ESP. Trabajo práctico para el taller de ESP s/ una clase de ESP para Geografia e Historia.

TALLER DE PRACTICAS DOCENTES IV.                    ESP.   YEAR 2014. 2ND TERM

                   TEACHERS:  Anabel Lima & Leonor Paez Logioia.

                   1st assignment: Class Observation. 

 

ADELA PEREZ DEL VISO

BEFORE OBSERVING THE ESP LESSON:

1) What do sts learn in an ESP COURSE?

I used to think that generally speaking, ESP students were people who knew how to communicate  in English, and that they were  learning the language in order to perform particular functions, related to their jobs or areas of expertise.

Now I understand that sometimes ESP COURSES  may target sts. who do not know English and therefore T. will try to teach them how to understand texts in English. Texts will be related to their jobs or areas of expertise.

In both cases, ESP programs are  organised around purposes and needs of learners.

2) What do sts do in those courses?

**Sts. may deal with authentic texts related to their field (e.g. Communication, Law, Medicine, History) and try to get the meaning of those texts. They explain the meaning of concepts and words in Spanish. They answer specific tasks set by the teacher, in Spanish.

**Other types of ESP classes  may be dealt with more proficient students  and probably in those cases sts. will be developing more than only one skill, and will be communicating in the target language.

3) What does the teacher do in an ESP class?

Some of the teacher´s roles in an ESP class are as follows:

**He/she picks up the material and designs the tasks.

**He/she monitors the moment when the sts. try to read the material.

**He/she enlightens the sts. as regards certain concepts or words they do not understand.

**He/she makes the sts. round up the conclusions at the end of the class, even in Spanish.

**He/she tests the sts. on the knowledge related to ESP.

Nevertheless, in all the cases in ESP lessons,  the T.  develops a collaborative attitude with sts, who tend to know more (about the field) than the T. and sometimes provide pieces of knowledge about the field in question to the T.

4) What kind of materials are used in an ESP  course?

I used to think that in an ESP course T. would use authentic material, but in fact, later on, during the class we observed,  T. told sts. that they were going to use adapted materials.

Therefore, this is the list of elements I used to think that were supposed to be used during these lessons:

**Authentic material taken from the Internet.

**Newspaper clips.

**Books in English (some pages).

**Talks in English taken from you-tube (e.g. TED talks).

**Audios from ESP books.

**Audios prepared by the teacher. (through the use of TIC).

WHILE OBSERVING AN ESP LESSON:  Answer the following questions:

Course Objective:

The course aims to teaching Sts. only one particular skill: READING.

Sts.  attending this course are in fact dealing with the following careers: History, Geography, and Political Sciences. According to the teacher, the course will train sts. to read some texts in English which are related to their own area of expertise.

Expected Outcome:

**At the end of the course, sts. will be able to understand texts in English and to use the English material in their teaching practice and research studies. Sts. are expected to understand English texts, but they are not required to produce texts in English.

**T. explains what is expected from sts:

a) Sts. are expected to be able to know the purpose of their reading: what has been asked to them and how to comply with the assignment.

b) Sts. are expected to be able to recognize semantic, syntactic and morphological features in English texts.

c) STs. are expected to learn some translation techniques.-

d) Sts. are expected to learn and apply reading strategies and reading sub-skills, related to every kind of text and their particular needs.

e) Sts. are expected to pay attention to the characteristics of the texts: not only what is written, but also the way it is displayed,  presentation, titles length and appearance, etc. (paratextual features). 

f) Sts. are expected to learn to recognize genres and have a different approach to texts according to their genre.   

g) Sts. are expected to apply their previous knowledge at the translation moment, in order to create a text in Spanish which is cohesive and coherent.-

h) Sts. are expected to be able to edit their work in order to draft a well -organized document in Spanish.

i) Sts. are expected to write in understandable handwriting style.

Course Length:  This course will last only one semester.

Nevertheless, some of the sts. will attend to classes during two semesters (ESP I and ESP 2).

Main contents of the course:

There is a course plan which is available at the photocopy shop.  Apart from that, and apart from what is taught in this lesson, T. does not clarify what all the other course contents are.

Course Methodology:

T. asks Sts. to search for some materials which will be available in the photocopy shop (booklets and questionnaires to guide them).

T. tells sts. that, depending on their institutional plan,  some of them  will deal with Esp during two years, and some of them only during one year. (one semester each time). 

T. will be available for consultation on Wednesday during the morning. (from 11 to 12 a.m.). The use of dictionaries is allowed in class.

T. requires punctuality. T. explains that sts. can be regulars or “promotionals”. Also, sts. can sit for the exam without attending classes.

Contents developed in this class:

**Introduction related to what the purposes of ESP classes are and what is expected from sts.

**T. sets out a discussion about advantages of studying English on prospective teachers. T. explains that if they are going to register for a posgraduate course, they need to understand English texts. 

**T. explains there are 4 abilities, but that they are going to work with Reading, only. T. explains that this is due to lack of time to practise with audios or conversation sessions.

**T. explains T. is going to teach them practical strategies. T. states they are going to work with adapted texts.

**T. explains what scanning and skimming is. T. makes them think about what "scanning" may be: they associate the word with "el escaner". Therefore T. explains that scanning is going through a text quickly in order to search for specific information.

After presenting "scanning" and "skimming", T. explains what "the cognates" are.  T. presents some examples: UNIVERSITY. COMPUTER.

T. tells sts. they can guess the meaning from the word, which is quite transparent.  T. elicits some other examples:  Plan. Area.

T. tells sts. that there are "false friends", too ("Falsos cognados" or "Falsos amigos").  T. provides some examples: 

SENSIBLE:   Sensato.//SENSITIVE:   sensible.//RELIEVE: which is not "relieve"  but "ALIVIAR".//ATTEND:  asistir.//ASSIST:  brindar asistencia.

INJURIES:  lesiones.//POLICY:   medida política.

T. explains that there are other words that have been adopted in Spanish:

MOUSE.//OFFSIDE.//SINGLE.//FRESH.

T. explains that other words have been adopted in Spanish but with a different meaning, such as: DRUGSTORE,   which in Argentina may  represent a kiosk or any other shop,  but in fact is a shop where they sell  medicine. 

In conclusion, T. explains that all those words  (cognates,  false cognates, adopted words) help activate previous knowledge.

My impressions on the course:

I consider that the T. in charge is quite sweet and patient with her sts.

On the other hand, it is a pity that all these sts. are studying English as such beginner level:   the educational system should be changed and all sts. should start their English studies at primary level. Therefore, all of them should be able to understand and produce English perfectly at tertiary level. As a consequence,  ESP could be dealt with at a higher level of proficiency, taking full advantage of this learning opportunity. Really useful English features could be dealt with in class, for the benefit of these future professionals.

Currently, I consider that teaching ESP appears to be a friendly way of teaching, since it is dealt with in Spanish.  Apparently, and due to that way of teaching, it is less demanding than a regular English course.

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