EXPLORING THE CHALLENGES AND PERSPECTIVES IN TEACHING ENGLISH FOR SPECIFIC PURPOSES (ESP) TO MEDICAL STUDENTS AT THE FACULTY OF HEALTH SCIENCES, UNIVERSITY OF ABOMEY-CALAVI, BENIN

Hugues Agounse, Pédro Marius Egounleti

Abstract


This research explores the challenges of teaching English for Specific Purposes (ESP) to medical students enrolled at the Faculty of Health Sciences of the University of Abomey-Calavi. It assesses how the current ESP course matches students' linguistic and professional needs and how teaching professional practices can be improved. A mixed methods approach was used to conduct the research and involved collecting the data using questionnaires distributed to 20 students and 2 ESP instructors, structured interviews with 2 teachers, and observations of classes. The analysis revealed apparent weaknesses in the delivery of ESP and the pedagogic decisions made, including a lack of needs assessment before the course design, inappropriate materials in use, no or poor attempts to embed communicative skills, and low levels of student motivation. These findings have shown a pressing need to redesign the ESP course to better meet the specific language needs of medical students and demonstrated that the teaching context existed, according to our outcomes. Recommendations were communicated to ensure that competencies and student engagement would be put at the forefront of developing ESP courses or modules, that the instructional time be increased from 30 to 90 hours, and access to teacher development specifically tied to training in ESP pedagogies.

Keywords


English for specific purposes, needs analysis, medical education, curriculum redevelopment, learner motivation

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References


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DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.46827/ejel.v11i3.6748

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