engleski

Developing a mobile and employable graduate through LSP education in Life Sciences

Croatian higher education (HE) institutions have witnessed considerable changes since the Bologna process was introduced in 2005. Therefore, it may be worthwhile exploring the position and function of teaching languages for specific purposes (LSP) in the life science institutions. One of the most important tasks of LSP in HE is to help students succeed in job applications. From the aspect of employability and mobility language proficiency is one of the key competences in the development of a European Higher Education Area (EHEA). The aim of this paper is to provide an overview of the current situation of LSP teaching and to see to what extent it has been adapted to student-centred approach. A survey was conducted at ten life science HE institutions including universities, polytechnics and colleges delivering agriculture and forestry courses. Data for the survey were derived from a questionnaire that was administered in order to identify the position of LSP within the overall curricula, syllabus design and materials, teaching methodology, assessment criteria, learning outcomes that develop desired competences, and students’ participation in the EU exchange programmes. Weaknesses and strengths were identified, as well as similarities and discrepancies between the different Croatian life science institutions. The final part of the paper is concerned with the attitudes of LSP teachers toward current obstacles and challenges, followed by a number of proposals for the improvement of LSP teaching. The paper concludes that there is a lack of harmonisation with respect to LSP learning outcomes, ECTS number as well as poor cooperation with subject specialists in course design. Therefore, in order to reap the benefits from the Bologna process and to develop mobility and employability capacity of Croatian life science graduates, LSP syllabuses should be better adapted to learners’ needs, labour market needs and general content of life science curricula.

language for specific purposes (LSP) ; competences ; mobility ; employability ; life sciences

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