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PROPOSAL FOR THE ENGLISH FOR SPECIFIC PURPOSES IN
HIGHER EDUCATION
2020
1. Proposal “English for Specific Purposes in Higher Education” is not extremely new,
but it is known that today an English program in higher education institutes is almost the same.
What does it mean? –all students learn simple, traditional program, which is based mostly on
ordinary skills, and there is no enough attention to their specialty. In modern world of
globalization and integration, English for Specific purposes is one of the most significant areas
of English learning and teaching. There are quite different opinions about role of ESP in
modern educational system. People describe ESP as simple teaching English for any purpose
that could be specified, others believe that it is the English teaching used in academic studies,
research or teaching English for vocational or professional purposes. According to definition
of ESP (Dudley-Evans, 1998):
-ESP is considered to meet specific needs of the learners
-ESP is used for an underlined methodology and activities of the subject it serves
-ESP is centered on the learners’ needs and language reliable to these activities in terms of
grammar, lexis, register, study skills, discourse and genre.
Generally, the history of ESP began approximately in 1945, at the end of World War II, it was
a time of great expansion in scientific, technical and economic spheres, and because of the
demand of English, people began to learn English for very specific reason: English had
become the language of technology, progress and commerce. English became a big business.
Consequently 80% of world retrieval system is stored in English, English is used
everywhere. English is needed not only by linguists, philologists or translators, this language
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is used in all professions. One of the main reasons of ESP’s necessity- is the focus on the
learner, and it is the area of psychology. Today we can observe the development of educational
psychology, all lessons are student-centered, it contributes emergence of ESP by focusing on
the learners’ needs and attitudes. Development and modernization of the education quality –
the necessary conditions for successful survival of a higher education, especially in
Uzbekistan. And, again, the process of implementing ESP in Uzbekistan should assess and
satisfy the needs and expectations of learners, as well as higher education employers,
undergraduates, their parents, employers and the whole society.
(Audra Mulleneaux, 2017)
It should be mentioned that ESP has a quite big contrast with general English, and mostly
oriented to the learners’ reason for learning. At the same time ESL has a lot in common with general
language. Modern teachers use different techniques to define learners’ needs and expectations from
the course. Conducting a needs analysis- one of the most useful ways to identify learners’ target skills
and needs. The aim of providing needs analysis is to find out what is really necessary for learners of
English language, and material creators, teaching book writers should think very carefully about the
goals and objectives of learners. ESP learners are usually adults, and they already have some
Makhmudova-5030-Proposal |3
acquaintance with English, and learn foreign language in order to communicate and develop
professional skills, to perform job-related functions, or for some another reason. ESP concentrates
mostly on language in context rather than teaching grammar and language structure. So, by using a
simple definition, we can define ESP as “theory is nothing, in practice a great deal”.
In Uzbekistan, during independence year for the purpose of further development of learning
foreign languages National program on training cadres was approved. That program is considered as
innovative approach. The main purpose of this program is improving the level and quality of
specialists of all spheres. The process of innovative improving and development of educational
system continues today, and all modernization activities should be based on modern requirements.
According to Hutchinson and Waters (1987): “ESP as an approach rather than a product – meaning
that ESP does not involve a particular kind of language, teaching material or methodology. The basic
question of ESP is: Why does this learner need to learn a foreign language? The purpose of learning
English became the core”.
The aim of current proposal – reform the curriculum, assessment system and study materials
in all institutions besides linguistic institutes, so significant steps should be made toward
modernization of Uzbek education. It is known that Uzbekistan today needs reforms in educational
system, integration into the world community dictates its own rules and directions and higher
professional education should be oriented to the preparation of qualified specialists. The idea of
reforming higher educational system in our country should be supported by the ministries and
government bodies, it is clear that development of ESP area is very helpful for further establishing
and development of economic and social relations. This proposal will help to decision makers to do
a right steps toward updating and development of educational system of Uzbekistan in the area of
English teaching and learning. System of vocational education in Uzbekistan is still developing, and
current proposal guarantees good results in preparing professionals in all spheres.
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Also, cultural and intercultural aspects can’t be denied in designing ESP course, culture is
inseparable part of every language, so “Since language and culture are inseparable, we cannot be he
teachers of language without being teachers of culture – or vice versa” (Byram, Morgan et al
1994:vii.). Taking under consideration different workplaces and professions, intercultural
communication is a very important part of ESP, and cultural material should be included in every
ESP course to avoid misunderstandings. Multicultural communicative competence consists not only
of information about English speaking countries, their culture and traditions. ESP instructors should
know much and be aware of behavior culture, it’s extremely relevant in a case of communication
between West and East. Even though English today is a lingua franca, culture not only can not, but
also must not be separated from language learning. Cultural content in ESP program will help learners
to make effective and strong multicultural connections with foreign colleagues and specialists.
Goals and objectives: Goals and objectives are very important aspects before constructing
every proposal. It will make understandable, what we have to do, what materials should be included
to course program, and what methods and procedures should we use. Generally, defining ESP as a
separate category of General English Teaching is a necessity of modern education. The goal of current
proposal- is to satisfy necessity of cooperation and communicational connection with colleagues from
another countries, to make good level of foreign language be an integral part of higher education in
Uzbekistan, to prepare well-educated specialists with great mental and cultural background. Also,
the aim of this proposal is to review the curriculum, change it according to the needs of learners and
reform English language program in non-linguistic institutions all over the country, introduce new
teaching materials, assessment criteria and invite foreign specialists for training and experience
exchange. To the pilot project Samarkand State Medical Institute will be invited. Before
implementing current proposal, research questions should be identified:
-
academic activities: English language needs of medical students
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-
professional career: English language needs of doctors
-
extent of proficiency skills
-
ESP course design
Medical English is contextually based, so doctors use both jargons and common language, as well as
academic, or technical language. The learners will not be able to achieve fluency in English in one
semester of during one year, but after graduating from higher educational institution, the following
are reasonable objectives:
Learners will be able to:
-read and understand textbooks and articles in their professional field
-understand short lectures in target language in their professional field
-write short summaries or reports of material they have read
-locate resource for further information
-ask questions to get information and answer the questions and clarify points
-give oral report, keep up the conversation on professional themes
The main aim of this proposal is formation of new generation of experts and specialists with
high professional and cultural level. The foreign language gives a great opportunities in many
areas of life, because it opens sources of information, gives a chance to have an acquaintance
with achievements of world science and, of course, facilitates internship abroad. The world
community needs well-educated specialists who aware of one of the international languages.
Due to integration of Uzbekistan into the world community, our country should reform the
educational system. Also, one of the major objective is to increase the number of qualified
students of nonlinguistic specialties.
It is known that students cannot learn how to say or write something which they cannot
understand or imagine, so during formulating goals and objectives of current proposal,
priorities for the further development of language skills were identified.
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It is quite implementable objective to improve students’ receptive competence, critical
thinking, their listening comprehension and reading skills. Listening comprehension is one of
the very important sphere, because for being real good specialist students must attend
presentations, conferences and training in English, through these activities they can achieve
fluency.
Inventory: there are 62 higher educational institutions in Uzbekistan- 44 institutes, 16
universities and 2 academies. As it was said before, ESP till today has been part of English
language teaching. But total point of this proposal is that English is not taught as a separated
subject from the students’ real world and wishes. English language should be taught as a part
of their specialty, such a combination is highly motivating because students can apply what
they learn in English classes to their main field of study. It can be computer science, business,
medicine, accounting, management, and, of course, tourism.
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Picture above shows the demand for qualified specialists in all spheres, so to meet 21st century
challenges, Uzbekistan should develop and increase English teaching and studying, especially in the
field of ESP.
As it was mentioned before, ESP is relatively new form of learning English, and using new
methods and techniques, first we need some information about the learners: cultural information,
reasons and expectations of course, attitude to English, etc.
Telling the truth, educational system in Uzbekistan is very traditional, even old, it is a sort of
conservatism, so it is really necessary to improve and develop educational system, communicate and
cooperate with foreign colleagues, experts and specialists. Till today in nonlinguistic institutions in
Uzbekistan there was no any particular subject besides general foreign language. But the integration
of our country into the world community dictates a modernization of existing educational program.
The National Program of training specialists and the Law on Education of Uzbekistan means, that
government understands all problems that we have in educational sphere, especially in sphere of
higher education. Dudley Evans and St John (1998) described the role of the ESP teacher as: Teacher,
collaborator, course designer and materials provider, researcher and evaluator. So, it is not so easy –
to be the ESP practitioner, as it seemed before!! For ESP teachers it is not enough to have a
proficiency in English, they also have to know much about the particular scientific discipline and
adopt the methods and techniques to the target discipline. Simply, a key question for all teachers of
general English language is searching for materials and methodologies which are effective for
particular class, and usually learners know more about the subject than the teacher. ESP is derived
from General English, and teachers are not engineers or doctors, as their students, but in the field of
knowledge they can provide quality and methodological base. So, it is important to have a cooperation
and team work with subject specialists. Such kind of cooperation improves language learning
environment and language acquisition by students.
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To create a manuals and books in different directions, materials should be taken from original
subject books, but exercises should be designed on the language-based principles. Such manuals will
help students to improve their knowledge in both spheres- learning English and content.
Unfortunately, it is a lack of good ESP teachers in Uzbekistan. What should be done to improve the
situation? Teachers should act in a strong cooperation with professors and experts in subject and be
ready to present a language in a different ways. The world globalization process resulted in new
demands for specialists with good proficiency in one of the world languages. Bridging the gap
between General English and ESP is possible only by a strong collaboration between subject and
language specialists.
Recommendations: As we already know, ESP now is one of the most required English language
category all over the world. There is a huge number of purposes, one is learning English so she can
get a job in aviation, the other wants to break a startup in USA, another one wants to travel. That
means that teachers need to be equipped to teach very effectively- it is not enough to work with just
general textbooks and vocabulary list. So, what should we do? Strong recommendation- is to use
ONLY authentic materials. Present proposal recommends teachers evaluate all the materials from the
authentic point of view and shows possible areas of effective cooperation between linguists and
subject specialists.
Shirvan (2008) noticed that there are four reasons for medical students to learn English:
-
Academic literature
-
Cooperation with colleagues from another countries
-
Opportunity to study or have internship abroad
-
Use English in future career
The Brazilian National ESP Project (Rosinda de Castro Guerra Ramos Catholic University of São
Paulo) : “Another change derived from the development of the Brazilian ESP Project in the country
is related to the involvement of primary and secondary schools: they started to attend seminars and
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courses trying to get help to develop expertise in the teaching of reading skills, due to the compulsory
university entrance exams”.
In 1990, the Association of Languages for Specific Purposes (AELFE) was created in Spain.
This association focused on specialized terminology and a spread of ESP in Spain. Today, it may be
concluded that ESP instructors have become more knowledgeable and implementing of ESP
strengthened the whole educational system.
Number of research articles in Ibérica (2003-2012) on the different topics by countries of origin
(ESP in Spain: Goals, achievements and prospects, https://journals.openedition.org/asp/3136)
For teachers, to have a greater understanding about ESP, it will be very useful to read about
the chronological development of English language (history of language), and through this basis
teachers will be able to understand ESP as a field of language. English, world language, has a strong
connection with all spheres of life, it’s not just to communicate with English speaking people.
As it was said before, to implement this proposal into real life, we need for a great deal of
points, and one of the most important is good trainers. To achieve a good proficiency in field of ESP,
teachers of General English have to collaborate with field specialists and who may be more familiar
with the content. It is planned to send trainers from Uzbekistan to the English speaking countries to
exchange experience, ideas, methodologies and culture. ESP teacher relatively new profession in our
M a k h m u d o v a - 5 0 3 0 - P r o p o s a l | 10
country, and good ESP practitioner should have a qualified training to teach adults. After mustering
their skills, it is easy to design curriculum.
Timeline. In 2020-2021 academic year it is planned to develop existing educational model
and 1 year will be enough for:
- improve and develop standards of English language teaching and learning in all nonlinguistic institutions of higher education in Uzbekistan;
-
design teaching materials;
-
design assessment methods and criteria;
-
create exit tests for ESP students;
-
all materials should be adapted to any ESP subject;
-
increase English language teachers’ level in ESP proficiency level.
All the categories should be done professionally and in accordance with international
standards.
Phase 1
Phase 2
2020-2021
2021-
Organizational Procedures, Pilot Project
Full implementing ESP course in all
higher educational institutions
Aspects to address (Target Language):
Speaking about pilot project (Samarkand State Medical Institute), ESP course should enhance
communicative skills of learners. So, ESP course for medical students should include technological
equipment terms, medical terminology and real life communication. Niazi (2012) mentioned, that
Medical English is a new and modern approach, Content objectives of this proposal- help learners of
higher educational institutions achieve their professional goals through the global language. In order
to satisfy students’ needs, ESP course is always learner-centered, also aim-directed and situation-
M a k h m u d o v a - 5 0 3 0 - P r o p o s a l | 11
oriented. ESL has some similarities General English, it focuses on all four language skills: listening,
reading, writing and speaking, but not equally- in ESP it is important which language skills are more
preferable and mostly used by students. For example, if students are going to be a tourist guides, we
should raise their speaking skills. By another words, ESP consists of subject matter and English
language teaching. By using this combination, students can achieve a high level in a target language.
How can high proficiency be achieved? - More attention should be paid to practical classes rather
than to the theory.
Methods and Practices: there is no any universal method for teaching and learning ESP. any
method should be chosen according to the classroom, learners, context, learning abilities and
background. Listening activities are especially important, very effective way to improve listening
comprehension is listening for specific information or listening for gist. Also, task-or activity-based,
situational, structural activities will be useful in ESP course.
Assessment: The construction of evaluation assessment is one of the most important point to
indicate the learning outcome. Assessment system of ESP in Uzbekistan should be aligned to current
language policy and CEFR, because CEFR already approved by all institutions. All language teaching
courses have their own evaluation requirements, and ESP is mostly oriented to assess students’ skills
at strategic points in the course, according to students’ ability to perform particular tasks. It is
recommended to use informal assessment, starting with unplanned comments and responses, along
with feedback to the student. Also, formative assessment is one of essential part of learning process.
Teacher evaluates students in the process, it helps them to continue their development. Summative
assessment, on the contrary, should be provided at the end of every unit and, of course, at the end of
every semester to summarize what students have grasped and how well they have accomplished
objectives.
It is clear, that assessment should be based on teaching materials and have validity, also, we
need for such assessment system, which can be adapted to the discipline requirements. While
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designing assessment criteria, we should take into account that we evaluate not only students’
performance, but also effectiveness of the course. Theoretically, there are many ways to evaluate ESP
course- achievement test, proficiency test, placement test. But in practice teachers mostly use
informal assessment techniques: open-ended questionnaires, discussions, comments. The most
suitable technique is based on the situation, teachers gather, collect and summarize the data during
the whole course.
Generally, ESP equips particular learners with needed skills to carry out particular tasks in
target language. How often should evaluation take place? Surely, first evaluation test should be
provided in the first week of studying process to get information about current level and background
of learners. Then, evaluation takes place at regular intervals during the course, and at the end of the
course. It is difficult to say how often assessment should be provided, it depends on the personal
characteristics of the teaching situation.
Actors: It is planning to implement the proposal in cooperation with the Ministry of Higher
and Secondary Specialized Education of the Republic of Uzbekistan, Ministry of Health of the
Republic of Uzbekistan, and as it was mentioned above, the participant of pilot project is Samarkand
State Medical Institute. Generally, in macro level the actors are government, administration of
educational institutions, stuff and learners.
It is known that ESP is oriented to the students’ needs, so the main actors are learners, parents
and trainers, curriculum designers and instructors, subject specialists and English teachers,
employers. In future it is planned to develop ESP in Uzbekistan and reform educational system at a
national level, implement new curriculum and create or renew teaching materials. Teachers from
Uzbekistan have to visit another countries to exchange experience and get a higher level of
proficiency, so foreign colleagues and field specialists also may be considered as actors of current
proposal.
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According to Zhao’s categories of actors (2011); 1. People with power- in case of current
proposal role of this category plays Ministry of Higher and Secondary Education and Ministry of
Health; 2. People with expertise- linguists, subject specialists and foreign consultants; 3. People with
influence- social elites, who understand importance of implementing ESP course; 4. People with
interest- it is a very broad category and includes learners and their parents, teachers, administration,
etc.
Funding. The educational system in Uzbekistan is controlled by government, and the
government dictates the forms, methods and ideology of education. During last 3 years conditions
have changed and modern society requires specialists with higher knowledge and skills. In
Uzbekistan we can observe a demand for stuff in a specific area of qualification. The sphere of
education in our country is funded from the state budget. During last decade Uzbekistan takes
measures to diversify the sources of educational funding, for example extra- budgetary resources or
by introducing a contract (fee-paying form of admission). It means, that implementation of current
proposal possible only after approving it by the government. About 90 percent of mandatory courses
and disciplines approved by Ministry of Higher and Secondary Specialized Education, but according
to Approaches to Result- based Financing, World Bank, 2014: “Calculations show that in order to
achieve an average indicator of population coverage with higher education, investment in higher
education must be increased from 0.6 percent to 1.4.”
This proposal can be implemented only with the help, support and funding of the government.
Beginning of every new project or course always requires financial investments, and current proposal
is not an exception. Most funding will be spend to train teachers abroad. Also, it is planned to invite
foreign specialists, and their salary must meet international standards. Pilot project includes four
higher educational institutions, so at least four teachers from Uzbekistan will go to be trained in any
English speaking country. At the same time, four foreign specialists will come to Uzbekistan to
provide master classes for language teachers. First year of implementing proposal “English for
M a k h m u d o v a - 5 0 3 0 - P r o p o s a l | 14
Specific Purposes in Higher Education” is going to be expensive. The table below shows estimated
expenses: (Exchange program)
ESP instructors
Per month
Duration
Teacher 1(Uzbekistan)
1,500$
3 months internship
Teacher 2(Uzbekistan)
1,500$
3 month internship
Teacher 3(Uzbekistan)
1,500$
3 months internship
Teacher 4(Uzbekistan)
1,500$
3 months internship
ESP trainer
2,000$
2 months
ESP trainer
2,000$
2 months
ESP trainer
2,000$
2 months
ESP trainer
2,000$
2 months
Tickets
Total:
20,000$
Reallocation of the resources: Uzbekistan has almost everything to implement current
proposal into real life. The main resource is well-educated, professional ESP instructors, who are able
to motivate students and help them achieve proficiency. Every higher educational institution must
have at least one teacher who had internship abroad. It is planned to invite foreign subject specialists
to create in-team teaching. Human resource- is a centerpiece of current proposal, so every educational
institution must have at least one ESP instructor.
In this paper have been described reasons why it is necessary to implement English for
Specific Purposes in all educational institutions in Uzbekistan. It is known that this idea has
supporters not only in educational sphere but in sphere of business, production and research. More
M a k h m u d o v a - 5 0 3 0 - P r o p o s a l | 15
and more people are interested in improving their English language skills for specific, or professional
reasons.
It should be stressed that ESP today is one of the most important directions in educational
system.
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REFERENCES
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A multidisciplinary approach. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
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Zealand: Palgrave Macmillan.
3. Hutchinson T., Waters A. (1987). English for Specific Purposes. Cambridge:
Cambridge University Press.
4. Lopez Torres, E.& Perea Barbera, M. (2002). “An ESP Program for Students of
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Planning and Policy Proposals.
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Hinkel (Ed.), Handbook of research in second language teaching and learning: Volume
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M a k h m u d o v a - 5 0 3 0 - P r o p o s a l | 17
11. Haryanto, E. (2013). Language policy: Administrators and teachers’ view on English as
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12. Niazi, M. M. (2012). English for medical purposes: A case of English for specific
purposes. National University of Modern Languages, Islamabad, Pakistan.
13. Shirvan, S. (2008). Impact of learner- centered teaching and learning process on
preadvanced first year medical students’ performance, attitudes, and retention in
medical English (Doctoral dissertation). Middle East Technical University. Retrieved
from http://etd.lib.metu.edu.tr/upload/12609388/index.pdf
14. Mulleneaux, A., (2017) English for Specific Purposes (ESP): Which Linguistic Skills
Improve and which do not Improve throughout the Duration of an ESP Class? St. Cloud
State University.
15. theRepository at St. Cloud State
16. https://www.teachingenglish.org.uk/sites/teacheng/files/ESPBrazil_Ramos_.pdf
17. https://doi.org/10.4000/asp.3136