Module 2-4. English as a lingua franca in everyday international interaction

Unit 2-19. The use of English in international business

Unit 2-20. English lingua franca in business communication

Unit 2-21. New technologies in teaching and learning ESP

Unit 2-22. Formulaic language in English lingua franca

Unit 2-23. Non-native/non-native lingua franca interaction

Unit 2-24. The use of English in Europe

INTRODUCTION

This Manual is a guide to the graduate instruction in English for Specific Purposes (ESP). Step-by-step procedures are outlined for assessing students’ needs, setting achievable goals, and selecting appropriate materials and activities for the classroom. Out of the four language skills the Manual describes three – reading, writing, and speaking, and provides suggestions for employing these skills as well as grammar and analysis skills.

The Manual does focus on the special case in teaching English as a tool of transnational communication: teaching English for Specific Purposes, and the particular ways by which professional objectives should be structured for the mastering of ESP.

Being a graduate student of English you have had a four-year long previous experience learning English as a second language (ESL) or English as a foreign language (EFL), and your first question on receiving your current assignment to learn ESP may be: "How is ESP different from ESL?"

How is ESP different from English as a Second Language, or general English?

The major difference between ESP and ESL lies in the learners and their purposes for learning English. ESP students are adults who already have familiarity with English and are learning the language in order to communicate a set of professional skills and to perform particular job-related functions. An ESP program is therefore built on an assessment of purposes and needs and the functions for which English is required.

As a matter of fact, ESP is part of a shift from traditional concentration on teaching grammar and language structures to an emphasis on language in context. ESP covers subjects ranging from accounting or computer science to tourism and business management.

For students specializing in the English language and literature the field of professional activity covers all kinds of transnational communication ranging from teaching ESL to interpreting or translation in international tourism and business servicing. The ESP focus means that English is not taught as a subject divorced from the students' future jobs; instead, it is integrated into a subject matter area important to the learners.

Consequently, ESL and ESP diverge not only in the nature of the learner, but also in the goals of instruction. In fact, as a general rule, while in ESL all four language skills; listening, reading, speaking, and writing, are stressed equally, in ESP it is a needs analysis that determines which language skills are most needed by the students, and the syllabus is designed accordingly.

The third point where EFL and ESP differ is in the emphasis on the skills to be activated. Whereas in EFL/ESL all four language skills; listening, reading, speaking, and writing, are stressed equally, in ESP a needs assessment determines which language skills are most needed by the students, and the program is focused accordingly.

An ESP program might, for example, emphasize the development of reading skills in students who are preparing for graduate work as analysts and translators in international business; or it might promote the development of spoken skills in students who are studying English in order to become tourist guides.

The students' interest in their prospective subject-matter fields, in turn, enhances their ability to acquire English. The ESP class takes the meaningful context and shows students how the same information is expressed in English. The teacher can exploit the students' knowledge of the subject matter in helping them master English deeper and faster.

The graduate students approach the final period of their study of English through a field that is already known and relevant to them. This means that they are able to use what they learn in the ESP classroom right away in their work and studies. The ESP approach enhances the relevance of what the students are learning and enables them to use the English they know to learn even more English, since their interest in their field will motivate them to interact with speakers and texts. ESP assesses needs and integrates motivation, subject matter and content for the teaching of relevant skills.

What is the role of the learner and what is the task s/he faces?

The graduate students 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. In this view, ESP is a powerful means for creating opportunities in their professional work or further studies.

The more learners pay attention to the meaning of the language they read and analyze, the more they are successful; and on the contrary, the more they have to focus on the linguistic input or isolated language structures, the less they are motivated to attend their classes.

The ESP graduate students are particularly well disposed to focus on meaning in authentic contexts and on the particular ways in which the language is used in functions that they will need to perform in their fields of specialty or jobs.

Graduate students 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.

Graduate students must work harder than they used to before, but the learning skills they bring to the task permit them to learn more efficiently. The skills they have already developed in using their English make the language learning abilities in the ESP classroom potentially immense. They will be expanding vocabulary, becoming more fluent in their fields, and adjusting their linguistic behaviour to new situations or new roles.

To summarize, students bring to ESP focus for learning, subject matter knowledge, adult learning strategies. They can exploit these innate competencies in learning English because ESP combines purpose, subject matter, motivation, context-relevant skills.

The teacher’s role in the ESP classroom is to organize programs, set goals and objectives, establish a positive learning environment, evaluate students' progress.

A ssessing students’ needs and skills

What language skills will the students need to develop in order to perform these tasks? Will the receptive skills of reading and listening be most important, or the productive skills of writing and speaking – or some other combination?

The Common European Framework (CEF) describes what a learner can do at six specific levels: Basic User (A1 and A2); Independent User (B1 and B2); Proficient User (C1 and C2).

These levels match general concepts of basic, intermediate, and advanced and are often referred to as the Global Scale.

The Global Scale is not language-specific. In other words, it can be used with virtually any language and can be used to compare achievement and learning across languages. For example, an A2 in Spanish is the same as an A2 in Japanese or English.

The Global Scale also helps teachers, academic coordinators, and course book writers to decide on curriculum and syllabus content and to choose appropriate course books, etc.

The Global Scale is based on a set of statements that describe what a learner can do. The “can do” statements are always positive: they describe what a learner is able to do, not what a learner cannot do or does wrong. This helps all learners, even those at the lowest levels, see that learning has value and that they can attain language goals.