Is ESP a Need? Birzeit Public Administration Students as a Case Study.

Transcription

1 Is ESP a Need? Birzeit Public Administration Students as a Case Study. Co-Researchers: Majdi J. Abu-Zahra Ahmad Sh. Shayeb Department of Languages & Translation Birzeit University Abstract The purpose of this study is to shed light on the nature of ESP (English for Specific Purposes), the rationale behind this form of language teaching, needs analysis and methods of conducting needs analysis. Furthermore, this study will try to give an overview of the English courses taught at Birzeit in general and in the Public Administration program in particular. The needs (deficiencies) of the Public Administration students are the core of this study. A questionnaire is prepared to determine whether these students actually prefer to have an ESP program instead of the current general English courses. The subjects of the study are three groups of Public Administration students: 20 sophomore, 20 junior and 20 senior students. The students' responses indicate their preference for an ESP program but with varying degrees. Recommendations are prepared accordingly. What is ESP? The history of ESP dates back to the 1960s and it has grown since then to become one of the most prominent areas of EFL teaching today. Many universities today offer MA programs in ESP like Tel Aviv University, Birmingham, and Aston University to name but a few, which is indicative enough of the global status of ESP. ESP is a technical name that denotes English for Specific Purposes. It means teaching a specific genre of technical English to students with specific goals, majors or jobs. English For Specific Purposes (ESP) is in fact a learner-centered approach to teaching English as a foreign or second language. It meets the needs of learners who need to learn a foreign language for use in their specific fields, such as science, technology, medicine etc or in their future jobs. Nevertheless, the meaning of ESP is controversial; while some consider it as the teaching of English for any purpose that could be specified, others describe it more precisely as the teaching of English used in academic studies or the teaching of English for vocational or professional purposes. DudleyEvans and St. Johns (1998) define ESP in terms of absolute characteristics and variable characteristics; under absolute characteristics: ESP is defined to meet specific needs of the learners * ESP makes use of underlying methodology and activities of the discipline it serves * ESP is centered on the language appropriate to these activities in terms of grammar, lexis, register, study skills, discourse and genre. On the other hand, under variable characteristics: * ESP may be related to or designed for specific disciplines * ESP may use, in specific teaching situations, a different methodology from that of General English. * ESP is likely to be designed for adult learners, either at a tertiary level institution or in a professional work situation. It could, however, be for learners at secondary school level. * ESP is generally designed for intermediate or advanced students. Most ESP courses assume some basic knowledge of the language systems. These parameters Dudley Evan offers resolve the arguments on what ESP is. Therefore, ESP should be viewed as an approach to language teaching placed in a meaningful situation or what Dudley Evans labels "attitude of mind". Hutchinson and Waters (1987: 19) comment that "ESP is an approach to language teaching in which all decisions to content and method are based on the learner's reason for learning."

2 Swales (1990) talks about discourse communities and genre analysis, the core of any ESP program. The term genre was first used by Swales. Genre, according to Swales (1990: 58) is A class of communicative events, the members of which share some set of communicative purposes. These purposes are recognized by the expert members of the parent discourse community, and thereby constitute the rationale of the genre. This rationale shapes the schematic structure of the discourse and influences and constrains choice of content and style. Furthermore, relevant to Swales "genre", Lave and Wenger (1991) discuss what they call "communities of practice". This concept refers to a team of people who work and communicate extensively with each other over a period of time and therefore share mutual engagement, enterprise, purpose, and repertoire. So, the shared practice is the basis of this community of practice. Johns (1997: 52) associates communities of practice from his work on sociology with discourse communities from applied linguistics and emphasizes that, "focus on text and language genres and lexis enable members throughout the world to maintain their goals, regulate their membership, and communicate efficiently with one another." Swales (1990:29) outlines six defining features of any discourse community: 1. A discourse community members share goals; i.e. they have the same purpose; they need the language to perform certain tasks. 2. A discourse community members share participatory mechanisms for communication and interaction. For instance they communicate via , newsletters, journals, conferences, meetings etc. 3. A discourse community members exchange information. Swales (1990:26)believes that this information exchange includes "uptake of informational opportunities" Therefore, this "uptake" of information brings about the negotiations of meanings via exchanging ideas, information.etc. 4. A discourse community members have a highly specialized terminology specifically lexis. Widdowson (1998:7) citing Swales mentions two points concerning the specialized vocabulary: "the thematic meaning of the words" and the words "are schematically connected to form conceptualizations of reality which define the culture of a discourse community." 5. A discourse community members share a high general level of expertise. Swales explains this in terms of the change in membership that students wish to show through mastery of the language of that discourse community. 6. A discourse community members share community specific genres. Finally, ESP contrasts with TENOR, (Teaching English for No Obvious Reason). Further, it contrasts with ESL (English as a second language) where only general English is taught. Any ESP project is built after a careful assessment of learners' needs of English and what functions they want to perform in the language. Rationale behind ESP When we talk about ESP, and the rationale behind it, we think of the following points: Motivation is a key word here: in the form of ESP English language teaching and learning becomes highly motivating for the students; this is for the very simple reason that students become able to apply what they learn in their English classes to their field of study. It is equally motivating for the students to learn the part of the language they need in their future professions. Our students here come to universities already after being exposed to general English courses at schools. Nevertheless, they have not already become effective

3 users of English in their majors. Our students are involved in engineering, nursing, business, biology and other subjects. So they must be able to use English to perform specific functions and activities in their subject areas: like writing a lab report, reading authentic material in their majors, doing a scientific research, writing sales promotional letters and the like. Thus, this is another reason why ESP should be sought. Further, when we discuss the rationale behind ESP, we have to consider a key word here which is RELEVENCE; students learn only that English which is very much relevant to their subject areas; they acquire that kind of English which is to be used in their careers; therefore, unlike general English, which the students consider as a university requirement of very little relevance because of stressing grammar, vocabulary and other general English issues, students feel that an ESP course is relevant because it serves them in their subject areas and professions. In other words, language learning becomes meaningful for the students. The core of ESP is that English should not be taught as a subject separated from the students' real world or needs; rather it should be part and parcel of the subject matter area to the learners; it is an approach to language learning, which is based on learners needs. Hutchinson and Waters (1987:53) believe that "What distinguishes ESP from General English is not the existence of a need as such, but rather an awareness of the need.". Therefore, if the courses come as a response to students' needs or what Swales (1988: viii) terms "wider roles", teachers of such courses will not suffer status recognition; instead their work and efforts are highly evaluated from the students' part. One rationale behind ESP is what Roe (1993: 8) calls the process of preparing the learner "for membership in a given role of an English speaking target discourse community as far as communication systems are concerned." Mackay and Mackay and Mountford (1978: 1) maintain that English in this sense is a "means of furthering the students specialist education or a means of performing a social or working role, that is, a working role as a scientist, technologist, technician.efficiently." In a nutshell, ESP is motivated by the need to serve the immediate needs of the learners in their studies and the potential long-term needs of these learners in the workplace and therefore the need of the community as a whole. How to Set up an ESP Program? Setting up an ESP program requires four steps including needs analysis, syllabus, curriculum design and assessment or evaluation. The most step in this process is conducting the needs analysis which is at the heart of any ESP program. In fact, everything is built around the learner's needs and the material is tailored depending on these needs. In the subsequent section, needs analysis will be discussed because it is a pivotal step that the other steps rest on. Furthermore, in this study we just want to check students' needs (or what Allwright (1982) rather labels deficiency analysis) and see what kind of English Birzeit Public Administration students need. Needs Analysis Needs analysis is associated with ESP. Hutchinson and Waters (1987:53) say "what distinguishes ESP from General English.is an awareness of the need." In fact, needs analysis and needs assessment has a pivotal role in the process of designing any language course (Munby, 1978; Robinson, 1991; Johns, 1991; Jordan, 1997; Dudley-Evans and St. John, 1998; Finney, 2002). This means that any ESP program scaffolds on needs analysis of learner. Therefore it is part and parcel of any ESP project in order to specify these needs and accordingly to design the curricula

4 that meet these needs. Needs analysis refers to students' study or job requirements as well as to what they would like to gain from and do with the language. Needs analysis, further, enables the teacher to discover the abilities the learners bring to the class and what they can not do in English. Iwai et al (1999) believe that needs analysis refers to the activities that are involved in collecting information that will serve as the basis for developing a curriculum that will meet the needs of a particular group of students. The role of needs analysis in any ESP course is invaluable. Johns (1991) considers needs analysis as the first step in course design as it provides validity and relevancy for all subsequent course design activities. Different scholars used different labels to denote needs analysis: target situation analysis, present situation analysis, pedagogic needs analysis, deficiency analysis, means analysis, register analysis, discourse analysis and genre analysis. Schroder (1991) proposes the following four methods to examine these needs: questionnaire, detailed interview, observation and press advertisements. Hutchinson and Waters (1987: 59) needs analysis or "target situation needs analysis" is "in essence a matter of asking questions about the target situation and the attitudes towards that situation of various participants in the learning process." Jordan (1997) thinks that the sources of information in the needs analysis are: the students themselves, the academic institution and the prospective employer. For the purpose of this study, needs will be obtained through questionnaires to be filled up by learners simply because we are more interested in assessing the level of satisfaction towards the general English courses taught at Birzeit and see whether these Public Administration students deem it necessary to shift to an ESP program or not. The questionnaire is a set of questions prepared to be answered by the learners. Nevertheless, as the needs analysis is new to students, students have difficulty articulating their needs and understanding what is meant by some questions. Therefore, the researchers should interpret and explain any item on the questionnaire that might be subject to different interpretations by different students in order to resolve any ambiguity. The questionnaire has been designed to assess: Target needs (what the student has to do in the target situation) Learning needs (what the student needs to do in order to learn) Necessities (what the learner has to know) Wants (what the learner wants to know) Lacks (what the learner knows already) West (1994) elaborates on this by saying that it was Allwright who made a distinction between needs (the skills which a student sees as being relevant to himself or herself), wants (those needs on which students put a high priority in the available, limited time), and lacks (the difference between the student's present competence and the desired competence). In fact, lacks here is equivalent to deficiency analysis proposed by Allwright (1982). This is because the approaches to needs analysis that have been developed to consider learners' present needs may be called analysis of learners' deficiencies or lacks. Jordan (1997) maintains that deficiency analysis can form the basis of the language syllabus because it should provide data about both the gap between present and target extra linguistic knowledge, mastery of general English, language skills, and learning strategies. This study will attempt an assessment of students' language "deficiency analysis" Hutchinson and Waters (1987) believe that it is lacks rather than needs that come to determine curriculum since what we are really interested in is the gap between the target proficiency and the present proficiency of the learners. Hutchinson and Waters (1987: 16) think that ESP is not "a product but an

5 approach to language teaching which is directed by specific and apparent reasons for learning." Therefore, what learners should be taught are skills that enable them to reach the target, the process of learning and motivation should be considered as well as the fact that different learners learn in different ways (Dudley-Evans and St. John, 1998). Finally based on assessments of learners' needs and genre analysis, a syllabus is drawn up, a curriculum is designed and an assessment or evaluation of students' progress subsequently follows. What English Courses are Taught at Birzeit University? Students enrolled in different faculties at Birzeit University have to sit for an English placement test the results of which places the students in one of four levels depending on the student s score in the placement test: A, B, C and D. Students are placed in these levels based on their performance in the placement test; students who score from 8 to 10 are placed into A level which is labeled ENG C (English Communications) 231; students who score from 57 to 79 are placed into B which was later called ENG C 141; those who get 38 to 56 are categorized into C level which is ENG C 102 while those who score 37 or less are placed into D level which is ENGC 101. As for the nature of these English courses, we can say that these English courses are basically general English courses focusing on reading and writing; in ENGC 101 (D) and 102 (C) students are exposed to short readings from Headway: Academic Skills Level 2 and for the writing component, they focus on paragraph writing. ENG C 141 (B) exposes students to longer readings with intermediate level from Headway: Academic Skills Level 3. Again this is a general English course where students practice reading comprehension utilizing reading strategies that enable them to deal more successfully with reading comprehension. As for the writing component, students focus on paragraph writing. In 231 (A level) students study different thematic readings (health, immigration, psychology etc) drawn from different disciplines. At times the course features EAP (English For Academic Purposes) where students need to study research skills (quoting, paraphrasing, summarizing and citing references), write a research-based essay, write a synthesis essay and summarize readings as well. This is an overview of the English courses taught at Birzeit. In addition, Public Administration students take an extra English course called English Through Content Area where students practice reading extended passages drawn from their areas of specialty and deliver presentations. The problem here is that this course is by no means an ESP course simply because it was not based on any needs analysis of whatsoever. Research Methodology The subjects of this study were 60 Public Administration students from Birzeit University: 20 sophomore, 20 junior, and 20 senior students. Students were chosen from different levels purposefully because awareness of needs could vary depending on students' level and advancement in the major; senior students, for instance, supposedly know better than sophomores as to the specialized vocabulary that could be needed in Public Administration. Thus, where there is a discrepancy between the three groups of students as to the answer of a certain item on the questionnaire, the responses will be separated and explained. The questionnaire falls into three sets of questions, aiming at investigating students' language attitudes, students' lacks and students' wants. This questionnaire was devised based on the questionnaires proposed by Basturkmen, H. (1998) Refining Procedures: A needs analysis project at Kuwait University. English Teaching Forum,

6 36(4). Nevertheless, the questionnaire was modified and some items were added to suit the specific major targeted (Public Administration). Analysis of Student Participants Responses Concerning the first item on the first set, there was a variation in student participants responses as to language attitude; 9 of the sophomore find Arabic more useful than English in their studies, while 8 of the juniors think that Arabic is more useful. However, it was striking to find the seniors divided over this item with 5 only saying that Arabic is more useful. One possible justification for this variation in student participants responses is mastery of English; it is natural that as students progress in their major, their English language skills are sharpened, becoming better English users and hence there is a discrepancy in students' variation. As for the second item on the questionnaire, again there was a difference between student participants responses with 95 of the sophomores saying that Arabic is the language they express themselves in better and study in more quickly, and only 5 saying that English is the language they express themselves in better and study in more quickly. In the junior and senior groups, things were a bit different, with 85 and 75 of the juniors and seniors respectively saying that Arabic is the language in which they express themselves better. But, and said that they express themselves better in English. We can account for this by saying that a number of students enrolled at Birzeit University are native speaker of English. The third item on the questionnaires asks students about the language they prefer to use at Birzeit and the responses were as follows: Sophomores Arabic 7 English 2 Both 1 Juniors Arabic 65 English 2 Both Seniors Arabic 55 English Both 2 As the above responses reflect, there is a discrepancy in language preferences, with the senior students being more balanced towards the option of using both languages, Arabic and English at Birzeit University. Concerning the importance of using English at Birzeit, student participants unanimously said that it is to use English at Birzeit; 0ver 9 of student participants from the three groups agreed that it is to use English at Birzeit. A possible justification is that Birzeit places special emphasis on English, whether it is in the number of English courses given to students or in the textbooks which are in English. The majority of student participants in the three groups disagree with using Arabic as the only language on campus. Around 75 of student participants said that Arabic should not be the only language used. Around of the respondents were divided between agree and doubtful. And 7 of student participants from the three groups agree that the use of English indicates prestige and civilization. The three groups of student participants unanimously agree that using English facilitates communication with international universities and outside world. Around 7 of the three groups strongly agree with this point and agree. As for the last item on the language attitude, student participants agree that both languages, Arabic and English, are needed equally for academic achievement. Around 8 of the student participants strongly agree and 2 agree that both English and Arabic are equally for academic achievement. The second set of questions: students' lacks: Since there is a difference between the three groups' responses, the response are given separately here:

7 Skills or items Students' Lacks: Sophomores' Responses excellent v. good good satisfactory weak speaking reading writing 1 2 listening Specialized vocabulary 5 5 Specialized grammar Students' Lacks: Juniors' Responses Skills or items excellent v. good Good satisfactory weak speaking 1 2 reading 35 1 writing 5 listening 2 2 Specialized vocabulary 2 Specialized grammar

8 Students' Lacks: Seniors' Responses Skills or items excellen t v. good good satisfacto ry weak speaking reading 35 5 writing 35 1 listening 4 5 Specialized vocabulary 7 Specialized grammar 4 45 As the first table shows, the skills of speaking and listening are poor as only 5 of the sophomores said that they are excellent in these two skills. With reading and writing, things are different: 7 of the sophomores are between "excellent and good" when it comes to reading. This trend is also found in writing where 5 of the sophomores are between "excellent and good". This could be accounted for by the emphasis of the ENGC (English Communication) courses the University students take in both reading and writing. As for the specialized vocabulary, it is clear that as students progress in the major, they get to know more specialized vocabulary by virtue of being exposed to more text in Public Administration in English. This clearly indicates that there is a need to expose students to this kind of technical vocabulary in any English course they need to take. Moreover, student participants responses regarding specialized grammar indicate that their knowledge of grammar is very good. However, this high percentage could be associated with the overemphasis of grammar at schools; nevertheless, the researchers believe that student participants misinterpreted what is meant by specialized grammar. Another point that can be seen from the three groups' responses to lacks that as students progress, their speaking and listening also improve though inadequately. This might be attributed to students' exposure to English on Birzeit campus where it is quite common to hear English being used as a means of communication and socializing. The section of the questionnaire concerning students' wants: in this section student participants were asked to rank items according to their importance from the students' perspectives. In some items, the three groups agree unanimously. For the reading component, 9 of the student participants agree that textbooks are very

9 while 1 say that textbooks are. The same thing in texts on a computer but with lower percentage of student participants saying it is very : 7 say it is very and saying it is. However, there was a discrepancy in student participants responses as to the internet articles and conducting research as follows: level Internet articles Conducting research sophomores very 7 35 Very 65 juniors 5 very 5 55 very 45 seniors 75 very 9 very 1 Although, all the three groups agree that internet articles and conducting research are, yet the table reveals that there is a varying degree as to importance. It is clear that as students advance in their studies, conducting more researches becomes very to them; in fact, seniors are overwhelmed by the number of researches they need to conduct in their last year. Hence, they think that internet articles, from which they draw heavily for their researches, are of paramount importance. Concerning the second item, writing, student participants responses reflected some sort of variation as follows: Level Sophomores Taking notes in lectures V. 5 2 N. Answering questions in exams V. 1 5 N. 40 Writing summaries V N. 2 Assignments V. N. 4 Juniors Seniors The following points are clear from the table: the more advanced the students are, the more it becomes to use English to perform the above tasks, namely, taking notes, answering questions in exams, writing summaries and doing assignments, though with varying degrees: taking notes: 7 sophomores believe English is in taking note, while 8 junior and 95 seniors believe that it is.

10 In the second item "answering exam questions", a significant percentage of students believe that it is not to use English: 4 of the sophomores, of the juniors and 35 of the seniors; this could be attributed to lack of emphasis on answering exam questions in English; although the exams questions and rubrics are in English, yet some teachers accept answers in Arabic. Writing summaries, it seems, is a very skill that Public Administration students need to master in order to do well in their major. That is why a very high percent of student participants believe it is : 8 of the sophomores, 9 of the juniors and 10 of the seniors. Concerning the importance of English in listening and speaking component to the students: as student participants responses seem to agree on these items with slight or insignificant differences, it was decided to merge the three groups' responses into one as follows: Item V. p. p Not imp. Following lectures Following question/answer sessions in class Listening to presentations Listening to recorded material 45 Participating in discussions Giving spoken presentations Asking questions in class 4 As the above table shows, English is for handling most of the skills on the table with some variation as to the degree and level of importance. Around 75 of the respondents believe that English is for following lectures ; 8 believe that English is in question/answer sessions in class and participating in discussions; around 95 think that English is for both giving and listening to presentations and 7 think that English is for asking questions in class. On the other hand, students do not give much importance to the use of English to listen to recorded material in Public Administration; it could be that students are not often exposed to recorded material in English in this major and that is why only 55 of the respondents think that English is to understand recorded material in English. Furthermore, around believe that English is not in following lectures: one possible interpretation for the belief that English is not is that some teachers use Arabic (translate), accept verbal answers in Arabic, and do not mind if students answer certain exam questions using Arabic even

11 though the exam is written in English. The same interpretation could be true when it comes to why we have some students saying English is un to ask question in class etc. (See the above table) The last section of the questionnaire, examines the importance of English in the future jobs of Public Administration students. Students' responses in the three groups were as follows: Level Writing CV and covering letter Preparing a formal report / letter/memo Taking meeting minutes Arguing to persuade of your rationale/logic V. N. V. N. V. N. V. N. Sophomores Juniors Seniors As the above table displays, the three groups of students absolutely agree that preparing a CV and its covering letter is of paramount importance. It goes without saying that students once they graduate have to possess skills of CV writing and covering letters. That was the reason why 10 of student participants said it is very for future jobs to know how to write a CV and covering letter. Concerning the second point in the tale (preparing a formal report/letter/memo), student participants seem to agree that they have to know, though with varying degrees, how to write a report, letter or memo considering the "very " and "" slots. This clearly shows that one of the components of any ESP course for Public Administration students should be formal letter/memo/report writing as it is for their future jobs. "Taking minutes" seems to vary in importance from the point of view of students. One thing we can note from the table that minutes taking is more from the perspective of advanced students; some of them envisage the importance of minutes taking for their future jobs in NGOs or administrative governmental jobs. The last point concerning arguing to show rationale, it is clear that in all levels a majority of students agree that this skill is. Nevertheless, there is a slight difference in student participants responses which could possibly be attributed to students' awareness. Conclusion This study set out to explore Public Administration students' needs of English. The aim of this study was to decide, from the point of view of students in the abovementioned major, whether students prefer to have an ESP program instead of the current general English courses. From the analysis of the subjects' responses, it is clear that Public Administration students at Birzeit prefer to have a new ESP program instead of the general English courses, an ESP that features aspects specific to Public Administration major. However, it should be noted here that Birzeit University is the only Palestinian university which offers a bachelor degree in public administration. Thus, these wants are largely felt by Birzeit students.

12 Recommendation: it is recommended, from students' perspective on needs and wants, that the current general English program be shifted to an ESP program which caters for the specific needs of students and makes the use of English more meaningful and practical. References Allwright, R. (1982). Perceiving and pursuing learners' needs. In M. Geddes and G. Sturtridge (Ed.), Individualiation (pp ). Oxford: Modern English Publications. Dudley-Evans, T., and St. John, M. (1998). Developments in ESP: Amulti-disciplinary approach. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Finney, D. (2002) The ELT curriculum: A flexible model for changing world. In Richards, J. C. and Renandya, W. A. (Ed.) Methodology in language teaching: An anthology of current practice (pp ). Cambridge: Cambridge University Pres. Hutchinson, T., and Waters, A. (1987). English for specific purposes: A learningcentered approach. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Iwai, T., Kondo, K., Limm, S. J. D., Ray, E. G., Shimizu, H. and Brown, J. D. (1999) Japanese language needs analysis. Retrieved from Johns, A. (1991). English for specific purposes: its history and contribution. In Celce- Murcia, M. (Ed). Teaching English as a second or foreign language (pp ). Boston, MA: Heinle & Heinle. Johns, A. (1997).Text, role, and context: developing academic literacies. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Jordan, R. R. (1997). English for academic purposes: A guide and resource book for teachers. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press Lave, J. and Wenger, E. (1991) Situated learning: legitimate peripheral participation. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Mackay, R. and Mountford, A. (1978). English for specific purposes. London: Longman. Munby, J. (1978). Communicative Syllabus Design. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Robinson, P. (1991). ESP today: A practitioner's guide. Prentice Hall. UK: Prentice Hall International (UK) Ltd. Roe, P.J., (1993)ESP: State of the Art in 1 st MaghrebESP Conference: Current Initiatives in ESP in the Maghreb, University of Es-Sania, Oran27-29 April 1992 The British Council:6-11. Swales, J. (Ed.). (1988). Episodes in ESP: A source and reference book for the development of English for science and technology. New York: Prentice Hall.

13 Swales, J. M. (1990). Genre analysis: English for academic and research settings. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. West, R. (1994). Needs analysis in language teaching. Language Teaching, 27(1), Widdowson, H. G., (1998). Communication and community: the pragmatics of ESP. English for Specific Purposes: An International Journal, 17(1), Appendix: Students' Questionnaire Level: A Sophomore B Junior C Senior Language Attitudes 1. What language is more useful to you? Arabic English Both 2. What language do you express yourself in better and more effectively? Arabic English Both 3. What language do you study in more quickly? Arabic English Both 4. What language do you prefer to use in your university? Arabic English Both 5. It is it to use English in your university? Yes No 6. Arabic is the only language that should be used in our university? Strongly agree agree doubtful disagree 7. Using English indicates prestige and civilization. Strongly agree agree doubtful disagree 8. Using English facilitates communication with international universities and outside world. Strongly agree agree doubtful disagree 9.English as as Arabic in academic achievement. Strongly agree agree doubtful disagree 10. Using English poses a threat to Arabic. Strongly agree agree doubtful disagree Students' Lacks Tick the appropriate slot Students' Wants How are these tasks in English for your study? Circle the appropriate

14 number according to the following scale. 1= very 2= 3= not Reading Textbooks Texts on the computer Internet articles Conducting research Writing Taking notes in lectures Answering questions in exams Writing summaries and outlines Assignments Writing a progress report Writing formal letters Conducting related research Writing a CV Writing a cover letter Taking meeting minutes Listening and Speaking Following lectures Following question/answer sessions in class Listening to presentations Listening to recorded material Participating in discussions Giving spoken presentations Asking questions in class For Future Job Writing CV and covering letter Preparing a formal report / letter/memo Taking meeting minutes Arguing to persuade of your rationale/logic