THE EFFECTIVENESS OIF A PROPOSED ESP PROGRAM IN DEVELOPING SOME LANGUAGE SKILLS AMONG KINDERGARTEN DEPARTMENT STUDENTS AT FACULTIES OF EDUCATION

Abstract

The ultimate atm of teaching a foreign language is to enable learners to use it for authentic communication. To help foreign language learners achieve communicative competence in the four language skills, many methodologists and researchers have proposed and advocated explicit and systematic training in learning. The positive effect of such training on language skills has been empirically supported (O'Mally & Chamot, 1990: 170; Dornyei, 1995: 55).

The concept of how English language should be taught and learnt has been rapidly changing over the last three decades in compliance with the development and progress made in areas of science and technology. As a consequence, linguists, psycholinguists, sociolinguists and educationalists have carried out many studies and research to find out and employ proper techniques in the area of teaching English as a foreign language (EFL), a branch of which came to be known as English for Specific Purposes (ESP). Traditional programs of English language teaching seem to have failed to achieve the objectives aimed at. Thus, there was a need to look for an alternative that caters for the needs of learners and the need of sponsors, "ESP is an approach to English language teaching which aims to meet the needs of particular learners" (Hutchinson& Waters, 1987:21). The ESP approach seems to be a potential alternative. In English language teaching, it might be necessary to distinguish between two types of programs: English for General Purposes (EGP) and English for Specific Purposes (ESP). The first is the type embodied in