English for Specific Purposes (ESP):

Teaching English for Specific Purposes

Acknowledgements
Chapter One The teacher, the student, and English for
specific purposes
English for Specific Purposes
The Role of the Teacher
The Role of the Student
Chapter Two: Analyzing needs
Chapter Three: Developing language skills
Chapter Four: Program design
Chapter Five: Materials selection and development
Appendices

Acknowledgements
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1
ICE/ Peace Corps
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ESP: TEACHING ENGLISH FOR

SPECIFIC PURPOSES
Mary Schleppegrell
and
Brenda Bowman

Prepared for Peace Corps by Center for Applied Linguistics

Washington, DC
Peace Corps Information Collection & Exchange Manual M0031
September 1986
Prepared for the Peace Corps by the Center for Applied
Linguistics under Contract #205-2723, August 14, 1986.

This manual may be reproduced and/or translated in part or in full

without payment of royalty. Please give standard
acknowledgement.

Acknowledgement

The authors would like to thank John L. D. Clark, JoAnn Crandall,

and Karen Willetts of the Center for Applied Linguistics, and John
Guevin-and Mau.reen Delaney of the Peace Corps, for their
valuable editorial comments. We would also like to thank Joyce

2
Simpkins of the Center for Applied Linguistics for her help with the
figures and diagrams.

Introduction

This Manual is a guide to the development of a program of

instruction in English for Specific Purposes (ESP). Step-by-step
procedures are outlined for assessing student needs, setting
achievable goals, designing a program, and selecting -
appropriate materials and activities for the classroom. The Manual
also describes the four language skills: listening, reading, writing,
and speaking, and provides suggestions for teaching these skills
as well as grammar and study skills. General guidelines are also
presented for program and classroom management. A special
section addresses the needs of students who are preparing to
study abroad, and a resource section reviews materials which are
available to Peace Corps ESP teachers and gives directions for
ordering them from Peace Corps' Information Collection and
Exchange (ICE).

This Manual is not an exhaustive review of techniques and

approaches to teaching English as a Foreign Language (EFL).
Other resources will be needed for that purpose by the Volunteer
with no previous EFL teaching experience. The Manual does
focus on the special case in EFL; teaching English for Specific
Purposes, and the particular ways that a EFL program should be
structured for the teaching of ESP.

The Role of the Teacher

Some of you may already have experience teaching English as a

Foreign Language (EFL). If so, you can draw on your background
in language teaching. This Manual will help you identify the ways
in which your teaching skills can be adapted for the teaching of
English for Specific Purposes. In addition, you will need to seek
out content-area specialists for assistance in designing
appropriate lessons in the subject matter field you are teaching.

3
If you are a subject-area specialist with no experience in teaching
EFL, this Manual will be a valuable resource as it takes you
through the process of needs assessment and program design
and offers concrete suggestions for classroom activities. You will
need to carefully study the EFL techniques suggested here to see
how your subject-matter knowledge can be used in the teaching
of language skills.

The Peace Corps ESP teacher must fill many roles. You may be
responsible for organizing courses, for setting learning objectives,
for establishing a positive learning environment in the classroom,
and for evaluating student progress.

1. Organizing Programs: You will set goals for the students and
then translate those goals into an instructional program with
hourly, daily, and weekly activities. One of your primary tasks will
be management; selecting and organizing course materials,
supporting the students in their efforts, and providing them with
feedback on their progress.

2. Setting Goals and Objectives: You arrange the conditions for

learning in the classroom and set long-term goals and short-term
objectives for student achievement. Your awareness of students'
capabilities is a crucial factor in designing a program with realistic
goals that takes into account the students' contribution to the
learning situation.

4
 Figure 1.1. ESP assesses needs and integrates motivation,
subject matter and content for the teaching of relevant( skills

3. Establishing a Learning Environment: Your communication

skills establish the classroom atmosphere. Language is acquired
by students when they have opportunities to use the language in
interaction with other speakers. As their teacher, you may be the
only native speaker of English available to students, and although
your time with any one student will be limited, you can model
good communication skills in the classroom. This means that in
your interactions with students you should listen carefully to what
they are saying (or trying to say) and reflect your understanding or
lack of understanding back at them through your responses.
Language learning is a great risk-taking endeavor for students in
which they must make many errors in order to succeed.
Language learners are handicapped in the classroom because
they are unable to use their native language competence to
present themselves as knowledgeable adults. Instead, they have
to take on the role of inarticulate learner. You should create an
atmosphere in the language classroom which supports the
students. The non-native speaker of English must be self-
5
confident in order to communicate, and you have the
responsibility to help build the learner's confidence.

Evaluating Students: Finally, you are a resource person who

helps students identify their language-learning problems and find
solutions to them. You identify the skills that students need to
focus on, and take responsibility for making choices which
determine what and how the students learn. You will serve as a
source of information to the students about how they are
progressing in their language learning.

The Role of the Student

- What does the learner bring to the classroom and what is the
task the language learner faces? The learners come to the ESP
class with a specific focus for learning, subject matter knowledge,
and well-developed adult learning strategies. They face the task
of developing English language skills to reflect their native-
language knowledge and skills.

1. Focus for Learning: The ESP student has a particular

purpose and focus for learning. People learn languages when
they have opportunities to understand and work with language in
a context that they comprehend and find interesting. ESP is a
vehicle for such opportunities. Students will acquire English as
they work with materials which they find interesting and relevant
and which they can use in their professional work or further
studies. Successful learners pay attention to the meaning of the
language they hear or read and do not focus primarily on the
linguistic input or isolated language structures. The ESP student
is particularly well disposed to focus on meaning in the subject-
matter field. In ESP, English should be presented not as a subject
or body of facts to be learned in isolation from real use, nor as a
mechanical skill or habit to be developed. Rather, English should
be presented in authentic contexts to acquaint the learners with
the particular ways the language is used in functions that they will
need to perform in their specialty fields.

6
2. Subject-Matter Knowledge: Learners in the ESP classroom
are able to make a real contribution to the language learning
process. They are generally aware of the purposes for which they
will need to use English. Having already oriented their training
toward a specific field, they see their English instruction as
complementing this orientation. Knowledge of the specialty area
enables the students to identify a real context for the vocabulary
and structures of the ESP classroom. In this way, the learners can
take advantage of what they already know about the subject
matter field to learn English.

3. Adult Learning Strategies: Learning as an adult has

advantages -- adults must work harder than children to learn a
new language, but the learning strategies they bring to the task
enable them to learn faster and more efficiently. The skills they
have already developed in reading and writing their native
languages will make learning English easier. Although the English
of the students you will be working with will most likely be quite
limited, the language learning abilities of the adult in the ESP
classroom are potentially great. Language learning continues
naturally throughout our lives. Educated adults are constantly
learning new language behavior in their native languages;
expanding vocabulary, becoming more articulate in their fields,
and modifying their linguistic behavior in new situations or new
roles. ESP students can tap these natural competencies in
learning English.

To summarize, ESP combines

• purpose
• subject matter
• motivation
• context
• relevant skills

Your role in the ESP classroom is to

7
• organize programs
• set goals and objectives
• establish a positive learning environment
• evaluate students' progress

Your students bring to ESP

• focus for learning

• subject matter knowledge
• adult learning strategies

Chapter Two: Analyzing needs

Purpose of the Needs Assessment

Three reasons you should conduct a needs assessment prior to

development of an ESP course are:

1) to become acquainted with the institution and its requirements,

2) to identify how learners will use English in their technical fields,
and
3) to assess the students' current level of understanding of
spoken English.

A series of interviews and observations, as suggested here, will

allow you to take advantage of the resources available at your
institution to help you identify the particular skills that the learners
will need to perform in English, and to create opportunities for
students to engage in activities that give them practice in
understanding and using language structures to perform those
skills. The process outlined here will prepare you to select
activities and materials which are appropriate to the learners'
needs and level of proficiency.

The needs assessment phase of ESP program development will

give you a better understanding of your students' needs and
capabilities as English learners. Identifying these needs and
capabilities involves identifying the functions for which the
students will use English and collecting samples of authentic
8
language. In analyzing this language your focus should not just be
on the grammar of the language, but also on how it is used in the
academic or professional context: that is, what role English plays
in that specialty field and what students must learn to be able to
use English in their technical work.

The main questions answered by the needs assessment, then,

are:

What are the purposes for which the students will use English?
Will it be mainly for oral communication, written communication,
reading, or to do research?
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?

Your needs assessment will help you to answer these questions.

The Needs Assessment Process

The process of needs assessment requires interviews and

interactions with three sources of information at your institution:
the administrators, the content-area instructors, and the students
themselves.

1. Program administrators should be interviewed soon after your

arrival at your site. It is important that you integrate yourself into
the new institution; introducing yourself to the administration will
give you the opportunity to find out what is expected from you as
a new member of the teaching staff, and for you to let them know
what the goals of the Peace Corps program and your course are
in the context of broader host country goals.

Ask the administrators about the institution's grading and

examination requirements. These requirements may put some
constraints on the program you develop. In many countries
standard examinations are developed by the government or
9
educational institutions. If you are required to give such an exam
at the end of your course, your teaching must take this into
account. Even if you do not agree with the emphasis on or focus
of the examinations, your students will be dissatisfied if your
program ignores material which is necessary for their success
within the institution.

Ask about facilities and equipment which are available to you as a

language teacher. Find out if the institution has any funds
available for you to acquire materials or equipment. Finally, ask to
be introduced to the subject matter instructors in the area of ESP
that you will teach (instructors in computer science, for example, if
you will be teaching English for computer science students).

2. Content-area instructors are valuable resources for the ESP

teacher. In the ESP course is English for Accounting, for example,
the instructors in the accounting department of the institution
should become close working partners with the ESP instructor to
share information about the students' needs for English and the
ways students will use the English they are learning. Ask the
instructors for samples of English-language materials used in
subject-matter teaching: textbooks, research articles, and, if
possible, class handouts and sample exercises. It may be useful
for you to look at copies of old exams and materials which
students used in secondary schools, if they are available. These
can be adapted and used in the ESP class to reinforce what is
taught in the content-area classes. Ask the subject-matter teacher
to show you any equipment and laboratory facilities used by the
students. Spend some time in the laboratory to determine first-
hand the kinds of interactions that are important to the students in
their acquisition of English.

3. Student interviews will help you in the final purpose of the

needs assessment -- assessing the learners' current level of
understanding of spoken English. An assessment of the students'
ability to comprehend English is done at this time for your benefit
as a teacher, not to test the students' language skills. It is a
necessary step in preparing you to meet and interact with the
10
class in a way that they will be able to understand. You need to
know what the general level of comprehension of spoken English
is among the students in order to prepare your initial
presentations to them. It is not necessary that you thoroughly
assess your students' level of competence in English before the
course begins, but interviewing a few students before the first
class meeting will guide your preparations. Talking informally with
students about their interests and experiences in language
learning will give you an idea of how much you will need to modify
your speech initially so that it is understood by the group. See
Chapter Six, Program Management and Evaluation, for tips on
how you can modify your speech to achieve comprehensibility.
Students can also give you information about what they perceive
as their needs for English.

These student interviews should not be seen as formal or

"testing" situations, but rather as opportunities for informal
assessment of individual students which will help you to
understand how much of your spoken English the students will
comprehend. The students interviews are also useful, particularly
in unstructured or informal instructional settings, for you to find out
what the students perceive as their needs for English. Your
interview questions can probe in depth on this topic. Keep in mind
that it is the listening comprehension ability of your students, and
not their speaking ability that you are interested in at this point.
Assessment of students' other language skills, such as reading
and writing, may be accomplished as the course gets under way.
See Chapter Three, Developing Language Skills, and Chapter
Five: Materials Selection and Development.

What to Look for

The materials and activities you select should reflect what

students will need to do with the English they learn. As you study
subject-matter materials and observe students in their laboratory
and classroom interactions, pay special attention to the functions
and uses of language in the content area. Many of these can be
incorporated into your curriculum. Uses of language include:
11
1) Vocabulary used to identify and describe equipment, tools and
machinery.
2) Language used to describe procedures, processes, and safety
precautions necessary for using equipment, tools, and machinery.
Functions for which such language is used include following
directions, clarifying/verifying or getting more information,
explaining, reporting, giving advice, and requesting help.
3) Language used for measurement and mathematics in the
specialty skill.
4) Language used to evaluate work and to check whether work
has been completed properly.

Following the interviews suggested above, you are ready to

outline the instructional program that you will provide. In addition
to the information from the interviews, you will have collected any
subject-matter materials that are available and noted and
observed situations in which English is used or will be used by the
students.

To summarize:

Needs Assessment interviews cover three sources:

1. Administrators, who will give you information about the

institution's requirements of your students.
2. Content area instructors, who will give you information about
the materials covered by your students in their specialty studies.
3. Students, who will give you information about how well you will
be understood in the classroom and what they perceive as their
needs for English.
With this information you should be able to identify the institutional
goals the skills to be developed in your ESP class, and the level
at which you should pitch your English to communicate best with
your students.

Chapter Three: Developing language skills

Listening, reading, speaking, and writing -- these are the four

basic language skills. Your needs assessment will show you
12
which of these skills should be emphasized in your ESP class.
Emphasis will vary from situation to situation, but in many post
secondary institutions, students typically need ESP to understand
English and will therefore expect priority help in developing their
listening and reading skills. However, no skill should be taught in
isolation. This section of the Manual describes the language skills,
lists objectives for the development of each skill, and gives
guidelines and suggestions for classroom activities to give
students practice.

Listening

Listening comprehension, although vital for communication in

English, is usually the most neglected of the language skills in
English programs. As a native speaker, you have a unique
advantage in developing listening comprehension skills in your
students. Everything that you say in the classroom can be useful
in developing the students' listening abilities.

To be effective, however, your spoken communications with the

class must be comprehensible. Language which is not understood
is just "noise" and does not lead to student language acquisition.
For this reason, it is important for you to gauge your students'
level of comprehension and adjust your speech to reflect their
understanding. You should spend some time at the beginning of
your course to be sure you are understood. Your students may be
accustomed to hearing a British accent, for example, and may
need time to adjust to yours. Look at your students carefully as
you talk to get cues about their comprehension. Check
comprehension frequently by asking questions about content
which require listening comprehension, or by asking for questions
or comments.

The cloze exercise is a good way to check your students' listening

comprehension. Give them a short passage with some words
deleted. Read the passage aloud twice. If they are unable to fill in
the missing words, they are unable to make sense of the
passage. More information and examples of cloze exercises can
13
be found on pages 38, 64, and 68 of this Manual. Other ways of
using cloze exercises include deleting articles or verbs, for
example, if you are working on these forms, to focus students'
attention on these language structures.

The tape recorder is a valuable asset to the language teacher. If

you have a recorder available, you can tape _listening exercises
in advance to allow yourself the freedom to circulate in the
classroom as students complete them. You can also record other
native English speakers reading craze or other passages to give
the students practice hearing other accents and speakers of the
opposite sex.

Give students practice taking notes as they listen. Your students

may be used to writing notes down verbatim, as a dictation
exercise, and will need practice in listening for main points of
information. Help them to recognize clues to meaning introduced
by the speaker. Figure 2 illustrates the types of clues you should
bring to your students' attention. A summary of such clues
includes:

a) Numerical statements, such as "There are two reasons... "

b) Rhetorical questions.
c) Introductory summaries: "Let me first explain...n; "The topic
which I intend to discuss is interesting because... "
d) Development of an idea, signalled by statements such as:
"Another reason... ";; "On the one hand... ";; "Therefore... ";;
"Since... ";; "In "; etc.
e) Transitions, such as "Let us turn our attention to...n; "If these
facts are true, then...n; etc.
f) Chronology of ideas, signalled by "First...n; "The next... n;
"Finally...,"; etc.
g) Emphasis of ideas, such as "This is important because...n;
"The significant results were... ";; "Let me repeat..."; etc.
h) Summary of ideas, signaled by "In conclusion... n ; "As I have
shown..."; etc.

14
(adapted from Richard C. Yorkey, Study Skills for Students of
English as a Second Language,. Used by permission of McGraw
Hill Book Co.)
Use graphics and visuals whenever possible with listening
exercises. Figure 3 shows how a graph can be used to keep
students engaged in active listening. Students may also need
help in learning to read graphics (maps, charts, etc.) because
they may have had little experience with this skill. Listening
comprehension activities can help them see how graphic
information is read and analyzed.
Writing GRAMMAR
Although your students will probably place great emphasis on
learning grammar, you should assure them that grammar is not
the most important aspect of language learning. This is easily
demonstrated by reference to the person who knows many
grammar rules and yet cannot understand or express anything in
the spoken language. Students whose language courses have
always focused exclusively on grammar may urge you to spend
lots of class time explaining various points of English grammar
and structure. Such explanation is actually teaching English
linguistics, and there is controversy in the field of EFL teaching
regarding the real value of such instruction for language learners.
Students may have a false sense that they are learning English,
when, in fact, they are learning about English, but making little
progress toward comprehending and being able to use the
language in the contexts for which they need it.
Understanding and communicating in English is within the
students' reach even if they don't understand the fine points of
grammar. The ability to function in English is not directly linked to
accuracy of grammatical use or pronunciation. Students need to
be encouraged to use English even if they make mistakes. The
main purpose of language use, after all, is communication.
Some instruction in grammar is necessary, however. Especially in
written work, learning grammar rules can help students to
recognize and correct their errors. In preparing to teach grammar,
be sure you have a good understanding of the structures that you
want to teach, so that your presentation is clear. It is also
15
important that your students be able to use the grammar they
practice. One way to ensure that students can make effective use
of what they learn is to teach grammar in conjunction with writing,
the skill in which it can best be practiced. In speaking, we do not
usually have the time to remember and apply rules of grammar,
but in writing we have ample opportunity to monitor our usage. It
is in writing that grammar instruction is most useful. The
grammatical forms which are most useful and most learnable are
those which control sentence-- level functions such as question
form, negation, relative clause formation and other structures
involved in subordination and coordination. These features are
more important than correct usage of articles or other
nonsentence-level features. Focusing on paragraph features such
c, tense continuity across clauses, parallel structure, and
connectors, will help students in reading comprehension as well.
(See section on READING, above, for more ideas on teaching
grammar with reading.)
Development of " iting ability takes lots of practice. Start with
simple, structured exercises and allow students to develop
confidence as writers before you give them longer free writing
tasks. As in other skills, development of writing can be enhanced
through the use of appropriate visuals. See Figure 6 for an
example of how a text uses a diagram of the carbon cycle to
guide students in writing true sentences. Students need only
choose the correct combination of elements to write the
sentences. Another such exercise is shown in Figure 7. Here the
students write statements which establish relationships among
animals based on information from a diagram.

16
 Figure 6. From General Science by Rates and Evans. Nucleus:
English for Science and technology Series. Copyright ° 1976 by
Longman Croup Ltd. Reprinted by permission
Writing assignments should be carefully structured. They should
also be practiced and reviewed often and used as a basis for
more complex writing assignments. Paragraph writing exercises
can be based on models which the students first complete, and
then expand or build on. An example of this is given in Figure 8.
Students first complete a paragraph based on a diagram, and
then use another diagram to write a paragraph in similar style.

If development of skill in writing longer compositions is a goal of

your writing program, work gradually toward this goal.
Compositions are very time-consuming to correct and should be
limited in length and scope. Following are the structural errors
most often found in student compositions:

17
1. Subject-verb agreement
2. Articles
3. Word order problems: adverbs, win-clauses.
4. Present perfect tense
5. Verb + Verb-ing (gerunds) vs. Verb + to + Verb (infinitive)
6. Passive Voice
7. Spelling
8. Punctuation

(From Guide to Language and Study Skills for College Students

of English as Second Language by A.V. Martin et al.)

" Dialogue journals" have recently become quite popular as a way

for teachers to communicate with students individually in writing
without spending massive amounts of time in correction. The
students are encouraged to keep a notebook, a dialogue journal,
in which they write anything they want. The teacher collects the
journals at regularly scheduled intervals, reads them, and writes
notes or comments to the student; hence, a "dialogue" is created.
Error correction can be done through teacher entries, where the
correct forms are modeled. Dialogue journals are an effective way
for you to get to know students individually if you have large
classes.

18
If students writ' during class time, the teacher can circulate among
the students, monitor their progress, and offer suggestions. This
can be a useful activity.

19
Figure 8. From Enllish in Basic Medical Science by Joan Maclean.
Copyright c 1975 by Oxford University Press. Inc. Reprinted by
permission.

Objectives for the Development of Writing Skills

1. Students will be able to summarize material which they have

read.
2. Students will be able to take notes on lectures or readings.
3. Students will be able to compose coherent paragraphs on
familiar topics.
20
4. Students will be able to write short letters in standard format.
5. Students will be able to write for a variety of purposes,
depending on the needs of their specialty area.

Activities for Developing Writing Skills

1. Copying exercises are helpful for beginning learners, especially

if their native language uses a writing system different from
English.
2. Writing exercises include dictation and completion of cloze or
fill-in-the-blank exercises. Completion of cloze exercises forces
students to hypothesize and to recognize relationships between
sentences.
3. Sentence-combining exercises require students to combine
short sentences into longer ones. This gives them practice with
coordination and subordination without requiring the composition
of coherent prose passages.

For example, given the sentences:

Wheat is subsidized by the government. The subsidy is paid for
local wheat. The subsidy is also paid for imported wheat. The
purpose of the subsidy is to keep bread prices low.
Students can form the sentence:
Both local and imported wheat are subsidized by the government
in order to keep bread prices low.
4. Re-ordering jumbled sentences helps students build
understanding of paragraph structure.
5. Note-taking exercises give students practice recording
information. Guide them in developing good notetaking style.
Teach them that when they take notes they should include
content words, important diagrams, correct figures (such as
percentages, quantities), transitional expressions, and appropriate
abbreviations and symbols. See page 12 for more tips on
teaching note-taking skills.
6. Outlining exercises for reading, shown in Chapter Four,
Program Design, help students to see the organizational structure
of material they read. In writing, outlining exercises can prepare
21
the students to write by forcing them to make their own
organizational patterns explicit. Ask students to write a sentence
giving the main thesis of their composition, and then to outline the
main points they will develop in support of the thesis.
7. Summarizing exercises can be combined with reading or study
skills assignments. Such exercises can also be used to develop
skills in paraphrasing and to caution students against plagiarism.
For example, students can be asked to read and summarize
information in preparation for writing a research paper. The
teacher can evaluate the summary in terms of how well the
students express the information in the article in their own words.
8. Writing descriptions can include descriptions of substances,
places, and objects. At more advanced levels this might include
interpretations of illustrations, graphs, and charts.
9. Writing descriptions of processes, including writing instructions
or "how to" exercises as well as descriptions of how things
happen over time. See example, Figure
10. Writing definitions. See example, Figure 10.

22
Figure 9. From Reading and Thinking in English: Discovering
Discourse by John Moore et al. Copyright 1979 by the British
Council Reprinted by permission.

23
 Figure 10. From English in Mechanical Engineering by Eric H.
Glen dinning. Copyright a 1973 by Oxford University Press, Inc.
Reprinted by permission.

Speaking

Your needs assessment will determine whether the development

of speaking skill is a goal in your ESP class. For many ESP
24
situations, development of speaking skills may be beyond the
scope of what it is possible for.you to provide. To provide every
student with practice in speaking is an inefficient use of classroom
time. Discussion groups are notoriously difficult to manage.
Students rarely listen to each other talk and "conversation~
degenerates into one student after another saying unrelated
things. Aggressive students usually take and hold the floor, and it
becomes impossible to give everyone the same amount of
practice. Even if everyone did get the same amount of practice, in
the typical class of 50 students and two hours of class time, each
student could not possibly get more than two minutes of practice!

You and your students should not despair, however, because

although in your situation the direct teaching of speaking may not
be practical, studies have shown that increased listening
comprehension leads to increased ability to speak. You can
assure the students that the exercises they are doing to increase
their listening comprehension will make them better able to hold
conversations with native speakers of English.

If teaching speaking skills is one of your objectives; for example,

in an ESP class in English for Tourism, you will need to select
activities that reflect the real functions for which your students will
use English.

Asking the class to repeat in unison is not teaching speaking.

They will not necessarily repeat correctly, you cannot correct their
errors, and repetition may only reinforce their mistakes.
Memorizing and repeating dialogues will also not improve the
speaking skill. Speaking is a communication activity and improves
only with practice in communication. Therefore you are better off
using class time for activities which will increase overall language
proficiency and ability to comprehend spoken English.

Give students practice in conversation management. Teach them

greetings and closings, and replies to greetings and closings.
Teach them how to introduce themselves and others. Teach them
forms they can use when they do not understand, such as
25
"Pardon me. What was that again?" or "What does mean?" or
"Please speak more slowly. "

Pronunciation is often overstressed in language teaching and

should play a restricted role in your class. Perfect, or native like,
pronunciation need not be a goal. English is now a world
language and different pronunciations are standard throughout
the world. Learners also need to show themselves to be learners
lengthy drills to achieve perfect pronunciation of a few words is
not only time-consuming, but may also mislead native speakers
into thinking that the student is more fluent than he or she actually
is, leading to breakdowns in communication.

Role playing is an effective way to stimulate conversation in the

classroom. You can use flowcharts to outline a situation which
you want to use as a base for developing your students' speaking
skills. You may want to select a small group of students to
demonstrate this method until the whole class understands the
procedure, Once this is done, you can divide the class into
groups, vary the flowcharts for each group, and then ask each
group to act out their situation for the rest of the class.

The steps for this exercise are as follows:

1. Choose a situation. This could be based on a text your

students are studying, either with you or in another class. For
example, students of hotel management may be studying public
relations, and you could devise a flowchart which requires
students to exercise their public relations skills in English.

2. Teach the required vocabulary, language functions and

grammar. (See suggestions on pages 16 and 24 for teaching
vocabulary.) You could then ask students to use these same
vocabulary items, functions and grammar points in their role play.
This would provide you with a focus when you are noting errors.
Concentrate on correct use of the selected items, but otherwise

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ignore errors, except, of course, those that lead to major
breakdowns in communication.

3. Design a flowchart similar to the one in Figure 11. The kinds of

exchanges this flowchart might generate include:

Receptionist: Good morning sir (madam). Can I help you?

Guest: Yes. My name is Mr. . I have reservations for two nights.

Receptionist: Let me see. I'm afraid I can't see your name on my

list. Are you sure the reservations were made?

Guest: Yes, of course I'm sure. This is very annoying. These

reservations were made weeks ago. Receptionist: I'm sorry, sir.
Let me check again.

Guest: This is too much. I would like to talk to the manager. (Etc.)

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 Figure 11. Flow Chart for Role Playing Activity.

Other situations for tourism and hotel management ESP could

include tracing lost luggage, renting a car, discussing a hotel bill,
visiting a historical monument, etc.

Objectives for the Development of Speaking Skills

1. Students will be able to carry on a short conversation on a

familiar topic.

2. Students will be able to give a short oral presentation that they

have prepared in advance, fluently and with few errors.

3. Students will be able to ask for information, using appropriate

language forms.

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4. Students will be able to answer a complaint or apologize
appropriately.

Activities for Developing Speaking Skills

1. Debating. You can divide students into teams and have them
present opposing sides of an issue.
2. Interpreting pictures or explaining diagrams.
3. Giving directions; for example, looking at a map and explaining
how a person would get from point A to point B.

Study skills

Your students will probably have had little practice in study skills
that we take for granted. They will need instruction in how to use
English dictionaries, grammars, and other reference books. They
will also need practice in basic library skills such as using an
index or bibliography. In order to do effective research, they will
need to know how to look at a book and determine the author,
publisher, date and place of publication. You should plan to
devote some part of each instructional unit to development of
these skills.

The students will need practice using good English language

dictionaries, not just bilingual dictionaries which translate from
their language into English. Bilingual dictionaries seldom contain
the technical terms needed for subject-area study.

If your institution has a library with English-language materials,

ask the librarians to give your students an orientation session to
show them where English-language materials relevant to their
subject area are kept. They can also point out bibliographies and
indexes which are available for your students' use. You can
assign follow-up activities asking students to take notes,
paraphrase, or compile bibliographies on topics in their fields.

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If no library is available to you, you will be more limited in the
skills you can teach. You can still show students how to get the
most from the texts that are available to them, however, by giving
them practice using the index or bibliography of a text that is
available.

Give students practice taking notes and writing summaries. Use

these activities to introduce the notion of plagiarism and ensure
that they are aware of academic protocols regarding quotation
and use of paraphrased material. Introduce conventions for
citation and footnotes, and preparation of bibliographies.

Objectives for Development of Study Skills

1. Students will be able to identify the parts of a book, including

title page, table of contents, index, glossary, etc.

2. Students will be able to use dictionaries for information about

pronunciation and syllable division, to identify the way words are
commonly used in sentences (parts of speech), to find correct
meanings, and to determine whether the word is British or
American, formal or informal.

3. Students will be able to use indexes, including being able to

use alternate search words when the topic they have in mind is
not listed.

4. Students will be able to use bibliographies, including being able

to identify titles which might provide additional information on their
topic of research.

5. Students will develop note-taking skills, including outlining and

paraphrasing.

6. Students will be able to summarize information they have heard

or read.

Activities for Developing Study Skills.

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1. The efficient use of a dictionary should be a focus of your work
on study skills. One technique for learning frequently used words
is for students to make a small dot beside a word every time they
look it up in the dictionary. If students find certain words
accumulate a number of dots, they should make a list of those
words for more intensive study.

2. Other activities which develop dictionary skills include:

a) Alphabetizing exercises.

Especially if the students native language does not use the

Roman alphabet, they will need practice putting words in
alphabetical order, particularly words that begin with the same
letter or letters. This skill is necessary for any library work and in
order to efficiently consult dictionaries, encyclopedias, and other
reference works. It is also necessary for office work, hotel
management, tourism, and other fields.

b) Syllable division exercises.

Students will need to use the dictionary to find syllable divisions in

order to correctly divide words when writing.

c) Guide word exercises.

Students can practice using guide words to locate words more

quickly.

d) Pronunciation key exercises.

Dictionaries use common words, called key words, to illustrate the

pronunciation of the various symbols used by the publisher to
show how words are pronounced. See the illustration of this in
Figure 12. Students can be taught to use these symbols, along
with stress markings, to get full use of their dictionaries.

e) Definition identification exercises.

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Students should practice identifying which definition is most
appropriate when several are given for the same word.

3. Encyclopedia exercises. If encyclopedias are available in the

library, students should be shown how they are organized and
instructed in the use of the encyclopedia's index. They can be
asked to locate and summarize or paraphrase information.

4. Yearbooks. Reference books such as the World Almanac and

Who's Who, and other yearbooks can be used to get current
information on a wide variety of topics.

5. Atlases. Students can use atlases to get many kinds of

information; for example, about geographical features, population
distribution, major resources, and climate.

6. Bibliographies. Students can be asked to use bibliographies to

identify other sources of information about topics of interest to
them.

7. Students' abilities to read and understand published research

in their fields of study may depend on their knowledge of such
research vocabulary as Hypothesis, Experimental Design, Data
Collection and Compilation, Interpretation of Results, and
Evaluation. It may be helpful to give students an example of a
research paper which uses an experimental research process and
discuss together the components of the research design.

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33
 Figure 12. From Longman Dictionary of American English: A
Dictionary For Learners of English. Copyright 1983 by Longman
Inc. Reprinted by permission.

Figure 2. Notetaking Clues

34
Figure 3. From Fluency Squares by Philip L Knowles and Ruth A.
Sasaki. Copyright ° 1981 by Regents Publishing Company, Inc.
Reprinted by permission.

35
 Figure 3. Continued.

Following are general objectives for the teaching of listening

comprehension. General objectives are given in each section of
this chapter for the teaching of language skills, but you will need
to develop specific objectives for your particular program after you
assess student needs and select teaching materials. Guidelines
for the development of such objectives are given in Chapter Four,
Program Design.

Objectives for Developments of Listening Comprehension

1. Students will understand short lectures in the content area

when vocabulary is familiar, as demonstrated by their ability to
answer questions about the lecture.

2. Students will understand spoken numbers, including

percentages, fractions, decimals, and other numerical
expressions common to the specialty field, as demonstrated by
their ability to write those numbers when they hear them in
context.

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3. Students will be able to follow instructions given in class
regarding assignments and activities, as demonstrated by their
correct performance of such instructions.

Activities for Teaching Listening:

1. Mini-lectures. Give a short lecture every class meeting to

provide students with opportunities to develop notetaking and
other listening skills. Make your mini-lectures as contextualized as
possible. Demonstrations are particularly effective. Use visual
aids and real objects at every opportunity to increase the
comprehensibility of your presentation. If possible, go into the
laboratory with your students and demonstrate an experiment or
process. Organize practical, hands-on activities for student
participation. Following your presentation, ask true/false and
yes/no questions to give students the opportunity to check thei
comprehension. You can do this orally, or make it a paper and
pencil task and call it a self-evaluation test to allow students to
assess their own progress.

If you have sufficient preparation time, it is also useful to construct

a cloze exercise in which, fallowing your mini-lecture, you re-read
some parts to the students while they follow along and fill in the
blanks. This exercise can be checked immediately in class so
students receive feedback on their understanding. An example of
such an exercise is given in Chapter Four.

2. Reading aloud to your students. They will enjoy listening to you

read short passages aloud as they read them silently. They can
listen to your intonation patterns and pronunciation and absorb
some of the features of native speaker spoken language, which
will provide additional clues for the interpretation of complex
sentences which might otherwise be beyond the students!
competence. If possible, tape recordings of reading assignments
can be made available to students out of class.

3. Number recognition. Any technical field requires that students

understand spoken numbers. From your initial needs assessment,
37
you will have identified certain math language that students will
need to understand in English. Number recognition exercises give
them practice doing so. Such exercises develop listening
comprehension and numeracy in English and can easily be
constructed in advance of each class period.

Ask the students to number a piece of paper from 1 to 10. Then

read a sentence which has a number in it. Ask them to write the
number they hear. Initially, the numbers you use can be the
simple cardinal numbers (differences between sixteen and sixty,
for example, often give students problems), but as the course
progresses this exercise can become more challenging, as you
include numbers in the thou-sands or millions, monetary
expressions, decimals, fractions, percentages, and other specialty
uses of numerical expressions which occur in the content area.

Read each sentence twice. Have a student at the blackboard, and

as you read the sentence a third time, ask the student to write the
number so that the others can check their and get immediate
feedback about whether or not they understand. An example of
this type of exercise is given in Chapter Four.

4. Dictation exercises. Dictation combines listening and writing

practice. When dictating, read the whole sentence at normal
speed three times, allowing time for writing between each
repetition.

When evaluating dictation, do not focus on spelling as ; primary

goal of the exercise. If you think of dictation as a listening
comprehension exercise, you can evaluate the product according
to whether or not meaning is reflected in what is written. For
example, plural endings or past tense endings are necessary for
correct interpretation of meaning. Spelling errors which reflect the
irregularities of English orthography may not affect meaning.

Chapter Four: Program design

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Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Chapter Five: Materials selection and development

The materials you teach should be chosen primarily for their

relevance to the content area. You may select them from
authentic materials used in content-area instruction or from
commercial materials. Developing materials is time- and energy-
consuming, so you should take advantage of any materials which
are already available for your use. The Resources Section
(Appendix A of this Manual) describes materials that are available
through Peace Corps' ICE. All of the materials listed have been
evaluated for use in Peace Corps ESP programs and are highly
recommended. You are encouraged to order copies.

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