Technical English Problems in Workplace : A Case Study of ESP-Sudanese Graduate Students

This paper aims at investigating technical English taught in Sudan higher education to find out whether the ESP meets the students' needs when they join vocations and workplace. Twenty five students majored in different specializations participated in the study. They are graduates of different Sudanese Universities and Colleges. To yield more insights and more description, the following are the questions of the study: 1. How does English for Specific Purpose (ESP) courses meet students' needs in their studies at colleges? 2. Do ESP courses prepare students to the workplace? The results indicate that the majority of the participants were not satisfied with their courses they learned at colleges when they were students because those courses did not meet their needs in workplaces.

them in their major. The need for English for Specific Purposes appeared in the 1960s and it focused on students' need (Lindahl 2015).
The aim of this paperis to find out to what extent does the current ESP taught in some Sudanese colleges equips graduate students and prepares them in workplace. In other words, whether students can read and write texts related to what they need, for example manuals, filling in job forms and replying telephones calls.

Objectives of the Study
The study seeks to find answers to the following questions: a-Does present English for Specific Purpose (ESP) courses meet students' needs in their studies at colleges?
b-To what extent do these courses prepare students to workplace?

Literature Review
The wide spread of technology today is one reason why ESP is needed. Another reason is because English has become the lingua franca of technology. Lindahl (2015, p. 23) states that "ESP is needed because of the scientific, economic and technical boom recently." Therefore, university level students should study English for General Purpose (hereafter EGP) as well as ESP to equipthem with the knowledge of the new technology. Fortunately, Sudanese students study English for more than ten years in General Education. They are familiar with EGP, but ESP is a new field for them when they come to university. These students are streamed in different specializations, for instance medicine, pharmacology, engineering, IT, management etc….
Unfortunately, English language lecturers face the fact that more than 60 students from different fields of specializations are grouped together in one lecture room in some colleges. This

2.Large Number of Students
Another difficulty is the big number of students in one group. In some universities there are more than hundred students in one group. In these groups students miss the opportunity of discussion and interaction, so instructors tend to use presentation activity only (mono-speaking).

3.Lack of Time
English skills need practice, but the number of hours allocated forboth ESP and general English are usually not sufficient; in most colleges only two hours a week. As ESP is one of the university requirements, the syllabus usually does not focus on topics which are related to students' majors.

4. Syllabus
In fact, most of the courses taught are related to English for General Purposes (EGP) containing combined texts from different sources focusing on vocabulary and grammar. The researcher experienced lecturing English syllabus in some colleges which was entirely built on grammar and general vocabulary to engineering students. Maruyama (2006, p. 225) argues that most of the books are written by English literature majors who concentrate on everyday language.

3. Related Studies
Lindahl (2015) conducted a study to find out how, and in what ways, did vocational English is a part of English language teaching in the'Building and Constructions Programmes' in Sweden. The researcher usedtwo instruments: questionnaire and interview. The results revealed that teachers and inspectorate had positive attitudes towards English, but the English content and methods needed more discussions. The results also indicated that the students of technical programmes had "low results on the national test for the course in English …" This study is different. All above study respondents were students. Hence, the participants of the present study were graduates who joined jobs in either government or private sector. The researcher visited the participants in their workplaces after graduation.

Methodology
The subjects of this study are graduates who hold different posts and work for different companies. They have studied at different colleges in Sudan. A Questionnaire was used as a tool for the study.Thirty question papers were distributed to the participants.The questions were grouped into two categories: a) ESP English courseat colleges and b)their outcome at workplace. Twenty-five participants attended the questionnaire. Receiving the respondents' answers, they were computed, analyzed and results were displayed.

Results, Discussions and Findings
With respect of the questionnaire results the two areas where participants faced problems; course problems at colleges and problems at workplace, are discussed below . a-Course Problems at College This is the result of the statements directed to participants. The statements were divided into two categories: the course problems faced the participants at colleges and the problems they face now at workplace.  10. Statement ten'Usually I find difficulties in reading ESP because of text complexity.'indicates eleven (55%) agreed. This reveals that the same problem continues with many participants since they were students. Seven (35%) were neutral, 2 (10%) did not find difficulties in reading ESP materials.
11.Among twenty participants, sixteen (84.2%) referred their present problems to the poor language knowledge. Simultaneously this is related to ineffective college courses. No one Five participants (25%) were neutral. A good number of participants 35% (seven) find problems in their workplace.This is obvious that more efforts are needed to equip students for future job market.