List of Tables and Figures
Figure 1.
The Tree of ELT
Figure 2.
Factors Affecting ESP Course Design
Table 6.1
Evaluation of Statements
Table 6.2
Evaluation of Activities
1
Introduction
It is beyond any doubt that English is becoming a universal language almost nobody
can get along without these days. English is being spoken all over the world on a daily basis.
People need it for their occupation, as one of the prerequisities of a successful applicant for a
job is to hand in a CV written in Czech as well as in English and knowledge of at least one, but
often two languages on communicative level. Thanks to the phenomenon called globalisation,
world
is getting smaller, almost every imaginable area of our lives is exposed to external
influences – working environment, politics, economy, culture,
social life, attitudes, etc. and
therefore a question arises:
“How can all the variety of different nationalities and languages
make themselves understood?”
The fact is that English has always played an important role as a world language. Great
Britain as a former colonial and naval superpower promoted English in many parts of the world,
the United States of America as a contemporary economic and military superpower carry on
spreading the language worldwide. Throughout centuries, but mostly in 20
th
and 21
st
century,
English has evolved into
“a generally accepted medium of information exchange among
nations”
. It is used in international business and diplomacy, taught at schools and universities,
signs at airports and other public places are often written in both,
national languages and
English, when people travel and do not master the language of their destination, English works
as the the last resort (supposing it is not spoken officially).
It is not only for the above-mentioned reasons that there has been a growing demand
for learning English. Recently, a number of language schools and courses have emerged, the
market with textbooks, coursebooks, CDs and DVDs is experiencing a massive boom and new
methods of learning are constantly being developed. There is a possibility to choose from all
kinds of levels and approaches, depending on what suits the student best.
At
Czech schools, the situation is different. The current trend is introduction of
electronic devices such as projectors, interactive boards, i-pads and other gadgets in the lessons,
but a lot of schools face problems connected with poor funding, leading to factual technical
imbalance among them, thus leaving the printed materials in some cases the only possible. The
choice of a textbook and level of difficulty is done by the teachers. It can be said that a huge
leap has been done in recent years in this area.
The quality is improving, new textbooks reflect
2
new trends in teaching, they aim on different target groups (pupils, teenagers, adults), adjusting
the contents to fit their needs and interests.
A lot of new textbooks are targeted to prepare students for the School Leaving Exam.
All four skills (listening, writing, reading and speaking) can be practised, sections with social
English and conversational phrases can be found there as well as thematic vocabulary. The
biggest problem of these textbooks is that they prefer the other three skills to speaking. It is
usually up to the teacher to devise more of relevant speaking activites. Moreover, most of the
textbooks are not very helpful in ESP classes, as they offer only too general topics.
The thesis sets several goals. Firstly, it wants to introduce some
issues connected to
teaching speaking in foreign language classes as well as to point out to the specifics of teaching
speaking in ESP classroom. Secondly, it aims at creation of speaking materials that could be
used at secondary schools offering Tourism and Hotel Keeping study programmes.
It is divided into two parts, the theoretical and practical part. In the theoretical part, the
problem of teaching speaking as the second language is described from various perspectives
and basic approaches for teaching speaking with a special emphasis on Communicative
Approach are introduced. Furthermore, the thesis tries to clarify specifics of teaching speaking
in ESP classrooms.
The goal of the practical part is to discover whether there is a positive relation between
creation and application of speaking activities designed to fit the needs of an ESP classroom
and students’ knowledge and ability to react in conversational
situations related to Hotel
Keeping and Tourism study programme. The research also tries to answer additional questions
regarding relationship between the activities and students’ motivation, self-confidence or effect
on their speaking fluency. A questionnaire survey will be carried out together with observations
done in the lessons to evaluate fulfilment of the aims of the research.
The materials will be aimed at a specific area connected to hotel industry, tourism and
travelling. A number of various activites will be used in order to motivate students to participate
in them and encourage them in conversation. The list of materials is not supposed to serve only
for the purposes of the Toursim and Hotel Keeping study programme, but should be ready to
be used in any other lesson as a supplementary material. It might also be used by other teachers
as a source of inspiration for their own lessons and preparations.
