Best Practices in the English for Specific Purpose Classes at the Language Center

摘要

South East European University is an Institution, established in 2001 by few International Stakeholders with the aim of introducing new teaching techniques and approaches in education. Special curriculums and courses were designed as an innovation in higher education. Within these news curriculums, English for Specific Purpose course emerged, which was dedicated to advanced students in English Language. This course was introduced around 2005 for the first time and since then has been constantly part of every study program. Thus, with this research, we will describe in general the English for Specific Course (ESP) with its features and bring to light the best practices occurring in these courses. Learners in ESP course are interviewed and asked to rate some of the best and common practices in the course. The findings from the research are analyzed and introduced in the paper for our own benefit and also for sharing them with other teachers of ESP who take part in the conference. As regards the research methodology surveys and interviews were conducted. The questions were agreed in advance with students of ESP and through them we collected information about their attitudes and their general view of the best practices in ESP classes. Our hypothesis from the research was that students view ESP as a very useful course, which helps them reach higher communicative competence in their field of study and as a result higher job opportunities in the labor market of Macedonia, as a country aspiring for integration in international organizations such as NATO and EU. The outcome of the research strongly affirmed that, and students indicated that the course was effective.