Considerations of General College English: Issues and Solutions

This study explores a rationale for introducing English for College Specific Purposes (ECSP) to bridge the gap between College English (CE) - that is, English for General Purposes (EGP) - and English Medium Instruction (EMT), by raising several considerations for a successful implementation of ECSP. For this purpose, issues that have emerged from EGP and EMl courses are studied based on a literature review including English for academic purposes and college English in a broader manner. From this literature review, this study developed the concept of ECSP and the main factors that cause the gap between EGP and EML The main difficulty with CE is that it has little academic content connection to students' particular disciplines. Factors involved with EMl are content load and linguistic load; they have been found to be too high for university students. To solve these issues, this study suggests that an ECSP course needs to be employed as a part of a general college education program and as a transitional course between the two. For the successful implementation of the ECSP, several ideas must be considered: course objectives, the language medium, the allocation of course time, the appropriate level of language and content, and the training and selection of teachers for the ECSP.