroughly investigated and reflected to the actual application o f the

instruction.

Among the models presented in this chapter, the learning-centered approach

to course design will be taken as a model because, in this type of design, the

emphasis is on the integration of language skills within a framework wherein one of

those skills is given primary importance to be developed depending on the specified

purposes for a group of learners, whereas others appear in varying proportions,

CHAPTER 3: METHODOLOGY

Introduction

Since this study deals with the process of determination of the criteria for

ESP course and materials design, this chapter consists of five sections, focusing

mainly on the needs analysis process as part of the design. The first section presents

information on the subjects and the informants of the study, the second introduces

the materials and instruments that were used in the needs assessment, the third

section is about the specific steps for data collection including both general

procedural steps for locating institutions, securing objects, preparing materials,

piloting research, and specific steps for data collection including timing, introduction

of study, carry-out of study, and assembly of data.

Subjects and Informants

Three sources of information were used in the data collection phase of the

study; students as the subjects for questionnaires, professors as informants of the

interviews, and document analysis. The subjects of this study can be grouped into

three categories; a) 25 volunteer students who are currently studying technical

English at the Preparatory School of the Foreign Languages Department, b) 25

volunteer first-year students of Engineering Faculty who passed the Prep School and

took the technical English Course, and c) 25 volunteer first-year students of

Engineering Faculty who passed the proficiency exam at the beginning of the

academic year and did not take the technical English Course.

Informants are also classified into three groups; a) the director of the Foreign

Languages Department, b) 3 professors, one from the Faculty of Medicine, one from

Sciences, who will deliver lectures in English, and c) 3 professors from the

Engineering Faculty who are currently delivering lectures in English,

Sources of Data

1. Subjects

a) 25 volunteer students who are currently studying technical English at the Preparatory School

b) 25 volunteer first-year students of Engineering Faculty who passed the Prep School and took technical English

c ) 25 volunteer first-year students of Engineering Faculty who passed the proficiency exam at the beginning of the academic year and did not take technical English

2. Informants

a) Th e director of the Foreign Languages Department

b) 3 professors,

one from the Faculty of Medicine,

one from the Faculty of Science, and

one from the Faculty of Economics and Administrative Sciences

d) 3 Professors from the Engineering Faculty who are currently delivering lectures in English.

Figure 1: Sources of data.

Questionnaires were given to the students in their departments on following

dates; on 16* March 1998 to the Prep School students (Prep A, Advanced Class), on

17* March 1998 to the Engineering Faculty students who took the technical English

course (The Department of Mechanical Engineering), and on 18* March 1998 to the

Engineering Faculty students who did not take the Technical English course (The

Department of Mechanical Engineering). Interviews took place in the offices of the

Students at the Engineering Faculty supplied important data on the

effectiveness of the current technical English course, since two groups represented

two different backgrounds in terms o f ESP application. Information gathered from

the students who are currently studying technical English reflected the effectiveness

of the course from the view of the students, which are considered important in the

needs analysis process. Professors who have a good command of English and who

are closely familiar with the books to be taught to the new load of students in their

departments were chosen to include the teachers’ point of view to the needs analysis

process.

Materials

Three types of questionnaires were used for the three groups of students. All

the questionnaires consisted of 6 sections; background information about the student,

student’s experience on English language learning, language skills, textbook,

learning activities, and general opinion questions. In each questionnaire, there were

49 questions 1 of which is open-ended. Interviews were prepared under the same

classification of questions and consisted of six sections having the same titles as the

questionnaires. There were 27 questions asked in the interviews. Samples of these

questionnaires and interviews are included in Appendix A, B, and C.

Procedures

Since the aim of the study is determining the parameters for ESP courses and

materials to be used at Osmangazi University, data collection process was conducted

at this university which is located in Eskişehir.

Questionnaires were delivered by the researcher himself to ensure the

teachers cannot see their answers to the questions. Also, the question asking the

subject’s name was optional. Approximately 20 days before the actual application of

the questionnaires, on 27**’ February 1998, a piloting research was conducted in the

Preparatory School of Osmangazi University (Prep B, Advanced Class). For both

piloting and actual applications, students are given 60 minutes to answer the

questions.

Interviews took place in two sittings. The interviews with the director of the

Foreign Languages Department and the professors from the faculties were carried out

individually in their offices. The interview with the director of the Foreign

Languages Department took 50 minutes, and each of the meetings with other

professors took 20-30 minutes.

Data Analysis

To analyze the data, first all the answers to the questionnaires were grouped

and the percentages of the answers were calculated. Frequencies, means, and

standard deviations of the answers given by the subjects were calculated and given in

tables. The results were displayed in figures and tables to make them more

understandable to the reader. Interview results were examined and discussed with the

CHAPTER 4: DATA ANALYSIS

Overview of the Study

This study was conducted to develop ESP course design criteria in order to

meet the needs of students of the Faculty of Medicine, the Faculty o f Science and the

Faculty o f Economics and Administrative Sciences, and to compensate for the lack

of addressing specific issues in the current Preparatory Program offered by the

Foreign Languages Department of Osmangazi University. In order to do this, the

attitudes of the Preparatory School and the Engineering Faculty students, and the

Engineering Faculty professors on the implication of the current Technical English

course in the Preparatory Program were investigated. Professors were also accepted

as the informants, and their opinions and suggestions were investigated through

interviews.

Two sources of information were used in the data collection phase of the

study; students as the subjects for questionnaires, and professors as informants of the

interviews. The subjects of this study can be grouped into three categories; a) 25

volunteer students who are currently studying technical English at the Preparatory

School of the Foreign Languages Department, b) 25 volunteer first-year students of

Engineering Faculty who passed the Prep School and took the Technical English

Course, and c) 25 volunteer first-year students of Engineering Faculty who passed

the proficiency exam at the beginning of the academic year and did not take the

Technical English Course. Students’ ages range between 17 and 21.

Informants are also classified into three groups: a) the director of the Foreign

Languages Department, b) 3 professors, one from the Faculty of Medicine, one from