Dear All
Why not to share ideas on:
What makes the content of ESP courses you are teaching?
How do you organise it?
How well does it meet the needs of your students?
Looking forward to any of your ideas and concerns.
All the best
Content of ESP Course
Fri, 04/03/2009 - 20:47
Mon, 04/13/2009 - 17:18
#2
Hi Sandra
Thanks for sharing your own teaching experience that pointed out the multidisciplinary nature of ESP. Fully agree with you that texts and their genres are different in different specialisms. In addition to your experience described I would like to recommend team-work with subject teachers at least in choosing topics and notions to be used while developing communicative language competence (skills and knowledge). I think close cooperation with them will be of great help to EFL/ESP teachers as we are not the experts in eg. Engineering, Law, Economy etc. Besides, they can provide us with special texts in English.
To sum up, your ideas caught from your message: you are developing reading skills, range of vocabulary and discussion skills of your students, i.e. texts, vocabulary and the named skills make the content of ESP course, don't they? What about speaking, listening, writing, grammar, topics/notions? Do they find their place at your courses?
To help you with your concern it would be appropriate if you give an example of activites you use in the classroom or better a task if you are practicing task-based approach.
Fri, 04/17/2009 - 14:56
#3
Hi Zira,
I teach military English. In our courses we concentrate on the four skills as well as the special topics, our students have to learn for their exam.
In our courses we have two main strands: general English and military English. But that distinction refers to the topic areas only, since in both strands we focus on the skills. To give an example: I think we can practice for example the listening skill via the topic of 'environment' or via the topic of 'branches of the army'. We can also practice the writing skill via writing about the negative effects of smoking, or via preparing an incident report. The vocabulary will be different of course - but that is a different question.
So, we put together our ESP courses on the basis of topics. Alongside with the different topics we teahc the skills and grammar.
Does that make sense?
Wed, 10/14/2009 - 04:59
#4
HI, Im an EFL Teacher and want to do some research on esp courses ,if u please answer my questions below:
students: lawyers/LLB students
objectives:designing an ESP speaking course for lawyers and LLB students
How should I do the needs analysis of the proffossionals to whom Im going to teach?
what should be the teaching methodology ?
Wed, 10/14/2009 - 19:14
#5
Dear Pelics1999
I thought you might be interested in the link below - please let me know if it's useful
Best wishes
'Developing legal writing materials for English second language learners: problems and perspective'
C. N. Candlin 
, 
, V. K. Bhatia and C. H. Jensen
Department of English, City University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science?_ob=ArticleURL&_udi=B6VDM-45TS51G-2&_user=10&_rdoc=1&_fmt=&_orig=search&_sort=d&_docanchor=&view=c&_searchStrId=1048434326&_rerunOrigin=google&_acct=C000050221&_version=1&_urlVersion=0&_userid=10&md5=2cf2e4f7c691e892d59d7b903c2c4ac7
Fri, 10/16/2009 - 09:36
#6
Dear Pelics 1999,
I guess you can design the course and course material based on a questionnaire you prepare to distribute among your students in the first session of your class.
It can focus on the learner's needs, preference of material, their expectations of the course and ......., then the answers can give you a clue on how to get the ball rolling. I assume you can
adopt a task-based approach for the course after you decide on your material.
All the best,
Peyman
Dear Zira.
I have worked with ESP during two school years and it has been difficult for me to know what to teach and how to do it. However, the strategies that I have used are the following: Firstable, I look up a text written in the students´ native language. I do this with the purpose of knowing the students knowledge about morphology and basic structures of written language. Then, when I know the students´ previous knowlegde I begin to use texts written in the second language (English). The texts are related with machines and tools because I work with that mention. We read and discussed the text into the class. I ask to the students if they have understood the text and we begin a disscusion about the content. The students can work in groups. Another strateghy is that the students make a glossary with the specific therms of the mention and they have to study them for enriching their vocabulary.
On the other hand, about my students needs I can tell you that they are going to graduate in a Thecnical School and they are going to do their practicum at enterprises related with their mention. For that reason, they have to be prepared to read manuals and texts about machines and tools. I consider that I have used texts which cover the students needs. However my concern if that not all the students feel comfortable doing the activities. What do you think about?