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Implementing courseware as the primary mode of task-based ESP instruction: a case study of EFL students

The study reports on implementing self-developed English for specific purposes (ESP) courseware for technology industries in an elective course, “English reading for technology,” offered to junior students of English as a foreign language in a technical university in southern Taiwan. Courseware implementation was combined with a sustained-content language teaching (SCLT) approach and a task-based learning (TBL) approach was adopted. The course mainly focused on vocabulary, listening, and reading comprehension. Evaluation of implementing these information and communication technologies (ICTs) in ESP instruction was based upon data from a variety of pre-tests and post-tests including cloze, dictation, essay writing, and Q&A tests. The courseware not only provided learning materials for the target ESP, but also offered content-based and linguistic learning activities with corresponding instant self-evaluation. These features offered by the courseware both corresponded to the duel focus of the SCLT approach, and provided a model for developing an ESP courseware. Also, a teacher-centered instruction of the same subject matter was conducted with a control group. Students self-studying with the ESP courseware made as much progress as those that elected teacher-centered instruction. Most students were satisfied with the courseware-implemented ESP instruction combined with the SCLT and TBL approaches.