Филологические науки / 1. Методика преподавания языка и литературы.

PhD, Senior Lecture Sikaliuk A.I.,

PhD, Associate Professor Lytvyn S.V.,

Chernihiv National University of Technology

Teaching ESP in non-linguistic universities

ESP is the teaching of English to students whose first language is not English but who need it for a particular job, activity or purpose. ESP is an abbreviation for “English for specific purposes” or “English for special purposes” [4].

While courses of ESP are introduced in higher non-linguistic institutions, theoretical framework for ESP curriculum planning is still under development. Unlike general language instructors, who have fairly detailed curricula and national guidelines, ESP teachers need to construct their own goals, objectives and learning materials. The content of language instruction is determined by the needs of the student, not the limits of a single discipline or profession. The goal of the course is teaching specific communication and language skills that would enable students to function effectively in their disciplines of specialization, professions and workplaces [1].

The study of goals, content, implementation and evaluation of a course is crucial for ESP curriculum planning. Key features of ESP curriculum are: 1) specific tasks and focus on language in context; 2) usage of learner’s background knowledge (the course assumes that students have some knowledge of both English language and their future profession); 3) operational and communicative syllabus focus; 4) learner-centeredness. In its development the ESP curriculum goes through the design, implementation and evaluation stages [3].

The first stage includes analyzing students’ needs, designing the course syllabus, selecting methodology and materials. The second stage is ESP teaching. During the third stage the feedback from instructors, coordinators and students is collected in order to further modify or change the course design. However, effective curriculum development does not leave the assessment till the end of the course.

Observations and discussions can take place during the needs analysis, design and implementation stages as well. The ESP course design begins with collecting data on students’ language needs and the target situations of language usage. Learners’ proficiency and expectations, i.e. the level of language knowledge they expect to reach, are determined at this stage. This information can be gathered through students’ self-assessment prior to instruction; monitoring professionals who use English to perform their tasks; distributing questionnaires to key stakeholders, such as directors, to determine the language proficiency they require from their employees and outline the set of situations requiring English usage in work setting; case studies and discussions with both ESP students and instructors.

Depending on the content and participants involved, several types of needs analyses and approaches can be singled out: target-situation, present-situation, strategy analysis, analysis of means and language audit. The first type of needs analysis seeks to determine the set of situations where learners will have to use the English language. It focuses on the needs students have before the course starts and allows determining students’ goals. The present-situation analysis focuses on the students’ language command prior to ESP instruction. These two types of needs analysis are combined in learner-centered approach to ESP course design. The approach brings into perspective the knowledge that learners need in order to perform in a target professional situation [2].

Strategy analysis helps to determine students’ preferred styles of learning and language acquisition in order to select the most relevant teaching methods. Means analysis takes into account the availability of equipment, materials and teaching staff for the ESP course. Language audit takes place when companies want to find out whether ESP language teaching is required for the employees, taking into consideration the types of job-related tasks the latter need to perform. This type of needs analysis seeks to determine the correlation between specific work-related situations and employees’ language proficiency.

Learners’ needs analysis is followed by the ESP syllabus design which can focus on content, skills and methods. Syllabi based on content emphasize a particular topic in language instruction. The model includes notion-function syllabi, which rely on communicative approach to language teaching, and are aimed at providing learners with linguistic means of functioning in different communicative situations. Skills-based syllabi deal with teaching basic language competencies such as reading, writing, listening and speaking. This type of syllabus is more relevant for English for Specific Academic Purposes course; it can help to teach students, using English, to prepare oral and written reports following the conventions of their chosen field of study. Method-based syllabi are organized around target tasks students will have to perform using the English language, such as dealing with customer complaints in the workplace.

Next stage in ESP course development, such as the choice of methodology, is closely connected to the selection of course materials. There is a discussion concerning ESP methodology. Some scholars believe that since ESP courses focus on teaching language usage, not the limited repertoire of language units. Therefore, the course content should be driven by the choice of pedagogically relevant activities and not be planned around a number of relevant language units. Other researchers argue that ESP lacks its own methodology and the courses should be organized around authentic learning materials, which represent target situations of students’ language usage. However, if ESP courses focus on facilitating future professional communication in English, they should favor an integral course development approach that pays equal attention to methods and content of language instruction. Classroom activities would recreate professional or job-related contexts where language usage provides the means of solving problems and tasks.

The specificity of ESP content presents a separate problem. Course materials should reflect students’ interest in the target subject and introduce language using authentic material. So, authentic language context can be, to a certain degree, simulated in the ESP classroom using authentic tasks or modeling real-life communication situations. Content-based approach can help motivate learners because they will clearly see how foreign language can be used in their professional setting. It can facilitate language instruction since students are already familiar with certain underlying concepts described in a foreign language. However, an ESP course should not be limited to specialized content or discourse. To avoid the extremes in ESP course planning, teacher should focus on three abilities: 1) ability to use special jargon, 2) ability to use general academic or business skills, 3) ability to communicate in other social settings [1].

In this view, an ESP course is a way of organizing language instruction, not the end product of language teaching as the sum of specific terms and language patterns. The content of instruction should be determined by the prospective needs of the student, not the narrow limits of a single discipline or profession.

References

1. Belcher, D. (2006). English for specific purposes: Teaching to perceived needs and imagined futures in worlds of work, study, and everyday life. TESOL  (pp.133–156).

2. Brown, J. D. (2014). The elements of language curriculum: a systematic approach to program development. In R. Howard & G. Brown (Eds.), Teacher education for LSP (pp. 80–89).

3. Ministry of Education and Science of Ukraine (2005). English for Specific Purposes (ESP). National Curriculum for Universities. Retrieved from im.nmu.org.ua/ua/library/national_esp_curriculum.pdf.

4. Richards, J. (2015). Curriculum development in language teaching. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.