Abstract:

Communicative approaches in English language teaching (ELT) have changed the concept of traditional teaching. The perception of a foreign language (FL) as a means of communication lead to a development of an English for specific purposes (ESP). ESP teaching is carried out only at universities in Slovakia. Thus, our interest aimed at the possibility of applying ESP in Slovak secondary vocational education with a special focus on gastronomy and services in tourism. This area has recently become more important due to the current situation influenced by the COVID-19 pandemic. In this context, it is necessary to reconsider the teaching of English as FL and to focus on the specific needs of students with regard to their future profession. ESP teaching materials are authentic, related to student’s future profession what makes them attractive to students and increases their intrinsic motivation to learn FL. It is assumed that ESP in secondary vocational schools increases effectiveness of the FL acquisition. The aim of the study is to determine the impact of ESP teaching on English language acquisition of students studying at a secondary vocational school. In our paper, we focuse on the possibilities of applying ESP with an emphasis on specific professional vocabulary as well as appropriate teaching methods and approaches that would make ELT more effective. We analyzed available applied teaching materials from the point of view of the ESP approach, student’ communicative competence and performance. A total number of 30 students were divided into two groups of 15 students per class. Students that participated at our research were in final years of their study at secondary vocational school. The field of their study is focused on gastronomic services. Class one (experimental group) was taught through ESP, the class two (control group) was taught in the traditional way. We performed qualitative and quantitative research. Data on the results of our research came from several sources (essay writing, direct observation of the teaching, interview, questionnaire). The conclusions drawn from this research will be innovative for teaching English as FL in Slovakia. Due to current epidemiological situation associated with the COVID-19 pandemic caused by the SARS-Cov-2 virus, we conducted part of our research in an online environment.

Keywords:

English for specific purposes, vocational education, communicative competence, intrinsic motivation, questionnaire.