ENGLISH FOR SPECIFIC PURPOSES AND THE SECOND FOREIGN LANGUAGE: REACHING BEYOND LANGUAGE TRAINING IN BA PHILOLOGY STUDY PROGRAMME

Abstract

The paper describes in detail a unique study programme of English for Specific Purposes and the Second Foreign Language created by the teaching staff of the Institute of Humanities, Mykolas Romeris University in Vilnius, Lithuania, to meet the expectations and requirements of the current/future labour market. The need for the programme arose from the requests of both possible applicants and employers. Since its launch in 2012 the programme gathered impetus and received considerable interest from abroad as well:  there have been growing numbers of students from China, Japan, Norway, Israel, Ukraine, Belarus, Poland, etc. enrolling into the study programme. Additionally, this BA study programme was tailored to meet the needs of students from other faculties and opened as a minor studies programme for students majoring in law, business and public administration, communication. Within several years of the successful implementation a greater choice of second languages has been offered, namely, Korean, Norwegian, German, Spanish and French. The employment rate and feedback from the alumni of the programme and their employers testify the success of the BA programme in the area of ESP in terms of providing graduates with the indispensable multilingual, cultural and communicative competencies. This enables to maintain and develop the programme further on.