English for Specific Purposes

2. English for Specific Purposes

a. The Definition of ESP Vocational high schools aim to prepare the students to compete on their work field of their expertise. English is one of the compulsory subject to be taught. However, there is a difference approach to teach English in vocational high schools. ESP is the best way to learn English based on their specific skill. Hutchinson and Waters 1987: 18 argue that ESP is not a language methodology which teaches specialised varieties of English and consists of a specific type of learning materials but it is an approach to language learning which is based on learner’s need. Nunan 2004:7 adds that ESP is an important subcomponent of language teaching that has its own approaches to curriculum development, material design, pedagogy, testing and research. Further, Tomlinson and Masuhara 2004 state that ESP is designed to fulfill the specific needs of the learner based on needs analysis. In conclusio n, ESP is based on students’ needs in learning English. Since students’ needs in ESP are very crucial, needs analysis should be conducted earlier before designing the materials. b. The Needs Analysis Needs analysis is the very first step before designing the ESP materials. It helps the materials developer to create an appropriate materials based on the students’ need so that it helps the students comprehending the English materials based on their expertise. Chambers 1980 in Basturkmen 2010 : 17 states that needs analysis should be concerned with the establishment of communicative needs resulting from an analysis of the communication in the target situation. Richards 2001: 52 lists a number of reasons for conducting needs analysis before starting a course for a group of learners as follows: 1 to find out what languages skills a learner needs in order to perform a particular role 2 to help determine if an existing course adequately addresses the needs of potentials students 3 to determine which students from a group are most in need of training in particular language skills 4 to identify a change of direction that people in a reference group feel is important 5 to identify a gap between what students are able to do and what they need to be able to do 6 to collect information about a particular problem learners are experiencing Hutchinson and Waters 1987: 54 define needs as the ability to comprehend and to produce the linguistic features into two categories: target needs and learning needs. The target needs are what knowledge and abilities the learner will require in order to be able to perform appropriately in the target situation. The analysis of the target needs is divided into three points which are necessities, lacks, and wants. 1 Necessities is defined as the type of needs determined by the demands of the target situation. 2 Lacks is the gap between what the learners know already and what the learners do not know. 3 Wants is what the learners expect about language area that they want to master. Hutchinson and Waters 1987: 53 find that the awareness of learning needs has an influence on the context of a language course and will exploit what is potential for the learners. Hutchinson and Waters 1987: 6 draw three main reasons of the emergence of ESP course. They are: 1 The demands of a brave new world. 2 A revolution in linguistics 3 Focus on the students Needs analysis is really important to be conducted at the beginning before designing ESP materials, since students’ learning needs are the guidance in developing appropriate English learning materials. In line with ESP approach, another approach of language teaching which is so called as Content-Based Instruction points the importance of the using of authentic materials in the classroom process. The other connection between ESP and CBI is drawn in one of its principles which states that Content-Based Instruction better reflects