ANALYSIS OF ENGLISH FOR SPECIFIC PURPOSES MATERIALS: SPORTS SCIENCES AND PSYCHOLOGY ESP MATERIALS IN THE EFL CLASSROOM

Abstract

English as a Foreign Language (EFL) has become the course that most universities have decided to include in their curricula due to the necessity of acquiring English for their future careers in the globalized world we are living nowadays. In order to expand the knowledge of students, at the Universidad Europea del Atlántico – a private university based in Cantabria, Spain – three sessions of English for Specific Purposes (ESP) have been included in the subjects of EFL as part of the compulsory curricula of the different degrees offered. The aim of the present study was to analyze the degree of usefulness and appropriateness of the designed ESP sessions for the degrees in Sports Sciences and Psychology – which are mixed in the English classroom – through the design of a rubric that could check their validity for both the level of English and the level of knowledge in these specific topics for these students in their second academic year at university. The main conclusion was that the degree of relevance, utility and usefulness of the ESP materials taught depends on the teacher, his/her degree of implication, knowledge, and strategies he/she uses when creating these materials.