Analysis on Professional Development of English for Specific Purposes Teachers at a Medical University in China: Problems and Strategies

Abstract

The acceleration of economic globalization and world integration has greatly promoted the development of English for Specific Purposes (ESP). In China, institutions of higher education bear the heavy responsibility of cultivating ESP professionals. And the professional development of ESP teachers is closely related to the quality of ESP professional cultivation. Therefore, it is particularly important to pay attention to the professional development of ESP teachers in universities. In view of this, this article takes the professional development of ESP teachers in universities as the research theme, ESP teachers from a medical university in China as the main research object, and questionnaire survey as the data collection strategy to investigate the structure of teaching staff, industry experience and training, teaching, scientific research, and self-identity of ESP teachers, etc. Based on this, the professional development problems of ESP teachers in the medical university are summarized and the development strategies are proposed. Through analysis, this article finds that ESP teachers face many difficulties and problems in the process of their professional development: the need to optimize the structure of teaching staff; the Lack of industry experience and the need to improve awareness of participating in training; the unsatisfactory teaching effect; the relatively narrow research field; the low sense of self-identity, etc. In response to the above problems, this article proposes some practical strategies: optimizing the structure of teaching staff; strengthen the training awareness and industry experience; expand the research field; increase policy support for ESP teachers, and so on. This article aims to contribute to the professional development of ESP teachers to enrich the professional development theories, and help the policy makers and teacher educators understand the needs of ESP teachers to better promote their professional development.