An Analysis of the English language needs of veterinary medicine students at Selçuk University

Abstract

ABSTRACT Title: An analysis of the English language needs of veterinary medicine students at Selçuk University Author: Gencer Elkilic Thesis Chairperson: Ms. Patricia J. Brenner Bilkent University, MA TEFL Program Thesis Committee Members: Dr. Phyllis L. Lim, Dr. Arlene Clachar, Bilkent University, MA TEFL Program This study attempted to determine the English language needs of the students of veterinary medicine at Selçuk University. English language courses in the Faculty of Veterinary Medicine are taught by using the grammar-translation method without taking the language needs of the students into consideration. Although, students need English in order to read journals, magazines, and research papers published in English, they are not taught to develop skills required to do so. This is due to the fact that the English language teachers offer English courses to students who are specializing in physics, geography, engineering biology and so forth. Thus, teachers are not very well aware of the special needs of students in each specialized area. In order to carry out this study, 67 students, 15 subject professors, and 5 English language teachers were given questionnaires which were designed to elicit information on students' language needs. Students' version of the questionnaire consisted of 22 items, subject professors' version 16, and language teachers' 17. All groups were requested to rank the four language skills according to importance. Reading was unanimously selected as the most important skill. There were of mixed opinions concerning the importance of the other three skills. Listening, however, was considered to be the second most important. The students, subjectprofessors, and language teachers also stated that reading was important in order to be able to understand scholarly journals, magazines, and, reports as well as to be able to translate materials from English into Turkish. Based on these results, the researcher made recommendations for improving the present English language curriculum at Selçuk University.