Analyzing the English Language Needs of Vocational Students: A Case Study of the University of Vocational Technology Sri Lanka

The constant changes taking place in society, and more particularly work places, impose a lot of stress on English language teaching at university level. The workplace constantly demands university graduates to possess the technical and language skills to function in workplaces. In order to cater to these changing workplace demands, two branches of English Language Teaching (ELT), namely English for General Purposes (EGP) and English for Specific Purposes (ESP) have emerged. Although EGP is what is observed to be practiced in the ELT classrooms, over the years, ESP has created an immense interest among ELT practitioners desiring to make a change in academic and professional settings. At the University of Vocational Technology (Univotec) undergraduates are offered an English module titled “Communication Skills” to assist them in following subject related content which is offered in the English medium. However, as is the case in many higher educational institutions, this has not shown any favorable results.

 

Students at the Univotec continue to drop out of their degree programs due to their inability to continue their studies in the English medium. This research is based on the premise that the current English language module offered at the Univotec fails to meet the academic language needs of its graduates as a large portion of its content consists of EGP. This research consists of a needs analysis (NA) that was carried out to critically explore the status of this course and find possible means of redesigning an English language program that aligns more closely with what the stakeholders of the program need. This paper focuses on the needs of the undergraduates of the Univotec and the sample is selected from the Bachelor of Technology (B.Tech) in Mechatronics as it is one of the most popular degree programs at Univotec. The aim of the research is to find out what the undergraduates perceive as important to pursue their academic goals. The recurring themes that emerged from the data suggested that a curriculum with a blend of ESP and EGP would better suit the needs of the undergraduates. There was a strong recommendation to revise the current curriculum to better suit the requirements of both the academic context as well as the target career. Some of the recommendations include the incorporation of basic grammar in the first year and then making the programme more advanced as the students progress academically, and the incorporation of sub skills of the four main language skills: reading, writing, speaking and listening.