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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Publisher

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

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