Practicing ESP Reading Skills in the Academic Environment: A Case Study at Ovidius University of Constanta - Students’ Perspective

Abstract

English for Civil and Mechanical Engineering is a rather understudied and less explored facet of English for Specific/Academic Purposes, yet one that is still in emergence. When it comes to English for Specific Purposes, one of the most crucial skills is the ability to read professionally-oriented materials. This paper attempts to provide an overview of why reading, among all the skills, is so important when teaching ESP. Forasmuch as reading is unanimously considered a cognitive process focusing on language acquisition, communication, and exchanging information and ideas, ESP teachers now have a distinctive viewpoint on the importance of reading in the language classroom and the types of texts that can be used in instruction. Since language education and ESP, in particular, adopt a communicative approach, we think that our recommendations could be useful, flexible enough to fit into, or even modified for different purposes. A case study focusing on the observation and evaluation of student's academic performance was part of the research method. Students were questioned concerning their educational backgrounds, reading comprehension skills, and reading motivation. To create a well-designed curriculum, we started by assessing our students’ needs, wants, and lacks through a questionnaire and by attempting to manage the intricacy of civil and mechanical engineering sciences to gather data that might aid in the creation of a powerful, meaningful ESP course.

Keywords

• reading skills
• needs analysis
• english for specific purposes
• theme and tasked-based learning
• computer-networked instruction
• present situation analysis
• target situation analysis