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Presenter
Professor Wenli Tsou
Dept. of Foreign Languages & Literature,
National Cheng Kung University
Chinese Taiwan

Title
The Process of ESP (English for Specific Purposes) Material Designs in an EFL Setting

Abstract

This paper explores the process of ESP textbook development at one top university in southern Taiwan, documenting its development from needs analysis to ongoing surveys of teaching beliefs. The participants were five ESP teachers of various disciplines (business, science & technology and medical). They were also the material designers of these ESP courses. The focus of the study is on the difficulties of the developing process as well as the differences between ESP and EGP (English for genearl purposes) designs. The difficulties include screening of suitable articles, designing of authentic tasks, time-consuming article rewriting process, and the availability of authentic materials. ESP materials differ from its EGP counterparts in that they rely on needs analysis during the development process, while EGP bases primarily on teacher intuition that reflects a teacher’s beliefs. In addition, relevent subject background knowledge is considered critical to ESP teaching. In genearl, ESP teaching is conceived as effective by the practitioners and the teachers’ teaching beliefs change gradually, although more obvious shifts take time to manifest. The various aspects of difficulties as well as potential solutions discussed in this paper shall serve as a model for furure publishers and ESP curriculum designers.