Task 2 Defining ESP

Group: 55106_1
Angelica Charari
Harold Alexander Bonilla
Jaider Yanidt Gómez
Martha Liliana Suárez Valero
Orlando Acevedo

Universidad Nacional Abierta y a Distancia UNAD

Teaching English for Specific Purposes
Tutor: Clara Esperanza Bilbao
March 13th/ 2021
By JAIDER YANIDT GOMEZ - Wednesday, February 17, 2021, 11:09 PM
 
1) Reflect about the definition of ESP
 Personally and after reading some articles I can say that ESP (English for Specific
Purposes) is a model that is recognized worldwide as the Teaching of English for Specific
Purposes, it is very important because it is characterized by the fact that in the English class
it is they integrate specific contents related to the students' areas of knowledge; that is, the
contents are selected taking into account the academic needs of the students, for example,
just as there is English for natural sciences and economics English for Engineering or
English for sociology.
Something that has been noticed lately is that the ESP taught is very traditional because in
most colleges or universities it focuses and focuses only on reading compression or simply
on the translation of texts for which, in addition, it is not provides the student with adequate
training, and the other communication skills of the language (Listening, Speaking, Writing)
are totally excluded and this is what the great professors of language teaching are trying to
change, for example in a Tony Dudley-Evans conference , co-editor of the ESP Journal in
Japan said:
1. ESP is defined to meet the specific needs of students.
2. ESP makes use of the underlying methodology and activities of the discipline it serves.
3. ESP focuses on the appropriate language for these activities in terms of grammar,
vocabulary, register, study skills, speech, and gender. Definition of ESP (Dudley-Evans,
1997).
2) Mental map about the evolution or development of ESP in recent years
3. Reflection on the role of technology in teaching English for specific purposes.
Through technology, ESP teachers and researchers can access discipline-specific materials
and situations and compile corpora of specialized texts. Computer-mediated
communication provides learning tools and a gateway to the discourse community.
Technology also provides opportunities for collaborating, creating virtual environments and
online courses, and fostering learner autonomy. These applications are examined within the
current ESP scenario, paying attention to conditions and challenges for implementation, as
well as to the roles of teachers and learners.
By ORLANDO ACEVEDO - Monday, March 1, 2021, 5:58 PM
 
1. Definition of ESP:
The key feature of ESP is that teaching, and materials are founded on the students’ needs
analysis. In ESP learning, a specific group of learners have got specific needs that it should
be considered when the English course is designed. This is, for example, a professional
requires learning specific contents in an English course in order to improve and master
his/her English language to be applied in the professional environment. By the contrary,
children or adolescents require learning, for example, academic content in order to apply to
a new school or for a scholarship. In both cases, it must be borne in mind that need analysis
are the guide to the design of adults or adolescents’ ESP courses or materials. An important
thing to be considered in ESP course design is the cultural issues that learners are going to
face. This is, for example, to teach adolescents British English instead of American
English. Both, American and British English have got several words that works depending
the context more than the meaning. For example, the word “pants” has a meaning in
American English that differ from British English. In this case the cultural approach plays a
very important role into the design of ESP course or material.
2. Mental Map
3. Reflection on the role of technology in teaching English for specific purposes:
The use of technology in Teaching English for Specific Purpose has become into a source
to get natural English materials. This is, ESP focus on how the use of the language is taken
in a particular context, communicative environments, according to specific learners needs.
Contexts and interactions (Belcher 2004, 2009). Those materials, videos, audio recorders,
e-books, and other sources on internet are easy to access. This encourage students to choose
the material that they prefer to learn rather just follow a guide of grammar topics as
requirement. The interaction, foreign language and technology, permit a wider selection of
sources that supply students’ needs. Teachers should take advantage of this in order to
enrich the learning experience because new trends of learning a foreign language are been
established in the new technology era so, up to date to new technological trends allow
teachers try with new approaches and improve their own teaching experiences and master
their profession.
By MARTHA LILIANA SUAREZ - Wednesday, March 3, 2021, 7:05 AM
 
1. Definition of ESP
As far as I understood from the lectures, the definition was born from the interests and
needs of people, with specific professions or goals, the main idea is to develop the different
skills pointing to a communication process. For example, people who work in different
companies, need to learn a specific vocabulary. More than grammar structures they need to
understand the contexts exposed to face their needs for learning English with a specific
purpose.
Although the concept says that the majority of students are adults; it also works with
intermediate and advanced learners. I worked in a primary and high school some years ago,
it will be a good idea to investigate in the group of children or teenagers to understand the
specific purposes that move students to learn English, for example, video games, social
networks, or any other purpose and maybe students will feel more motivated during the
learning process.
2. Mental map
 3. Reflection on the role of technology in teaching English for specific purposes
 Today´s world offers many technological tools for learning; talking specifically the
English purposes, where the learning has specific interests for study, business, job or any
other, technology allows to practice anywhere and without an internet connection by
downloading apps, in the pc, laptop, tablet or cellphone, thanks to the smart dispositive it is
possible to learn all the things we want, for example in our case as virtual learners we are
enrolled in learning English with pedagogical purposes. On the other hand, the current
situation in the world given for coronavirus face to face students may continue learning to
change to the virtual model, or people work from the house, it demonstrates that thanks to
the technology that exists now people could continue with their lives even if they have to
live in a new reality.
By HAROLD ALEXANDER BONILLA - Thursday, March 4, 2021, 11:35 AM
 
1. Definition of ESP:
English for specific purposes is a good approach to get closer to the needs of the students,
because it takes into account the different needs and skills that the students have, and I
think that this is a big difference with other approaches since it is more focused on the
student. I understand that other approaches also focus more or less on the student, but ESP
is intended to give the student a direct approach in his of her learning situation, being this
academic or professional. Thus, the ESP course is designed to get the discourse of these
specific subjects, for example, for a student of business management, the course will
include those features of business language in English, if it is for a student of engineering,
the course will include engineering words and grammar meanings. The ESP courses are
intended mostly to students that are mature or study outside.
2. Mental Map

 
3. Reflection on the role of technology in teaching English for specific purposes:
I think that. The use of technology in English for Specific Purposes is the same as using it
in learning English for general purposes. It´s good method to approach the target language
because the students are exposed to a variety of authentic material. They can also have the
chance to interact with native speakers through the use websites designed for this purpose.
In addition to that, technology provides opportunities for students to improve their learning
skills playing on-line games.
By ANGELICA CHARARI - Saturday, March 6, 2021, 9:02 AM
1. Definition of ESP.
ESP (English for Specific Purposes), is a teaching-learning model that is based on the needs
of each student according to the programs that students take, this model focuses on
developing communicative competence in a specific area such as in biology, accounting,
information technology, engineering, among others. This model is characterized by
satisfying the specific needs of the student, is related to a particular subject or discipline,
and uses specific work material and documents. This type of teaching-learning is important
since it deepens the knowledge and development of communication skills in a certain area,
terms that you will not learn in a normal English course. For example, in our learning as
teachers, it is important to handle terms related to our academic work and language
development.
 
2. Mind map
 
 

 
3. Reflection on the role of technology in teaching English for specific purposes. 
I think that technology currently plays a very important role as a teaching-learning tool
since it eliminates many barriers of time, geographic location and lack of resources.
Through these technological resources and the commitment of the students it is possible to
teach English for specific purposes, initially identifying the student's needs, the surrounding
context and focusing on what the student really wants to learn. I think that this EPS
approach is important since it allows us as teachers to provide the student with the
knowledge that she really needs to communicate and function in a specific area.
 REFERENCES
Dudley-Evans, T. (2001). English for specific purposes. In R. Carter & D. Nunan (Eds.),
The Cambridge Guide to Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages (The
Cambridge Guides, pp. 131-136). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
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purposes/D4F4CD1BB2EB4C8FAD01A497924E4039
Hutchinson, T., & Waters, A. (1987). The origins of ESP. In English for Specific Purposes
(Cambridge Language Teaching Library, pp. 6-8). Cambridge: Cambridge University
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Hutchinson, T., & Waters, A. (1987). The development of ESP. In English for Specific
Purposes (Cambridge Language Teaching Library, pp. 9-15). Cambridge: Cambridge
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Hutchinson, T., & Waters, A. (1987). ESP: Approach not product. In English for Specific
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Bojović. M. (n.d). Teaching Foreign Language for Specific Purposes: Teacher
Development. [PDF File]. http://www.pef.uni-lj.si/atee/978-961-6637-06-0/487-493.pdf
Laborda, J. G.; Litzler, M. F. Current Perspectives in Teaching English for Specific
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Tulande, J. (20,08,2020) Conceptualizing English for Specific Purposes. [video]. 
https://repository.unad.edu.co/handle/10596/36006