An Investigation Into Suitability Of English For Academic Purpose Course Book In Addressing Learners’ Needs: The Case Of Communicative English Skills At Adama Science And Technology University
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Date
2020-07
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AAU
Abstract
The main objective of this study was to examine Suitability of English for Academic Purpose
course in addressing learners’ needs with special reference to provision of Communicative
English Skills at Adama Science and Technology University. To achieve the intended objective,
descriptive case study was employed in order to portrait the existing situation, and then forward
alternative means of curbing the problem. In doing so, data were collected from 145 student
respondents who were selected randomly out of 1,206 pre-engineering students. Moreover, 17
communicative English Skills teachers were included in the study by making use of availability
sampling technique since the number English language teachers who were around during
researcher’s stay in the study sites was only the said figure. Out of 17 teacher respondents,
two of them were observed four times each to check whether they were servant of the course
book or creative enough to contextualize inputs and tasks included the course book under
scrutiny. Moreover, English language department head and teachers whose classrooms were
observed were interviewed to triangulate the findings of the study. On the top of these,
document analysis was carried out to examine relevance of objectives, inputs, tasks and
activities included in the course book ‘Oxford English for Career: Techonlogy1’ in equipping
Pre-engineering students with academic literacies and study skills they need to learn at
university level. Finally, based on quantitative and qualitative data analysis, the following
findings were identified: though there is harmonized syllabus meant to teach Communicative
English skills in rhetoric, university under investigation did neither use the recommended
syllabus nor designed its teaching materials that address learners’ dynamic needs. However,
ASTU has been using a commercial teaching material, ‘Oxford English for Career:
Technology1’, which lacks cultural and situational relevance if one looks into puts provided in
all most all the units of the book. In addition to this, teacher respondents from university under
investigation seem to consider that teaching productive skills is so essential over teaching the
receptive skills as opposed to student respondents’ reaction in which they have showed their dire
needs of learning the four major language skills in a balanced manner. Based on the findings
of the study, it is recommended that English language department heads should plan for
periodic appraisal of communicative English skills provision sine this could open up windows of
opportunities for syllabus and textbook renewal/ modification. In nutshell, it is appropriate to
design EAP syllabus, and then develop/adapt a course book that can tap on learners’ diverse
target and learning needs
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Keywords
English for Academic Purpose, Syllabus Design, Course Material Development, Needs Assessment, course book evaluation