Transcript Application of Technology in ESP Courses * A

Masoumeh Kafshgarsouteh1, Dara Tafazoli2,
Tahereh Jalili3, Ghazaleh Jafari4
1,3,4Islamic
Azad University –Science & Research Branch (IRAN)
2University of Applied Science & Technology (IRAN)
[email protected], [email protected], [email protected],
[email protected]
English for Specific Purposes (ESP)

 English for specific purposes growth from early 1960
(Anthony, 1997). This approach became one of the
crucial one in realm of EFL teaching. As this
approach developed the number of university such
as the University of Birmingham and Aston
University which focused on this approach become
increased.

 ESP is an approach which demonstrates people who want
to learn English for their specific needs. "ESP is an
approach to language teaching in which all decisions as to
content and method are based on the learner's reason for
learning"(Hutchinson & Waters, 1987 p.19). Dudley-Evans
& St. John (1998) stated that "ESP is designed to meet the
specific needs of the learner".It must be consider that ESP
should be focus on the need analysis for illustrating what
students should have to do during the medium of English
(Robinson, 1991). Dudley-Evans & St. John (1998)
mentioned "ESP is centered on the language appropriate
to these activities in terms of grammar, lexis, register,
study skills, discourse and genre".

 According to (Knight et al, 2010) ESP learners separate to the
two category. The first category relates to students who want to
learn English for developing expertise and they use English
language as training tool for communication .The second one
are students who are experts and want to use English as tools in
their work. van Vlack (2009) pointed out that "the ESP approach
can be conducted with any age or any level of student although
it is more often associated with older higher level students"(p.
1).
 Mouzakitis (2003) stated that we are not just consider ESP as
specialized course of science or technology it must be view as
an approach for identifying the specific demands of learner
through teaching or learning a specific content. So the goal of
ESP can be draws attention to learner centered for reaching to
the specific needs of learner.
Technology in Classrooms

 Integrating technology into classroom instruction
had so many advantages for classrooms as well as
students.
 Student with access to technology learn how to
organize complex information, recognize patterns,
draw inferences, and communicate findings (Baron
& Goldman, 1994). “Studies of students with
disabilities show that technology can expand access
to educational resources and enhance students’
ability to process and remember information”
(Zorfass, Corley & Remz, 1994).

 David Dwyer (1994) in his article stated that “the use
of technology in the classroom improves students’
motivation and attitudes about themselves and
about learning.
 Technology-rich schools report higher attendance
and lower dropout rates than in the past.” In
psychological point of view, we can say that,
students who use technology, they benefit more
from pride, confidence and self-esteem in their
works.

 In classrooms integrated with technology, the role of
a teacher changed from merely an authority or
lecturer to a facilitator or coach (Tafazoli, 2011).
Tinzman (1998) believed that “technology use tends
to foster collaboration among students in the
classroom”. Education without technology, in one
hand, is: (1) passive, (2) formal, (3) instructor center,
and (4) time dependent, and on the other hand,
education with technology is: (1) active, (2) informal,
(3) student center, and (4) time independent.

 Kargozari & Tafazoli (2011) in a study showed that
by using some tools such as vodcasts, students have
access to the material of instruction whenever and
wherever they liked.
 Students in classes that use computer aided
instruction outperformed their peers on
standardized test of basic skills achievement by 30
percent on average (Kulik, Kulik and BangertDowns, 1991; Kulik and Kulik, 1991).
Methodology

 Aim: To study the attitudes of English for Specific
Purposes (ESP) students towards using technology
in their courses
 Participants: 43 ESP students
 Major: Tourism
 University: University of Applied Science &
Technology – Miras Farhangi, Mashhad, Iran

 Instruments for technology-based instruction:




Podcasts
Web-based tasks
Weblogs
Email
Data Analysis

 Data analysis was conducted in accordance with the
research questions, all of which were concerned with
the ESP students’ attitudes towards using technology
in their courses. In this study, a survey questionnaire
 was employed to collect data. The questionnaire that
was used to collect data for this research study was
developed by researchres.

 The first part of a questionnaire included 15 items
used to measure the present foreign language
learning and teaching situation in the university.
 The second part had 10 items, which questioned the
expectations of technology use in ESP courses. Here
the questionnaire was designed as a 5-point Likert
scale, where 1=strongly disagree to the concept,
2=disagree to the concept, 3=undecided to the
concept, 4=agree to the concept, and 5=strongly
favourable to the concept.
Results

 Trying to assess the attitude of ESP students towards
using technology in their courses, we notice that
89,5% of the participants actually would agree to use
technology-based instruction in their classroom. It is
more interesting to mention that out of this
percentage, the 81,4% (p<0.05) are currently not
using technology-based tools at all in their
educational settings, emphasizing the willingness of
students to integrate technology-based instructions
in their classrooms.
Discussion & Conclusion

 The quantitative results for this question definitively
indicate that the majority of the ESP students have a
positive attitude towards the use of technology in their
courses. The results are therefore in compliance with the
findings of a prior study by Demetriades et al. (2003),
which also provided significant
 results. The main objective of this study was to investigate
ESP students’ attitude towards the use of technology in
their courses. The students overall, had a very good
 perception of technology-based instruction, as well as
willingness to implement it into their lessons.

 To sum up, this study was concluded that although
the willingness to use technology in universities is
adequate, the technology use is limited. The ESP
students’ attitude to technology is positive.
However, a further study focusing on the application
of such tools with a student sample is required. The
study recommends that future researchers need to
consider the application of a VL (Virtual Learning)
 in ESP in a higher education setting.

Any Comments or Questions!
- Masoumeh, Dara, Tahereh & Ghazaleh