ENGLISH LANGUAGE COURSE SYLLABUS DESIGN FOR B.SC. AGRICULTURE DEGREE PROGRAMME AT AGRICULTURAL UNIVERSITIES IN MAHARASHTRA

Authors

  • Sarap N. S. Assistant Professor, College of Agriculture, DBS Konkan Krishi Vidyapeeth (Agricultural University), Dapoli, 415712, Maharashtra, India,

Keywords:

Syllabus design, Needs, Needs analysis, Agriculture, ESP

Abstract

The students from B.Sc. Agriculture degree programme at State Agricultural Universities (SAUs) in Maharashtra study an English language course as a part of requirement of the degree. This course chiefly teaches communication skills to a restricted extent. It mainly emphasizes on writing skills related to business and official communication; reading, listening and speaking skills have been given an inadequate prominence. Therefore, this course forms just incomplete components and lacks important ones. It doesn’t contain the components which are immediately related to the subject specialization and ones which are useful at various communication settings. Hence, it does not meet the essential and entire needs of the learners and does not enable the learners to function effectively at academic, professional and social settings. It must be taken into account that agriculture graduates need to interact with the farmers, scientists and other sections of the society. These students will face serious difficulties as they learn a language, which runs around narrow domains. Therefore, there is a problem, which deserves ardent investigation, as the subject has to deal with vital issues, which directly relate to the welfare of the majority of the population of the country for agriculture is the base of Indian economy. The present study is an attempt to design ESP (English for Specific Purposes) course that meets the comprehensive needs of agriculture learners i.e. requirements of the various communication situations making an allowance for the needs expressed by them and their teachers.

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Published

2015-11-30

Issue

Vol. 4 No. 12 (2015): NOVEMBER 2015

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Articles

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