Eap Syllabus Design, Material Development and its Implementation: the Case of Communicative English Skills (Enla1011) in Selected Public Universities
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Date
2019-12
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Addis Ababa University
Abstract
The main objective of this study was to examine Communicative English Skills syllabus design,material development and its implementation. In doing so, two universities were selectedpurposively since universities in the country were expected to offer harmonized common courses as of 2013.Moreover, as massive number, which accounts for 40% of students who have beenjoining public universities in Ethiopia for the last decade were enrolled tofaculties/colleges/institutes/schools of engineering and technologies, it is an imperative to lookinto whether this EAP course is compatible with the university academic dynamics inengineering and technology as it is impractical to study trends in all fields of studies at once.The study attempted to answer the following major research questions. First and foremost, whata Communicative English Skills course design and material development looks like in universities under study was focused on. Next to this, the extent to the communicative Englishskills course syllabus and course materials in use were fit forpurpose were given due attention.Thirdly, the degree to which pre-engineering students are good at English language skills asperceived by the learners themselves and their respective EAP teachers was also focused on ashow one perceives about oneself or others affects classroom practices where there is a diverseneeds, wants and lacks. Moreover, whether what EAP teachers‟ give priority to in the learningteachingprocess really address students‟ needs or not was scrutinized. Furthermore, how muchdo English language teachers in the area under are acquainted with skills and knowledgerequired to become EAP practitioner is examined. Finally, whether appropriate assignment forlearning is in place or not was looked into as it either makes or breaks the implementation of anycourse in one or the other way. To address these research objectives, four instruments of datacollections which include: questionnaire, interview, classroom observation and documentanalysis were employed in the study. With regards to the participants of the study, 236 students(145 from ASTU University (ASTU) and 91 from Mettu University) were selected randomly outof 1,206 pre-engineering students from ASTU and out of 302 students in the same stream fromMettu University respectively in order they fill in the questionnaire. On the other hand, 31teachers (17 from ASTU and 14 from Mettu University) were also included in the study bymaking use of availability sampling technique since the number English language teacherswho were on job during researcher‟s stay in the study sites was less than 20 in both cases.Out of 31 teacher respondents, four of them, two from each university, were observed fourtimes each to examine their actual classroom practices. Moreover, English languagedepartment heads, teachers whose classroom were observed, Communicative English Skillscourse book writer and curriculum officer at MoE were interviewed. Based on quantitative andqualitative analysis, the following findings were identified: thoughthere is harmonized syllabusmeant for Communicative English skills to be used in rhetoric, both universities underinvestigation were neither using the recommended syllabus nor designed their own syllabus andteaching materials that foster critical-pragmatic EAP. In this case, it was a commercialteaching material called „Oxford for Career: Technology1‟ which was in use at ASTU. Thiscourse book a result of is a „narrow-angle‟ EAP if one looks into the contents and tasks in each v | P a g eunit. The other main problem this material has is that it does not have cultural and situationrelevance. Opposed to trend in ASTU, EAP teachers at Mettu University were supposed toteach whatever they liked since they did not use similar inputs except the grammar points takenfrom College English volumeI. Teacher respondents from both universities consider asteaching productive skills is very important overteachingthereceptiveskills.Therefore,academicliteracyand study skills related to listening and reading skills students need to developin the university academic sphere were not given due attention. With respect to EAP teachersorientation and skills, the study depicted that majority of them were offering the course underscrutiny without taking any pre-service or in-serve trainings. Moreover, though plethora ofempirical studies in the area of EAP teaching show as class size is among factors that hampeimplementation of active learning techniques and continuous assessment, this problem is soevident in case of Mettu University whereby majority of pre-engineering class is above 50.Consequently, teachers in this university inclined to assessment of learning over assessment forlearning. Finally, based on the findings of the study it is recommended that Englishlanguage department heads should plan for periodic evaluation of effectiveness EAP courses toinitiate syllabus and textbook renewal or modification. Furthermore, EAP teachers should begiven trainings on the recent EAP pedagogy in pre-service and in-service modalities. On thetop of these, as we are in the technological advanced era, instead of waiting for advancedEnglish language laboratory, it seems sound to establish computer lab where listening skillsinputs could be shared and made accessible to students as need be. In nutshell, it is appropriateto design EAP syllabus and course book that incorporate both feature of ESAP and EGAP to tapon the diverse target and learning needs of the students.Keywords: English for Academic Purpose, Syllabus Design, Course Material Development,Needs Assessment, Pedagogical orientations and skills
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English for Academic Purpose, Syllabus Design, , ,