The reality and challenges of english for specific purposes: A case of An Giang university

AGU International Journal of Sciences – 2019, Vol. 7 (1), 42 – 52

THE REALITY AND CHALLENGES OF ENGLISH FOR SPECIFIC PURPOSES:
A CASE OF AN GIANG UNIVERSITY
Nguyen Thi Dung1
1

An Giang University, VNU - HCM

Information:
Received: 16/01/2019
Accepted: 02/05/2019
Published: 11/2019
Keywords:
ESP teaching and learning,
reality, challenges

ABSTRACT
English for Specific Purposes (ESP) courses reflect the world’s development
and English language learners’ interests in studying the language and skills
for their future profession. This paper attempts to identify the reality and
challenges in teaching and learning ESP courses at An Giang University
(AGU). The paper investigates the perceptions of English as Foreign
Language teachers and learners towards those ESP courses including their
objectives, teaching and learning practices as well as the successes and
challenges of those courses. Observations, questionnaires, and interviews
were conducted with 90 third-year students who had taken ESP courses and
5 teachers who had taught these courses. The findings confirm students’
satisfaction with the subjects regarding teachers’ support. In addition, the
study also identifies the challenges faced by the teachers in these courses.
Based on the findings, solutions are offered for teachers and students at

AGU to improve their teaching and learning of ESP courses.

1. INTRODUCTION

Kennedy and Bolitho (1984), ESP is the
consequence and the demand of the economic
growth and development of professional
mobility, as well as the facilitation to approach
the scientific and technology sources.. For
example, English for Agriculture provides
language skills for learners to evaluate
information about the scientific revolution or
new inventions in this field. As a result, they
are able to enhance their professional
knowledge and skills.

The requirements of being able to work in a
multi-cultural
environment
have
been
increasing in this integration era. If desiring to
survive and promote their career, workers need
more than one language. In fact, AGU students
even need to demonstrate their language
proficiency to get a professional practice
position in big companies or corporations such
as Victoria Hotel-Thien Minh Group or
VinGroup. However, communicating well in
English does not mean performing well in their

professional
fields;
consequently,
the
establishment and development of English for
specific purposes (ESP) courses represents the
global interest (Ahmed, 2014). According to

To respond to the real world’srequirements,
Vietnamese higher education institutions
(HEIs) have paid more attention to the quality
and quantity of ESP courses in their training
programs. In other words, how ESP courses are

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AGU International Journal of Sciences – 2019, Vol. 7 (1), 42 – 52

conducted, what knowledge should be included,
how ESP courses are assessed, how many ESP
courses should be included in the curriculum,
how long each course is, and when students can
take ESP courses should be considered
carefully.

(1987) affirm that ESP is an approach which
does not relate to a specific kind of language –
ESP is not a special form of English and is not
distinct from other forms, teaching material or

method; however, the core of ESP is the
purpose of learning English. Belcher (2009)
also shares the idea that ESP is an English
teaching and learning process whose goal is
learners’ capacity to use English in particular
fields.

Consequently, AGU - the second largest
university in the Mekong Delta providing a
large number of workers for the region as well
as Ho Chi Minh City (AGU Self-assessment
Report, 2017)– cannot stay out of this trend.
AGU has been improving and upgrading
academic programs with the ultimate goal of
training students to become global, multifaceted and multi-dimensional citizens (AGU
mission). In fact, most of the academic
programs in AGU (except Music Teaching
Education and Art Teaching Education) have
two to three ESP courses. However, from the
researcher’s teaching experience, it is seen that
current ESP courses at AGU have some
problems due to lecturers’, students’ and the
labor recruitments’ complaints. The teachers
find it difficult to choose appropriate textbooks
and pedagogy for their courses, whereas some
students feel uncertain about how to apply what
they have studied into future jobs. Furthermore,
after interviewing entrepreneurs who offered
internships for AGU students, the researcher
was told that students’ professional skills and

language skills did not meet the job
requirements. Therefore, this research paper
aims at investigating the reality and challenges
of ESP teaching and learning at AGU. Some
recommendations are also offered for the
university, the faculties and the teachers who
teach ESP courses to improve the quality and
teaching methods of ESP courses to meet the
requirements of potential employers.

Bojović (2006) defines ESP as a phenomenon
developing from numerous converging trends
whose importance are mentioned as follows (1)
the growing demand for English to serve
specific professional needs; (2) developments in
the linguistics field – the core of learning
English changing from defining formal
language features to using language
appropriately in real contexts; therefore, leading
to the demand of English for particular
purposes; and (3) educational psychology –
learners’ needs and interests impact on their
learning motivation and effectiveness.
Strevens (1988) defines ESP by making a
distinction between absolute characteristics
(the learners’ particular need is the priority of
language design such as content to particular
disciplines, occupation and activities, etc.) and
two variable characteristics – language skills
and methodology which is not based on the preordained.

Features of ESP courses:
According to Carver (1983), successful ESP
courses have three common features. The first
is authentic materials – which is possible to use
for the intermediate or advanced students with
or without the teachers’ modification. It is not
advised for the teachers to translate the terms
from their own language to English because of
some inappropriateness. The second feature is
purpose-related orientation. It means that ESP
is the language in context which requires real
life scenarios in teaching and learning

2. LITERATURE REVIEW
Definition of ESP
Since the concept ESP first appeared in 1960
(Anthony, 1997), Hutchinson and Waters

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AGU International Journal of Sciences – 2019, Vol. 7 (1), 42 – 52

processes. The last feature is self-direction in
which learners are expected to turn into users;
in other words, students’ autonomy is
encouraged. They should be active to decide the
content, the time and the ways that best meet
their professional targets.

in ESP courses largely depend on the teachers;
however, they should take learners’ needs and
professional requirements into serious consider.
Objectives of ESP
Cook (2002) distinguishes two goals in ELT,
external and internal goals. External goals are
related to the out-of-classroom uses of language
such as ordering a meal, asking for personal
information, or buying a mobile phone, etc.
meanwhile internal goals relate to educational
aims of the classroom, for example, improving
learner’s attitude, promoting thinking skills
such as analysis, memorizing and critical
thinking. ESP courses are considered to be
largely concerned with the external goals. ESP
learners are engaged in academic, professional
and occupation pursuits and are expected to use
English as tools to achieve those pursuits. In
other words, learners are expected to be able to
use language appropriately in the real context
requiring specific linguistic competencies.
Therefore, the ESP teachers or the ESP course
collaborators need to figure out what the
language-based objectives are in the
occupational targets or academic disciplines to
ensure that they are included in the ESP course
content (Basturkmen, 2010).

Dudley-Evans and St John (1998) suggest ESP
features including absolute and variable ones.

Absolute features statethat (1) ESP meets
learners’ specific purpose; (2) ESP makes use
of underlying methodology and activities of the
discipline its serves and (3) ESP is centered on
the language related to the mentioned activities
in terms of skills, discourse and genre. Besides,
variable features are mentioned as follows (1)
ESP is related to or designed for specific
disciplines; (2) ESP is different from General
English in terms of specific teaching
methodology and situations; (3) ESP is mainly
designed for adult learners at tertiary level or
professional situations and possibly for high
school level; (4) ESP is mainly designed for
intermediate and advanced level and (5) the
basic language knowledge is important but not
compulsory in ESP courses, so they can be used
for beginners.
Belyaeva (2015), after conducting research
about ESP, also suggests some features of ESP
courses. Firstly, ESP courses at college should
combine enhancing both general English and
English for specific professional situations and
contexts. With professional contexts, learners’
English proficiency needs to meet the academic
requirements of their study programs, access
study materials and communicate their findings.
Secondly, ESP is both an approach to
organizing instruction and the end product of
education as the sum of language units and

communication strategies. Finally, ESP course
development has to combine need analysis,
learning theories analysis, methodology
development, and content selection. The
selection of the content and methodology used

Benefits of ESP
Taken in comparison with General English,
ESP courses may bring learners some benefits
as follows (1) learning speed because ESP not
only follow the pattern of native speaker
acquisition in which learners obtain what they
need and when they need in authentic and
content-based contexts but also provide
opportunities to learn in accelerated, intensive
contexts;(2) learning efficiency because when
taking ESP courses, learners most exploit their
learning resources which are helpful for
acquiring specific, pre-identified linguistic
terms and skills. Uncertainly, the need analysis
is highly important in helping teachers or
course instructors to ensure that the course

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AGU International Journal of Sciences – 2019, Vol. 7 (1), 42 – 52

design can meet learners’ needs; (3) learning
effectiveness because on completion of ESP

courses, learners may be able to use language
appropriately and precisely in job relevant tasks
which are identified prior to the courses from
need analysis result. Besides, learners are
prepared for further training related to the
career and result in greater academic and
professional performance (Wright, 1992).

books, audio files, pictures, video clips,
handouts, brochures, leaflets, and real
information about related companies and work.
Based on the particular type of learners,
teachers have to design suitable courses and
provide necessary materials. For example,
despite teaching English for tourism, the
courses and the materials are different for
English major students and Tourism major
students.

Teacher’s Roles

Being a researcher

Due to the complexity of an ESP teacher’s
work, ESP teachers should be considered as “a
practitioner rather than a teacher” (DudleyEvans & St John, 1998).

Research is an inevitable work of ESP teachers
because of the diversity of learners. ESP
courses of one university cannot always be

applied to teach students of another university.
Therefore, ESP teachers need to conduct
research on their own students and teaching
context so that they can re-design the ESP
courses and develop teaching materials to best
suit their students based on the research
findings.

Being a teacher
The role of a teacher is the traditional one in a
language classroom; however, in ESP courses,
the teacher is not the unique source of
knowledge but is, rather, a facilitator. In fact,
students may have more knowledge about the
content of the course than the teachers.
Consequently, teachers should negotiate with
the students to pave the way for how to operate
the activities to best suit the students and help
them to achieve their professional target. In
these courses, teachers need to consider
themselves as students’ partners and consultants
as well as need to be open-minded, flexible and
ready to take risks in their teaching. In fact, in
ESP classrooms, the teacher is not the primary
source of knowledge, sometimes students know
more than the teacher in case they are engaged
in the topics. Therefore, ESP teachers should be
open-minded to listen to and learn from their
students.

Being a collaborator
Subject specialists are trusted to be an
important factor of ESP course success. This
collaboration can be a task in a specific
business situation that students need to
complete, “some integration between specialist
studies or activities and the language”, some
specific language prepared for students business
presentations or specialists’ checking and
comments on the ESP teaching materials or
syllabus prepared by the ESP teacher. It is
believed that the best ESP class is provided by
the cooperation of subject expert and language
teacher.

Being a course designer and material provider

Being an evaluator

Teaching ESP is a high time-consuming work
since it is hardly possible to implement it with
only one textbook. A huge amount of
supplementary materials is essential to facilitate
students to achieve the learning target. Types of
supplementary resources are so diverse with

ESP teachers are the key factor in evaluating
ESP courses because of their involvement in
different types of assessment. First of all, ESP
teachers can assess students’ progression –

whether they obtain enough language skills to
perform well in their future career. Secondly,

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AGU International Journal of Sciences – 2019, Vol. 7 (1), 42 – 52

they can assess how much knowledge students
can gain from the ESP courses. The last but
most important part is assessing the course
design and the teaching materials. This
evaluation should be made during, at the end
and after the course to make sure that students
can adapt, what is not useful and what they are
not prepared for. As a consequence, course
design and teaching materials are adjusted and
developed.

problem of ESP teaching. Maruyama (1996)
figures out the reasons of students’ vocabulary
deficiency such as students’ belief about their
ignorance of the ESP words because of their
uncommonness, students’ lack of motivation to
learn these ESP terms because of its rare use
and the English teachers’ unfamiliarity with the
ESP terms (i.e. science, technology, biology,
etc.). Fifthly, students’ lack of vocabulary,
especially ESP terms, results in students’
dependence on their dictionary when they are

faced with new words and get stuck. The last
difficulty related to students concerns the four
skills – reading, writing, listening and speaking.
In fact, Rezaei, Rahimi and Talepasan (2012),
concerning with reading skill, point out that
students often misunderstand the text meaning
because they cannot identify and understand the
sentences’ syntaxes, and there are too few
scientific and technological English terms.

ESP teaching is an important but complicated
part of the curriculum of a university. It needs
to be developed sufficiently to offer students
the best courses which are useful, updated and
adapted to the current work requirements.
Difficulties in teaching ESP
Difficulties related to the students
Firstly, Suzini et at (2011) suggests that
learners’ demand for ESP has a big impact on
the success of an ESP course. In fact, if the
students’ demand is not adequate, they will
have the tendency to be timid and passive in
class. It has a big negative impact on students’
learning motivation and the learning
environment. Secondly, the differences in
English proficiency among the students in a
university or among the universities also
influence on ESP teaching and learning. For
example, the English proficiency of Englishmajor students is much higher than nonEnglish-major students (i.e. information
technology, biology, financial banking).

Thirdly, the distinctions between the native
language and English, especially ESP, also
result in certain obstacles for students
(Maruyama, 1996). For instance, the Japanese’
writing system has no relationship with English,
so this causes a lot of difficulties for learners to
master English, especially ESP terms.
Vietnamese also has a lot of differences in
terms of pronunciation, grammar, even lots of
words derived from Chinese. Fourthly,
students’ lack of vocabulary is a considerable

Difficulties related to the teachers
According to Lam (2011), the first difficulty is
lack of qualified materials and textbooks. Some
teachers think vocabulary articles in the
university is adequate for students ESP
learning; thus they often self-develop their own
ones which mainly focus on readings and
vocabulary, and cannot attract the students to
engage in the lessons. The second difficulty is
the teachers’ qualification and teaching
methods. In fact, Ho (2011) claims that the
teachers lack specialized knowledge because
they do not have the chance to attend the
courses on method and knowledge of ESP
teaching. The last difficulty related to the
teachers is lack of theoretical framework to
support teaching English for specific purposes.
Chen (2011) suggests this problem leads to the

confusion of deciding what content should be
compulsory, considered as skills or practical
knowledge to help students more confident in
their knowledge after graduation.
3. METHODOLOGY

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AGU International Journal of Sciences – 2019, Vol. 7 (1), 42 – 52

Participants

trained about the ESP fields they teach, the
obstacles they have encountered in their
teaching, how they self-study for their
professional
development
and
their
expectations from the faculty and the university
to develop the ESP courses and their teaching.

Five ESP teachers of AGU whose teaching
experiences were from nine years to twentyseven years joined the study. Two of the
teachers have trained professional knowledge
(economic studies, tour guide skills,
Vietnamese geography) while the others have
not. Ninety third-year students who have
already taken ESP courses also participated in

this study. They were divided into two groups –
group A learned with the trained teachers while
group B learned with untrained teachers.

Observations
The observations were carried out to record
directly how the ESP classes were conducted
and how the ESP teachers and students
performed in ESP classes, for example, the
activities the teachers used in class, how the
students engaged in those activities, the
teachers’ explanations and examples, and how
the teachers gave feedbacks.

Instruments
Questionnaire
The questionnaire for students included seven
questions whose aim was to determine the
students’ satisfaction with courses in terms of
their support to the learners’ professional
interests and intentions; especially, whether
they were satisfied with the ESP courses and
the teaching activities.

There was a comparison between the two
groups of students – A and B – which was
made in each data collection instrument to best
explore the reality of ESP teaching and learning
and to draw the most effective conclusions.
4. FINDINGS

Interviews

From the questionnaires

The interviews with the ESP teachers were
conducted to explore whether they have been
Table 1. Students’ assessment on the overall quality of the ESP course

Below Average

Average

Group A
Group B

47%

Good

Excellent

17%

83%

53%

Table 1 describes how students rated the quality
of the ESP course they have taken. As can be

seen from the table, students studying with
trained teachers appreciate the courses more

with the rating of 83% excellent and 17% good.
Meanwhile the rate for the other group is much
lower with only 47% average and 53% good.

Table 2. Students’ satisfaction with the courses’ duration and arrangement

Don’t
agree
The courses have suitable amount of time
The courses are arranged suitably in the training
schedule.

2%

47

Partly
agree

Agree

Absolutely
agree

7%

83%

10%

5%

80%

13%


AGU International Journal of Sciences – 2019, Vol. 7 (1), 42 – 52

‘Table 2 indicates the students’ satisfaction
with the courses’ duration and arrangement in
the training schedule. The courses’ amount of
time is considered to be suitable by 93% of the
students with 83% agrees and 10% absolutely

agrees. They are also regarded as arranged
fittingly in the training schedule with 80%
agree and 13% absolutely agree. However,
there are 2% of the students who do not think
that the courses are properly organized.

Table 3. Students’ satisfaction about the courses’ content and the methodology

Don’t agree

Partly agree

Agree

Absolutely
agree

Group
A

Group
B

Group
A

Group
B

Group
A

Group
B

Group
A

Group

The courses’ content
can be applied into

future career

0%

3%

3%

47%

77%

47%

20%

3%

The teachers have
background knowledge
and practical
experiences about the
ESP fields.

0%

3%

7%

37%

63%

60%

30%

0%

The teachers use
heuristic methods and
practical activities in
the lessons.

0%

3%

10%

47%

73%

50%

17%

0%

The teachers
investigated the
learners’ need at the
beginning of the
course.

0%

20%

7%

30%

80%

50%

13%

0%

Table 3 displays the students’ satisfaction with
the
courses’
content
and
teaching
methodologies. However, there are the

differences between two groups of the students;
students studying with the trained teachers
seem to be more contented.

B

lower. Only 50% of them think that the
knowledge is useful for their future jobs while
47% of them partly agree and 3% do not think
that they can apply what they have studied.
Secondly, students in group A more highly
appreciate their teachers than those in group B.
Ninety three percent of those in group A agree
that their teachers have background knowledge
and practical experiences in the ESP fields they
teach while the equivalent number of students
in group B is 60%. Thirty seven percent of
students in group B partly agree and 3% of
them do not agree.

Firstly, 97% of students in group A agree that
they can apply the courses’ content into their
future career (77% agree and 20% absolutely
agree), and no students in this group think they
cannot use the course knowledge in their future
career. Nevertheless, the number of students in
group B appreciate the courses’ content is much
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AGU International Journal of Sciences – 2019, Vol. 7 (1), 42 – 52

Thirdly, having the
correlation with the
teachers’ knowledge and experiences, the
teaching methods and activities used by
teachers are more highly valued by students in
group A. 90% of students in group A consider
that their teachers have implemented heuristic
methods and practical activities that help them
feel inspired and obtain the knowledge easily
while the number of students in the counterpart
group who agree is 50%.

Firstly ESP teachers do not have as much
knowledge about the ESP fields as the students
(Dudley-Evans &St John, 1998), so they have
to self-study to gain knowledge to best serve
their teaching. Consequently, beside the
ordinary preparation, ESP teachers confess that
they read books, magazines and research papers
on the ESP fields, take partk in online courses
and learn as students, watch videos on Youtube
to approach real situations in the fields to select
suitable and practical knowledge for their
lessons.

Finally, 93% of the students in group A said
that they investigated their needs at the
beginning of the course while only 50% of

students in group B admitted they were
involved in the investigation at the beginning of
the course. On the opposite side, 20% of
students in group B confess that they were not
asked about their needs.

Beside the theoretical knowledge, the real
understanding about the labor demand and
requirements is also essential. Two of the
teachers affirm that they have investigated the
labor demand and requirements by updating
news about labor market, conducting informal
talks with the job recruiters, and staying in
touch with alumni. Meanwhile the three others
confess to not investigating because of the
limited time and relationship.

In general, what can be inferred from the
questionnaire findings is that students strongly
valued the courses taught by the teachers
trained with ESP field knowledge. In fact, they
rate these courses higher and consider these
courses’ to be more applicable than the others.
Besides, they also think that the teachers in
trained groups have more background
knowledge and practical experiences; as a
result, they can assign more heuristic methods
and lifelike activities so that students easily
master the knowledge and perform well in their
future jobs. It is also believed that, teachers

trained in ESP fields pay attention to the
importance of investigation learners’ need more
than those in the other group.

In addition, the support from the faculty and the
university is also important and is the
motivation for the teachers to improve their
professional development and teaching. Four of
the teachers admit that they have received the
support of the faculty and the university in the
form of providing authentic textbooks, offering
chances to attend courses or workshops, or
offering chances to choose the ESP fields to
teach. However, one of them states that he or
she has not received any support.
The last section of the interviews is for stating
the difficulties the ESP teachers encounter in
their teaching. The teachers share that they had
no experience teaching ESP courses in the
beginning and also have little knowledge about
the field they teach. Besides, there is a
limitation of teaching and learning resources
and updating materials. Selecting a suitable
textbook and what to teach is also a hard job of
ESP teachers because of their limited

From the interviews
The interviews were conducted with 5 teachers
in the research sample. Two of them were
trained about the knowledge and skills in the

ESP fields they teach while the three others
were not. The findings from the interviews
reflect the teachers’ perspectives toward how to
improve the ESP teaching and the obstacles
they have encountered.

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AGU International Journal of Sciences – 2019, Vol. 7 (1), 42 – 52

understanding about the ESP fields. Students’
low English level is also a big obstacle in their
teaching. In addition, there is a large number of
students unaware of the ESP courses’
importance due to the availability of
interpretation services. In fact, companies can
hire an interpreter for cabin interpretation,
direct interpretation and document translation
easily with suitable prices (80,000 – 100,000
VND per A4 page). Although most of the
students consider the duration of the courses
suitable, the teachers think that it is not enough
for them to transfer all necessary knowledge to
their students.

learn not only from the textbooks but also from
the teachers’ experiences which is much more
worthy.
5. IMPLICATIONS AND CONCLUSION

Implications
For the university and faculty
To help the ESP teachers be more confident and
better perform their teaching, the university
should sponsor teachers to attend courses to
develop their English proficiency, background
knowledge and skills about the ESP fields.
Moreover, in-service training and on-the-job
training should be provided for ESP teachers to
get more practical experiences. For example,
the university and the faculty can organize
short-term courses providing knowledge of the
fields, ESP teaching methodology or the
teachers can do some training practice at
relevant offices and companies (i.e. work as
receptionists, secretaries or interpreters) to
update knowledge and real experiences. In
addition, ESP teachers should be encouraged to
attend more workshops and teacher networks to
exchange and get more teaching experiences
from the other ESP teachers all over the world.
The university library should equip the ESP
textbooks and reference books upon
suggestions of ESP teachers and the faculty.
Furthermore, the faculty should also create
chances for the experts in the ESP fields to coteach with the ESP teachers which are
considered as the ideal conditions for ESP
teaching and learning (Ghafournia & Sabet,
2014)

From the observations
After observing some ESP lessons from the two
groups, there are some similarities and
differences identified. On one hand, both
trained and untrained teachers can involve their
students in the lessons with interactive activities
such as group presentations, skits, problem
solving, video clips, etc. On the other hand,
there are some shortages of untrained teachers
in comparison with the trained ones. In fact, the
classroom atmosphere of group A is much more
exciting than those in group B because the
students are much more engaged in the
activities and the teachers’ sharing about their
experiences related to the fields. Besides, group
B teachers lacked confidence because of their
limited knowledge of the fields while the
students have more understanding of the ESP
field than they. Sometimes, they are afraid of
saying something wrong, and being ashamed by
their students.. In addition, group B teachers
have the tendency to focus more on the
textbooks rather than on their own experience
activities outside meanwhile the other group
usually implements practical ones with
appropriate explanation about their necessity.
Finally, the trained teachers provide more
appropriate and practical feedback. Thus, when
studying with trained teachers, students can

For the teachers
The ESP teachers need to self-inspire by
meeting other ESP teachers to learn
experiences, share difficulties and get help to
overcome the difficulties despite the limitation
of knowledge and time. Besides, they should
exploit the students’ practice training in the
companies to build the relationship with the

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AGU International Journal of Sciences – 2019, Vol. 7 (1), 42 – 52

recruiters and find out the labor market demand
and requirements as the foundation of
collaborating in developing the training
curriculum and ESP courses’ content. In
addition, the students’ characteristics and needs
should also be considered in designing the ESP
courses to best assist their study and prepare for
their future jobs.

/>4a5a592808b37a85dad82bac7da3.pdf
Basturkmen, H. (2006). Ideas and Options in
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Belcher, D. (2009). What ESP is and can be:
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English for

Conclusion
In general, as can be seen from the research
findings, although all of the teachers try their
best to self-study and update knowledge, the
teachers who have been trained in the ESP
fields do obtain more benefits than the
untrained ones. To be able to survive in the ESP
teaching, teachers need a lot of time to study
and prepare themselves. Language capacity is
essential but not enough for an ESP teacher
performing well and provide useful courses for
students. As a consequence, the university, the
faculty and the teachers need to consider
carefully following implications to help the
ESP teachers and students have qualified ESP
courses and increase teachers’ confidence and
inspiration in their careers.

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