Interdisciplinary Approach to Teaching ESP: Problem-Based Assignment and Students’ Feedback

Abstract

The topicality of the research lies in the fact that there is some discrepancy between
the demands of the technical workforce market and the pure linguistic approach ESP
teachers usually take in teaching practices. Thus, language studies sometimes lack
interdisciplinary issues. The aim of the research is to observe and compare the existing
interdisciplinary methods and approaches, decide which of them are the most
appropriate in the context of teaching ESP and assess the application of the methods
in the classroom through students’ feedback and teacher’s observation techniques. The
paper focuses on such didactic issues as teacher’s participation in students’ activities,
students’ autonomy, professional competencies development, motivation, and
adequacy of language input in problem-based assignments. Except research in
methodological approaches in ESP studies, the paper also presents a sociological
perspective expressed as qualitative and quantitative results. The experiment on
application of problem-based assignments proves their relevance to ESP studies. As a
result, students’ motivation and autonomy as well as professional aspects of
communication are enhanced. As for language input, thematic correspondence and
vocabulary extension largely improve students’ subject-specific knowledge and skills.
Grammar and phonetics were found to be weak points of language studies and are to
be more proficiently integrated into such tasks. In general, the method of problembased assignments described and evaluated in the article has proved its in-built
interdisciplinary nature and positive impact on students’ professional activities and
learning strategies.