Winalyn Balao(researcher)Aiza R. Pasion(Computer-in-charge)Jackielen Romero(reporter)

“Language Issues in ESP”

1. How does ESP deal with the issue of grammatical development/use?

• Very often ESP and more specifically EAP approaches have been attacked for their seeming lack of focus on grammatical accuracy.

• ESP approaches also often employ models of task-based learning.

• An ESP teacher can directly confront grammatical accuracy in the classroom, but rather than wasting time on this they often just use the materials and the output to do this for them. In these approaches students learn by doing.

• Grammatical accuracy within ESP approaches as well is dealt with not as a separate entity but something which is naturally part of language itself. This viewpoint falls within this discourse analysis type of view of language.

• There is no inherent lack of focus on grammar in ESP approaches, but grammar will always be dealt with in the varying contexts of language use.

The specific grammar points mentioned in Dudley-Evans & St. John (1998)

Voice Tense Articles Nominalization Logical connectors (Discourse markers)

2. How is vocabulary conceived of and dealt with in ESP approaches?

• Like grammar vocabulary is dealt with in the context of the situation in the ESP approaches, it should also be clear that, from the discourse analysis perspective, there is a very close link between grammar and vocabulary in that how a word is used is part of grammar.

• Central to the issue of vocabulary in ESP is the subject/content/theme that is being dealt with as well as the ways/situations in which people involved in/with such subjects/content areas/themes often find themselves in.

t;

Two types of content:•Carrier content

•Real content

Some specific aspects of vocabulary which are deemed as being particularly relevant for ESP approaches• Situational, semantic sets

• Collocations • Lexical phrases

Technical vocabulary - is part of the carrier content. It sets a context and may help us to figure out how the core vocabulary is used.

3. How have discourse and genre analysis been used to drive student development in ESP classes?

Discourse analysis is the generic name applied to a variety of different approaches which are all involved in analyzing how texts, both written and spoken are structured or organized.

Genre analysis, more specifically, looks at structural and organizational differences among texts created for different genres.

It is the goal of ESP practitioner to get the students to identify these patterns within the field that they are trying to develop skills.

REFERENCE

• Dudley-Evans, T. and M. St. John. (1998). Developments in English for specific purposes.

Thank you For Listening!

A.R.P.