Esp as a Challenge to Confront – A Case Study of Technical English in a Pre-Intermediate Level University Classroom

Abstract

Drowned in explosive amounts of information, new technology developments, globalisation, international job opportunities and large-scale job migration, English for Specific Purposes (ESP) courses are faced with the increasing requirement of tailoring languagelearning to accommodate employer or employee specialisations. This dynamism is currently being transmitted to courses at the university level, along with the accompanying challenges for all involved. This paper reviews these potential barriers to implementation of ESP courses for students with low proficiency of English, taking a pre-intermediate-level Technical English (TE) course at the Czech University of Life Sciences Prague as a case study. After analysing various scholarly references aimed at ESP, the classroom-based research for this paper confirms the feasibility and efficacy of implementing ESP and TE, in particular, even into pre-intermediate classrooms. The self-motivating design of 6 TASKS, as well as authentic video sessions, combined with a student survey and teacher observations, all serve to point to ESP introduction on the pre-intermediate level as achievable in terms of application and resourceful regarding future life-career situations in which students will eventually find themselves.

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