Relevant Researches on The Use, Issues, and Challenges Of ESP

Teacher in The Teaching Field

In Partial Fulfillmint

Of the Requirements for finals

Cognate 2: English for Specific Purposes

Ethyl Mae M. Puyales

June 2021
 Introduction

For decades, English has been an integral part in our daily life and plays a major role
in many areas especially in the communication process. English has spread widely and is
studied by many people around the world. it considered as an international language used in
various fields, as well as in education. English first learned in elementary, junior and senior
high school until university level learned English that commonly called English Specific
Purposes. ESP provide students English as it is important to develop the language skills such
as communicative competence in academics, business, agrology, IT, teaching, accounting,
and engineering. English learned as will expected to provide learners competence in English
language. In ESP, the focus is on language learning rather than language use.

Today, English language plays a vital role in higher education both in private and
government institutions. Both ESP teacher and learner faced challenges, issues and use in
teaching ESP. From Indonesian context, studies undertaken by Marwan (2017) and
Poedjiastutie (2017) had acknowledged some challenges of ESP teaching, which are students’
low learning motivation, the discrepancy between reality and expectations, teachers’
workload, and low quality of resources (Marwan, 2017). While in Poedjiastutie’s (2017),
both teachers’ and students’ readiness in ESP teaching and learning emerged as a tough
challenge. However, both studies present weak evidence due to their limited research
contexts. While Marwan’s (2017) qualitative study involved a single research participant only
in a particular university, Poedjiastutie’s (2017) research findings were generated from data
gathered from numerous research participants in a single university. Moreover, English for
specific purposes (ESP) is a variant of English as a second or foreign language. It usually
refers to teaching the English language to students or to whom already employed, with focus
to the particular vocabulary and skills they need. ESP is designed for adult learners, it’s either
in a tertiary school level or the professional work situation, however, it could be for the
learners at secondary school level.

The purpose of this study is to analyze the relevant researches on the use, issues, and
challenges of ESP in the teaching field in order to provide satisfaction by gathering
information from the researches that serve as the basis. This analysis has an essential role to
determines ESP teacher in teaching field.
 Analysis of Related Literature

This review presents the analysis of the uses, issues and challenges of ESP in teaching
field from the relevant research studies.
English For Specific Purposes
ESP focuses on when, where and why learners need to learn English language, its
either for study or workplace contexts. The teacher will make a decision about what to teach,
and sometimes how to teach that informed by descriptions of how language used in the
particular contexts that will learners will work or study. There is thus a strong focus in ESP
on language as ‘situated language use’ (Basturkmen 2010, p.8). Tudor (1997) points out that
an important distinguishing feature of ESP is that it deals with ‘domains of knowledge which
the average educated native speaker could not reasonably be expected to be familiar with’ (p.
91). In ESP the learner is called as a language learner who engaged in academic, professional
or occupational pursuits and who uses English as a means to carry out those pursuits.
There are some relevant researches studies about the use, issues and challenges of
teaching English for Specific Purposes (ESP) in teaching field as following:
A study that conducted by Mohammad Kaosar Ahmed (2014) reveal some basic
concepts of ESP, ESP teaching issues such as effectiveness of ESP, teaching strategies, ESP
teaching objectives, teachers’ role and tasks of the ESP teachers like curriculum
development, course design, needs analysis and assessment that are explained. This study
view ESP teacher that is not only teaching but also used materials, designed a syllabus,
conducts research and evaluates the course and the students. ESP teacher must be aware of
the course objectives; understand the course content and be flexible with the learners. A
professional ESP teacher must be able to switch from one professional field to another
without having to spend months learning the ropes. ESP teacher is challenge to brings the
essential course design tools, structures, and principles to apply them to new material.
Another studies that investigate the challenges that faced by ESP teachers is Voicing
The Challenges of ESP Teaching: Lessons From ESP in Non-English Departments by Luluk
Iswati and Anita Triastuti. This study attempted to look into the fundamental challenges faced
by ESP teachers in one state and four private higher education institutions. This study reveals
various results that contribute to the challenges encountered by ESP teachers in some non-
English departments of colleges. Teachers' perceived knowledge and competence (lack of
understanding on learners' discipline and teachers' training), lack of sufficient needs analysis,
huge classes, and learners' various competency are among the topics found. It explained The
lack of knowledge of learners’ discipline that their different study backgrounds result is the
struggle to learn a new subject of study and training for ESP teachers that aimed not only to
improved teachers’ knowledge and understanding of teaching methodology but also provide
with adequate knowledge on the relevant subject matter. The lack of needs analysis, as found
in this study, signals that the ESP courses implemented in the institutions that were
mentioned in the study are questionable in terms of their characteristics, as mentioned by
Dudley-Evans and St. John (1998). It is stated that one of the fundamental characteristics of
ESP is its purpose of fulfilling learners’ needs (Dudley-Evans & St. John, 1998). Another
issues or challenge for ESP teacher is related to the classroom condition, which is huge class
size which is the more classes the more teachers are needed and the learners’ varied abilities
in English in which may give ESP teacher challenges from mixed students, from high
competent English students to beginner students in one class. The issues found and discussed
in this study must serve as a wake-up call to policymakers and stakeholders to reform ESP
practices in many higher education settings to alter ESP methods.
A study of teaching English for specific purposes to the students in English language
teaching conducted by Tira Nur Fitria (2020). This study shows the role and difficulties of
both teacher and learners in English for Specific Purposes and in the field of ELT (English
Language Teaching), ESP is concerned with the specific English language needs of the target
learners/students. The role of the teacher is must develop a course design and material
procedure based on an assessment of purposes and needs and the activities for which English
is needed. However, in ESP it is a needs analysis that determines which language skills are
most needed by the learners, and the syllabus is designed accordingly while learners are
developing their English language skills in order to represent their native-language
knowledge and abilities. It gets the opportunity to grasp using a language in a situation that
they are familiar with. It indicate the various challenges that are related to the teacher in
teaching English for Specific Purposes (ESP) in the implementation of ELT, such as quality
of lectures and textbooks, qualification and teaching methods of teachers and lack of a
theoretical framework to support teaching ESP while students' difficulties, such as
demographic factors and learning demands ESP of students, English proficiency, differences
between language to another, especially ESP, lack of vocabulary, dependence on the
dictionary and lack of skills in using dictionary especially ESP terms. Also, it shows the
challenges connected to the environment and others include a shortage of teaching resources,
classes with an excessive number of students, and heavily focused examination.
 From the study of Challenges in Teaching ESP at Medical Universities of Iran from
ESP Stakeholders’ Perspectives by Behzad Nezakatgoo and Foad Behzadpoor (2011) is
exploring the main challenges of teaching ESP in medical universities of Iran in which the
results showed that the challenges are classified into three main themes such as institution
challenges, learner related challenges, and teacher related challenges. The first challenge has
a number of subthemes. One of the challenges was that the goals of medical ESP courses
were unknown, second issue was the grammar-oriented structure of ESP courses at medical
universities, Therefore, it claimed that in addition to grammar and technical vocabulary,
language skills are required by physicians, medical staff, residents, and students of medical
sciences should be enlighten in ESP courses. Like the other studies, the ESP teachers face
certain issues when it comes to teaching from several reasons such as lack of knowledge of
language teaching, large classroom size, heterogeneous classes, etc. This has a direct impact
on classroom management, teaching efficiency, student responsiveness, shyness, and how
classroom activities are conducted.
A challenge both for students and academics in teaching business English that
conducted by Diana Zagan- Zeltera * and Sergiu Zagan-Zeltera (2010). This study shows that
Business English is considered to be used in the context of English for Specific Purposes
(ESP), since it shares significant aspects, such as needs analysis, syllabus design, course
design, and materials selection and development that are common to all ESP sectors of
activity. it attempted to present a few characteristics of teacher in teaching experiences
related to Business English and discuss the major issues that are confronted with while
designing the syllabus and the practice course for students in economics. This study supports
the practice of continuous evaluation and the importance of focusing the language use rather
than expert vocabulary.
Another study that are conducted by Ho (2011), indicate that course designers and
teachers encountered issues related with the design of the course, the task, assignments and
the teaching methods. The researcher discussed ESP instruction at a Hong Kong university,
emphasizing the development of students' English communication skills, which are required
in the workplace and/or in academic settings. Over the course of 13 weeks, the students were
supposed to learn to write and engage in spoken activities relating to a variety of papers. It
indicate that they should learn how to conduct a meeting, create agenda, minutes, a
memorandum report, a letter, and a technical proposal, as well as give an oral presentation.
The issues developed as a result of the necessity to attain so many learning goals in such a
short period of time.
 Maleki (2008) argue for ESP teacher that should have the following abilities, which
contribute to their professionalism and success in the classroom. ESP teacher should have
“English language knowledge, thorough command of course design, and expert knowledge of
the related field of science” (Maleki, 2008, p. 9). ESP teachers’ professionalism, as uttered by
Maleki (2008), is gained just by understanding English, but also by being able to create a
course and grasp content knowledge.
Furthermore, Bracaj (2014) pinpoints some ways that contribute to ESP teachers’
professionalism. Firstly, only specialized teachers (those who have a thorough understanding
of the topic) who are prepared to teach ESP may do so. Secondly, Second, ESP teachers
should be well-educated or ready to seek further language teaching courses. Thirdly, students
should get general professional training as teachers and educators in order to gain knowledge
of pedagogical ideas and other aspects of teaching and education. Fourthly, EFL or ESL
teachers must have specialized training in order to comprehend learners' needs and what to
offer to meet those learning needs.
Similarly, Tabatabaei (2007) asserts that there are numerous strategies to make ESP
teachers professional competent. The ESP teacher should make themselves specialized in a
particular discipline, participate in training to improve their knowledge and teaching abilities,
and do ESP research. Professional competence is considered as the result of teachers’
motivation in teaching which is viewed as the influenced of their passion to teach (Suslu,
2006). Recognizing the passion of ESP teacher can become an indicator that teachers
concerned about their professional development; therefore, they will find out how to
maximize their strengths while minimizing their deficiencies.
Learners and their needs in higher education are also had an issue in the teaching of
ESP. These issue are found in the study written by Suzani et.al (2011). The data showed that
the learners complained about several things. First, the ESP course is provided in the lower
semester, which is an inconvenient period to perform. Second, the class was too crowded,
which is the learners are unable to focus on their studies. Third, it concerned with
inappropriate class hours. Fourth, summer course could decrease learners’ motivation. Fifth,
the learners discovered incompatibility between their prior knowledge and ESP course they
have. Sixth, most in ESP classes, the students were required to memorize terminology only.
Seventh, according to the students, sometimes the teachers were unable to deal with
unwelcome challenges associated with teaching ESP in their educational setting.
The other problem in ESP is related to students’ reading skill that was conducted by
Rezaei, Rahimi, & Talepasan (2012) showed that the majority of students have issues in
comprehending the ideas of syntactic units while reading text. For the reason is that there are
too few scientific and technology English articles in universities, thus students are unfamiliar
with ESP materials. They don't grasp what a subordinate clause is or how to utilize passive
forms. It was also noted that they had no difficulty comprehending the message, leading the
researcher to believe that the learners' difficulties are in the form of language. The findings
showed that learners had difficulties with syntactic units. The issue will arises as a result of
the structural differences between English and Persian language.
Concerning with writing skill by Lâm (2011) revealed that most learners are facing an
issue with vocabulary, organizing thoughts, grammar, and spelling. Learners are frequently
impatient when it comes to outlining, organize ideas logically and connect them together in
their writings. As a result, learners make ESP texts hazy and unsteady, and they frequently
copy other texts in their writings.
In the Indonesian context, Kusumaningputri(2010) say that ‘ students learn to use
English directly in the context of their fields of discipline, for both academic and non-
academic interests’. Academic interests refer to being ability to read, listen, write, and speak
about things that are related to content or materials of their fields of discipline and non-
academic interest outside their fields of discipline, such as speaking, reading, listening, and
reading about their daily lives such as talking to lecturers and friends, writing light reviews,
listening to news in English, etc.
 Conclusion
This paper aimed to analyze the researches study in the use, issues and challenges in
teaching field. generally, the findings are in teaching ESP, it used materials, designed a
syllabus, conducts research and evaluates the course and the students which may lead to
several challenges and issue in the teaching of ESP. Related to the discussion above, there are
factors of the students' difficulties that influence the students' English proficiency, such as big
size of ESP course, poor vocabulary knowledge, insufficient language skills, and the students'
lack of interest, and ineffective ESP materials.
Recommendation

The researcher of this study would like to recommend the following:

The finding implies the use, issues and challenges of ESP in teaching field. Thus, the

researcher recommends to investigate more information about ESP concerns and perform a

research that discloses ESP to learn more about how to effectively utilize ESP.

The researchers recommend repeating the study with a bigger sample size to acquire more

significant findings to strengthen the reliability of the results.

The researchers recommend that the school, instructor, and administrator assess the issues

and challenges faced by ESP teacher and learners’ needs.

Because of the issues of classroom condition, which is huge class size, decrease students’

motivation to learn ESP, the challenges of ESP teacher in teaching field.