The Study On Dilemma And Overcoming Strategies For ESP Teacher Development

With the rapid economic development both at home and abroad in recent years andfacing the current domestic situation of the poor need for ESP (English for SpecialPurposes) education, a part of ESP teachers are already exploring ways out, i.e.,conducting researches in actions. They reflect on the practical teaching activities, try todiscover, analyze and solve problems and identify new problems in the process throughreflection so as to improve the ESP teaching.This paper, by consulting a large amount of related researches in the areas ofpredicaments and countermeasures in teachers’ development, attempts to study thedilemmas appeared in the development of ESP teachers in higher institutions and thecorresponding strategies, with the methods of case studies and classroom observations,so as to find out the development strategies for the transition fromESP-characteristic-based language teachers to ESP teachers.This paper consists of five parts:The first part is the introduction. This part mainly introduces the studybackgrounds, purposes and significances of this study, the study object, the innovationsand the research contents.The second part is the definition of some important concepts, and a literaturereview.The third part is the study methods. This study in accordances with qualitative dateanalysis mode of Freeman, analyzes the data collected, generalizes the classroomobservation notes and recording scripts and makes constant comparisons.The forth part is the results and discussion. The obstructive dilemmas appeared inthe ESP teachers development. The result of this study shows the following externalfactors:1) higher institutions teachers are overloaded by teaching and researching tasks,which leavers little time for them to develop their own professional development;2) thefeedback from students is insufficient so that teachers lack guidance from students;3)there is little research done by the preceding scholars so there is not enough experienceand fruits that contemporary teachers can draw;4) the rank of ESP classes is not highand teachers are lack of external supporting. The internal dilemmas primarily include:1)teachers are affected by their tiredness of occupation;2) their previous mind-setnegatively influences the newly ESP teachers;3) some teachers are lack of perseverance so that it is very hard for them to persist.And then, the interview outline on the basis of the above-mentioned dilemmas andfour ESP teachers are selected to be interviewed for the second time. From the analysisof the interview data, the author proposes the following corresponding solutions toovercome the obstructive factors that encounter the ESP teachers:1) It is theprerequisite to arouse the self-awareness of teachers.2) It is recommended to establish astudy-oriented group to provide a supporting external environment for the developmentof ESP teachers.3) It is suggested to develop teachers in practice, with the study of theschool-based action research as primary means.4) Putting the students first and pushingahead actively introspective “teaching” and “leaning”.5) Steering away frominsufficiency of external supporting environment for the development of ESP teacherand blaze a trail to develop teachers; meanwhile, this paper can bring someenlightenments for course management leaders and teachers in other higher intuitions.The fifth part is the conclusion, which sums up this paper and raises the possiblefollow-up study.