Transcript ESP: Course Design and Assessment

ESP:
Course Design and Assessment
2015/7/18
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I. Development
• The Story of the City of ELT
– The city was surrounded by the high mountains
which were inhabited by illiterate and savage
tribes called Scientists, Businessmen and
Engineers. People in the City of ELT became
restless and began to venture into the land
beyond mountains. (ESP, Hutchinson and Waters)
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Development (continued)
• A revolution in linguistics
– From semantics to pragmatics
• Focus on the learner
• ESP’s history
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The concept of special language: register analysis
Beyond the sentence: rhetorical or discourse analysis
Target situation analysis
Skills and strategies
A learning-centered approach
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II. ESP as an Approach
• ESP is not a matter of teaching “specialized
varieties” of English.
• ESP is not different in kind from any other form of
language teaching.
• ESP is not just a matter of Science words and
grammar for Scientists, Hotel words and grammar
for Hotel staff and so on.
• ESP is an approach to language learning, which is
based on learner need.
– Why does this learner need to learn a foreign
language?
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III. Course Design
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Some questions:
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Why does the student need to learn?
Who is going to be involved in the process? (students, teachers, sponsors, inspectors, etc.)
Where is the learning to take place?
When is the learning to take place?
What does the student need to learn?
To identify the difference between language description and learning theory
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Language description: classical grammar, structural linguistics, transformational generative grammar,
functional grammar, language variation and register analysis, discourse analysis
Learning theories: Learning as habit formation, thinking as rule-governed activity, cognitive code
(learners as thinking beings), affective factor (learners as emotional beings, incentives and
motivations)
• Learning and acquisition
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IV. Needs Analysis
• Target situation analysis framework
– Why is the language needed? (for study, for work?)
– How will the language be used? (speaking? Face to
face? lectures?)
– What will be the content areas be? (medicine, biology,
commerce?)
– Who will the learner use the language with? (native
speakers or non-native, expert or student?)
– Where will the language be used? (hotel, office,
library, meetings or abroad?)
– When will the language be used? (frequently, seldom,
often?)
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• Learning needs: A framework for analysing
learning needs
– Why are the learners taking the course?
– How do the learners learn? (their learning
background, what methodology?)
– What resources are available? (teachers’
knowledge, materials, aids, etc)
– Who are the learners? (age, subject knowledge,
interest?)
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V. Approaches to Course Design
• Language-centered course design
– Select theoretical views of language
• Skills-centered course design
– Target situation, skills to cope in target situation
• Learning-centered design
– Identify target situation, analyze learning situation
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VI. ESP Policy:
Objectives-oriented
• Subject learning and career type
– Science, hotel management, nursing, etc.
• Learning’s KPI
– achievement evaluation, real life’s use of the
language
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VI. ESP Models
• ESP and Freshman English (EGP-type ESP)
• Language learning accompanied by subject
teaching: for business, humanities, social
sciences (2+1)
• Subject learning accompanied by language
learning: for science, medicine, engineering
(1+2)
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VII. ESP: aims
• Practical: communicative skills
• Skills-based: placement test
• Career-oriented: vocational, academic, etc.
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VIII. Evaluation
• Learner assessment
– Placement tests
– Achievement tests (skill test or knowledge test)
– Proficiency tests (to use the language in real-life
situation)
• Course evaluation
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Materials
Teaching and learning techniques
Administrative arrangement
Testing
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VIII. How to organize ESP
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Structural reform
– Who is in charge? How is the Department of English structured?
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The changing role of the teacher
– Positive attitude toward ESP
– A knowledge of the fundamental principles of the subject area
– An awareness of how much they probably already know
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Course reform
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Class size
The levels of English language courses (from Freshman English to EOP or EAP)
Universal syllabi or testing system
Teaching materials
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Conclusion
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A new methodology?
A new subject area?
What is an English teacher?
Are we ready for the change?
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