English for Specific Purposes
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Design by Puncher Group
*Course Overview and Objectives:
ESP - English for Specific Purposes: This term refers to the teaching of a specific genre of mostly technical English for students with specific goals, careers or fields of study. Examples include English for Academic Purposes (students will enter an English-speaking university), English for Business & Management, or Hotel & Catering English (for hotel and tourism professionals).
English for Specific Purposes (ESP) is known as a learner-centered approach to teaching English as a foreign or second language. It meets the needs of (mostly) adult learners who need to learn a foreign language for use in their specific fields, such as science, technology, medicine, leisure, and academic learning. This course is recommended for graduate students and foreign and second language professionals who wish to learn how to design ESP courses and programs in an area of specialization such as English for business, for Civil Engineering, for Academic Purposes, and for health service purposes. In addition, they are introduced to ESP instructional strategies, materials adaptation and development, and evaluation.
Its objectives include:
• To develop an understanding about the factors that led to the emergence of ESP and the forces, both theoretical and applied, that have shaped its subsequent development.
• To assist students develop needs assessments and genre analyses for specific groups of learners.
• To provide guidelines to adapt or create authentic ESP materials in a chosen professional or occupational area and to critically evaluate currently available materials, including technology-based ones.
• To become knowledgeable about assessment procedures appropriate for ESP and apply this knowledge in developing course and lesson evaluation plans in their professional or occupational area.
• To assist students in preparing a syllabus, lesson and assessment plan based upon their needs assessments and genre analyses .
*ASSIGNMENTS and GRADING
*Revised Final Project (10%)
Prepare a portfolio that includes the revised versions of all the assignments you have done for this course. Also include a short reflection paper that discusseshe strengths and weaknesses ofyour lesson or of your current knowledge.
*Forum participation (30%)
Interaction is at the heart of any learning community and the research confirms this statement suggesting that much if not most of online academic learning takes place in the interaction. It is extremely important that students fully participate in all OnCourse forum discussions, or via email with the instructor or their peers. Students are required to interact and exchange ideas with their peers and with the professor, particularly about their successes and concerns as they engage in course activities. Students will be evaluated according to whether (a) they posted at least two or more entries, and (b) the postings reflect knowledge of the ESP issues under discussion and a critical integration of what has been learned from lectures, readings, and the student's own experience.
*Teaching English for Specific Purposes (ESP)
*The responsibility of the teacher
A teacher that already has experience in teaching English as a Second Language (ESL), can exploit her background in language teaching. She should recognize the ways in which her teaching skills can be adapted for the teaching of English for Specific Purposes. Moreover, she will need to look for content specialists for help in designing appropriate lessons in the subject matter field she is teaching.
As an ESP teacher, you must play many roles. You may be asked to organize courses, to set learning objectives, to establish a positive learning environment in the classroom, and to evaluate student s progress.
*Organizing Courses
You have to set learning goals and then transform them into an instructional program with the timing of activities. One of your main tasks will be selecting, designing and organizing course materials, supporting the students in their efforts, and providing them with feedback on their progress.
*Setting Goals and Objectives
You arrange the conditions for learning in the classroom and set long-term goals and short-term objectives for students achievement. Your knowledge of students' potential is central in designing a syllabus with realistic goals that takes into account the students' concern in the learning situation.
*Creating a Learning Environment
*Evaluating Students
The teacher is a resource that helps students identify their language learning problems and find solutions to them, find out the skills they need to focus on, and take responsibility for making choices which determine what and how to learn. You will serve as a source of information to the students about how they are progressing in their language learning.
*The responsibility of the student
What is the role of the learner and what is the task he/she faces? The learners come to the ESP class with a specific interest for learning, subject matter knowledge, and well-built adult learning strategies. They are in charge of developing English language skills to reflect their native-language knowledge and skills.
*Interest for Learning
*Subject-Content Knowledge
Learners in the ESP classes are generally aware of the purposes for which they will need to use English. Having already oriented their education toward a specific field, they see their English training as complementing this orientation. Knowledge of the subject area enables the students to identify a real context for the vocabulary and structures of the ESP classroom. In such way, the learners can take advantage of what they already know about the subject matter to learn English.
*Learning Strategies
Adults must work harder than children in order to learn a new language, but the learning skills they bring to the task permit them to learn faster and more efficiently. The skills they have already developed in using their native languages will make learning English easier. Although you will be working with students whose English will probably be quite limited, the language learning abilities of the adult in the ESP classroom are potentially immense. Educated adults are continually learning new language behaviour in their native languages, since language learning continues naturally throughout our lives. They are constantly expanding vocabulary, becoming more fluent in their fields, and adjusting their linguistic behaviour to new situations or new roles. ESP students can exploit these innate competencies in learning Eng