ON THE QUALITY AND RELEVANCE OF ENGLISH FOR SPECIFIC PURPOSES IN HIGHER EDUCATION

Abstract

This paper is a follow up to a previous study focusing on some relevant issues faced by university teachers of English for Specific Purposes (ESP) at the University of Tetovo (UT), Northern Macedonia and the USAMVB "King Michael I of Romania" from Timisoara, Romania. It highlights the considerable role ESP and language communication play in the students' professional training, in view of the changing global landscape. The rising focus on communication, peer feedback and other major themes will be analysed based on the preliminary qualitative results we reported earlier (Kamberi et al., 2019). By applying a qualitative exploratory approach, we investigate and further discuss the themes previously identified regarding teachers' biases and beliefs, as well as challenges they face in providing high quality ESP courses correlated with the various fields students are majoring in at the tertiary level. It is suggested that teachers and university management take more responsibility regarding the organization and delivery of ESP courses in higher education in order to better equip professionals for the global market by looking at English as a genuine "lingua franca" across professional fields and as indispensible in virtually all areas of study.

Keywords

• english for specific purposes
• english language teaching
• tertiary education
• quality
• exploratory research