A COMPARATIVE ANALYSIS OF THE DEEP CONTENT-BASED ESP TEXTBOOK TO BALANCED ESP: THE CASE OF BUSINESS ENGLISH

Abstract

This article will discuss the significant importance of ESP textbooks evaluation used in tertiary level of studies. Particularly, there is a dilemma to what degree should disciplinary content-based materials dominate the classroom language? Another follow-up question related to the first one is - How does deep disciplinary-tailored books impact the language performance and attitude of undergraduate students? In order to seek for a convincing and feasible answer to such questions, this paper will conduct a comparative analysis of the Business English undergraduate course offered to students of Faculty of Economics and Business at the English speaking international university – EPOKA University in Tirana, Albania. The paper will be carried out by utilizing a mixed research method of content textual analysis with the observation and survey findings through the comparative case study of two ESP textbooks taught at Epoka University. The paper will also rely on comparison of the results by the students’ survey regarding their attitudes and feedback to the course in terms of usefulness of class textbooks. This article aims to demonstrate that deep integration of the very sophisticated and technical business content does not motivate learners, does not improve and/or accelerate their Business English potentials. Instead, it turns to be tiring, inefficient and disincentive to students’ learning process ;whereas the flexibility and the user-friendliness of the ESP business English book driven by the goal of building communicative business English and functional linguistic skills turns to be the most successful and inspiring textbook approach.