Pedagogical Challenges of ESP Teachers in Albania

Abstract

The aim of the present study is to identify past and present pedagocical challenges that ESP teachers face in Albania. The data was gathered through an online survey composed of 15 questions through which were identified different aspects of ESP teachers’ job in some higher education institutions in Albania. The identified issues were partly expected as there are no educational specilised courses offering training and formation of ESP teachers, instead they have been mostly trained and graduated as GE teachers and have taken personal and private training to accomodate their teaching skills into the setting of a specific institution where they teach English to students of specific fields with specific needs imposed by the field of study and professional requirements needed for future employment. Apart pedagocical issues ESP teachers have to deal with linguistic challenges at the start of their job because they might have limited knowledge of the core subjects and key terminology characterizing that branch of study whose students the teacher is teaching. Thus, many challenges and issues, both pedagogical and lingustic, were identified as well as some recomandations were given by the 18 teachers and lecturers who responded the survey.

DOI: 10.5901/ajis.2015.v4n3s1p489