NEED OF PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT AND E-TRAINING FOR ACADEMIC STAFF TEACHING AT BIOLOGY DEPARTMENT

Teaching of English for specific purpose (ESP) is more crucial and difficult than teaching general English to target learners. Sometimes difficulties arise on account of English teachers’ lack of knowledge of the field or subject which they are supposed to deal with. Similarly, biology teachers may not teach effectively due to lack of proficiency in English among both teachers and learners. Both English teachers and biology teachers need to be ready to teach English and biology. Main objectives were to find out the types of issues and learning difficulties faced by the teachers of biological subjects related to English as medium of instruction at KAU, and to explore the preparedness of English teachers to teach the students of biology. The study is of descriptive-exploratory type based on the data gathered from a self-developed questionnaire. The findings of the study will contribute to the assessment of learning needs, betterment of methods of teaching of biology and related subjects, and provision of training and teacher development.