Realistic Evaluation of ESP Curriculum Implementation

Abstract

English for specific purposes ESP is a language learning curriculum that is inherently more complex than general English. In higher educational contexts, ESP in the preparatory year programme targets equipping undergraduates with the needed language skills to pursue their academic studies. The specific carrier content in ESP requires English language teachers to expand their professional profile to include knowledge about the specialist field. This study is concerned with evaluating ESP programme through understanding how the processes of curriculum implementation work to enable language teachers to tackle the challenge of fulfilling the learning goals in ESP. Current research on the evaluation of ESP programmes commonly measures the effectiveness of a programme in terms of its achieved learning outcomes. In contrast, the present study aims to evaluate an ESP programme in Saudi Arabia using a Realist Evaluation (RE) framework. RE was initially developed by Pawson and Tilley (1997), who argued that measuring the end product of an intervention, in this case, an educational programme, does not help us to understand why a specific programme worked or did not work for specific agents and in specific institutions. RE studies, therefore, investigate the causal mechanisms (M)—in the present study, this includes teachers’ reasoning that operates in this particular context (C) and leads to particular outcomes (O). The current study, therefore, asks in the first instance how the programme was conceptualised and meant to work by programme leads and designers (initial programme theories) and what kind of resources were designated to trigger generative responses for the desired outcomes. These theories are tested through teachers’ theorisation of their practice within the context and in response to the provided resources. From here, we return to the initial programme theories to refine them with the aim of developing models of practice in the ESP programme. Substantive theories within Csikszentmihalyi’s (1990) flow framework were then sought with a view to future incorporation into other educational contexts. The findings demonstrate that realist evaluation methodology can accommodate the complexity of ESP curriculum implementation and provide practical implications for improving the implementation process. Theorising the embedded practices helped to uncover hidden causal mechanisms located in participants’ reactions and responses to the resources that resulted from interactions with the structure and the professional community. To develop a conducive work environment for ESP teacher engagement, supportive resources that enhance flow state, such as challenge-skill balance, clear goals, and exercising control, would help ESP teachers to be totally immersed in achieving the intended learning objectives and to execute the required efforts to achieve them. The study suggests that promoting the sources of efficacy (Bandura,1997), such as activate mastery, vicarious experience, and managing affective states, may support pragmatic schemes targeting conducive ESP teaching context.