مرکز منطقه ای اطلاع رساني علوم و فناوري - The Effects of Content Based Instruction on Academic Success of Students in the English for Specific Purposes Courses in Tertiary Level

Abstract :

Educational globalization, students’ needs and business expectations have led to various changes in theory and implementations of foreign language teaching. These changes have given rise to English for Specific Purposes in the field of foreign language teaching. However the problems about teaching foreign language caused by especially developing syllabuses have brought about failures. This study aims to determine the extent of the effects of English for specific purposes syllabus based on Theme-based teaching model of Content Based Instruction on the students academic success in their foreign language skills and knowledge in the related subject area. In this study, pre-test – post-test control group design of experimental model was conducted. The sample of this research is constituted of the second grade students in the Computer Programming Department in Ahi Evran University Vocational Schools. An achievement test for English for specific purposes course was used as the data collection instrument of this research. In order to analyse the data, independent samples t-test was applied. One of the most important findings of the study is that the theme-based teaching model of the content-based teaching approach resulted in increasing the students academic success of the experiment group in the dimensions of foreign language skills and content knowledge and another one is that it caused important differences in the achievement points of students in terms of content knowledge and writing skills except for reading comprehension skills. In the light of all of the findings, the theme-based model and the content-based teaching approach should be taken advantage during curriculum development studies of English for Specific Purposes courses.