Motivation of esp student to learn foreign language Rashidova Jasmina Samarkand Institute of foreign languages

Students’ Competence and Difficulties in ESP Classes

ESP is designed to meet the specific needs of learners. Learners are supposed to perform with adequate language skills in selected situations at the end of the ESP courses. However, the performances of ESP learners have been considered unacceptable or poor in many cases (Bacha & Bahous, 2008; Chia et al, 1999; Jasso- Aguilar, 1999; Wang, 2004). Students’ overall English language skill has usually been considered the indicator of the success or failure of English learning (Shi, Corcos, & Storey, 2001; Tsao, Wei, & Fang, 2008). Some teachers imputed the low achievement of ESP to the students’ poor English language skills. They argued that the students’ English language skills were inadequate to cope with the ESP courses, and made ESP courses inefficient.

By contrast, the students often declare themselves to be suffering from learning difficulties, which makes them perform badly in an English class. Some researchers also announced that students suffer from learning difficulties relating to the content of ESP (Gatehouse, 2001), the instruction of ESP (Bacha & Bahous, 2008; Leki & Carson, 1994), and the tasks engaged in the ESP courses (Ferris & Tagg, 1996a/b). The students have difficulties participating in class discussion, asking and responding to questions, and general listening comprehension. Learners have difficulty coping with ESP courses because of weak English skills (Jackson, 2004). The weakest language skills are reported more often in the previous studies, such as inadequate vocabulary (Tsao, et al, 2008); and grammar (Chang, 2000).
The content of ESP is also considered as one of the factors affecting the ESP learning; the difficulty level of the content should be approachable and acceptable to learners, as most learners lack general English skills (Basturkmen, 1998; Chang, 2004; Huang, 1997; Huang, 2001; Jackson, 2004, Tsao, et al. 2008; Wang, 2004). Further, the activities in the ESP class should be applied based on the learning goals and should be meaningful in relation to the specific purpose of their subject area (Flowerdew & Peacock, 2001).