Rethinking applied ELT: Life-responsive teaching in ESP classes and learners’ satisfaction with life

Abstract

Many philosophers of education as well as researchers have highlighted the importance of life skills training in education. Recently, the idea of life-wise instruction has been imported into the field of English language teaching after the introduction of notions such as applied ELT (Pishghadam, 2011) and life syllabus (Pishghadam & Zabihi, 2012). This study was conducted to analyze L2 learners’ level of life satisfaction and its relationship with their ESP teachers’ life-responsive language teaching perceptions. For this purpose, two instruments, i.e. the Life-Responsive Language Teaching Beliefs Scale (LLTBS) and the Satisfaction with Life Scale (SWLS), were administered to Iranian ESP teachers (N = 164) and a sizeable sample of their learners (N = 800), respectively. For one thing, analysis of the questionnaire results displayed low levels of life-wise language teaching perceptions on the part of ESP teachers and low levels of satisfaction with life among learners. The results also demonstrated how language learners’ scores on the satisfaction with life scale were significantly correlated with ESP teachers’ life-responsive teaching beliefs. It was thus concluded that through the integration of life skills in ESP classes, materials developers, syllabus designers and ESP practitioners may become empowered to enhance learners’ quality of life.