Date Lecture introduction to the course and overview of group

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Lecture #1. Introduction to the course and overview of group

English for specific purposes (ESP) refers to language research and instruction that focuses on the specific communicative needs and  practices of particular social groups. Emerging out of Halliday, MacIntosh, and Strevens’ (1964) groundbreaking work nearly 40 years ago, ESP started life as a branch of English language teaching, promising a stronger descriptive foundation for pedagogic materials. In the years since, ESP has consistently been at the cutting-edge of both theory development and innovative practice in applied linguistics, making a significant contribution to our understanding of the varied ways language is used in particular communities. Drawing on a range of interdisciplinary influences for its research methods, theory, and practices, ESP has consistently provided grounded insights into the structures and meanings of texts, the demands placed by academic or workplace contexts on communicative behaviors, and the pedagogic practices by which these behaviors can be developed. In this chapter I will sketch out what I see as some of the major ideas which currently influence work in ESP, and briefly comment on some of the effects it has had on language teaching and research.

ESP has become increasingly important as:

• 
  There has been an increase in vocational training and learning throughout the world.
  
• 
  With the spread of globalization has come the increasing use of English as thelanguage of international communication. More and more people are using English ina growing number of occupational contexts.
  
• 
  Students are starting to learn and therefore master general English at a younger age,and so move on to ESP at an earlier age.
  

ESP is taught in many universities of the world. Many professional associations of teachers of English (TESOL, IATEFL) have ESP sections. Much attention is devoted to ESP course design. ESP teaching has much in common with English as a Foreign or Second Language and English for Academic Purposes (EAP). Quickly developing Business English can be considered as part of a larger concept of English for Specific Purposes.

ESP is different from standard English teaching in the fact that the one doing the teaching not only has to be proficient in standard English, but they also must be knowledgeable in a technical field. When doctors of foreign countries learn English, they need to learn the names of their tools, naming conventions, and methodologies of their profession before one can ethically perform surgery. ESP courses for medicine would be relevant for any medical profession, just as how learning electrical engineering would be beneficial to a foreign engineer. Some ESP scholars recommend a "two layer" ESP course: the first covering all generic knowledge in the specific field of study, and then a second layer that would focus on the specifics of the specialization of the individual.

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Lecture #2. Principles of teaching different age groups
When teaching classes of different ages you begin to realize the importance of being able to relate to what is going on in their worlds. You begin to look back at when you were that age and wonder what appealed to you, and will it still resonate with them today? This article will look at how best to relate to the age group you are teaching by keeping your lessons relevant and exciting.

Elementary

The elementary students still have a ton of energy but tend to be more focused than the kindergartens. These students are now at school in structured classrooms with lessons, as opposed to the kindergarteners whose day is made up of playing indoors and outdoors. The elementary students are at a stage where they are slowly beginning to think for themselves and many of them think they know it all already.

At this age, a lot of role-playing is very effective, as the students like to see themselves as tiny adults. Playing games where they role-play adult occupations is fun and an easy way to include the target language. The lessons can now also include a competitive aspect as this age group does not shy away from competing with each other.

When planning a lesson for an elementary class, it is all about the balance between energy, brain work and friendly competition. Have a few high energy activities in the lesson but split the room into teams to add a competitive spirit. To balance the high energy parts have some puzzle and quiz activities where individuals can shine and show their skill. A great way to get students to produce the language to each other is to set up role-play situations or make-believe. For example, if you are teaching them about shopping vocabulary, then set up a small shop in the classroom. You can have each student play a role of the cashier, the shopper and shop assistant. This is great as not only are they having fun by assuming the adult role they are seeing how English works in the real world and this makes it relatable.

Although this age group may seem like they know it all and like to take on adult roles, never forget they are still children so keep all the activities light-hearted and fun. Even though these lessons take on a more competitive role than kindergarten, keep in mind the goal is for the students to enjoy class and have fun while learning English.

Teenagers

Don’t let the junior age group make you think it is easier teaching older students. It’s not. Teaching this age group has its challenges as does any. Being a teenager is not an easy task, and with so much change going on, their confidence is up and down. You will find that your juniors have begun to care about other people’s opinions and how they are seen by others, so make this lesson a comfortable place to be a teen.

The best way to make this lesson work is to make it relatable. The first lesson will always be awkward no matter what, as the students are getting to know you and their classmates. Use this first lesson to get to know them. Do this by doing a quiz, or a questionnaire to find out their favourite movies, music and things to do in their free time. Once you have this information, you are able to get to know their world, and they have had a chance to learn about each other often finding common interests. Now that you know what their interests are, use them to make your future lessons more relevant. If the lesson is structured around a topic they understand or have an interest you are able to avoid those shy awkward moments they so dread.

Not only can you make use of the students’ interests make use the popular media channels they interact with. For example set out an activity where they need to make a snap chat video in English related to the target language, or write up a good Instagram caption. This will encourage them to interact with English in their everyday lives and understand the situations certain language is used in. Keep it fun, as always, and never show judgement to something one of the students like or follow as this can be a huge step back to make them feel as comfortable as possible in the classroom.

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Lecture #3. Choosing appropriate methods according to age feature
There is a large number of methods used in teaching different age group. According to academic research, linguists have demonstrated that there is not one single best method for everyone in all contexts, and that no one teaching method is inherently superior to the others.Also, it is not always possible – or appropriate – to apply the same methodology to all learners, who have different ages, objectives, environments and learning needs.

 Direct way.

In this method the teaching is done entirely in the target language. The learner is not allowed to use his or her mother tongue. Grammar rules are avoided and there is emphasis on good pronunciationEssentials

No translationteaching concepts and vocabulary through pantomiming, real-life objects and other visual materials

 Techniques using direct way

Question/answer exercise – the teacher asks questions of any type and the student answers.Student self-correction – when a student makes a mistake the teacher offers him/her a second chance by giving a choice.Conversation practice – the students are given an opportunity to asktheir own questions to the other students or to the teacher..

2. Grammar-translation method

Learning is largely by translation to and from the target language. Grammar rules are to be memorized and long lists of vocabulary learned by heart. There is little or no emphasis placed on developing oral ability.This method focuses on reading and writing and has developed techniques which facilitate more or less the learning of reading and writing only. As a result, speaking and listening areoverlooked

 3. Audio-lingual method

The theory behind this method is that learning a language means acquiring habits. There is much practice of dialogues of every situations. New language is first heard and extensively drilled before being seen in its written form.Drills and pattern practice are typical (Richards, J.C. et-al. 1986):Repetition: the student repeats an utterance as soon as he hears it.Inflection: one word in a sentence appears in another form when repeated.Replacement: one word is replaced by another.Restatement: the student rephrases an utterance.ExamplesInflection: Teacher: I ate the sandwich. Student: I ate the sandwiches.Replacement: Teacher: He bought the car for half-price. Student: He bought it for half-price.Restatement: Teacher: Tell me not to smoke so often. Student: Don't smoke so often!

4. Total Physical Response (TPR)TPR works by having the learner respond to simple commands such as "Stand up", "Close your book", "Go to the window and open it." The method stresses the importance of aural comprehensionTPR can be used to teach and practise many things.Vocabulary connected with actions (smile, chop, headache, wriggle)Tenses past/present/future and continuous aspects (Every morning I cleanmy teeth, I make my bed, I eat breakfast)Classroom language(Open your books)Imperatives/Instructions(Stand up, close your eyes)Storytelling

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Lecture #4. Using games in teaching young and teenage learners

Teaching is a process in which teachers need to be reflective and adopt an eclectic way of teaching bywhich they use mixture of methods instead of relying only on one method, which may be monotonousafter a while and inhibit learning. Similarly, games are seen as educational tools since they provideopportunities for teachers to change the methodology in order to break the monotony of the lesson andbring some fun during the teaching and the learning process with different kinds of implementations.This dynamic phenomenon brings many numerous means of establishing games. As a result of thisdynamic interplay, game categories have been identified for different traits of instruction. Accordingto a study which brings up the term called “four dimensional framework” stated by Freitas (Learningin Immersive Worlds, 2006) that is:“ ... picks out four generic principles: context, mode ofrepresentation, pedagogic approach used and the specific about the learners...”. It is obvious that it isnot only enough to focus on the game itself, it is necessary to consider in which context the game isused in what ways with whom because there are many parameters within this interplay. Based onFreitas’s four dimensional frameworks stated above, there are different categories of games that areused as educational tools, which are taken from this book below are:

“Educational games

Online games

Serious games

Simulations”

As the scope of this study focuses on the educational side of the adapted material, which was Jenga game, only serious games and educational games were taking into consideration during the whole study. In order not to lead misunderstandings, it is important to be aware of the distinctions between these two terms. The first one called educational games refer to “rule-based play” (Wittgenstein,1958as cited in Freitas (Learning in Immersive Worlds, 2006). In addition to this, the second one called serious games refer to games “...in which the primary goal is education rather than entertainment” (Michael and Chen, 2006 as cited in Freitas (Learning in Immersive Worlds, 2006). Both of these terms will be discussed with examples in the following pages. However, these two types are not the only one that applicable to this research the others are:

“Structure games

Vocabulary games

Number games”.

Each of them focuses on different types of areas of language. For example, Structure games mainly focuses on grammar sentences called syntax especially for communicative purposes. When it comes to the vocabulary games they are mostly related with the words whereas number games are related with digits. In addition to these above, these categories can be multiplied by the contribution of the scholar called Brno as below:

“Cooperative games

Communication games

Competitive games

Code-control games”

Of course each of the category has importance on their own; nonetheless, the two called cooperative and communication games are more important for the purpose of this study because one of them, which is called cooperative games, looks the point of developing tie or relation between the students or groups of students whereas the latter one looks the perspective of transferring knowledge through the use of the language. These two are important because the organization of the game that was used during the pilot lessons was based on these two as well as the others that were mentioned above. After all details were given about the definition of game and its types it is equally necessary to touch upon the learning styles differences because each student is regarded as a unique person who has unique ability of learning a language. Considering the use of game, it can be said that not all game types fit into different learning styles; therefore, it is important to reach an understanding of each learner may have different abilities at once but they are the master of the dominant ability of learning, which is considered during the teaching and learning process. A valued saying can summarize what was stated above.

Date_________Lecture_9._Defining_the_purpose_and_content_of_teaching_foreign_languages_as_the_second_language'>Date_________Lecture_8_Foreign_languages_for_specific_purposes'>Date_______

Lecture #5. Using songs and music in teaching young and teenage learners
Teaching English to young learners cannot be seen only as teaching the language. This challenging process needs to consider the social and cognitive development of learners. In order to do this, it is necessary to create an atmosphere that resembles the one which is natural to children. One of the best ways to create such a natural, anxiety-free environment is through interesting activities.

Songs certainly belong to the group of fun activities which serve as useful tools for learning the language and which do not put pressure on students to immediately produce the language but to start doing it only when they are ready. Songs are one type of listening activity that have a broad potential. Music and songs are essential parts of growing and learning. Children love to sing and teachers naturally use songs to teach them concepts and language in a fun way. Some of the significant characteristics of songs are that they are fun and can keep the students excited. However, the most important feature of songs is repetition. They contain language patterns, but also develop listening skills, pronunciation and rhythm, and provide a fun atmosphere. Even if the teachers play songs multiple times a day, the majority of students probably would not get bored. In addition, songs are very beneficial types of activities. There are so many aspects of a language that can be delivered and recycled through the use of songs. They can be used at any stage of a lesson and there are many ways to incorporate them into a lesson. Sometimes, they are used just as gap fillers and warm-ups, sometimes as the main part of a lesson, but sometimes they are there to provide a fun atmosphere.

Songs and Young Learners

The main goal of English language learning is the development of communication skills, as well asmaintaining interest and motivation for learning English. In order to accomplish these goals, it is necessaryfor the content to be closely related to learners’ real life and materials need to be adjusted to differentlearning styles. This means that the lessons should abound in versatile activities. Songs are examples ofsuch activities which due to their nature, fun content, and relaxing features influence the development oflanguage in children. For young learners, songs, such as popular pop-rock songs, traditional and educationalsongs, rhymes and chants, present an excellent source of language. Students can not only learn and practicedifferent segments of English through songs, but also satisfy the specific characteristics of their age.Children, in general, like songs, and if songs are used for learning a language, then children enthusiasticallyaccept them. One key factor is that children are not aware of the fact that they are learning through songs,and therefore they see them as a pleasant and fun part of English lessons. Apart from this, songs serve as agood source of pronunciation, intonation, and accent practice, but also as a practice of listening skills andvocabulary development.

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Lecture #.6 Using stories in teaching young and teenage learners

Stories guide us through our whole life from the moment we were born and it does not change when we become teenagers or adults. When we are children, our grandparents tell us or read us stories and tales, when we grow up we read stories ourselves and sometimes we play drama in schools or we hear stories in radio or watching a film on TVStories are for all of us, not just for children

Aims

 To develop students ability to reconstruct a grammatically and textually coherent piece of writing.

 To provide practice in prediction skills in order to ease the understanding of a new text.

 To provide practice in gist listening in order to encourage students to not focus on difficult vocabulary and thus make authentic listening texts more accessible.

 To provide practice in scanning a text for information.

 To by the end of this lesson the students will be able to successfully form past simple object questions in writing.

Stories are useful in language learning for young learners. Young learners acquire language unconsciously. Theactivities you do in class should help this kind of acquisition. Stories are the most valuable resource you have. Theyoffer children a world of supported meaning that they can relate to. Later on you can use stories to help childrenpractice listening, speaking, reading, and writing.

Story telling can be effective forteaching English to young learners for the following reasons.

 The purpose of telling a story is genuinely communicative.

 Storytelling is linguistically honest (It is oral language, meant to be heard).

 Storytelling is real (people do it all the time).

 Storytelling appeals to the affective domain.

 Storytelling caters to the individual while forging a community in the classroom.

 Storytelling provides listening experiences with reduced anxiety.

Assessment in the Short Stories module will focus on learnersdemonstration of their ability to:

a) understand concepts and techniques of short story writing.

b) apply this understanding to create short examples.

c) produce a written short story.

d) comment helpfully on the work of others.

e) tell or perform stories orally.

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Lecture #7. Designing teaching materials according to age feature

The design of teaching materials requires the student teachers to take a set of decisions, make choices and explain the reasons for them. This practice will grant them some autonomy (in terms of taking responsibility for decision-making), and also create opportunities (and the necessity) for reflection.

Each of these practices has proved to bring challenges and contributions to both TE and student teachers development, as data collected by the TE in a series of mini action research studies based on her practice and presented in the discussion section of this paper reveal.

The choice of three different contexts for data collection is due to the richness of observing student teachers in different phases throughout their education process and being able to analyze their continuing professional growth. In the MP, their teaching practice is still assisted and simulated. In the first PB practice student teachers begin to be responsible for real classes, teaching material design and working in small groups. In the second PB, the variety of classes and design of materials are more complex. Besides, in this last PB the team is larger, composed of undergraduate and graduate students. Following these different phases in the teacher education process contributes to the understanding of how the transition from one phase to another can be planned by educators.

Teaching materials play a central role in teaching and learning: "Materials are fundamental to language learning and teaching (...) but materials cannot be viewed independently of their users." (Emphasis added). This assertion presents two important characteristics of teaching materials that imply their relevance in teacher education; they are a fundamental part of language learning and teaching and they are dependent on their users (both teachers and learners).

Exactly because of the dependent nature of teaching materials, when a (student) teacher is assigned to design them, a number of contextual decisions have to be made and these have a great potential to raise designers' reflection about what and how to teach (who/where the learners are; what they are learning the language for; how much time is available; available resources, among others). Generally speaking, material design should consider and try to harmonize situated possibilities with learners' needs and wants.

Besides, choosing and adapting materials represent quite a challenge for most (new) language teachers. At the same time, no pre-prepared teaching materials can meet the needs of any given class precisely; some level of adaptation will be necessary". It is, consequently, important that teachers become aware of that, understand why and develop informed means to perform this task, inherent to the profession.

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Lecture #8 Foreign languages for specific purposes
The teaching of English for Specific Purposes (ESP) has been seen as a separateactivity within English language teaching (ELT). It is believed that for some of its teachingESP has developed its own methodology and its research draws on research from variousdisciplines in addition to applied linguistics – this is the key distinguishing characteristic ofESP. ESP, if sometimes moved away from the established trends in general ELT, has alwaysbeen with needs analysis and preparing learners to communicate effectively in the tasksprescribed by their field of study or work situation. The emphasis of ELT is always onpractical outcomes. The theory of ESP could be outlined based on specific nature of the textsthat learners need knowledge of or need-related nature of teaching.

As with most disciplines in human activity, ESP was a phenomenon grown out of anumber of converging trends of which we will mention three most important: 1) theexpansion of demand for English to suit specific needs of a profession, 2) developments in thefiled of linguistics (attention shifted from defining formal language features to discovering theways in which language is used in real communication, causing the need for the developmentof English courses for specific group of learners), and 3) educational psychology (learner’sneeds and interests have an influence on their motivation and effectiveness of their learning).

ESP is traditionally been divided into two main areas according to when they takeplace: 1) English for Academic Purposes (EAP) involving pre-experience, simultaneous/in-service and post-experience courses, and 2) English for Occupational Purposes (EOP) forstudy in a specific discipline (pre-study, in-study, and post-study) or as a school subject(independent or integrated). Pre-experience or pre-study course will omit any specific workrelated to the actual discipline or work as students will not yet have the needed familiaritywith the content; the opportunity for specific or integrated work will be provided during in-service or in-study courses.

As ESP teaching is extremely varied some authors (Dudley-Evans and St John, 1998)use the term “practitioner” rather than “teacher” to emphasize that ESP work involves muchmore than teaching. ESP practitioner can have several roles.

TRAINING OF ESP TEACHERS

Most teacher training courses contain four basic elements:

1.Selection, initial and terminal, is necessary because not every human being would become an adequate language teacher

2.Continuing personal education.

3.General professional training as an educator and teacher.

4. Special training as a teacher of a foreign or second language.

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Lecture #9. Defining the purpose and content of teaching foreign languages as the second language

In minority language schools, the study of the national language should be conducted according to the standards of the second language (taking into account the specific language of the indigenous population of the respective national minority). The minimum requirements for the purpose and content of teaching the second language at the levels defined by the CEFR (Common European Framework of Reference) and recommended by the European Council’s Resolution (November 2001) should be used to create national systems for assessing language competence. Developing a theoretical and practical basis for mastering Ukrainian as a second language requires new approaches, techniques, and a special interpretation of linguistic phenomena. These general educational standards should be the basis for the study of the Ukrainian language as a second language, which should meet the needs in the social, humanitarian, educational, socio-cultural, country-specific fields of communication. International practice shows that a B2 level of a certain language is required of university graduates and is not a requirement for secondary school students. An exception may be Ukrainian philology, which requires level B2. Based on the experience of European countries, the Transcarpathian Hungarian Pedagogical Association believes that schools with national minority languages of instruction ​​can implement the teaching of the state language by the end of high school at B1 – intermediate I level. Introducing the study of the state language according to this concept requires changes in the external independent assessment of the knowledge of school graduates with the language of instruction of national minorities. Graduates of these schools are required to undergo EIT according to the standards of appropriate language proficiency levels. Prior to the entry into force of the above standards and the introduction of new standards for assessing the quality of knowledge during the EIT, the adapted lowered threshold for assessing knowledge of the Ukrainian language and literature of graduates of institutions with the language of instruction of national minorities should be applied. Use this adapted threshold when assessing the quality of knowledge in the case of State Final Exams.

It is crucial to make it possible to pass an independent external native language exam or take a Hungarian language final exam in Transcarpathia. The requirements and content of the Hungarian final exam should be adapted to the requirements in force in Hungary.

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Lecture #10 Vocabulary and terms in ESP

Teaching vocabulary especially in ESP courses is becoming a challenge for English Language Teachers. Vocabulary is an inseparable part of any teaching syllabus and vocabulary should be taught in a well-planned and regular basis. It is essential to carefully decide what vocabulary will be selected for teaching, and what approach or activities will be used to teach it to the students.

ESP vocabulary always presents a major linguistic obstacle to non-native English-speaking students. Consequently, effective ESP vocabulary teaching plays a crucial role in successfully implementing ESP programs. Nonetheless, ESP vocabulary teaching has been a neglected area in ESP research during previous decades. Researchers (Dudley Evans & St John, 1998) and teachers have focused less attention on it than on syntax and phonology. Although ESP vocabulary does not receive as much attention as language specialists suggest, numerous ESP practitioners have advocated the learning of lexical items according to semantic systems (Robinson, 1991). Alber-Dewolf (1984) suggested that a sound knowledge of term-formation processes improves the reading skills required for reading a foreign language for specific purposes. Vocabulary acquisition is a long-term process, requiring much work. Although some students spend a lot of time on trying to increase their lexicon: to memorize words and collocations for the purposes of oral and written communication, and to understand the vocabulary while listening and reading - the results are still quite poor. One of the reasons is applying ineffective strategies of vocabulary learning. Noles and Dole (2004, p. 179) state: researchers have collected much evidence that supports explicit strategy instruction. The teaching of strategies empowers readers, particularly those who struggle, by giving them the tools they need to construct meaning from text. Instead of blaming comprehension problems on students' own innate abilities, for which they see no solution, explicit strategy instruction helps students to take control of their own learning and comprehension. Vocabulary learning is a very important part of the curricula at Agriculture University of Georgia and the students who study here need to learn English for different purposes: to deal with the foreign business partners in their jobs, to use it for their studies, to travel abroad to meet other cultures or on holiday, to read professional literature in English, etc. In this study, effective ESP vocabulary teaching and learning strategies were investigated.

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Lecture #11. Designing ESP teaching material

We can start by asking ourselves the question: What are materials supposed to do? In defining the purpose of the materials, we can identify some principles that will guide us to the actual writing of the materials.

a.       Materials provide a stimulus to learning process.

Good materials don’t teach but rather encourage learners to learn.

Good materials contain:

         Interesting text

         Enjoyable activities

         Opportunities for learners to use their knowledge and skills

         Content which both learners as well as teacher can overcome

b.      Materials help to organize the teaching-learning process.

By providing a way through the complex mass of the language to be learnt. Good materials should provide a clear and understandable unit structure that will guide teacher and learners.

c.       Materials contain a view of the nature of language learning.

Good materials should truly reflect what you think and feel about the learning process.

d.      Materials reflect the nature of the learning task.

Materials should try to create a balance outlook that both reflects the complexity of the task, yet makes it appear manageable.

e.       Materials can have a very useful function in broadening the basis of teacher training.

By introducing teachers to new techniques.

f.        Materials provide models of correct and appropriate language use.

This is a necessary function of materials, but it is all too often taken as the only purpose, which the result is the materials become simply a statement of language use rather than a vehicle for language learning.
1.      A materials design model

a.       Input

b.      Content focus

c.       Language focus

d.      Task
These four elements combine in the model as follows

         The primary focus of the unit is task

         The language and content are drawn from the input and are selected according to what the learners will need in order to do the task.

         It follows that an important feature of the model is to create coherence in terms of both language and content throughout the unit.

         This provides the support for more complex activities by building up a fund of knowledge and skills.

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Lecture #12. The Role of ESP teacher

A first stage of ESP there was no question of using authentic texts. According to A. J. Herbert (r965) he created his own texts to high light language features much in the same way as was done in General English, therefore continued in the era of discourse analysis. Phillips and Shettlesworth (1978) on the other hand support the use of the authentic text 'as a repository of natural language use and the stimulus for a variety of communication skills'.

First of all, it is necessary to be clear what the term 'authentic' really means. It’s usually about the sense of 'taken from the target situation and, therefore, not originally constructed for language teaching purposes'. Authenticity is not a characteristic of a text in itself: it is a feature of a text in a particular context. A text alone has no value. A text is a message froma writer to the reader. A text can only be truly authentic, in other words, in the context for which it was originally written. Since in ESP any text is automatically removed from its original context, there can be no such thing as an authentic text in ESP. In this sense, it can easily be seen that different types of text will be required at different stages of a course, depending on what we want the text for, for example:

a) You want the learners to realize how much information they can get from a text by the application of certain strategies. In this case you can use a target situation text to make the exercise more realistic.

b) You want to do a jigsaw reading task, such as in lesson 2 in chapter. If you insisted on using target situation texts here, you could be searching forever to find the appropriate ones. In this case, it is the activity that is of greatest importance and so the texts can be constructed to generate the best activity.

c) You want to illustrate a particular sentence pattern or discourse pattern. If you can find a target situation text that fits, use it. If not,it is no great problem. Your purpose is to make apparent an underlying structure. A target situation text might be rather confusing, because there are all sorts of other things in the text too

In short, ESP teachers cannot turn to linguistics and psychology in the hope of finding ready-made, straight forward answers to the problems that they will meet. Rather, they need to distil and synthesize, from the range of options available. All ESP teachers are ineffect pioneers who are helping to shape the world of ESP.

ESP teachers may also have to struggle to master language and subject matter beyond the bounds of their previous experience. Teachers who have been trained for General English teaching or for the teaching of Literature may suddenly find themselves having to teach with texts whose content they know little or nothing about. In this case, there are 3 questions that can use for ESP teacher to ask their self.

-          Does the content of ESP materials need to be highly specialized?

-          Why do so many ESP teachers find it difficult to comprehend ESP subject matter?

-          What kind of knowledge is required of the ESP teacher?

As well as having to cope with the uncertain values of the strange land of ESP, ESP teachers may also have to struggle to master language and subject matter beyond the bounds of their previous experience. Teachers who have been trained for General English teaching or for the teaching of Literature may suddenly find themselves having to teach with texts whose content they know little or nothing about. 

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Lecture #13. Course reflection

I see the value of such ESP programs and their great potential in this sector. As I previously mentioned, I have been teaching in an AIEP for over three years, and during that time I have asked myself how I can better serve my students. My students, who are all international students planning to attend an American university either at the undergraduate or graduate level, have very specific goals and needs. Our program prepares these students to be linguistically ready for university and all of its demands in general. They learn to write academic essays, read long and difficult passages, listen to long lectures, as well as converse about academic subjects, but the subjects discussed in their reading, writing or speaking class may or may not be pertinent to their major or their specific field. Consequently, students may not be linguistically ready for the language needed for their specific field. This fact brought me to question how ESP courses offered within an Academic Intensive English Program can help students in their language studies while further preparing them for academic success in their specific major at an American university.

There is no reason to make students wait to study English in their area of expertise until after they have already started university. They would be much better served if they were given the opportunity to study English within their field before beginning their university classes. By offering ESP courses in certain fields, such as science and technology, law, engineering and architecture to name a few, students would be given a sneak peak. In no way would they be completely prepared, but they would be exposed to different language and vocabulary that would make the transition to university easier. In addition, different online resources given to them and area-specific activities would be useful to them once they begin attending university. Not only will they be more prepared for the area-specific language they will inevitably encounter, but they will also have a better idea of what to expect when they arrive at university.

The difficult transition that international students experience when they begin to attend an American university should not be overlooked. International students in university face many challenges as they try to adjust to university in another country, and experience culture shock as well (Zhou, Jindal-Snape, Topping &Todman, 2008). In addition to the culture shock that they all experience, they can also experience great difficulty because of the academic challenges they face. If students have seen a glimpse of what will be expected of them and have an insight into the types of readings and their linguistic difficulty, they will ease into university life with less stress and fear.