ChinesecollegestudentsneedESP

張曉鈴

If you were an airline passenger on a flight bound for an English-speaking country whom would you prefer to be your flight crew：flight crew members only passed a multiple-choice paper-and-pencil test of listening comprehension，passed face-to-face oral interview，or passed an authentic test of oral English communication in an air-to-ground radio setting？ Definitely，the one who passed the performance test is the best choice.According to Bailey （1998），a performance testing is usually associated with the “performance of a particular job or set of situated function” that is typically found in Language for specific purposes （LSP） or ESP.

ESP is defined to meet specific needs of the learners.It may be related or designed for specific disciplines.It is likely to be designed for adult learners in a professional work situation，such as business negotiation，technical English，scientific research，medical professionals and so on （Dudley-Evans，2001）.ESP concentrates more on language in context than on teaching grammar and language structures.The focal point is that English is not taught as a subject separated from the students real world or wishes； instead，it is integrated into a subject matter area important to the learners.ESP practitioners are also becoming increasingly involved in multicultural communication.They have to improve their intercultural competence as well.

Through two-year teaching in Chinese college，I desperately feel that Chinese college English needs a big revolution that ESP should take place of the traditional ESL.Currently，more than half of the students take the English course as a compulsory course for passing the CET-4 exam.Very few students take the course for future career or study.The result is that students are tired of English.Krapp （1999） noted that interest-related variables turned out to have an important influence on the forethought phase，the performance control phase，as well as the self-reflective phase.Learning something related to students study field is learning something through interests which could be the driver to stimulate the language learner to keep self-regulated learning without tutor.

The college English curriculum should be based on an analysis of learners needs.Second language program should teach what students want to learn but what the teacher wants to teach.The college English teacher should find out what language skills a learner needs in order to perform a particular role，such as fashion designer，sales manager，tour guide or academic researcher.Students need to get the skill of what they are able to do and what they need to be able to do from the college English curriculum.Only to satisfy students needs，they would like to keep on language learning.Our traditional ESL curriculum is too general that could not meet needs of different students who are in different academic fields.So curriculum development is necessary.

Unlike traditional ESL，ESP combines subject matter and English language teaching.Such a combination is highly motivating because students are able to apply what they learn in their English classes to their main field of study.Students abilities in their subject-matter fields improve their ability to acquire English.While in ESL，it stresses on the four basic language skills：listening，reading，speaking，and writing，in ESP it is a needs analysis that determines which language skills are most needed by the students，and the language course will be designed accordingly.For example，the ESP program might emphasize to improve the intercultural knowledge and speaking skills for business major students who will have negotiation with some multinational corporation.

ESP is a process of constructive learning that students review some of their previous learning experience.The main content is something that they have learned or known in their native language.The new knowledge is about how to use the target language to describe their experience.This process is much easier than learning something has nothing related to the experience.Through constructive learning，students will get more reliable，trust-worthy knowledge in long-term memory.Chinese College English should at least contain some of the information which related to students academic field that the language could be used directly in their future study or career.

Reference：

[1]Bailey，K.M.（1998）.Learning about language assessment，dilemmas，decisions，and directions.Boston，MA：Heinle & Heinle Pub.

[2]Dudley-Evans，T （2001）.English for Specific Purposes.The Cambridge Guide to TESOL，Cambridge University Press.

[3]Krapp，A.（1999）.Interest，motivation and learning：An educational-psychological perspective.European Journal of Psychology of Education，14（1），23-40.