Learning English Essay

Analysis of Students’ Needs in Learning English as Foreign Language in Faculty of Information Technology of Satya Wacana Christian University

Introduction

As one implication of the global use of English in many fields such as politics, business, medical, science, and information technology, the needs of learning English for specific purposes or ESP get increased. Through this ESP ones can learn, for example the specific terms used in Information Technology and also about procedures (…) things in that field. This ESP is seen as a way to cover the insufficient of English in many fields with use of technical language. This is in line with Douglas’ opinion proposing that “the use of language for specific purpose is because the technical language that used in any academic, professional, or vocational field.” (2000)

Although ESP ideally accommodates the need of learning English for certain purposes, the practice may not always work well. The reason can be about time limitation in the teaching and learning process, if ESP is taught at school it is usually allocated in limited time and place to practice the language. Other reason is that about the application of ESP tend to head for general English. Students of Information Technology are expected to learn English related to their major that will affect to their learning process. It likely that different types of students have different language needs due their different background. Hutchinson and Waters (1987) argue that “learners were seen to have different needs and interest, which would have important influence on their motivation to learn and therefore on the effectiveness of their learning.” The purposes of English course for students with specialist language have to be well-desig...

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...There are many definitions of ESP (English for Specific Purpose) that comes up from experts, Hutchinson and Waters (1987) assert that ESP is an approach which all determination as to content and method are based for the learner’s reason to learning. In the other words, it is defined by students’ different motivation to learn the language for vary purposes. While Richards (2000) describe that ESP learners typically study English to accomplish peculiar role that different from General English (GE) students that master the language to pass general exam. Richards’ point is that basically ESP and GE are two things that opposed each other because ESP seems has authentic language as Douglas (2000) explain that a crucial concept of language for specific purpose is authenticity. Dudley-Evan and St. John (1998) define the term as “absolute and variable characteristic” (p. 4)