Assessing and Improving General English University Students＇ Main Sub-skills of Reading Compression： A Case of University of Bojnord

General English course at Iranian universities has always been a controversial issue since the students taking this course are rather weak in English proficiency and need more authentic instructions based on accurate need analysis. The materials applied in this course are mainly focused on reading comprehension. Thus, the purpose of the present study was to improve General English university students＇ main sub-skills of reading comprehension and see the effect of the possible changes in terms of time and the fields of study of the students. To do this, 168 university students taking General English course at university of Bojnord, including humanities, engineering, physical education, and sciences, received instruction on the main sub-skills of reading comprehension after taking a pre-test sample TOELF section of reading comprehension. After 16 sessions of 90 minute instruction, they took the post-test section of TOEFL sample of reading comprehension. Mixed between within subject analysis of variance was used to assess the impact of instruction for the four groups of students from pre-test to post-test. The findings of the study indicated that the effect of instruction in terms of time, from pre-test to post-test, and the interaction of time and fields of study were significant. Besides, changes for 10 sub-skills were the same among the four fields of study.

A COMPARATIVE STUDY OF BUSINESS ENGLISH MAJORS' GENERAL ENGLISH AND BUSINESS ENGLISH VOCABULARY LEARNING STRATEGIES

This thesis is based on O'Malley and Chamot's classification of L2 vocabulary learning strategies and other scholars' studies. Through a questionnaire, vocabulary tests, and interviews with business English learners, the author conducted an investigation into various kinds of vocabulary learning strategies employed by Business English majors in General English and Business English study. The subjects participating in this investigation are 95 third year Business English majors from our college. Detailed analyses of both the quantitative and qualitative data have yielded the findings: 1) The frequency of some General English learning strategies and Business English learning strategies employed by Business English majors coincides, but the difference between General English learning strategies and Business English learning strategies employed by the subjects is apparent. More English learning strategies are obviously used in General English learning than in Business English learning. 2) There is a certain correlation between vocabulary learning strategies and vocabulary size of General English and Business English, and capable Business English learners tend to positively transfer English learning strategies employed in General English learning into Business English learning. Based on analyses and results, the thesis suggests that Business English learners should be specially trained for English learning strategies. Specialized courses offered should be designed to help students without any professional knowledge organize mental schema associated with specific vocabularies, and to help specialized vocabularies enlarge rapidly. Business English learners can positively transfer General English learning strategies into Business English learning, and thereby smoothly transform General English learning into Business English learning.

From General Maritime English to Specific Maritime English-Some Thought on the Revision to the 2009 Edition of IMO Maritime English Model Course 3.17

This paper expresses some thought on the revision to the 2009 edition of IMO Maritime English Model Course 3.17. It starts with the changes and challenges that have occurred with the amendments of the STCW Convention at Manila, and goes on with the observations and considerations of the possible principles for the revision. The paper argues that since the requirements and recommendations set in the newly amended convention are more specific, the course should be revised accordingly in correspondence with the specific requirements set and the methodology of the instruction should be adjusted with orientation toward communication competence and specific tasks and duties of the seafarers in English.

Business English Teaching Reform in Vocational Colleges in China

Since the development of China's economy and the strengthening of globalization, China's international trade is increas-ingly thriving and the total volume of trade is growing as well. The country's demand for bilingual trade talents is increasing at the same time. As the result, it is necessary to make the reform and corresponding adjustments according to the training objectives of Business English curriculum in order to cultivate job-oriented and interdisciplinary trade talents that can meet the needs of mod-ern commercial society.

SOME GENERAL ASPECTS OF ENGLISH FOR SPECIFIC PURPOSES

The teaching of English for Specific Purposes has been in existence for over 30 years,and has beenprominence for more than 20 years,and is still in the ascendant.ESP teaching accounts for a consider-able proportion of the teaching of English as a foreign language in China.It is therefore necessary forus Chinese teacher s to know more about ESP.

The Search for Units of Meaning： The Case of Collocational Framework ＂the ＊ of＂

The concept of collocational framework has been put forward by Renouf and Sinclair in 1991, but few researchers have investigated on the construction of the units of meaning based on collocational framework. This study searched for the units of meaning of collocational framework ＂the ＊ of＇ employing Sinclair＇s lexical grammar model. The results show that collocational framework ＂the ＊ of＂ has its own lexical grammar features and can construct its units of meaning. The units of meaning form ＂Existences/Activities ＋ the ＋ Activities/Essences ＋ of ＋ Social Lives/Persons＂ sequence and express the ＂exist the activities or essences of social life and person＂ or ＂act the activities or essences of social life and person＂.