Universidad de Santiago de Chile

English for Specific Purposes

Needs Analysis Report

Natalia Lillo, Nicole Osorio, Elda Pérez

Section II
Contenido
Introduction.......................................................................................................................................2
Review................................................................................................................................................3
Matias Miranda, Food Engineering student, fourth level...............................................................3
Francisca Martinez, Nursing student, fifth level.............................................................................3
Francisca Orellana, Chemistry Engineering, fourth level................................................................3
Eduardo Montecinos, Obstetrics student, second level.................................................................4
Research and Opinions.......................................................................................................................5
Food Engineering...........................................................................................................................5
Nursing...........................................................................................................................................5
Chemical Engineering.....................................................................................................................6
Obstetrics.......................................................................................................................................6
In our opinion…..................................................................................................................................7
Attachments.......................................................................................................................................8
VIDA DIARIA...................................................................................................................................8
1
Introduction

Four students were interviewed to become acquainted with their level of English
and their expectations about it in the future.
These students are from different programmes in USACH, they are in 2th, 4th and
5th level. They are studying Food Engineering, Chemistry Engineering, Nursing
and Obstetrics.

The interview consists of nine questions, focused on different aspects of their daily
lives concerning English and their use of it, and the English language in their future
jobs.

The purpose of this report is to share their different opinions, look for and suggest
ideas to improve their knowledge of ESP.

2
Review

Matias Miranda, Food Engineering student, fourth level.

He has an advanced level of English which uses daily, not only for entertainment,
but also to read reports and articles related to his university programme, Food
Engineering.

He considers that this L2 is essential for the development of his professional career
and within the scientific world because it is an universal language and according to
the mentioned, this articles, reports, research and market trends most recent
related to his field research are not translate to Spanish yet.

Two courses of English have been developed during his degree, he mentioned his
first subject was useful, his teacher was interested in teaching more than a basic
level of English, helping them to expand their abilities of speaking-listening,
however, the second subject was a disastrous experience because the contents
covered were similar to what he learned on secondary school, so he says they
should have had ESP courses. Finally, he said that hours of English classes were
not enough.

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Francisca Martinez, Nursing student, fifth level.

Her level of English is basic. She says that she does not use it her daily live and
that English is not necessary for her in her life or in her studies. However, she
knows that English is a useful tool for having better job opportunities. According
with her, she does not have English courses in the curriculum.

Francisca Orellana, Chemistry Engineering, fourth level.

Although she has a basic knowledge of English, she says that it is important and
necessary
for her university programme, which is Chemical Engineering. She had had 4
English courses and they had been a little useless, because the courses were
given by fourth year students with a b-learning method. This is the reason why she
had not learnt what she needed, in both, GE and ESP.

Nevertheless, she is interested in improving her level of English and she is thinking
about studying English in another institution.
Eduardo Montecinos, Obstetrics student, second level.

Obstetrics’ student, who has an intermediate level of English, told us that he uses
English frequently, for entertainment and read articles regarding his university
programme. This is an important language to him, because is useful to
communicate with foreign people, to read obstetrics’ scientific articles and also for
leisure activities.

When he was studying his bachelor’s degree, he had one English course. He said
that this course had been very useful because the teacher was focused on the
teaching several skills. This class was about GE. In his second English course, in
Obstetrics, it was similar to the first one.

He told us that acquire a second language, like English, is important, because it

can be help you to get degrees, to stay informed and to communicate with foreign
people.

4
Research and Opinions

Food Engineering

According to the curriculum of Food Engineering, they only have two English
subjects in the second year of the programme.

As his level of English is advanced, he doesn’t need GE, but he needs ESP. The
English courses he took didn’t help him with ESP, so he has to focus on that part.
Matias should learn some specific vocabulary related to his field, in order to
understand manuals, how new machines work.

Also, as an engineer, he is going to conduct meetings, talk on the phone, and

interact with colleagues, so he needs to speak a lot. Furthermore, he has to learn
how create presentations in English, send e-mails and read the latest research in
his field, so he needs to practice reading as well. Finally, he needs to practice
listening too, because he needs to understand what is being said in presentations
and different spoken interactions.

5
Nursing

According to our research, Nursery has just one English course, in the second
term. As her level of English is basic, she should begin studying GE.

Besides, in order to have better job opportunities she needs to learn ESP in her
area. So, Francisca should learn specific vocabulary related to her field, so she can
understands manuals and new machines’ instructions. She needs to practice
reading, because she is going to need it to understand and use computers,
different types of software and also to read recent articles in her field.. In order to
interact with patients and their relatives, she is going to need practise speaking.
Chemical Engineering

According to the curriculum of Chemical Engineering, they only have four courses
of GE. Therefore we propose increase the hours of English courses but focus on
ESP, because they as engineers need a increase understanding of the specific
topic related to their field.

A Chemical Engineer deals with the engineering of chemicals, energy and the
processes that create and/or convert them. they mixed natural sciences with math.
Because of it we propose focus the ESP course with special focus on the
vocabulary related to science e.g. different chemical elements, the different
laboratory instruments, language about math such as symbols. The activities
during the courses will be focused on different areas: reading, because she will
need to read scientific articles related to her subject; Writing, because she will have
to write different type of documents such as articles, reports, etc.; speaking and
listening in order to improve the way she communicates with other colleagues.

Obstetrics
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The curriculum of Obstetrics denotes two English courses during the first level of
the programme, which are about General English.

To improve his ESP, we suggest some activities about Speaking, because he has
to communicate with his patients, other doctors, with his secretary to set a date,
call patients, ask for things that he is going to need like examinations, articles, etc.

Also, activities about Reading, because he said that he has to read a lot of articles,
reports and papers regarding his professional career, even that he does it now,
these activities will improve his understanding and reading comprehension.

In our opinion…
It was a very interesting activity because we had to research about the different
programmes of every interviewee, not only the curriculum but also the specific job
they do.

Learning about every different programme and what we can do to improve their
knowledge of ESP was a difficult but very useful work, because we had to analyze
their points of view in relation to what they think and know about English and
search for suggestions and ideas to increase their English level and help them to
find better job opportunities in their professional career.

Every programme has different needs depending on the job they will do, e.g. one
professional could need to improve his reading and writing skill because his career
is mostly related to write and read documents rather than speaking or listening.
And we realize that for us is necessary to know about what we have to teach in
different professional careers, and how teach those contents.

Attachments
VIDA DIARIA

1- En tu vida diaria utilizas el inglés?

2- ¿Qué nivel de inglés consideras que posees?

Avanzado

Intermedio

Básico

Nulo

3- ¿Para qué usas el inglés? por ejemplo ves películas, escuchas música, lees en inglés,
juegas videojuegos en inglés, etc.?
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4- Crees que es necesario el inglés en tu día a día? ¿Por qué?

5- ¿Consideras que el inglés es importante? ¿Por qué?

COMO ESTUDIANTES
Carrera: _____________________

6- Cuántos cursos de inglés tienes que tomar en el transcurso de la carrera?

Menciona detalles acerca del curso en sí, los profesores, si fue útil, etc. Tienes/tuviste
cursos de inglés que estuvieran enfocados a tu carrera? Te enseñaron lenguaje técnico
con respecto a esta?

Si tienen ramos de inglés: ¿Crees que la cantidad de horas es suficiente?

7- Después de que termines la carrera y te gradúes, para qué crees que puedas necesitar
el inglés en tu trabajo?

8- El inglés ¿es útil para los profesionales de tu área? ¿Por qué?

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