Ideal university culture of esp undergraduate students in hong kong

This research topic is a qualitative phenomenological study adopting an interpretivistconstructionist paradigm. It explores what ESP (English for specific purposes) undergraduate students consider as an ideal university culture (IUC), and how such perception affects their SoB. Seven recent graduates of various ESP degree programmes were interviewed; the data collected were transcribed and thematically analysed. The results indicate that the majority of participants believed that degree of freedom perceived (Freedom-based) was the essence of IUC, although there was also the view that an ideal culture was based on the kind of people it contained (People-based). Most participants claimed that their institutions had matched their expectations of IUC; they were also certain that because of the matching IUC, their SoB was stronger. Finally, it was observable that when students' ESP was stronger, their learning motivation would be positively affected. Through the medium of 'student voices' (Batchelor, 2008), the study recommends a more thorough examination of the needs of ESP students in terms of defining a more unique educational culture.