Technical Words Instruction by ESP Teachers: Types and Strategies

Abstract

This work examines the beliefs and practices of the ESP Teachers about using direct and/or indirect teaching of English Technical Vocabulary (ETV) items in a Saudi Arabian Industrial college called Yanbu Industrial College (YIC). It also aims to discover the specific vocabulary teaching strategies VTS they use to achieve their instructional goals. The study is qualitative in nature under the case study tradition. Six ESP Teachers (ESPTs) were interviewed to understand their beliefs regarding the directness and/or indirectness of ETV items instruction and to list the strategies they employ towards this endeavor. The study found that ESPTs stated that they directly and frequently use the following strategies: definitions, exemplifications and recycling. These three strategies, according to all the ESPTs interviewed, are used jointly most of the time to directly present the meaning of novel ETV items. Some strategies were also reported to be used instead of some other techniques due to different reasons. The study suggested some educational implications and recommended experts in the area of L2 vocabulary instruction to carry out future scrutiny to understand this topic from different dimensions.