IN-SERVICE ESP TEACHER TRAINING NEEDS

A large scale and longitudinal ESP teacher education needs analysis was conducted in Slovenia from 2004 to 2006. The framework focused on three different levels of analysis: a) analysis of the environment and organization, h) analysis of individual learning needs, and c) analysis of work (occupation) and the competences/abilities of the teacher. This article reports on the occupational level analysis that was carried out among two different groups of respondents involved in ESP teaching. These were ESP practising teachers in secondary professional/vocational schools and ESP practising teachers in non-linguistic faculties/departments, The main aim of the study was to evaluate 33 competences/abilities, in which teachers assessed there importance and current level of competency. The results indicated that in addition to linguistic competences there are additional competences that are of vital importance for the effective teaching of ESP, especially in the domain of special didactics. Furthermore, the results show that the gaps between the target and present situation teachers' perceptions still remain medium or large in the majority of competences, which calls for the renewal of ESP teacher training programmes.