1. ESP instruction into English course Professor: Patricia Su Presenter: Livia Pan Number: 9922613 Date: March 22, 2012

2. Teaching aviation English in the Chinese context: Developing ESP theory in a non- English speaking country Needs-based course design: the impact of general English knowledge on the effectiveness of an ESP teaching intervention A case study of incorporating ESP instruction into the university English course

3. Business English has long been an ESP course in China, the combination of ESP theory with aviation English teaching will likely be of interest to ESP professionals both domestically and around the world. In China, there is a huge market for the aviation industry. As an important component of an aviation English course, the teaching of aviation linguistics is now in an experimental stage, and student response is positive. A good command of the English language will enable them to communicate with their counterparts in the world and serve their customers better on work-related issues. The boom of ESP teaching both in college education and continuing education is rightly the result of social demand of the English language, rapid development of linguistics, and educational psychology. Introduction

4. The purpose of the note is to explore an appropriate approach to teaching aviation English in the Chinese context from the perspective of ESP curriculum development. This note focuses on a contrastive study of aviation language between English and Chinese and aims to present a possible approach to ESP teaching more suitable to the Chinese context. Purpose

5. As ESP is supposedly focused on subject matter, what to talk about in the classroom seems more important than how to talk about it. Register analysis and discourse analysis have become popular approaches to ESP teaching in the world. To teach ESP in China, we must take into consideration students’ English proficiency, their learning backgrounds and the proper use of teaching methods. Feedback shows that this approach is suitable for learners of ESP or other specialties in aviation industry. The curriculum of the aviation English course

6. Phonetic contrast Aviation phonetics is a part of aviation linguistics; in fact, it is the core component of the curriculum. Having learned international phonetics systematically, learners will be able to focus on aviation phonetics. This includes the reading of numbers, the alphabet, time, codes of airports, air pressure, and aircraft type. For example, ‘‘4’’ gets easily confused with that of the preposition ‘‘for’’, so the vowel /er/ is added (/FOW-er/) to distinguish the two sounds.

7. Semantic contrast The aviation terminologies ‘‘out’’ (wa´n bı`) and ‘‘over’’ (qing huı´da) are often confusing to the Chinese. ‘‘Out’’ means ‘‘my transmission is ended and I expect no response from you’’, while ‘‘over’’ means ‘‘my transmission is ended and I expect a response from you.’’ Both ‘‘out’’ and ‘‘over’’ are likely to be interpreted into ‘‘wa´n bı`’’ in Chinese and vice versa.

8. ESP collocation acquired through contrastive approach When learners of the English language reach an intermediate level, they may find that collocation is difficult to grasp. From the lexical and semantic point of view, collocation can be considered as the third step of mastering the English language: basic words → phrases and idioms → collocations → complete sentences. This is equally true with aviation English. When students have learned quite a number of words and expressions, they come across the problem of collocation. Therefore, it is the teacher’s responsibility to help them find out the rules and regularities of collocating words and phrases, especially with specialty vocabulary.

9. Time allocation for the teaching of aviation English

10. Challenges The first challenge we face in designing ESP courses is a careful consideration of students’ English level. A college English program is a prerequisite for ESP courses. The second challenge comes from the need of self-improvement of ELT instructors. They have to renew their knowledge of the English language and try to associate their linguistic skills with a specific domain or field. The third challenge is the opening up policy that brings in chances of cooperation with our international counterparts as well. General English is not enough to communicate throughout the world as far as technology is concerned.

11. This note has made a brief introduction to ESP teaching, or more specifically, aviation English, in China and shares with the reader the perspective of ESP curriculum development in the Chinese context. By teaching aviation linguistics and thereby continuing to develop aviation English courses, we should be able to steadily improve systematic and comprehensive curricula of aviation English with the joint efforts of fellow language practitioners. Conclusion

12. Teaching aviation English in the Chinese context: Developing ESP theory in a non- English speaking country Needs-based course design: the impact of general English knowledge on the effectiveness of an ESP teaching intervention A case study of incorporating ESP instruction into the university English course

13. Introduction The process of needs analysis has been established as a key concept of ESP course design, program implementation and evaluation. The importance of data collection procedures aiming at the identification of the demands of the target and learning situation and the genres to be adopted are widely acknowledged as essential stages for the development of ESP course design.

14. There are considerable benefits in evaluating the effectiveness of ESP courses to address the learners’ identified purposes for using the target language as part of curriculum renewal. The challenge of designing and delivering a needs-based course can be identified in relation to its effectiveness as indicated by repeated measures of the students’ performance. Introduction

15. Aims The present study aimed to investigate the impact of the teaching intervention by measuring the outcomes of the implementation of an experimental syllabus in terms of students’ performance concerning skills and vocabulary in order to establish the effectiveness of a needs-based approach to ESP course design. Its ultimate goal was to introduce curriculum renewal and optimize the quality of the ESP course offered.

16. the following research objectives were set: a)to evaluate the effectiveness of needs-based ESP course design in terms of students’ gains in total test scores b) to measure the impact of the influence of the students’ linguistic competence in general English on the students’ mastery of subject-specific knowledge as indicated by their performance in the ESP test. Aims

17. Total: 286 business English students experimental group (N=147) control group (N=139) Age20-24 years Language proficiency false beginner (38.7%) false beginners (35.4%) upper intermediate (46%) upper intermediate (46.9%) advanced (15.3%)advanced (17.7%) Participants

18. Research methods and tools Factorial experiment with two factors one factor between subjects (group, with two levels, experimental and control) one factor within subjects with repeated measures (two levels, pre and post)

19. In the attempt to evaluate the effect of the teaching intervention on the students’ performance concerning skills and vocabulary, two research tools were employed since testing is a technique commonly adopted as part of course Evaluation. ESP test instrument, which was specifically developed to reflect the objectives of the needs-based course and the syllabus, was used for measures prior and after the teaching intervention and was devised to all students in the experimental and the control group. Research methods and tools

20. The focus of the pre- and post-test was to assess skills and vocabulary development through a variety of tasks, all designed with the intention of being fair to the test takers in the particular setting, helps prevent a possible method effect. The tasks reflected real-life professional and academic situations, as closely as possible given the constraints and the artificiality of the testing environment. Research methods and tools

21. The starting point for any task was a purpose of some kind for which a language user in the real professional or academic world would actually listen, speak, read, or write.

22. Cronbach a coefficient was estimated and identified as 0.70 for the pre-test and 0.80 for the post- test aggregated for both groups, figures which are regarded acceptable and satisfactory as in general, acceptable reliability indexes range from 0.70 and above. The three correlation-agreement indexes, Pearson’s r, Spearman’s rho, Kendal’s tau b, were 0.954, 0.922, 0.871, all exceeding 0.800 and therefore statistically significant (p<0.001), which suggest a high inter-rater reliability for writing and speaking tasks. Research methods and tools

23. Data analysis Total scores obtained from the pre- and post-test measures were analyzed for statistical difference by means of ANOVA (Analysis of Variance) and ANCOVA (Analysis of Covariance). The significance level was predetermined at a=0.05. All analyses were performed with SPSS v. 15.0.

24. Data analysis The effect of the teaching intervention on students’ performance in terms of total score in the ESP test

25. Data analysis The post-intervention measurement indicated that the performance of the experimental group is statistically significant differentiated from the performance of their peers in the control group since they managed to attain a significantly higher mean score. As a result, the experimental group showed more significant gains in post-test scores in comparison to the control group The difference in mean scores for the measures from pre- to post- intervention for the experimental and control group was used to calculate the effect size of the teaching intervention was 1.98. Thus, the teaching intervention provided to the experimental group can be considered 1.98 times more effective in terms of mean scores than the established intervention provided to the control group.

26. Data analysis Previous knowledge or linguistic competence in general English correlates with the learners’ performance in the ESP test; however, the findings remain in the same direction, as only minor changes in score range can be identified by performing this equation. The effect of previous linguistic competence on the outcome of the teaching intervention

27. Conclusion The research data highlighted the success of the experimental teaching intervention as suggested by the learners’ enhanced performance and indicated the significance of the needs- based approach to ESP course design towards optimizing learning conditions. It should be noted that the students in the experimental group demonstrated better performance in test scores compared to their peers in the control group, who were taught in a traditional lexical-oriented, teacher-centered methodology. This fact underlines the effectiveness of the experimental syllabus in meeting the needs of the target group of learners as regards the provision of efficient training in skills and subject-specific vocabulary.

28. Acknowledging that it is the specificity element which clearly distinguishes ESP from EGP courses, it was the aim to confirm the effectiveness of the ESP course in terms of its highly specific nature and establish its efficiency to address the subject-specific needs of the learners’ concerning their target discipline. The development and implementation of the needs-based ESP course and the experimental syllabus can be regarded as highly effective in enhancing the learners’ performance and promoting their achievement in ESP irrespective of their level of competence in general English at the beginning of the course. Conclusion

29. Teaching aviation English in the Chinese context: Developing ESP theory in a non- English speaking country Needs-based course design: the impact of general English knowledge on the effectiveness of an ESP teaching intervention A case study of incorporating ESP instruction into the university English course

30. Introduction English for Specific Purposes (ESP) is an exciting movement in language education. It widens the opportunities for English teachers and researchers to explore the curriculum, course planning and implementation of ESP education and its impact on learners. The world we live in has increasingly become more globalized. More and more people are using English in a growing number of occupational contexts. For example, eighty-five percent of all information in science and engineering in worldwide informational storage and retrieval networks is in English. (Grabe & Kaplan, 1986; Zengin, Erdogan & Akalin, 2007)

31. The best way for an ESP program to succeed is for English teachers to collaborate with science/engineering/computer teachers or teachers from any other professional fields. Literature Review Shao (1992)

32. Method Two groups of first-year undergraduates from the College of Science and the College of Engineering at CYCU in the academic year of 2006 were selected for the study. Participants40 science students were assigned to the experimental group (ESP class) 40 engineering students to the control group (general English for freshman or EGP class) Time1 year Questionnaire surveyMichigan English Placement Test (MEPT-1) at the beginning of the first semester Questionnaire survey(MEPT-2) at the end of the second semester collected a complete set of data 31 students28 students

33. Both instructors chose the teaching materials together and collaboratively taught the experimental group (ESP class). The language teacher taught two hours and the physics professor taught one hour a week. The same English teacher alone instructed the control group (EGP class) three hours a week for the whole academic year. The role of the ESP teaching is to activate the learners’ science background knowledge in English. Special attention was given to science content, paragraph organization, sentence structure and lexical analysis; while the role of general English teaching is to enhance the foundation of general English skills. Building up vocabulary was an important component for both classes. Method

34. To measure the progress of the participants’ English proficiency of the ESP program and to compare their achievement with nonparticipants’ achievement. It also investigates whether or not there are differences in the opinions between the two groups concerning the percentages of course materials in freshman English relevant to a specific area of study. Aims

35. Results It is encouraging to find that both groups of learners have a significant improvement in overall English language skills. Several paired t-test were conducted to explore the specific areas of improvement. It was found that for the learners in the experimental group (participants of the ESP program) showed significant improvement in vocabulary only in MEPT-2, while the learners in the control group (participants of the traditional general English program) showed a significant improvement in listening and grammar in MEPT-2.

36. Results It shows that most learners in the control group show an improvement of between 0 and 10 points, but the experimental group has a higher percentage of learners improving more than 15 points.

37. Results It has been found that at the beginning of the freshman year the majority of learners in the control group prefered a less than 50% of the ESP teaching emphasis in a English course, regardless of their improved test scores. For the freshman students in the experimental group, it has been found that many of them would prefer a more than 50% of the ESP approach.

38. Results It shows a different outcome for the control group. It shows that for the learners in this group, whose improved test scores in MEPT-2 when they were freshman was 5 points or higher, suggested that less attention be given to the ESP approach when they became seniors.

39. Conclusion Based on the results of this study, a majority of students who participated in the ESP program in the context of freshman English course support such a curriculum. There is still work needed to be done to improve basic English skills such as listening, speaking, reading and writing skills of the students who are in an ESP program. Understanding of the nature of students’ field of study, working out the English language needs in relation to each subject area, choosing appropriate teaching materials and creating practice situations relevant to specific fields of study are all important components of a successful ESP program. A s the ESP program gains momentum in Taiwan, more attention will be given to its curricular planning and material selection.

40. Thanks for your attention!