1 Developing Specialist Reading Comprehension Skills Dr. Dugald Sturges, Federal Office of Languages...
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1 Developing Specialist Reading Developing Specialist Reading Comprehension Skills Comprehension Skills Dr. Dugald Sturges, Federal Office of Languages Hürth, Germany BILC Professional Seminar Stockholm, Sweden 17 October 2013
1 Developing Specialist Reading Comprehension Skills Dr. Dugald Sturges, Federal Office of Languages Hürth, Germany BILC Professional Seminar Stockholm,
1 Developing Specialist Reading Comprehension Skills Dr. Dugald
Sturges, Federal Office of Languages Hrth, Germany BILC
Professional Seminar Stockholm, Sweden 17 October 2013
Slide 2
Developing Specialist Reading Comprehension Skills What skills
are required of Specialist Readers? Standard Language Proficiency
vs./in addition to English for Special Purposes (ESP) Extensive vs.
Intensive reading Developing credible reading comprehension tasks
Challenges of designing technical reading comprehension lessons
Incongruity of standard proficiency levels and required specialist
reading tasks
Slide 3
What skills are required of Specialist Readers? e.g. Aviators
(ICAO certification) Mechanics (Technical-logistic English)
Mentors, Observers (Pre-Deployment courses) Medical personnel Legal
advisors Military Chaplaincy Etc. A wide variety of professional
tasks require specialist reading skills in addition to a
Standardized Language Profile
Slide 4
What skills are required of Specialist Readers? Each of these
different professional tasks have their own individual specialist
reading skills requirements. Each of these different professional
learner groups have their own relationship to language learning
Each ESP group is different and requires a tailor made
curriculum.
Slide 5
Or as the Kaiser put it: "Die Schweden sind keine Hollnder, das
hat man ganz genau gesehen. " (The Swedes are not the Dutch, you
could see that clearly) Franz Beckenbauer, 2000 5 On the same
token, mechanics are not chaplains and therefore require different
strategies for learning specialist reading
Slide 6
6 Specialist language aims at functional asks, but may require
the conveyance of abstract concepts, specialist terminology or use
of more advanced structural devicesas appropriate to the users
professional field.Specialist language aims at functional tasks,
but may require the conveyance of abstract concepts, specialist
terminology or use of more advanced structural devices as
appropriate to the users professional field. The task may be within
the SLP Level 2 range, but the language required to perform that
task may be more sophisticated.The task may be within the SLP Level
2 range, but the language required to perform that task may be more
sophisticated. Language proficiency is not a value unto itself, but
is inextricably embedded in the performance of a particular
professional task. What makes specialist language special?
Slide 7
Content Language Acquisition vs General Language Acquisition
ESP aims at conveying: a) abilities required for successful
communication in occupational settings; content language
acquisition dominatesb) content language acquisition dominates s.
Dudley Evans and St. John: Developments in ESP: A
multi-disciplinary approach. Cambridge: CUP, 1998. ESP may be
restricted as to the language skills to be learned (e.g. reading
only - mechanics) It also may be restricted in terms of
standardized lexis (e.g. air traffic controllers) General language
competency is often incongruous to occupational experience.General
language competency is often incongruous to occupational
experience.
Slide 8
Some attributes of technical texts Cognitive / appellative
information dominates Aesthetic / emotional information not so
relevant The grammar book is turned upside down; advanced level
structures are often encountered before everyday forms 8
Slide 9
The Role of Standard Reading Proficiency Effective reading
comprehension requires not only accurate reading skills but also
automatic and fluent reading ability. Automaticity - the ability to
identify, at the single word level quickly, accurately and
effortlessly. The speed and accuracy with which words are
identified as a predictor of text comprehension (Wallace, 2010).
Wood, Flowers, and Grigorenko (2001) suggest that fluency involves
the prediction of what comes next in the text.
Slide 10
Reading extensive or intensive? Extensive: Reading for overall
understanding Longer text segments Less worry about individual
words and turns of phrase Going with the flow of ideas -what we
primarily do in standard proficiency reading exercises Cf.
Scrivener,J. Learning Teaching. Heinemann, 1994, p. 152-3. 10
Slide 11
Reading extensive or intensive? Intensive: Reading for
specific, precise information Shorter text segments Attention to
pertinent technical terms and grammatical structures Understanding
in detail -What ultimately must be done in reading exercises for
special technical purposes 11
Slide 12
Reading extensive or intensive? Teaching tasks should begin
with extensive exercises for fluency, but then directly follow with
intensive exercises for accuracy. 1.Pre-reading vocabulary and
structural exercises based on the texts to be used. 2.Reading for
gist automatize learned structures 3. Reading for accuracy in
realistic tasks 12
Slide 13
Course objective: To develop English language skills in order
to prepare mechanics for technical training in English. Skills
enabling: - To enable the participants to discuss technical matters
with foreign colleagues in English. - To enable them to read and
understand English- language technical documentation, with
particular emphasis on Maintenance Manuals, Alert Service
Bulletins, Airworthiness Directives and Electronic Parts Catalogues
Example of a technical reading course
Slide 14
14 Detailed information about the measures to be taken is to be
found in the EASA Airworthiness Directive named above Example of a
real technical reading challenge German Airworthiness
Directive
Slide 15
Students implement what they have learned in diagnostic /
descriptive tasks Follow up with practical tasks
Slide 16
Challenges of designing technical reading comprehension lessons
Training technicians, NOT linguists Often lower level language
student little interest in languaging So why cant you just give us
a word list? Translation is not a goal, it is an aid for
understanding. Interested in doing things with words Transfer to
real(istic) work situations essential 16
Slide 17
Typical trainwrecks in ESP reading comprehension teaching
Teaching Latin Grammar-translation cramming. Teaching Shakespeare
Ignoring the course goal and doing something fun (all practice is
not good practice) Teaching from the rack Commercial Technical
English books and materials Teaching Shop the technician who does a
bit of language on the side
Slide 18
ASD Simplified Technical English (ASD-STE100) One word - one
meaning Sentence length of no more than 25 words. Paragraph length
of no more than 6 sentences. Noun cluster length of 3 words or
less. Avoiding missing articles Unapproved verbal auxiliaries
(passive, progressive, perfect, modals). Unapproved -ing
participles. Only one command per sentence. The theoretical
solution: Simplified Technical English
Slide 19
Forty-six service outlets are provided throughout the aircraft
to supply power for electronic/electrical maintenance equipment and
for small appliance use. All outlets are energized whenever power
is supplied to the aircraft electrical system. All AC outlets are
400 cycle. Six 2-prong, 28 VDC service outlets, located at the
pilot, copilot, TACCO, NAV/COMM, port aft observer, and starboard
aft observer stations are provided. Four additional outlets supply
115 VAC power to four-pin receptacles for the pilot, copilot, port
aft observer, and starboard aft observer. Phase A, 115 VAC is
supplied to twenty outlets throughout the aircraft including one 4-
pin receptacle located in the forward radar rack to test the T-414
AMAC control box. The remaining outlets are 3-prong. In addition,
eleven 3-prong outlets supply phase B alternating current. The top
and bottom outlets at the galley are also 3-prong and appliance
power is supplied from the three phases of the main AC bus B
through the galley circuit breaker in the main load center to
individual circuit breakers in the port aft circuit breaker panel.
The reality: Creative Technical English
Slide 20
Summary Needs analysis, regular checks and mid-course
corrections essential Methods which build on the specialist
intelligence of the learners to establish a bridge to increase
linguistic awareness. Stress on hands-on activities using realia
and graphic material to simulate a working situation Task-based
exercises which employ mathematical, analytical and diagnostic
tasks Concentration on the language structures actually encountered
in work documents So how do we teach Technical Reading?
Slide 21
Some final observations Access trumps knowledge: We cannot
teach students all aspects of a technical system But we can give
them the tools to find the information themselves. We can assist
them by familiarizing them with the typical language of documents
they will have to work with. 21