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This study focuses on developing specific vocabulary learning strategies to assist the receptive knowledge of English for Specific Purposes (ESP). It aims to provide a practical framework for teaching technical vocabulary. The study introduced the Multimedia Strategic Vocabulary Learning (MSVL) model and investigated its effects on teaching technical vocabulary to pre-engineering students in online courses during the early wave of COVID-19. A total of 88 Saudi undergraduate students randomly assigned to control and experimental groups were treated with an intact pre-engineering ESP course for ten weeks. Vocabulary learning strategies from Schmitt's (1997) vocabulary taxonomy were adopted and incorporated into two stages of the vocabulary acquisition process. The experimental group was treated with the MSVL model through multimedia and explicit vocabulary learning instructions in online classes using Blackboard Learning Management System (LMS) to assist them with specialized vocabulary acquisition. The dependent measure in this study was the participants' receptive knowledge of technical vocabulary, which was assessed using the pre-test, post-test, and delayed post-test. The findings indicated that using the MSVL model significantly improved the experimental group's receptive knowledge of technical vocabulary. This study's guidelines help educators create multimedia resources for ESP learners, preparing them for their professions. © 2023 Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group.
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PurposeBased on an experimental study on English for Specific Purposes (ESP) students, at the Business Department at the University of Bisha, the purpose of the study is to examine the effect of chatbot use on learning ESP in online classrooms during COVID-19 and find out how Dialogflow chabot can be a useful and interactive online platform to help ESP learners in learning vocabulary well.Design/methodology/approachThe research paper is based on an experimental study of two groups, an experiential group and a controlled group. Two tests were carried out. Pre-tests and post-test of vocabulary knowledge were conducted for both groups to explore the usefulness of using the Dialogflow chatbot in learning ESP vocabulary. A designed chatbot content was prepared and included all the vocabulary details related to words' synonyms and a brief explanation of words' meanings. An informal interview is another tool used in the study. The purpose of using the interview with the participants was to elicit more data from the participants about using the chatbot and about how and in what aspects chatbot using the conversational program was useful and productive.FindingsThe findings of the study explored that the use of chatbots plays a major role in enhancing and learning ESP vocabulary. That was clear as the results showed that the students who used the chatbot Dialogflow in the experimental group outperformed their counterparts in the control group.Research limitations/implicationsThe study displays an important pedagogical implication as the use of chatbots could be applied in several settings to improve language learning in general or learning ESP courses in particular. Chatbot creates an interesting environment to foster build good interactions where negotiation of meaning takes place clearly seems to be of great benefit to help learners advance in their L2 lexical development.Originality/valueExamining and exploring whether the use of chatbots plays a major role in enhancing and learning ESP vocabulary in English as Foreign Language setting.
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The Covid-19 pandemic posed novel challenges to language teachers and learners, as ‘emergency remote teaching' became a necessity in order for teachers and learners to isolate from one another. Much has already been written about the nature of those challenges and language teachers' response to them, which response frequently made use of video-conferencing technology like Zoom in order to facilitate remote interaction, teaching and learning. The existing work has focused heavily on teacher experiences, including the kinds of strategies and competencies that teachers made use of when ‘doing' synchronous online learning. However, much less work has examined the student experience. In addition, one challenge consistently identified in the literature is that of fostering meaningful interaction and engagement. In this viewpoint article, we apply the concept of ‘virtual distance' to the activity of project-based learning taking place at a university in Hong Kong and mediated by digital technologies as part of emergency remote teaching. We report on the emergence of a socio-technical divide in one particular student team and teacher strategies that tend to bridge the divide. We offer suggestions on how the lessons learned from this experience can inform project-based learning in the post-pandemic future. © The Author(s) 2023.
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Due to the covid-19 pandemic, great changes appeared in education in general and digital technologies played a substantial role in the process. The main objective of this research is to consider students' feedback and opinions on teaching and learning English for Specific Purposes (ESP) in (a) the present form before schools were closed due to the pandemic, (b) the online distance form of instruction during the pandemic, and (c) the present form of instruction after the pandemic. Research questions focused on three areas: (1) what form(s) of instruction students preferred, (2) whether/how digital technologies contributed to the process of instruction, and (3) in which form of instruction they learned more. The ex-post-facto approach and mixed methodology were applied. Data were collected by questionnaire. It was available online for students of the upper secondary school for medical staff (N = 153) and advanced school for higher medical staff (N = 183). We expect that (1) the present form of instruction after the covid-19 pandemic will be appreciated;however, there will also be some supporters of online distance instruction;(2) it will be the present form that will allow students to learn more compared to online distance instruction;(3) both teachers and students will improve their digital skills during the pandemic so that technologies can be exploited to a wider extent in the present form of instruction after the pandemic. © 2023, The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG.
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Stepping up to Global Challenges (SGC) aimed to provide students with opportunities for language practice through task-based learning activities and the use of digital platforms for interaction. Marketing students at the Polytechnic of Viseu, Portugal, collaborated with peers from Poland and Turkey, choosing an image on entrepreneurship and posting it on the SGC Facebook page to solicit comments from their own and other groups. This was one of the tasks assigned during the 2nd semester of 2019/20, under the constraints of COVID-19. We analyzed the students' choices, main difficulties, and motivation to persist in learning and improving their skills to share knowledge with (inter)national peers. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2023 APA, all rights reserved)
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The paper studies the student experiences related to online teaching of English for Specific Purposes (ESP) in order to determine which computer-mediated learning practices were perceived as purposeful and should be incorporated in traditional in-person teaching. The sample comprised of 60 students from two faculties of the University of Belgrade, Serbia. Descriptive statistics were obtained. The gathered data were subjected to qualitative and quantitative data analysis. The results indicate that the positive experiences are related primarily to synchronous conferencing in the form of real-time written communication as an integral part of the classes offered via videoconferencing. The use of video content and availability of various learning materials uploaded to the learning platforms proved to be helpful. Loss of concentration, technical difficulties and a lack of in-person communication were perceived as obstacles to effective learning. The most salient conclusion of the study refers to the necessity of incorporating real-time comment writing in the traditional classroom. The results also urge the need for addressing the issues of large classes and inadequate auditoriums in the traditional mode of teaching. The conclusions provide the guidelines for the improvement of in-person teaching of ESP based on specific computer-mediated learning practices that were found facilitative of the development of the students' language competencies. © 2022 by the authors.
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The present study aims at analysing the extent to which motivation and autonomy shape the process of learning English for medical purposes (EMP). This research paper was designed to investigate the connection between students' motivation and their autonomy level in the context of online training during the COVID-19 pandemic, compared to the traditional classes. A quantitative approach was developed to explore students' motivation to learn EMP by means of technology-enhanced training. The article presents the data obtained and represents a point of departure for exploring more effective methods of using technology to both motivate medical students and enhance their autonomy in learning EMP. Furthermore, it generates a basis for designing EMP courses in an effort to encourage self-regulated learning. © 2022, Studia Universitatis Babes-Bolyai and Cluj University Press. All rights reserved.
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Though foreign language anxiety (FLA) has long been recognized as an important affective factor in second language learning, its impact is worth studying in new educational contexts of emergency remote teaching in response to the COVID-19 outbreak. The present study examines the key factors behind FLA in online teaching of English for Specific Purposes (ESP). The research was conducted among a sample of 171 first-year undergraduate university students of Economics & Business economics and Informatics at the Juraj Dobrila University of Pula, Croatia, during the winter semester of 2020/2021. The research instrument used was a 33-item questionnaire adapted from the FLCAS scale (Horwitz et al., 1986) to reflect the online ESP classroom environment. The main results indicate that various background factors, such as gender, self-assessed levels of proficiency, length of learning English and frequency of English language use, significantly influence the reported levels of language anxiety. Furthermore, the study establishes the underlying structure of FLA, with five factors positively correlated with overall language anxiety at the. 01 level of statistical significance: speech anxiety, evaluation and comprehension anxiety, online ESP classroom environment, anxiety of talking to native speakers, and lack of motivation for online class attendance. Finally, multiple regression analysis shows that the five aspects of FLA, alongside the variables of gender and self-assessed pronunciation proficiency, represent statistically significant predictors of the total level of FLA among online ESP learners. The other independent variables are confirmed to be unreliable in predicting the overall level of language anxiety in an online ESP classroom. © 2022 Maja Novak Ladarević, published by Sciendo.
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Given the new social scenario due to the Covid-19 pandemic, in which teaching practices are carried out under the condition of constant adaptation, this article aims to analyze the activities developed in a Basic English Reading Strategies Course offered as an optional subject to undergraduate students in a multicampus university. We present the students' final averages to discuss their level of reading comprehension and performance in the course and propose a reflection on online teaching to undergraduate students during the pandemic period, in which Emergency Remote Education (ERE) was adopted as an alternative measure to contain damage in education. Based on the study done through bibliographic review and a survey answered by two hundred students, we came to the conclusion there is still some need for interaction maintenance between students and teachers during the isolation period, as well as the synchronous class model for the success of the subject.
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This research article describes the importance of the English language as a foreign language within a inquiry, gamification, autonomous learning and digital reading process. The main objective was about developing a digital proposal that would promote the use of technical English applied to the reading plan in some courses of the civil engineering program through a virtual environment, it was based on interactive and digital magazines. They worked about the civil engineering discipline and they were focused on the ESP methodology. It was framed within the reading plan established through the syllabus of the four disciplinary courses. The mandatory quarantine situation generated by Covid-19 made part of the methodological process and fieldwork research. Just because it was 100% virtual. The research was carried out using a correlational quantitative methodological. The intervened sample was 161 students. Talking about the results obtained, it is highlighted that the reading plan proposed from the digital magazines enhanced the level of English to the civil engineering students, it was according to statistical facts used to measure different aspects from the type of research selected. The situation of virtualized education was used to strengthen disciplinary themes about civil engineering program and foreign language skills. © 2021 Latin American and Caribbean Consortium of Engineering Institutions. All rights reserved.
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Evaluating the learning outcomes of a certain course implementation can improve the quality of education. This study is focused on Indonesian EFL undergraduates’ perceptions of the relationships between teacher performance, technological resources, online project-based learning (OPJBL), and ESP learning outcomes. Participants of the study have attended English for specific purposes (ESP) online courses during school closures due to Covid-19. A survey was addressed to 350 undergraduates after a one-semester implementation of the OPJBL. The students were requested to rate their perceptions on validated items using a 7-point Likert-type scale for the data collection. The data were modelled and computed through partial least square structural equation modelling (PLS-SEM). The main findings of the study revealed that teacher performance and technological resources were significant in predicting OPJBL. Similarly, OPJBL was found to play a significant role in affecting ESP learning outcomes. Teacher performance and technological resources were also correlated to ESP learning outcomes. Significant differences were found among students’ locations for all variables. The findings highlight the benefits of the SEM approach for establishing the proposed framework and assessing the links between variables concerning the OPJBL and learning outcomes. © 2022, Syiah Kuala University. All rights reserved.
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This research article describes the importance of the English language as a foreign language within a inquiry, gamification, autonomous learning and digital reading process. The main objective was about developing a digital proposal that would promote the use of technical English applied to the reading plan in some courses of the civil engineering program through a virtual environment, it was based on interactive and digital magazines. They worked about the civil engineering discipline and they were focused on the ESP methodology. It was framed within the reading plan established through the syllabus of the four disciplinary courses. The mandatory quarantine situation generated by Covid-19 made part of the methodological process and fieldwork research. Just because it was 100% virtual. The research was carried out using a correlational quantitative methodological. The intervened sample was 161 students. Talking about the results obtained, it is highlighted that the reading plan proposed from the digital magazines enhanced the level of English to the civil engineering students, it was according to statistical facts used to measure different aspects from the type of research selected. The situation of virtualized education was used to strengthen disciplinary themes about civil engineering program and foreign language skills. © 2021 Latin American and Caribbean Consortium of Engineering Institutions. All rights reserved.
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The paper presents the results of an online questionnaire survey carried out in the period of online teaching during the COVID-19 pandemic. Respondents (N = 221), university students of Economics (Bc. degree), often communicate in different languages on social networks. Our focus was on detecting achieved skills of students developing their plurilingual and pluricultural competences, the aim to identify elements of intercultural communication during language interaction, and the level of plurilingual and pluricultural competence among students of at least two foreign languages (ESP and another language for specific purposes). Online communication helped enhance vocabulary (idioms, phrases), fluency of speech in a foreign language and gain knowledge of respondents' foreign language communication partners' cultures and countries.
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English for Specific Purposes, differently from other academic subjects, has always been compatible with the affordances of technology. The specialised literature has acknowledged well-established branches of language education, such as Computer-Assisted Language Learning (CALL), or Mobile-Assisted Language Learning (MALL), long before the online teaching has been forced upon the systems of education throughout the world following the pandemic. The compatibility between foreign language teaching and computers is not surprising since the former has always searched for authentic immersive experiences that can simulate real-life situations, of which the latter has plenty. The present article concentrates on a particular type of English for Specific Purposes—Business English, which is currently taught at the University of Bucharest to students enrolled in Economics degrees. Beginning with the second semester of the academic year 2019-2020, all classes have been moved online due to the threat posed by the Corona virus. The seminar rooms and lecture rooms have been basically overnight replaced by a multitude of platforms and meeting spaces unknown before to a great many: Zoom, Google Classroom, Moodle, Microsoft teams, to mention just a few. Google Classroom, part of Google Apps for Education, has been one of the most frequently chosen platforms due to its friendly interface and the possibility of holding both a-synchronous and synchronous classes (following the integration of Google Meet). The article discusses the way Google Classroom has been used by language instructors for both the teaching and the final assessment of students’ progress. © 2022, Pro Global Science Association. All rights reserved.
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Many factors influence the development of the educational system, and today it is a global COVID-19 pandemic. Stakeholders in the educational process need to adjust to a new distant reality without compromising the quality. The formative assessment proved to be a suitable approach to overcome existing challenges, and one of the most popular tools to facilitate it is Socrative. The study aims to 1) investigate student attitudes and the correlation between academic achievements in ESP and majors and 2) present our experience in utilizing Socrative for formative assessment in a distant mode in the settings of the National Technical University of Ukraine "Igor Sikorsky Kyiv Polytechnic Institute." To achieve the goals of our study, we have developed and validated a questionnaire, collected quantitative data, analyzed and interpreted the qualitative data;the study sample included 137 students. The obtained results have shown the general positive student attitude towards the usage of Socrative within the course of ESP due to its efficacy, personalization, and responsiveness. The results can be a perspective for further investigation despite some limitations.
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Although different aspects of grammatical competence and information technologies have been researched quite thoroughly, the issue of integrated application of information technologies to form foreign grammatical competence for future lawyers during their independent work remains lacking. To fill in the gaps regarding literature, this research paper was designed to present the experience of the teachers of the Foreign Languages Department gained during the COVID-19 pandemic period. The current study aims at demonstrating the effectiveness of the virtual learning environment Moodle in the formation of English language grammatical competence of students during their independent work. The study had a quasi-experimental research design with a pre-test and delayed post-test. It was carried out at the Faculty of Law of Yuriy Fedkovych Chernivtsi National University, Ukraine. The participants were fifty 3rd-year students of specialty "International Law," who took part in the survey voluntarily during the fall semester of 2020-2021. The core question of the research is whether this learning tool is effective in forming students' foreign language grammatical competence. Based on the results of the study, the researchers demonstrate the benefits of studying through the electronic system Moodle. Students increased their ability to understand grammatical constructions in professionally oriented texts. To conclude, the findings obtained in this study can be implemented both in online and blended learning for university students during their independent work while working over English for Specific Purposes.
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Learners studying English for Specific Purposes (ESP) at University regard writing academic papers as a complex process since they have to consider issues about academic writing conventions as well as ethics. This current research examines university students' perceptions of ESP academic writing within the context of the online learning which emerged due to Covid-19 and, therefore, through the Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) and, particularly, utilizing the Flipped Learning approach as an active learning strategy to enhance ESP academic written competence. To be more specific, we examined how students, in tertiary education, perceived ESP academic writing skills within the field of Business English. The participants are 28 students doing the Degree in Administration and Business Management in a Spanish polytechnic. A mixed method research has been conducted for this current paper since both quantitative as well as qualitative methods were utilized for data collection. Regarding this study, both a questionnaire and a focus group interview were utilized to analyse the data. The outcomes proved that students' perceptions towards academic ESP written competence, using Business English, within the Flipped Learning approach was positive. The major results showed students' awareness of their needs and ESP written requirements. This research concludes with some future research suggestions.