ESP Courses at Universities Preparing Students for the Challenges of the European Market
63
which gave course designers more freedom. Graves suggested that course designers may begin their job anywhere in the framework, depending on their beliefs, understandings and what they know about their students. Defining the context and articulating beliefs serve as the foundation for the process and, therefore, are placed at the bottom of the chart.
2.1. Selecting and grading content – dilemmas in tertiary language course design Students who enrol at a university are not only unaware of their language needs, but very often do not have a vision of what they would like to do in their future jobs, where they see themselves in 5 or 10 years’ time and what opportunities studying at a university in the European Union member state opens for them. Therefore, it seems necessary to shift the heaviest burden of responsibility for structuring the language courses at universities onto the shoulders of the educators, but also to arouse in students the interest in learning foreign languages, to make them aware of the opportunities for developing language skills at and outside school, for mobility, and for career planning. A problem which university language teachers often face is low student motivation to learn foreign languages. Freshmen usually understand the need of learning a foreign language for prospective professional purposes, they are interested in sitting international language exams and graduating from the university with a certificate that is recognised worldwide, or attending lectures, trainings and workshops delivered in a foreign language. Yet, in the language classroom most students seek an escape from other more career-oriented subjects and wish for more relaxing and fun activities. This can lead to a conflict of interests between them and the school authorities.
2.1.1. General English aspects in the ESP syllabus Designing an ideal university foreign language course creates many problems for course designers and educators, since such courses fall into a separate category and are not identical with standard ESP courses for adult professionals. First of all, at university students usually do not participate in the selection of content of the foreign language syllabus which they follow