Abstract:

The research explored ESP (English for Specific Purposes) tertiary teachers’ perception of their cross-disciplinary competence that is decisive for effective ESP teaching to engineering students. ESP teachers from Russian engineering universities (n=182) participated in qualitative study by means of purpose-made self-assessment questionnaires using Likert scale.

The analysis of the completed questionnaires revealed that the respondents admitted:
1) having deficit of contemporary cross-disciplinary methodology integrating foreign language and specific content of engineering disciplines (CLIL- Content Language Integrated Learning),
2) having poor or no skills of using scaffolding techniques to facilitate students’ acquisition of both language and content when teaching English for specific (engineering) purposes,
3) scarce practicing cross-disciplinary collaboration with the teaching staff of engineering departments.

The obtained results served as a tool of reflection for ESP teacher trainers who have designed and successfully implemented an in-service professional development syllabus aimed at improving ESP tertiary teachers’ cross-disciplinary competence.

Keywords:

English for Specific Purposes, Content Language Integrated Learning, ESP teachers' professional development.