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Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI)

This thesis explores the teaching and learning of English for Medical Purposes (EMP) in a Syrian Arab university (Tishreen University). It investigates the inherent contradictions in the position of EMP in an Arab-medium university by drawing on the socio-political and economic factors shaping English language education policy in Syria. It also critiques “mainstream” ESP through examining the “purpose” in English for Medical Purposes. Rather than viewing learning as an end product, this study suggests that learning English is part of a dynamic process of learning to become a doctor in Syria and as part of constructing the 21st Century Syrian “doctor” identity. I draw on aspects of poststructuralism and complexity theory to take the analysis of English for Specific Purposes beyond issues of needs analysis, content, and materials development. ESP, from its outset, has been proposed for decades as a commodity that meets students’ linguistic and communicative needs. However important these concerns are for the development of the discipline, as I argue in this thesis, ESP seems to adopt a “mechanistic” approach by predetermining “needs” and “purposes” which fails to account for the complexity of human beings’ behaviours and responses in educational contexts. The deterministic conceptualisation of ESP places rigid boundaries between ESP and the reality of the medicine profession, therefore, fails to meet students’ needs which transcend boundaries of classroom in aspiration for recognition by the medical community worldwide. English for Medical Purposes, in this study, goes beyond “specific purposes” to account for the role of English as a foreign language in constructing doctor identity and in the process of becoming a doctor. Data in this qualitative research were collected through focus groups with students of medicine in Tishreen University, semi-structured interviews with medical tutors and management officials in the Faculty of Medicine and the Higher Institute of Languages, as well as ESP teachers. Policy documents were analysed, and field notes were taken in classroom and hospital observations. Based on the analysis of these sources, a deeper understanding of EMP at Tishreen University is reached through the lens of poststructuralism and complexity theory. Finally, this thesis ends by drawing an ESP/Applied Linguistics relationship among the implications the findings have for policy makers, teachers and medical students, alongside recommendations for future ESP research directions.

[pt] O objetivo deste estudo é identificar as necessidades da situação de aprendizagem (necessidades dos alunos) da língua inglesa dos estudantes de um curso técnico em Turismo e Hotelaria em uma escola técnica estadual, e da situação-alvo (necessidade do mercado de trabalho), comparando-as com a proposta curricular existente. Para levantar os dados, foram utilizados como instrumento de coleta: questionários, entrevistas semi- estruturadas e documentos sobre o curso de Turismo e Hotelaria e sobre a disciplina Inglês Instrumental. O principal arcabouço teórico que norteou esta pesquisa está fundamentado nos trabalhos de Hutchinson e Waters (1987/1996), Dudley-Evans e St. John (1998/2005) e Robinson (1991), autores da linha de estudo de ensino de línguas denominado Inglês para Fins Específicos - ESP (English for Specific Purposes), ou Abordagem Instrumental, termo adotado no Brasil. A análise dos dados confirma a extrema necessidade da situação de aprendizagem e da situação-alvo da compreensão auditiva e da produção oral. No entanto, o ensino da habilidade de leitura de gêneros discursivos tais como sites, folhetos, regulamentos, entre outros, precisa ser redimensionado. Esta pesquisa pretende dar subsídios para uma adequação do curso de Inglês Instrumental atualmente implementado na escola técnica onde esta pesquisa foi realizada, tendo em vista as necessidades dos alunos desta unidade escolar e do mercado de trabalho. / [en] The aim of this study is to identify, first, the learning needs of students that study English as a foreign language in a technical course in Tourism and Hotel Management in a state school, and, second, the target needs for work in the market; in addition, the study compares the students` needs and market needs with the course syllabus followed in the school. The data were collected through questionnaires, semi-structured interviews and documents about the Tourism course and about the English course. The main theoretical framework of this study is based on Hutchinson & Waters (1987/1996), Dudley-Evans & St. John (1998/2005) and Robinson (1991), authors of the approach called ESP - English for Specific Purposes, or Inglês Instrumental, as it is known in Brazil. The analysis of the data confirms that, in both learning and target situations, speaking and listening skills are extremely important. However, the teaching of reading skills for genres such as web sites, brochures, and regulations must be reevaluated and adjusted to the reality of student and market needs. Suggestions are presented for new directions toward making the ESP course under study more suitable for both the learner and the market.

As a result of the New Economic Reform in Vietnam, the need for more business people proficient in the English language is constantly growing. This need requires the Hanoi Foreign Trade College, which is officially charged with the training of business people for the whole country, to devise relevant curricula for short courses in Business English. The purpose of this report is to examine some major theoretical and practical issues in English for Specific Purposes (ESP) and in syllabus design that can provide course designers at the Hanoi Foreign Trade College with a deeper insight into the problems essential to the development of their work. The report consists of five chapters: (i) Chapter One is the Introduction. It gives the background to the study, pointing to changes in Vietnam and the role of the HFTC in adapting to meet the new need created by these changes. (ii) Chapter Two deals with the methodology employed in the data collection and discusses its findings. (iii) Chapter Three looks at some major theoretical issues in English for Specific Purposes with a view to applying this theory to the practical needs for Business English in Vietnam. (iv) Chapter Four is directly concerned with the planning of the short courses in Business English for Vietnam which are the central focus of this study. (v) Chapter Five is the Summary and contains recommendations for future development of the proposed short courses.

Vietnam has been sending a lot of people overseas for study and training but the results obtained from overseas study and training are not satisfactory owing to language deficiency. This has prompted the present study which aims to investigate the language problems and language needs of Vietnamese going overseas for study and training. Chapter 1 presents the justification and objectives of this Study Project Report. Chapter 2 gives some insight into the definition of English for Specific Purposes (ESP), its development, and the situation of English language teaching and ESP teaching in Vietnam. Chapter 3 discusses the nature of analysis and its role in ESP course design, types of needs of learners of English, and the methods of collecting information for needs analysis. Chapter 4 examines the noticeable problems of Vietnamese learners of English in overseas settings in terms of difficulties in language, study skills, and cultural differences by carrying out through a survey and a case study. Chapter 5 specifies three kinds of English that Vietnamese in general will needs for study and training in overseas settings: English for survival needs, English for social needs, and English for descipline-specific needs. Finally, some conclusions and recommendations are presented in the last chapter.

English for Specific Purposes (ESP) teaching has become a popular trend in English language teaching in the world. It is distinguished by its clearly defined purposes in teaching and its student-centred short intensive courses. It tends to be more effective than other types of English language teaching. Therefore it has attracted more and more attention of linguists and language teachers, and is warmly welcomed by learners. ESP teaching also enjoys much popularity in China. In recent years a great number of ESP programmes, as well as programmes of other foreign languages for specific purposes, have emerged. These programmes have successfully prepared thousands of specialists for the language required by their future work or overseas studies. Nevertheless, there still remain a number of problems in Chinese ESP teaching. This study is intended to analyse ESP teaching in China. It examines the development, thec haracteristics, the achievements, existing problems and attempts to highlight implications for teachers and educational administrations.

Self-efficacy refers to people&rsquo / s judgments of their own abilities about a specific situation. The present study examined self-efficacy beliefs of senior students about using ESP (English for Specific Purposes) in their prospective careers. For this purpose, a new scale was developed by the researcher. The predictive power of certain variables (gender, English course grade, watching English language films, reading English language books, listening to English language songs) was investigated through multiple regression analysis. The study was conducted at a private university in Ankara and 303 senior students participated in the study. Exploratory factor analysis (EFA) was performed to determine the factor(s) in the questionnaire. EFA provided evidence for two factor solution and they were named as Academic Reading-Writing Skill (ARWS) and Academic Communication Skill (ACS). Cronbach&rsquo / s alpha coefficients of both ARWS and ACS scales were .97 for each which was a satisfactory result. The results of multiple regression analysis showed that the model of the combination of variables which were gender, reading English language books, watching English language films, listening to English language songs and English grade significantly predicted both ARWS and ACS scores of the participants. The variables which were reading English language books, watching English language films and English course grade significantly predicted both ARWS and ACS scores of the participants. Listening to English language songs predicted ACS scores but not ARWS scores. However, gender predicted neither of them.

This dissertation uncovers and examines linguistic and functional patterns of student writing in the first two years of college. A corpus of student papers from six disciplines (philosophy, English, psychology, biology, chemistry, and physics) was collected, and multi-dimensional (MD) analysis (Biber, 1988) was used to examine the ways that discipline and paper type influence writing. Further explorations of the data compare lower-level student writing to upper-level student writing, professional academic biology writing, and the discipline-specific approximations of an English for Specific Purposes (ESP) course. Findings show that specificity of both linguistic and functional properties exist even at such low levels of disciplinary acculturation. These studies are followed by a summary and contextualization of their findings. Finally, future inquiry using collected data and future investigations into student literacy practices are proposed.