Innovative Academic Materials for Strong Professional Communication: Tailor made English for Specific Purposes (ESP) course for the Medical Students in Bangladesh

Abstract

Materials influence learning a second or foreign language strongly. While relevant, appropriate materials enhance language learning, irrelevant, difficult, ambiguous materials destroy its prospect. Developing Materials for English for Specific Purposes (ESP) course is an innovative and complicated task. ESP ensures designing syllabus and developing materials to meet learners’ needs. For a particular profession, the learners need specific materials designing to develop and practice English language skills. The paper will reflect how to develop English language materials for the medical students in Bangladesh. Medical students seem to have problems in each of the skills of language- listening, speaking, reading, and writing. Most of the newly admitted students cannot follow the lectures delivered in English. They cannot grasp the meaning of the questions and for this reason cannot answer properly. They hesitate to speak in English. When they read, they suffer from the lack of adequate vocabulary, correct pronunciation, intonation and stress. When they attempt to write, they face various sorts of problems. It is evident from the current research that medical students, like all other domain specific learners of tertiary level, are more motivated by the text of their own area of study. An English language course furnished with medical terms and situations can help them to be more enthusiastic in learning and thus more communicatively competent. The paper will highlight the experience of implementing a successful tailor made course with an optimism that if we redesign every domain specific English language courses at tertiary level we can ensure sound professional communicative competence.