Ideas and Options in English for Specific Purposes (ESL & Applied Linguistics Professional Series)

199 Pages·2006·1.86 MB·English

by  Helen Basturkmen

Ideas and Options
in
English for Specifi c Purposes
ESL & Applied Linguistics Professional Series
Eli Hinkel, Series Editor
Nero, Ed. • Dialects, Englishes, Creoles, and Education
Basturkmen • Ideas and Options in English for Specifi c Purposes
Kumaravadivelu • Understanding Language Teaching: From Method to
Postmethod
McKay • Researching Second Language Classrooms
Egbert/Petrie, Eds. • CALL Research Perspectives
Canagarajah, Ed. • Reclaiming the Local in Language Policy and Practice
Adamson • Language Minority Students in American Schools:
An Education in English
Fotos/Browne, Eds. • New Perspectives on CALL for Second Language
Classrooms
Hinkel • Teaching Academic ESL Writing: Practical Techniques in
Vocabulary and Grammar
Hinkel/Fotos, Eds. • New Perspectives on Grammar Teaching in Second
Language Classrooms
Birch • English L2 Reading: Getting to the Bottom
Hinkel • Second Language Writers’ Text: Linguistic and Rhetorical
Features
Ideas and Options
in
English for Specifi c Purposes
Helen Basturkmen
The University of Auckland
LAWRENCE ERLBAUM ASSOCIATES, PUBLISHERS
2006 Mahwah, New Jersey London
This edition published in the Taylor & Francis e-Library, 2008.
“To purchase your own copy of this or any of Taylor & Francis or Routledge’s
collection of thousands of eBooks please go to www.eBookstore.tandf.co.uk.”
Copyright © 2006 by Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Inc.
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form, by
photostat, microform, retrieval system, or any other means, without prior written
permission of the publisher.
Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Inc., Publishers
10 Industrial Avenue
Mahwah, New Jersey 07430
www.erlbaum.com
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Basturkmen, Helen.
Ideas and options in English for specifi c purposes / Helen Basturkmen
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 0–8058–4417–1 — ISBN 0–8058–4418–X (pbk.)
1. English language—Study and teaching (Higher)—Foreign
speakers. 2. English language—Business English—Study and teaching
(Higher) 3. English language—Technical English—Study and teaching
(Higher) I. Title.
PE1128.A2.B317 2005
428'.0071—dc22 2005047285
ISBN 1-4106-1704-1 Master e-book ISBN
Contents
Preface ix
Part I: Preliminaries
1 Introduction 3
Aims and Audience 3
Impetuses 4
Infl uences 6
2 Approach 9
Data-Driven 9
Structuration Theory 10
Framework for Analysis 12
3 Issues in ESP Course Design 15
Varieties of Language 15
Needs Analysis 17
Types of Syllabuses 20
Narrow- and Wide-Angled Course Designs 25
Specifi c and Specifi able Elements in ESP 26
Summary 28
Questions for Discussion and Projects 29
Further Reading 29
Part II: Ideas and Options
Section A: Language
4 Language Systems 35
Grammatical Structures and Core Vocabulary 35
Patterns of Text Organization 38
Summary 44
Questions for Discussion and Projects 44
Further Reading 45
v
vi contents
5 Language Uses 47
Speech Acts 47
Genres 51
Social Interaction 61
Words Used for Discipline-Specifi c Meanings 63
Summary 67
Questions for Discussion and Projects 67
Further Reading 70
6 Combining Language Descriptions 73
In-House Teaching Material for Engineering Students 73
An Academic Speaking Course 78
Research Study Into Workplace Language 78
Summary 80
Questions for Discussion and Projects 81
Further Reading 81
Section B: Learning
7 Conditions for Learning 85
Acculturation 85
Input and Interaction 90
Summary 94
Questions for Discussion and Projects 94
Further Reading 96
8 Processes of Learning 97
Information Processing 97
Learning Through Content 101
Activity Theory—An Ecological Perspective 105
Summary 107
Questions for Discussion and Projects 108
Further Reading 108
Section C: Teaching
9 Methodologies 113
Input-Based Strategies 114
Output-Based Strategies 123
Summary 131
Questions for Discussion and Projects 131
Further Reading 132
10 Objectives in Teaching ESP 133
To Reveal Subject-Specifi c Language Use 134
To Develop Target Performance Competencies 135
contents vii
To Teach Underlying Knowledge 137
To Develop Strategic Competence 138
To Foster Critical Awareness 140
Summary 144
Questions for Discussion and Projects 145
Further Reading 146
Part III: General
11 Synthesis 149
Reintroducing the Framework 149
Using the Framework 151
Summary 157
Questions for Discussion and Projects 159
Further Reading 165
References 167
Author Index 179
Subject Index 183
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Preface
This is a book about different approaches to English for Specifi c Purposes
(ESP). Much of the literature in ESP to date has focused on case-by-case
descriptions of individual teaching or research projects. It has also focused
on practical aspects, such as course and materials design (Dudley-Evans &
St. John, 1998). The purpose of this book is to go beyond individual cases
and practices to examine the approaches and the ideas on which they are
based. The book does not seek to promote any one approach but to iden-
tify and illustrate the approaches in evidence today. The work addresses
questions such as: What types of ESP teaching are practiced? What are the
alternatives in ESP course design and what ideas about language and learn-
ing are they based on? What different roles can ESP teaching play? What
kinds of research are carried out into the communicative practices of pro-
fessional, academic, and workplace groups? How are theories from second
language acquisition (SLA) refl ected in ESP? What links are there between
the emergence of a sociopolitical awareness in education and ESP?
This book is primarily geared toward the interests of participants on
graduate-level TESOL teacher education courses. It serves as a basis for
examination of theories and the links between them and practice and
research in ESP. It aims to encourage readers to adopt an analytical stance
toward the fi eld, to identify the approaches in ESP today and the ideas
driving them.
This is a book about ideas—the different views of language, learning,
and teaching in ESP. However, it is not a book about ideas in the abstract.
The main emphasis of the book is on the links between theory and ESP
teaching and research. Ideas from linguistics, sociolinguistics, education,
SLA, and social theories are described. Links are then made between them
and ESP course designs, instructional materials, and research projects.
Thus the work moves back and forth between description of theories, teach-
ing practice, and research.
ESP is taught in many different countries and contexts. Recognizing
this, the book draws on a wide range of examples of teaching practice
and research from around the world and from different branches of ESP,
ix