A Case Study of ESP Curriculum Designs in Industrial Vocational High Schools in Taiwan

• Main Authors: Shui-Chen Chang, 張秀貞
• Other Authors: Yi-Hsuan Lo
• Format: Others
• Language: en_US
• Published: 2018
• Online Access: http://ndltd.ncl.edu.tw/handle/fx9cr2

碩士 === 國立臺灣科技大學 === 應用外語系 === 106 === English for specific purposes (ESP) plays an important role in language learning, as it fulfills learners’ needs for both present academic and future professional purposes. The question of whether to offer ESP courses in Taiwan’s vocational high schools (VHSs) nevertheless remains a controversial one for Taiwanese educators. Some agree that ESP should be provided at the VHS level while others believe this to be more appropriate at the tertiary level. Provision of ESP courses in Taiwan’s VHS environment poses challenges, given the generally low English proficiency among VHS students and lack of teacher knowledge of ESP pedagogy. In addition, most available studies have investigated ESP course effectiveness in tertiary institutions; little empirical research so far has been dedicated to (1) the design, development, and evaluation of ESP courses the VHS level, and (2) the experiences with and perceptions of ESP among Taiwan’s VHS students. In an effort to address these research gaps, the present study examines two ESP curricula offered by the engineering departments of two selected public industrial VHSs in northern Taiwan. Methodology incorporates class observations and document inspections. Additionally, the two content teachers for each ESP course under consideration were interviewed individually before, during and after each course; VHS students in the two ESP courses under consideration were given questionnaires to glean their observations about the courses and curriculum designs. Data sets were analyzed according to the curriculum design model proposed by Nation and Macalister (2010). The results show terminology to be the core element shared by both ESP courses. The two major challenges identified were low student proficiency in English and the difficulty of integrating vocational content using English. The findings also reveal that the students held generally positive impressions of their ESP experiences, even as they did have suggestions to offer for improving implementation. Finally, implications of these findings and suggestions for future research are discussed.