The Efficacy of the General English Program in Taking Major Related EMCs

Abstract

The purpose of the study was to investigate how effective the general English program was in students' taking major related English Medium Courses (EMCs). The study was conducted at A university and a female Korean professor, a male Native English Speaking Professor (NESP) who taught general English classes and 10 students who had taken general English classes participated. Students expressed difficulties they encountered in taking major-related EMCs through structured interviews and discussion sessions with professors and documents review were also carried out to understand how general English was taught and its efficacy in taking major related EMCs. The results revealed that students had a hard time in reading and listening to major-related terminology, writing a paper and expressing their ideas and opinions in spoken language. Unlike the aim of general education, the general English program did not play an effective role in students' taking major-related EMCs because half of the English program was taught in a discrete way.