Yüksek öğretim seviyesi İngilizce bölümlerin dil ihtiyaçları: paydaşların bakış açısından bir vaka çalışması

This study investigated the academic English language needs of students in English-medium departments through the perspectives of content area specialists and departmental chairs at Bülent Ecevit University (ZBEU). The primary aim of the study is t o determine which language skill - among reading, writing, listening, and speaking - should be given priority for students' academic studies and to determine the importance of specific language tasks and sub-skills related to four basic skills. The secondary aim of the study is to explore the attitudes of content area specialists towards English- medium instruction in content classes. At Zonguldak Bulent Ecevit University, there are six departments teaching content area courses in partial (30%) English. Students in these departments have to enroll in the compulsory preparatory programme of the university in their first year, and they have to complete the programme successfully. This study is aimed at finding out what the content area specialists and departmental chairs of different disciplines actually require in terms of academic English so that sound curricular recommendations could be made for English language courses in the School of Foreign Languages at ZBEU. Accordingly, the needs analysis in this study sought for answers to the following research questions: 1.Which English language skill(s) has the most importance for content area courses in English Medium Departments at ZBEU? 2.What are the academic English language requirements of content area specialists among the specified language tasks and strategies related to each language skill? 3.What are the attitudes of content area specialists toward English medium instruction in content classes? a)In terms of language preferences in their classes and the reasons for their language-teaching/learning preferences? Data were collected through questionnaires and interviews which were conducted in six departments. The questionnaire including seven sections was completed by 20 content area specialists in six departments and the interview including one question was conducted with the departmental chairs. In the questionnaire, the content area specialists were asked to determine which skill, among reading, writing, listening, and speaking has the highest priority. It was also investigated the frequency of the specified language tasks and the importance degree of sub-skills or strategies related to the skills of reading, writing, listening, and speaking through the sections prepared in Likert scale. Through the interview, departmental chairs stated their attitudes towards English-medium education. The results show that the vast majority of content area specialists in different departments report that reading is the most important skill for the English-medium departments. Apart from the most important skill, the ranking of other sub-skills varies from one department to another. The largest group of faculty members teaches both in English and in Turkish. Participants who prefer Turkish to teach content state two reasons for this. Firstly, they think the students do not have adequate English to understand the content that they are teaching and they also believe that language of instruction should be in native language. The other participants who prefer English to teach content believe that students should read the materials written in English to be able to follow the latest developments in their field, and students are required to know English for graduate studies, and for their professional career. Based on these results, adjusting the current foreign language curriculum by taking into consideration of the expectations and demands of content area specialists is recommended.