专门用途英语教师可持续性发展的实证研究——以上海电力学院为例

ESP Teachers' Sustainable Development: An Empirical Investigation——A Case Study of Shanghai University of Electric Power

在具有鲜明行业背景的本科院校中,有必要开设专门用途英语课程,开设成功与否关键在于ESP教师的发展。探讨如何实现ESP教师的可持续性发展,采用半结构访谈法,调查和分析上海电力学院四位大学英语教师不愿继续从事电力英语课程教学的深层原因。结果表明,除了缺乏扶持措施以及激励机制外,原因还在于电力英语课程教学本身具有的复杂性。其中最具挑战的因素不是电力专业知识的欠缺,而是由于ESP的特征而呈现出教学的不确定性。鉴于该学院出现的教师发展中的问题,从ESP教师个人发展和群体的支撑辅助方面提出相应解决措施,以利于教师可持续性的发展。

In universities with distinctive industry background, it is necessary to open ESP courses. The key to its success lies in ESP teachers＇ development. The present study investigated how to achieve sustainable development for ESP teachers, adopting the empirical research method of the semi- structured interview. The underlying reasons were explored and analyzed why four college English teachers in Shanghai University of Electric Power failed to continue teaching electric power English courses. The results showed that, in addition to the lack of external supportive measures and incentives, the complexity of teaching electric power English courses was the main reason. The inadequacy of knowledge about electric power was not the most challenging among the teaching factors. The most difficult factor in ESP teaching turned out to be uncertainty of ESP teaching. In view of the problems in teachers＇ development, the author proposed some corresponding measures to facilitate the teachers＇ sustainable development by means of two channels： ESP teacher＇s personal endeavor and implementation of group support and assistance.