LANGUAGE IN INDIA

ENGLISH LANGUAGE LEARNING IN THE ESP CONTEXT
AN INDIAN EXPERIMENT
Sheba R. Dayal, Ph.D. Candidate

INTRODUCTION - A PILOT SURVEY

The general English course for students at the undergraduate level does not bring them to the required competence in all areas of the language at the end of their graduation. It is found that many students across disciplines are not very good at communication and generally lack the proficiency they need to meet the growing demands of the present day workplace competencies.

Students at the completion of their graduation end up having excellent technical skills, however, lacking in effective communication. Concrete efforts need to be made to prepare students for utilizing communication skills in an effective manner. In the light of such growing necessity for specific course content, it is felt that a course in English for Specific Purposes (ESP) could run parallel with a general English course.

This paper discusses the attempt made by the researcher to explore the English language needs of I year BBM students of the degree colleges affiliated to Bangalore University. A pilot survey was conducted to elicit information on the student's perception of language needs and abilities and the findings are summarized briefly, indicating the need and a possibility of developing a specific course content.

ENGLISH AS THE LANGUAGE FOR GLOBAL COMMUNICATION - OUR LACK OF PREPARATION

There is a clear necessity for effective English communication skills for graduates in the current globalised work environment. It is observed that students do not gain the kind of proficiency demanded in present day context where communication is beyond the mastery of reading, speaking, listening and writing.

Communication across global companies and multinationals, or even in the Call Centers require workforce that is competent in skills like negotiations, team work, oral presentations, report writing, decision making, etc.

The present syllabus does not help students gain competency in such skills, which are crucial in the places of work. The undergraduate students' knowledge of English at the tertiary level is generally in the area of general English and does not include specific preparation for study at the university level, or for the specific tasks carried out in English in a work or business context.

The general English language course at the degree level course should be supplemented with specific course content, which focuses the learner's attention on the language and communication requirements in their respective area of study.

CONCEPT OF ESP AND NEEDS ANALYSIS

ESP is an approach to language teaching in which all decisions as to content and method are based on the learner's reason for learning. (Hutchinson and Waters 1987). The concept of ESP achieves more in the education of graduating students by focusing the learner's attention on particular terminology and communication skills required in the area of study the student is presently studying.

There are many factors affecting an ESP course design. The major focus, being - the language descriptions, i.e., the functional, structural, notional syllabus, language theories which provide the theoretical basis for methodology, and the actual needs analysis of learners at the said level, to be carried out from the learner's perspective.

FACTORS AFFECTING THE ESP COURSE DESIGN

Needs analysis is a process of establishing the and how of a course. The needs analysis as put forth by Dudley Evans and Maggie Jo (1998) encompasses a detailed description of learners needs. for e.g.; the tasks and activities the learners are/ will be using English for, personal information about learners, cultural information about the students, the current language skills used by the students and their perceived language needs.

METHODDOLOGY

A pilot study was conducted to identify the learner's needs. The sample consisted of 80 students enrolled in the I year BBM in two degree colleges affiliated to Bangalore University. The sample comprised of 5% of the total students enrolled for the Management course. The learner profile is as follows:

• 40 % of the students are from the English medium schools having studied in SSLC / CBSE/ ICSE schools in Bangalore and other districts of Karnataka.
• 20% of the students come from science background who could not get admission in professional courses like medicine and engineering.
• 20% of the students come from rural medium background having studied in regional medium schools.
• Rest of the students come from different countries like Nepal, Korea Africa whose language for communication is their mother tongue.

The sample was administered the questionnaire which consisted of close-ended questions to find the perceptions of the students on language ability, language needs opinion survey on English as language for communication.

The questionnaire examines the English language needs of the I year BBM students and focused on the following:

Section A - Demographic details like on medium of instruction, mother tongue, regional background, etc.

Section B comprised of 4 sub sections: -

• Perception of language abilities as viewed by the students
• Perception of language needs viewed by the students
• Views on teaching methodology and on present syllabus
• Opinion Survey on English as language for communication, medium of instruction and English as language for international communication.

FINDINGS

1. It was found that majority of the students regarded themselves to be good in reading, listening but needed help in speaking and writing skills.
2. Students indicated that the English language Instruction at School / Pre-University course was adequate, however they expressed a need to enhance their communication competencies.
3. They viewed speaking as the most important skill followed by writing reading and listening in order of preference. They expressed having difficulties in report writing & abstract writing, oral presentations and note making.
4. The students felt that learning grammar helps them only in answering the grammar questions in examinations and not gain proficiency in language skills accurately.
5. Majority of students preferred to have discussions and debates sessions than direct lecturing in classroom interactions.
6. They showed dissatisfaction with the present course and felt that it does not help them for their future needs. Students disagreed that the present syllabus helps in gaining proficiency in order to succeed in higher education.
7. Regarding their perception of language needs, the students felt that they need English for formal and social situations. They ranked the speaking and listening skills as the most needed skills for success.
8. Students were of the opinion that English is an effective form of oral communication for people coming from different regional language background.
9. Students disagreed that subjects taught in regional languages helps in better understanding. Moreover they approved that learning English brings prestige.
10. 1/3rd of the students however agreed that knowledge of Indian languages also opens more job opportunities.

CONCLUSIONS

1. The pilot survey conducted is a preliminary step towards identification of the language needs for English of I year BBM students studying in degree colleges affiliated to Bangalore University as perceived by a sample of 80 students.
2. The findings indicate that knowledge of English is a decisive factor for success and that a general English course does not help students achieve the required proficiency in English language.
3. The survey conducted in this particular course i.e. I year BBM suggests that the learners have a very clear idea of their needs and wants of language.
4. An elaborate and focused needs analysis can be conducted on a large scale across a number of degree colleges in various disciplines after a careful analysis of the curriculum offered, to assess the learners specific language needs.
5. A general English course can run parallel with an ESP course so as to help students gain proficiency in their respective area of study.
6. The materials focusing on the specific topics relevant in the particular disciplines (BBM, B.Sc., B.Com etc) are already being designed and developed by many ESP researchers and practitioners and could be introduced in the course of the study. A direct link can be drawn from needs to aims to course design, classroom implementation and evaluation.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Dudley-Evans, T. & Jo St John, M. (1998). Developments in English for Specific Purposes. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Hutchinson T. and A. Waters (1987). English for Specific Purposes. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Zughoul Mohammed Raji and Riad Fayez Hussein (1985). English for higher education in the Arab world: A case study of needs analysis at Yarmouk University, in English for Specific Purposes (131-152).

Evans Stephen (1999) 'The English language needs of Building Services Practitioners in Honk Kong' in ESP Journal (pp 41-56).

CLICK HERE FOR PRINTER-FRIENDLY VERSION.

ASPECTS OF CONCATENATIVE AND NON-CONCATENATIVE MORPHOLOGY OF STANDARD HINDI | ONTOLOGY FOR WORD-FORM GENERATION IN ORIYA | STUDY OF HINDI NOUN PHRASE MORPHOLOGY FOR DEVELOPING A LINK GRAMMAR BASED PARSER | ENGLISH LANGUAGE LEARNING IN THE ESP CONTEXT - AN INDIAN EXPERIMENT | USING ANIMATION FOR TEACHING PHRASAL VERBS - A BRIEF INDIAN EXPERIMENT | MOTHER AND CHILD RELATIONS AS A SEMIOTIC EVENT | HOME PAGE | CONTACT EDITOR