ESP TEACHER EDUCATION IN THE USA

ESP in the USA

Academic ESP – English language instruction designed to provide for academic study needs within educational institutions. General study skills.

Professional ESP – Formal business atmosphere; managers, executives. High-level speaking, listening, literacy skills, business customs.

Vocational ESP – Labor end of the business spectrum – manufacturing or service industries. Focus on linguistic skills and functions needed to acquire and perform specific jobs.

Sociocultural ESP – Adult literacy, citizenship, survival English. Teach basic reading and writing skills to adult students who are NOT literate in the L1.

Approaches

Content-based language instruction (CBI) –

Team teaching – language teacher + content teacher (adjunct model)

Theme-based instruction

Approaches

Ethnographic approaches – Case studies Mini-ethnographiesFocus on culture of a particular field to

learn expectations.

What ESP Practitions Need

Effective CBI teachers must… Let content drive curricular decisions Increase their knowledge of the content area Find materials and resources that generate

student interest and involvement Build intrinsic motivation and knowledge

Six T’s approach – Themes, Texts, Topics, Threads, Tasks, Transitions

Academic ESP

The EAP instructor must be able to teach the following…

Reading Writing Listening/speaking Study skills Strategies

Professional ESP

ESP practitioners must be prepared to provide instruction in the following…

Accent reduction Effective communication in meetings Oral presentations Workplace idioms and vocabulary Technical and business writing Business customs and culture Customer service skills Team-building skills Training related to TQM (total quality management)

Vocational ESP

Training programs usually teach the following job-seeking skills…

Where and how to look for a job Deciphering want ads Filling out job applications Participating in interviews Information: Fringe benefits, Safety and health,

Training procedures, Further education and advancement, Job expectations and responsibilities

Language skills: Vocabulary, functions, situations, structures, register

Sociocultural ESP

Must be able to teach basic reading and writing skills to a culturally diverse population.

Need on-going staff development: Classroom observations Peer coaching Curriculum/materials development Program evaluation Action research

MATESOL program – ???

If we are asked to teach an LSP course, what do we do?

SPANISH FOR WORKING MEDICAL PROFESSIONALS: LINGUISTIC NEEDS

Introduction

Voght and Grosse (1998) argues that foreign language education will have to “focus on the needs of the majority of our college students, who will not be educators, but businesspeople, international lawyers, medical professionals, social workers, and other professionals” (p. 9).

Unique needs of working professionals – linguistic knowledge & practicality

Typical scenario – Spanish students apply their studies to a clinical setting, but not vice versa.

Research Methodology

Qualitative case study: In-depth description of linguistic need of English-speaking health care professionals working with Spanish-speaking patients in perinatal clinics.

Observations, interviews, document analyses and member checks – 7 weeks

NUD*IST software?

Grounded theory

Participants

A sample of health care professionals (nurses, nurse midwives, and a nutritionist)

Beth – Obstetrics nurse since 1989 Gretchen – Nursing as 2nd career Bernice – Nurse for 30 years Nancy – Nurse midwife Kim - Nutritionist

Results

Communicative competence – Speaking & listening

Expand fixed scripts

Linguistic needs – 4 categories Pronunciation – cognates Written resources – for participants and

patients (didn’t use the ones they had). Needs to be in a form they can use without interrupting work.

Grammar – how the language works, continued progress, different contexts, register, subject pronouns, verbs

Listening – most problematic, reception strategies, interactive listening

Implications

Swain – Negotiation of meaning, productive automaticity, understanding of grammar that applies to task

Development of linguistic competence – comprehensible input + comprehensible output

Needs – More input and more strategies for dealing with input

LSP course – Process-oriented approach to communication rather than learning of specific linguistic forms - communicative competence, speaking and listening strategies, work-related (skeletal) dialogues, audio/video/native speakers as role-playing patients

LSP instructor – teaches language classes in the workplace – needs analysis

Discussion

Is this good research?

Synthesis

Sale’s pitch Needs analysis – How would you go

about finding out their working professional needs? What are their needs and how would you design an LSP course to fit those needs?

Joe – Paramedic Rebecca – Lab Tech Melissa – Administration