Teacher of English for specific purposes: Najor roles and difficulties

Of their five major roles of a teacher, a course designer and material provider, a collaborator, a researcher and an evaluator, this paper will mainly focus on the roles of being a teacher, a researcher and an evaluator following David Nunan’s observations.

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c ngo i ng xu th h i nh p Tháng 11/2014 VAI TRÒ CỦA GIÁO VIÊN DẠY TIẾNG ANH CHUYÊN NGÀNH VÀ NHỮNG KHÓ KHĂN GẶP PHẢI Vũ Minh Th y Trường Đại học Hà Nội * Tác giả liên hệ, e-mail: thuyvm@gmail.com Tóm tắt: Tiếng Anh chuyên ngành (ESP) ñã ñược Abstract: English for Specific Purposes has been đưa vào chương trình học năm thứ sinh integrated into the curriculum of the first year of the viên Khoa Đào tạo Đại cương, Trường Đại học Hà students in Foundation Studies Department, Hanoi Nội kể từ năm 2005 ñể chuẩn bị tốt cho sinh viên University since 2005 in an attempt to better prepare kĩ kiến thức cần thiết cho chuyên students for language skills and contents for their major ngành Tài Ngân hàng, Quản trị Kinh doanh, Du studies lịch, Quốc tế học, Khoa học máy tính Kế tốn Trong Administration, khóa học này, sinh viên ñược cung cấp kĩ Computer Science, and Accounting In this course, tiếng Anh chung kiến thức môn students are equipped with both English language skills, chun ngành Vì thế, khóa học yêu cầu giảng viên which is similar to General English studies, and also phải có kiến thức kĩ chuyên ngành khác with the content knowledge in their own fields of major biệt với giảng viên tiếng Anh nói chung Trong số study Therefore, it requires ESP practitioners a variety nhiệm vụ họ, giáo viên, người thiết kế phát of professional knowledge and skills different from triển học liệu, người ñiều phối, người nghiên cứu General English teachers Of their five major roles of a người kiểm tra - ñánh giá, viết tập trung teacher, a course designer and material provider, a vào nhiệm vụ giáo viên, người ñiều phối collaborator, a researcher and an evaluator, this paper người kiểm tra- ñánh giá dựa quan sát will mainly focus on the roles of being a teacher, a David Nunan Các vấn ñề quan trọng giảng dạy researcher and an evaluator following David Nunan’s khóa học ESP phân bổ thành: (a) kì vọng observations The key issues in ESP curriculum từ người học; (b) kì vọng từ đồng nghiệp; (c) kì vọng delivery are categorized into: (a) expectation from thân ñược thảo luận viết Các students, (b) expectation from colleagues; and (c) self- tài liệu phương pháp giảng dạy chương trình tiếng expectation will be discussed in this paper The Anh chun ngành chương trình học tiếng Anh nói literature of ESP and General English teaching will be chung ñược xem xét với kinh nghiệm taken into consideration with the experience of the q trình giảng dạy mơn researcher and other colleagues in their conduct of the chuyên ngành tiếng Anh ESP course T khóa: Tiếng Anh chuyên ngành (ESP), giáo viên dạy tiếng Anh chuyên ngành, kiến thức chuyên ngành in Finance and Tourism, Banking, Business International Studies, Keywords: English for Specific Purposes, ESP practitioners, expectation, content knowledge TEACHER OF ENGLISH FOR SPECIFIC PURPOSES: MAJOR ROLES AND DIFFICULTIES Introduction English for Specific Purposes (ESP) refers to the language of research and instruction that focuses on the specific communicative needs and practices of particular social groups Specifically, in Hanoi University for the freshman students, ESP is included in the 3rd term of their first year which covers particular majors, namely Finance and Banking, Computer Science, Tourism, 343 Ti u ban 2: Đào t o chuyên ngành b ng ngo i ng International Studies, Accounting, and Business Administration The aim of this course is to introduce to students a pool of vocabulary and initial concepts of their majors to better prepare for their courses afterwards This course is conducted weekly in 10 weeks, each session lasts for periods of class The teaching materials are carefully selected from textbooks, journals and magazines with the same theme of what students are going to study in the coming years to familiarise students with the content knowledge that they will work on On delivering this particular courses ESP teachers often encounter a number of problems that might influence their methods of lesson delivery and minimize the positive effects of this course Expectations from students The roles of the teacher in ESP course are quite different from the role of a conventional General English teacher They are expected by their students to be something better and more professional than General English teachers in that they should possess a more insightful and comprehensive breadth of the content knowledge They are expected to come up into a class with knowledge that is not English – English but English of the subject matter A General English teacher encountering this peculiar role might find confusion while carrying out their daily teaching task They should negotiate between their conventional experiences of English teaching and the subject matter taken by English English in these classes is not a focus but it is used as a communicative tool to transfer the knowledge of subject to students, which requires teachers to switch from one task of teaching to another teaching Moreover, students are in due need of knowledge, which encourages teacher to seek for more resources to help them while the teachers 344 could not be sure how much is enough to their students If the knowledge is too shallow, the lesson is nothing much like a reading lesson; in contrast, in case it is too intensive, the teachers themselves find it challenging for them to either comprehend the content properly or teach the subject suitably Expectations from colleagues ESP teachers also receive expectation from their colleagues as they are supposed to provide their students with sufficient English skills of reading, writing, speaking, listening so that their students find the least difficulties when attending ESP course in their following years Nevertheless, many students, despite already having had a year of learning English and being prepared for the studying majors in English find it significantly difficult to deal with this kind of English in their studies Teachers from major faculties and students themselves have mentioned the obstacles of understanding English, not as their subject studies but as a tool of understanding the subject matter Students have to spend more time grasping the knowledge and facing up with more difficulties to reproduce them in speaking and writing ESP teachers’ self expectation Teachers of General English at the FSD hold an expectation to provide what is the best to students in terms of language content and subject matter With the strong expectation to prepare for their students in following years, all teachers spend a considerable amount of time and effort producing materials and syllabus, and seeking for the most appropriate teaching methods The teachers are ready to transfer the knowledge to the students, but the question of the amount of knowledge is a major issue The students might find the lessons boring and unnecessary if the material is merely similar to the reading that they have done many times in other English practice lessons In contrast, they find it far too challenging Chi n l
c ngo i ng xu th h i nh p as they have never experienced the materials which highlight and require their true understanding of the overall content rather than focusing on individual meanings of words or phrases or specific questions Therefore, to facilitate the process of students’ understanding the teachers needs to provide them with sufficient vocabulary in those specific fields, the background information leading to the specific content of the materials, and guide them through all of these issues There are many tasks which require the teachers to own a very reasonable and sensible sense of students’ understanding and the content knowledge, to act as a facilitator and an instructor to work out the content of the materials with their students Suggestions Teachers are considered as strangers in a strange land who are reluctant dwellers in strange and uncharted land In the book titled "English for Specific Purposes", Hutchinson & Waters (1987) have outlined the problems that ESP teachers encounter are the lack of authenticity of textbooks, the new knowledge that teachers have to cope with and the change in the status of English Language Teaching The question of proper teaching materials has been taken into consideration by the quest of authenticity of the text Being selected as a major part of the learning process, the texts, which have been utilized in each lesson, should act as strongly influential tools of the teachers It can be used to prove how much information learners can achieve from the reading by different strategies The text can be a particular learning activity e.g., jigsaw activities, or to illustrate a concept or a highly specialized terms It can be the demonstration for reading comprehension and learners’ motivation as it emphasizes the real world application of the language The teachers determine which aspects of skills and knowledge should be highlighted in Tháng 11/2014 the lesson and thus chooses a piece that can serves for developing more than one skill The material acts as a link between existing knowledge and the new information It is a source of new vocabulary, communicative and reading skills which can be the combination of printed texts with audiocassette or radio-cassette that means receptive with productive activities to enhance different skills of students (Bracaj, 2014) Moreover, a motivational atmosphere should be maintained within the classroom as it acts as an internal drive that encourages students to pursue a course of actions to finally achieve their ultimate aims Therefore, the role of motivation in each activity is inevitable Teachers should consider the choice of material as what involves in the learning process so it should be proper account of knowledge and competence of the teachers to effectively use the materials The issue of negotiating the roles of a General English teachers and ESP teachers as they struggle to master both language and subject matter beyond their previous experience should be taken into cautious consideration The role that researchers suggest that ESP teachers should adopt is their adaptability and flexibility ESP teachers become negotiators with regard to learning process with certain expectations The knowledge and motivation of ESP teachers should not be the very specialist subject information; instead they should become interested students of the subject matters which they deliver in their daily teaching What the ESP teachers require is the positive attitude towards the ESP content, knowledge of fundamental principles of the subject areas and the awareness of how much they probably know (Hutchinson & Waters, 1987) What is more, the teachers can prepare themselves anytime during the preparation process is the question of “Who”, “Where”, “Why” and “When” (Hutchinson & 345 Ti u ban 2: Đào t o chuyên ngành b ng ngo i ng Waters, 1987) which directly connects with the nature of their particular target and learning situation (Bracaj, 2014) The ESP teachers should also make learners aware of the lack of specificity of their needs and allow them to have freedom to discover for themselves by doing their research and analysis, find texts from different areas for them to compare so that they could see the difference of language use from one content to another and withdraw the required valuable techniques or skills If the learners enjoy what they are doing, they are far less to complain The ESP instructors should collaborate closely with the specialists of subject matters, who are the their colleagues in the major faculties, and also 346 with their students By working out what their students should study and in what way they can study most effectively, the ESP teachers might find a space of their own freedom and power to carry out the tasks of both General English teachers and ESP practitioners REFERENCES Bracaj, M (2014) Teaching English for Specific Purposes and Teacher Training European Scientific Journal, 10 (2) Hyland, K (2007) English for Specific Purposes, International Handbook of English Language Teaching (pp 391-402) Springer International Handbooks of Education Hutchinson, T., & Waters, A (1987) English for Specific Purposes: A learning-centered approach Glasgow, Great Britain: Cambridge University Press  ... should be proper account of knowledge and competence of the teachers to effectively use the materials The issue of negotiating the roles of a General English teachers and ESP teachers as they struggle... ESP teachers might find a space of their own freedom and power to carry out the tasks of both General English teachers and ESP practitioners REFERENCES Bracaj, M (2014) Teaching English for Specific. .. year of learning English and being prepared for the studying majors in English find it significantly difficult to deal with this kind of English in their studies Teachers from major faculties and