Lecturers’ practices in developing English for specific purposes (ESP) tests for engineering students / Norkhairi Ahmad

Developing English language tests is one of the specific routines undertaken by language lecturers as essential part of course requirements of assessing the achievement and abilities of language learners. This qualitative study via interpretive-phenomenographic approaches on fourteen English language lecturers teaching ESP courses at eight universities offering engineering programmes aims to investigate their practices of developing ESP tests, examine the aspects governing their practices and determine the extent to which the practices and the tests developed meet recommended ESP models. The research questions guiding this study investigate the lecturers’ test development practices, probe their reasons for adopting the practices and explore whether the practices reflect current testing practices, current factors considered, testing constraints or challenges faced and personal testing views upheld. Interviews were conducted to explore the practices of developing tests for the ESP courses and it also probed factors considered, guidelines followed, challenges encountered and beliefs upheld by the lecturers. All interviews were recorded; transcribed, coded and analysed for emerging themes. Case studies on six lecturers at two universities were also undertaken to further probe contextual factors via the lecturers’ self-reflection on their test practices and triangulated information from documents analysis of ESP course outlines, examination guidelines and test papers. The findings unearthed complex realities of lecturers’ practices where they have to grapple with issues at systemic or macro level in the engineering programmes and their attempts to address challenges engulfing the ESP testing tasks are guided by existing ESP knowledge, longstanding beliefs and views on language testing that present varying degrees of conformity, ingenuity and divergence when juxtaposed to best practices in ESP testing. Underneath these realities are issues of students’ lack of English proficiency, Outcome Based Education buy-in and mismatch of ESP course content and delivery with students’ actual needs. Prevalent at the lecturers’ workplaces is the work in silos symptom lacking in relational agency with engineering colleagues and stakeholders in obtaining authentic input on language specificity for the ESP courses. Despite top-down regulations and guidelines introduced to enhance governance and quality academic practices, the lecturers still have to mitigate the challenges in developing ESP tests. Albeit being adept at executing routine testing tasks, the lingering issues create a certain degree of uncertainty among the lecturers whether the ESP grades obtained by the students via the tests reflect their actual language abilities and skills attained. The study suggests that successful ESP test practices are linked to the awareness of the ESP principles within the contextual realities that surround the ESP courses, the lecturers, the students and the academic fraternity. An integrated multi-dimensional framework incorporating an institutional language policy called Collaborative ESP Testing Implementation Framework (CETIF) is also recommended for the successful managing of ESP matters.