The ESP Journal最新文献

The following article describes models for organizing instruction in adult education classes in order to accommodate different language levels and learning objectives. Intended to present adult education instructors using competency-based approaches with alternatives for incorporating VESL into their classrooms, the article also describes the diverse settings for VESL in adult education. Suggestions are also provided for relating classroom management to the various VESL settings with examples of whole-group and small-group activities included for each setting.

In recent years at professional conferences poster presentations have become a popular technique for communicating ideas, especially research work. Sanderson (1982) has described in great detail how posters are professionally made and used in biomedical meetings. In this paper is a description of how such posters have been adapted to an intensive ESP program in Beijing, People's Republic of China, to simulate conference conditions; to provide coordination between the writing and oral communication courses at the advanced level; to provide informal, unplanned discussion concerning the students' own research interests; and to provide students (who might be attending professional conferences where English is one of the conference languages) with a technique for communicating ideas that is less threatening than a formal conference presentation in front of many people.

This paper reviews some of the recent Second Language Acquisition (SLA) and English for Specific Purposes (ESP) literature in an attempt to provide a firm theoretical base for the development of communicative approaches to language teaching in ESP contexts. The theoretical implications of SLA studies (in particular Krashen's Input Hypothesis) are discussed with a view to defining the characteristics of noninterference/input strategies that could be used in communicative classrooms. The theoretical ideas are illustrated by a discussion of a set of materials designed according to the criteria put forward in the article. Lastly, the article sets out some of the questions and issues that must be addressed in order eventually to decide on the validity of implementing the Input Hypothesis in ESP situations.

Vocational English has emerged as a new and important aspect of ESL. VESL course planners have addressed learners' needs in pre-employment, vocational, and workplace programs. In all of these situations, attempts have been made at describing work. Generally, two approaches have been taken: (1) describing work activities in terms of processes and procedures (work-oriented analysis), and (2) describing work activities in terms of specific human behaviors (worker-oriented analysis). The former approach tends to generate goal-oriented courses. The latter tends to generate process-oriented courses. In planning courses. I often find myself asking the same questions. What approach should I take? How do I identify language needs within a given approach? How can I evaluate results? What is my role in a program? This paper explores these issues for workplace English. The paper discusses goal analysis; job analysis and language analysis (as they relate to work-oriented and worker-oriented approaches); and measurement of results. The paper concludes with thoughts on the role(s) of the VESL specialist and implications for language teaching in general.