IDENTIFYING THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE NEEDS OF HYDRAULICS ENGINEERS: BRIDGING THE GAP BETWEEN ESP ACADEMIC STUDIES AND PROFESSIONAL NEEDS

Abstract

The need to use English in diverse professional domains is increasingly growing throughout the world.  Therefore, a Needs Analysis approach is deemed wise to design English for Specific Purposes courses that not only cater for students’ academic needs but their target professional requirements as well. Accordingly, the present study attempts to identify hydraulics engineers’ use of English as well as the skills and competencies they need in their workplace settings. It also aims at reducing the gap that currently exists between academic studies and engineers’ needs in professional life. Therefore, data were gathered from 50 engineers working in different hydraulics settings by means of a questionnaire in which both quantitative and qualitative methods were employed. The results demonstrated that the most important language skill for hydraulics engineers is speaking; meanwhile, it constitutes the most problematic aspect in communication. The findings also revealed that the English courses they had at the tertiary level did not succeed in meeting their academic nor professional needs. The study also elicited some suggestions from the participants to make those courses more effective and relevant to hydraulics professional settings in Algeria.

Keywords: English for Specific Purposes, English for Engineering Purposes, Hydraulics engineers, Needs Analysis