EMPOWERING S1 GRADUATE CANDIDATES WITH ESP AND “ESP”

by Djoko Srijono

Muhammadiyah University of Surakarta

A b s t r a c t

                        In the near future, Indonesian S1 graduates are going to face the tight

                 competition   in labor markets locally and globally. To win the competition,

                 they  must  have  professional  and  English  skills.  To  foster their English

                 skill, Muhammadiyah University of Surakarta empowers them with English

                 for Specific Purposes (ESP)  and  Excellent Student Program (“ESP”). ESP

                 program  given  to  S1  graduate  candidates  is categorized into English for

                 Professional  Purposes (EPP) and Program for Professional Purposes (PPP).

                 EPP is a program for non-English department students. PPP is a program for

                 English  department  students  that  consists  of   Tourism,  Public  Relation,

                 Broadcasting,   and   Journalism.  “ESP”  is   a   program  for   non-English

                 department students who has special interest in English proficiency.

         Key terms: English for Specific Purposes, English for Professional Purposes

                            Program for Professional Purposes, Excellent Student Program.

A. Rationale

         Every three months the number of  S1 graduates  in Indonesia increases. After graduating from their university, private or state, they will face commencement which has possibilities; continuing study in S2 program, applying for a job, and/or being ”satisfied” with S1 degree without any further continuation (read: being unemployed). Though, as a matter of fact, some S1 graduates have odd commercial jobs during their study. Not all S1 graduates continue their study in higher level of education because of some reasons such as finance, opportunity, and academic competence. Instead they try to apply for a job/jobs to foster their prospect.

         After graduating from S1 program, they will face the tight competition with other graduates coming from domestic and /or foreign university. If they don’t have adequate academic and professional power, of course, they will loose the opportunity and competition. Expected or not, like or dislike, this competition will occur in this global era. This competition, as a challenge, inspires the educational institutions to provide the S1 graduates with adequate competence in academic affairs and professional skills. One of  the  professional  skills  that is crucial is English skill. English is paramount important because  it  has  a   very   important  role  in  scientific,  technological,  economic,  politic, 

and military events. Let alone the “success of American invasion in Iraq, to some extent, supports the dominant importance of English. This in line with Baugh and Cable’s opinion (1993: 3) when they state that “the language of powerful nation will acquire importance as a direct reflection of political, economic, technological, and military strength. Further they point out that English is widely used as a second language throughout the world, and it is one of the official languages of the United Nations.

          English can play a key part in in-service education and in creating professional awareness. In other words English can support the students’ needs during and after their study. The former refers to the needs of English for developing and widening their knowledge. In this case, English is required  for further study formally and informally.  The latter deals with job needs or target needs in which English is required to perform a particular practical job. In turn, generally, they can make the best use of English in labor markets.

         The present paper does not deal with the theory of  ESP, instead, concentrates on ESP and “ESP” conducted in Muhammadiyah University of Surakarta.

B. English for Specific Purposes

         The rapid development of science, technology, and commerce on an international scale demands an international means of communication. The language that can accommodate this need is English because English is the key to the international currencies of science, technology, and commerce. So for the shake of these particular fields we will have English for Science, English for Technology, and English for Commerce. In other words this advanced development contributes to the rise of English for Specific Purposes (Hutchinson and Waters, 1994: 6 – 8). As time goes on the growth of ESP flourishes and prospers as more and more new science, technology, and commerce emerge.

          ESP is not a goal of teaching English to S1 graduate candidates, but it is only an approach to achieve the academic and job needs. ESP is not a matter of teaching ‘specialized varieties of English, but certainly there are some features which can be identified as ’typical’ of a particular context of use and which, therefore, the learners are more likely to meet in the target situations. ESP is not just a matter of science words and grammar for scientists, hotel staffs, etc. but there is much more communication than surface features. ESP is not different in kind from any other form of language teaching, in that it should be based on principles of effective and efficient teaching-learning process. So ESP must be seen as an approach not as a product, but it is an approach to English teaching which is based on the students’ needs (Hutchinson and Waters, 1994: 18-19). Then the teaching materials, language skills, learning experiences are based on the students’ needs and interest. This will lead to the development of relevant ESP courses. In relation to the ESP teaching-learning process, if the students have needs and interests, which would have an important influence on their motivation to learn and on the effectiveness of their ESP learning, they will learn ESP better and faster.

C. Empowering S1 Graduate Candidates with ESP and “ESP”

         One of the missions of Language Center, Muhammadiyah University of Surakarta (LC-UMS) is to empower S1 graduate candidates in mastering foreign languages especially English. This empowerment is aimed at enabling the students to communicate in English orally or in written form and, in turn, they will be ready to face the tight competition in the near future. This is in line with what is assigned by Director General of Higher Education that we must apply the new paradigm that emphasizes on the improvement of quality, accountability, accessibility, and autonomy (DGHE, 2001:1). To make this mission comes to a reality, LC-UMS conducts ESP courses and “ESP” training. ESP courses offered by LC-UMS comprise courses for non-English department students and program for English department students. The former is termed English for Professional Purposes (EPP) and the latter is called Program for Professional Purposes (PPP).

         The philosophy adopted in serving S1 graduate candidates is populism. This philosophy has the belief that all S1 graduate candidates should take this ESP courses without regarding their English proficiency background. This will be different from elitism which only limits the special candidates, intellectually and financially, traditionalism that specifies the scope of students coming from “certain social class” , and integralism which accommodates the moderate group among the extremes (Maryadi, 2002 :3 – 5).   

          The S1 graduates in the third millenium require adequate English proficiency and computer skill. English proficiency will facilitate their study in transferring science and technology from advanced and developed countries. Computer skill will be able to make the students easy in doing their assignments and accessing the latest information.  

           The term “empowerment” was initially popularized by the well-known Brazilian educator, Paulo Freire, in 1970. His concept of empowerment is that a teacher should embark on the mission of attempting to pour knowledge into the supposedly passive, empty vessels of students’ minds, instead, we are commissioned to empower learners – politically, economically, socially, and morally – to become critical thinkers, equipped with problem-solving strategies. Pennycook (1989) cited by Brown (1993: 20) has reminded us about our mission as English teachers to empower learners, to get them intrinsically involved in the process of learning English as a second or foreign language in order to gain a measure of control over their own lives. Clarke (1989) quoted by Brown (1993: 20) defines empowerment as the process by which individuals gain a measure of control over their lives. 

         After taking ESP course, the students are expected to have English competencies both in in-service study and in creating professional skills. Therefore the approach adopted in designing and implementing ESP and “ESP” is competency-based approach of which characteristics are SMART standing for Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic, and Time-phased (Sukamto, 2001: 9). As its name suggests, ESP is specific in terms of language teaching materials and language skills suited with the students’ needs and interests (read: departments). ESP is measurable in the sense that the kind of assessment applied can give measurable citation such as excellent, good, and fair. In addition the students can take a comprehensive test . ESP is achievable means that ESP offers language content, skills, and score that  can be achieved by S1 students. From financial view point, the fee for ESP and “ESP” is affordable for the students. The realistic characteristic of ESP and “ESP” deals with the real learning experiences both in and outside campus. ESP course is designed 50% theory and 50% practice. Time-phased is meant the time allotment for taking the ESP course is only in four semesters in which each semester only offers two subjects.                  

D. English for Professional Purposes (EPP)

         This program is for non-English students. Based on the students’ needs this program is emphasized on the English proficiency used in oral communication. After taking this program, the students are expected (1) to be able to communicate in English orally and in written form, (2) to be able comprehend English passages related to their

study, (3) to get a good TOEFL score. To achieve these competencies, in teaching-learning process LC-UMS offers

E. Program for Professional Purposes (PPP)

         This program is for English department students. This program comprises Tourism, Public Relations, Broadcasting, and Journalism. The students should take one of them based on his/her interest.  

1. Tourism Program

The goal of Tourism program is (1) the students are able to understand the theory of tourism, (2) the students can apply the theory on the job training, and (3) the students can be professionals in tourism. The subjects offered in this program are:

2. Public Relation Program

Public Relation program offers the students opportunity to work in public relation affairs instead of being English teachers. The subjects offer is this program are:

3. Broadcasting Program

Broadcasting program has aims to give the students basic science and skills about broadcasting especially in radio and television.

4. Journalism Program

After taking this program, the students are expected to have basic knowledge and skills of journalism in mass-media such as radio, television, and press

F. Excellent Student Program (“ESP”)

         This program is an extra-curricular program to prepare S1 graduate candidates who have the highest scores of English for Professional Purposes. The students can join this program after taking English for Professional Purposes in the first semester.   As its name suggests, this program is offered to the limited candidates who really have needs and interests of English. From forty to fifty students from every regular class of English for Professional Purposes, only two or three candidates are allowed to take this program. As a matter of fact, there are more than one hundred students who register this program every year.  The “ESP” candidates are selected and tested. From this selection, there will be only four classes and each class consists of twenty students.

         After joining this program the candidates are expected to be able to have excellent English proficiency. In other words, they will have both active and passive mastery of English. This program is conducted in two stages as follows:

F. Closing

         Empowerment of the S1 students in academic activities is crucial to be carried out to produce the graduates who are professional, accessible, and competitive in the local, national, and/or even international level. 

         In conducting ESP and “ESP” programs, we still find some constraints such as scheduling, junior and limited staffs, lack of facilities, cooperation with other institutions and or companies, finance for practitioners.

References

Baugh, Albert C. and Thomas Cable. 1993.  The History of English Language. London:

                Routledge.

Brown, H. Douglas. 1993. “TESOL at Twenty- Five: What are the Issues?”. In:  Sandra

                 Silberstein ( Ed.).  State of  the Art TESOL Essays: Celebrating 25 years of      

     the Discipline. p. 20.

Hutchinson, Tom and Allan Waters. 1994. English for Specific Purposes: A learning-

                 -centred approach. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Maryadi. 2002. “Peningkatan Kualitas Akademik dalam Perspektif Paradigma Baru.” Ms.

                 Surakarta: Muhammadiyah University.

Directorate General of Higher Education. 2001. Technological and Professional Skill

                  Development Sector Project (TPSDP): Guidelines for Sub-project Proposal

                   Submission. Jakarta: Ministry of National Education

Sukamto. 2001. “Kurikulum Berbasis Kompetensi”. Ms. Surakarta: Muhammadiyah

                  University of Surakarta.

N.U.E.S.P.  NATIONAL CONFERENCE

EMPOWERING S1 GRADUATE CANDIDATES WITH ESP AND “ESP”

Djoko Srijono

Muhammadiyah University of Surakarta

 THE UNIVERSITY OF JEMBER

4 - 5 August 2003