The Institutional Turn and the Crisis of ESP Pedagogy in Taiwan

Ying-Huei Chen

《Taiwan International ESP Journal》 3卷1期 (2011/06) Pp. 17-30

https://doi.org/10.6706/TIESPJ.2011.3.1.2

並列摘要

As English becomes a lingua franca, higher education institutions in Asia are fast realizing that the traditional English language curriculum, which focuses on teaching English for General Purposes, tends to teach with no purpose (Belcher, 2009). In order to sustain competitive excellence in a globalized world, a curriculum paradigm shift towards teaching ESP is exerting a powerful influence on English language programs at the university level (Hutchinson & Waters, 1987). As a result, ESP has become a trend and a reality, particularly in the Asian educational context. This development has led to the emergence of ESP approaches which have reshaped and remodeled the English language curriculum to meet learners' specialized and professional communication needs.However, the introduction of ESP pedagogy has attracted much criticism from various quarters. What does re-allocating institutional and human resources to implement ESP curricula involve? What is, exactly, the ESP curriculum, and which Taiwan universities stand as models of its success? And what difficulties and challenges does this kind of language instruction encounter?This paper attempts to answer these questions. It in particular aims to establish a locally-oriented theory that might help cope with the problems we are encountering now, as ESP is both theory and practice driven. As for the ”crisis” in the title, I use the term simply to emphasize the increasing difficulty, and not to describe a tuning point when the old norm could no longer be seen as relevant to current practice and a new paradigm lies ahead waiting to emerge, because the development of ESP in Taiwan is still in its infancy.

並列關鍵字

ESF pedagogy ； institutional turn ； ESF practitioners

參考文獻

Tsou, W.(2009).Needs-based curriculum development: A case study of NCKU's ESP program.Taiwan International ESP Journal.1(1),77-95.

Hyland, K.(2009).Writing in the disciplines: Research evidence for specificity.Taiwan International ESP Journal.1(1),5-22.

Belcher, D.(2004).Trends in teaching English for specific purpose.Annual Review of Applied Linguistics.24,165-186.

Benesch, S.(2001).Critical English for Academic Purposes: Theory, Politics and Practice.Mahwah, NJ:Lawrence Erlbaum.

Byram, M.(2000).Routledge encyclopedia of language teaching and learning.New York:Routledge.