The Demands and Expectations in ESP Adult Teaching: English for BBA Executives

Teachers often adopt a particular teaching and learning approach in their classes to ensure that effective learning takes place. It is assumed that teaching working adults would require the teachers to indirectly adopt an approach that suits the learners. Knowles (1978) theorized that adult learners have distinct and unique characteristics and therefore require continual opportunities to identify their needs and recognize the relevance of their learning (Knowles,1978, Zemke & Zemke, 1981). They need self directed learning opportunities in which they can actively participate. A learner-centred approach is commonly practiced in ESP classes in order to cater to learners' needs and expectations. This paper attempts to make recommendations on the feasible use of IT approach in its material use to enhance the quality of teacher expertise based on an investigation on the course effectiveness of Public Speaking to BBA executives. The data gathered is based on an investigation on the effectiveness of the teaching and learning of a Public Speaking course to a group of working adult students. We had interviewed four instructors who were involved in teaching a course on Public speaking to a group of BBA executives. Questionnaires were also distributed to the learners to mainly investigate their perceptions of the approach used by their instructors and the effectiveness of the present module in general. FUZIRAH BT. HASHIM * ARTICLES l i-manager’s Journal o Vol. No. 1 2006 l f Educational Technology, 3 April June 11 teaching adults would require a different approach compared to teaching children and adolescents is attributed to Knowles who argues that the more traditional pedagogical model is not suitable for use with adults. Furthermore, today's theories about learning and instruction for adults assume that: ·Adults are self directed in their learning ·Adults have reservoirs of experience that serve as resources as they learn ·Adults are practical, problem-solving-oriented learners Adults want their learning to be immediately applicable to their lives ·Adults want to know why something needs to be learned. (M.A.Cunningham & M Burt:October2001) With these principles in mind, teachers are somehow challenged to adopt a particular teaching and learning approach in handling the adult learners to result in a more meaningful and effective learning. As claimed by Auerbach (1992) quoted from Holt (1995), Knowles and other educators maintain that adult education is most effective when it is “experience centred, related to learners' real needs, and directed by learners themselves”. However, it is interesting to note that Garrison (1994) in Abu Bakar et al (2000) claims that adult education is essentially the same process as education generally and therefore does not warrant a separate teaching approach. All these theories and beliefs orbit in the region of ESL context, i.e. the teaching of English as a Second Language to adult learners. Nevertheless, educators also need to look into the teaching of English Language courses to adult learners, which are of ESP (English for Specific Purposes) in nature. In the case of this study, the researchers intend to investigate the kind of challenges faced by instructors who teach a Public Speaking course to a group of working adult learners. The fact that they are working adults may impose an even greater challenge on the part of the teacher. Thus, the objectives of this study are to investigate the challenges encountered by these ESP practitioners and the approach they adopt to deal with the challenges. This study also probes the students' perception of the teacher factor in its contribution towards the effectiveness of the course. It is hoped that the results and the discussion of this research would contribute towards a more effective approach in teaching ESP working adults. In response to the Government's call to have more graduates among the working professionals, the Faculty of Business Administration (FPP), UKM, in 1996, introduced two new three-year programmes. The programmes are known as the Bachelor of Business Administration for Executives (BBA-E) and the Bachelor of Accounting for Executives (BAC-E). They are offered to working adults, specifically executives who are interested to pursue their studies at a tertiary level and to provide opportunities to the executives to obtain a degree without having to leave their jobs. These learners have to work during the day and attend academic classes at night, which is the nature of these BBA programmes. Moreover, they bring with them job experiences which may pose a challenge to the instructors. Thus, it would be interesting to explore how these instructors cope with the teaching of the working adults and the approaches they use to overcome the challenges involved. It is the researchers' opinion that it would be interesting to study this group of learners, as they are different from the normal population of campus students. As Strzlka (1988) says: “Adult learners differ from other age groups in respect to their learning experience, memory type, motivation and most of all, in respect to their needs and expectations”. Haverkamp (1983) supports this by saying, ”there are individual differences in motivations, goals, experience, moral and cognitive development, academic preparation, intelligence, initiative, employment background, skill levels and sophistication. ” Data Two methods were adopted to obtain data for this study; interviews and questionnaire survey. The sample for the interviews comprised four experienced instructors teaching the Public Speaking course, two females and two males, each with more than ten years of teaching experience. These instructors have experienced teaching the BBA-E and ARTICLES i-manager’s Journal o l l f Educational Technology, Vol. 3 No. 1 April June 2006 12 BAC-E students as well as the normal population of students on campus. The teachers were interviewed between half an hour to one hour each and their responses were recorded. Two main aspects were discussed in the interview, which were the challenges faced by them in teaching the working adults and the approaches adopted in class to deal with the challenges. As for the questionnaire survey, the sample consisted of 62 working adult learners from both the BBA-E and BAC-E programmes. They were given the questionnaire at the end th of the course that is on the 14 week of the semester. The questionnaire consisted of 4 sections: A. Student's Biodata B. Course Effectiveness C. Class Activities D. Teacher-Student Relationship The questions for the Student's Biodata section included background information on student's age, sex, occupation and qualifications. As for the course effectiveness section, it sought detailed information about the learner's improvement in public speaking skills namely voice control, body language, ability to generate ideas (content) and language. There was also a question on characteristics that have made the course interesting. The next section requested for the learner's opinion on the class activities while the last section dealt with teacherstudent relationship. There was also an open-ended question whereby the learners were asked to give their views on the characteristics of an ideal instructor. The Challenges Faced By The Instructors Student Expectations Generally, the students are between 25 – 45 years old and they all have working experiences ranging from various disciplines and organisations. These students expect new knowledge and expect the instructors to deliver the knowledge to them. In other words, the expectations rest in the content of the course and the instructor's delivery of the content. Thus, students' expectations appear as the most obvious challenge as according to all the instructors, the moment they walk into the class they can already sense the expectation the students have of them. Student Attitude Instructors find that the BBA students are confident regardless of their proficiency level. They also find that the students are more compelled to do well in the course so as to achieve good grades as this would affect their results and indirectly their chances of performing well in their workplace. Due to their confidence and enthusiasm, they are naturally willing to participate in class discussions and are often ready to ask questions on matters that arouse their curiosity. Hence, the instructors believe that the students generally have positive attitude towards learning at the start of the course with a higher level of motivation as compared to the normal population. Teacher Credibility Instructors agree that the students sometimes test their knowledge on the subject matter. This is due to students' realization that instructors do not have the 'hands on' experience and the instructors themselves are aware of it too. Therefore, there maybe instances whereby students may challenge the input given by the instructors by relating or bringing in their workplace practice in which the instructors need to deal with. One of the teachers revealed that her students would bring in samples of their workplace tasks to show the teachers and to compare them with the input that the instructors had delivered.