Dr. Ken LauAssistant Professor, Centre for Applied English StudiesThe University of Hong Kong

ESP TEACHING AND RESEARCH

Time Activities

9:00-9:10 Opening Remarks

9:10-10:30 ESP Teaching and Research I: Arts and Humanities

10:30-10:40 Tea Break

10:40-12:10 ESP Teaching and Research II: Science and Engineering

12:10-1:20 Lunch

1:20-3:00 Corpus-Informed Teaching and Research I

3:00-3:10 Tea Break

3:10-4:40 Corpus-Informed Teaching and Research II

COURSE SCHEDULE

Thanks to colleagues of the Centre for Applied English Studies who have generously shared their course materials for illustration purposes.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

English for Specifi c Purposes (ESP) has been defi ned by a

number of researchers. One of the most oft-cited defi nitions is

from Hutchison and Waters (1987) who see ESP as an approach

rather than a product, meaning that ESP does not imply a

particular kind of language, teaching material or methodology.

The central idea in their defi nition lies in the construct of

need. “Need is defi ned by the reasons for which the student is

learning English, which will vary from study purposes such as

following a postgraduate course in an English-speaking country

to work purposes such as participating in business meetings or

taking hotel bookings” (Dudley-Evans & St John, 1998, p.3).

A DEFINITION

CLASSIFICATION OF ESP

Faculty Course Nature of the course: EAP/EOP

Architecture Communication Course for Architecture Students

EAP

Arts Academic English for Arts Students EAP

Business & Economics

English for Academic Communication for Economics and Finance Students

EAP

Dentistry English for Dental Students ?

Education Academic English for Education Students EAP

Engineering Professional and Technical Written/Oral Communication for Engineers

EAP

Law Writing Solutions to Legal Problems EAP

Medicine English for Clinical Clerkship EOP/EAP

Science Academic English for Science Students EAP

Social Sciences

Professional Writing Skills for Social Work EOP

THE CASE OF CAES

Needs cover a wide range of issues such as learner’s goals, backgrounds, proficiency, reasons for taking the course, the situations where they need the communication knowledge and skills, etc.

Present Situation Analysis (PSA)

Learning Situation Analysis (LSA)

Target Situation Analysis (TSA)

NEEDS ANALYSIS

PSA refers to information about learners’ current abilities, familiarity with the written and spoken genres, their skills and perceptions; what they are able to do and what they want at the beginning of the course. Data can therefore be both objective (age, proficiency, prior learning experiences) and subjective (self-perceived needs, strengths and weaknesses).

I have diffi culty selecting appropriate word choices when writing a feasibility report.

PRESENT SITUATION ANALYSIS (PSA)

LSA is concerned with the learners, teachers and teaching and learning contexts. It includes subjective, self-perceived, process-oriented needs.

I am more comfortable working on my own than in groups.

LEARNING SITUATION ANALYSIS (LSA)

TSA concerns the learner’s future roles and the linguistic skills and knowledge required to perform competently in a target context. This involves mainly objective and product-oriented data: identifying the contexts of language use, observing the language events in these contexts, listing the genres employed, collecting and analyzing target genres.

I have to draft an assessment report after seeing a client.

To collect needs data, teachers can draw on a range of diff erent sources and techniques such as interviews, questionnaire surveys, observations.

TARGET SITUATION ANALYSIS (TSA)

Imagine you are asked by your department head to create an ESP course for social workers entitled “Professional Writing Skills for Social Work”. What kind of (1) writing and (2) language needs do you plan to cover in the course?

DISCUSSION

COURSE DESIGN

How are the topics structured?

SAMPLE MATERIALS – SOCIAL WORK

SAMPLE MATERIALS – SOCIAL WORK

The following are some of the salient language

features in social work:

Description of behaviours and emotions

Using non-judgmental language

Using reported speech

LANGUAGE MATERIALS – SOCIAL WORK

DESCRIPTION OF BEHAVIOURS AND EMOTIONS

DESCRIPTION OF BEHAVIOURS AND EMOTIONS

USING NON-JUDGMENTAL LANGUAGE

USING NON-JUDGMENTAL LANGUAGE

FUNCTIONAL GRAMMATICAL ANALYSIS

FUNCTIONAL GRAMMATICAL ANALYSIS

FUNCTIONAL GRAMMATICAL ANALYSIS

REPORTED SPEECH

This 3-credit English enhancement course off ered in the 2nd semester aims to enable fi rst-year LLB students and 2nd year joint-degree law students to adapt and develop their existing language, reasoning, and study skills, and to apply and articulate their knowledge of tort law, as they frame a written response to the kinds of legal problem solution assignment.

Only Negligence and Psychiatric Injury are dealt with in the course.

WRITING SOLUTIONS TO LEGAL PROBLEMS

TEACHING APPROACH

Assignment GenreLegal Problem

Legal content,

study skills, Legal

Practices

Reasoning

“moves”

Rhetorical structure

Other language features

Progression

Weeks 1/2

Weeks 2/3

Weeks 3/4

Disciplinary

One day, when walking home, William trips and falls, damaging his knee. Several days later, while driving to work, he sees Victor crossing the road and brakes to avoid running into him. Unfortunately, due to the pain in William’s knee, he cannot fully press his brake pedal and as a result he runs into Victor. The collision occurs at a fairly slow speed and a normal person would only have suff ered bruising as a result, but Victor has brittle bones and suff ers two broken legs and a number of broken ribs. He is taken to the local hospital where, due to an administrative mistake, his right arm is amputated.

Advise Victor.

AN EXAMPLE OF PQ

To identify the legal issues involved and to be addressed in the PQ

The collision occurs at a fairly slow speed and a normal person would only have suffered bruising as a result, but Victor has brittle bones and suffers two broken legs and a number of broken ribs.

  Remoteness:

If the defendant is negligent, the plaintiff 's right to recover damages is not limited by the fact that his injury resulted from aggravation of a preexisting condition.  Where an injury arising from a cause which entails liability on the defendant combines with a pre-existing condition to bring about a greater harm to the plaintiff then would have resulted from the injury alone, the defendant may be found liable for all of the consequences. [Thin-skull rule]

FIRST STEP – CASE ANALYSIS

FIRST STEP – CASE ANALYSIS

Common Law Legal Reasoning Flow - IPCAC: Issue – Articulating the issue in terms of the parties and the facts

Principle – invoking a legal principle and/or ruleCase – relying on precedent cases and/or legislation

Application – applying precedent case and/or legislation to the facts of the present case

Conclusion – articulating the (recommended) decision, and grounds for reaching it

SECOND STEP – LEGAL REASONING MOVES

Legal Reasoning Moves

Assuming that William is held to have caused the

accident, Victor would next have to show that the injuries

she suffered were not too remote a consequence of

William’s actions. The usual rule that a D is only

responsible for harm of a foreseeable type is modified to

some extent by the `thin skull’ rule. The operative

principle here was set out in Smith v Leech Brain. The

court held that in cases where the harm inflicted was of a

foreseeable type, the defendant will be liable for the full

extent of the injury, even if the full extent was

unforeseeable. Thus, the tortfeasor is said to `take his

victim as he finds him.’ Applying this principle to the

present case, the fact that Victor had brittle bones and

suffered more seriously than normal people might

otherwise have been, is irrelevant. William will thus be

liable to compensate Victor for his broken legs and ribs.

Issue

Principle

Case

 

 

Application

Conclusion

SECOND STEP – LEGAL REASONING MOVES

Issue NOT Arguable - Deductive Structure

THIRD STEP – RHETORICAL STRUCTURES

  Analysis

Mary was clearly prima facie

in breach of her duty. The

standard of care for Mary

should be a reasonable

customer’s behaviour in a

supermarket (Glasgow Corp v

Muir). Being in a hurry to get

home does not suggest an

emergency or any other

grounds for holding Mary to a

lower standard of care

towards the supermarket.  

Deductive structure is recommended – it is NOT arguable   You don’t succeed point by point or issue by issue – you do that for the overall action  

Issue Arguable – Inductive Structure

THIRD STEP – RHETORICAL STRUCTURES

  Analysis / Points to Note

We need to determine whether or not

Norah’s action of putting her basket

down in Mary’s way breached her duty to

Mary. The objective standard of care of a

supermarket’s customer may indicate it

was reasonable for Norah to put down

her shopping basket in order to reach up

for something like the jar of coffee

(Glasgow Corp v Muir). However, Norah’s

action of “suddenly” putting down the

basket “in the way of” someone walking

close to her suggests she fell below that

standard (i.e. breached her duty).

Issue: Breach of Duty  Principle   CaseApplication

Conclusion

FOURTH STEP – LANGUAGE (CONDITIONAL SENTENCES)

This course aims to provide an intensive English environment within the Engineering syllabus which will engage students in problem solving activities that are representative of the engineering disciplines, give you the opportunity to communicate in English and build up their confidence in using the language.

PROFESSIONAL AND TECHNICAL WRITTEN COMMUNICATION FOR ENGINEERS

The course involves a Design and Make Project for which students in groups have to create an Elastic-Powered Paper Vehicle (i.e. using recycled paper to make a car which is powered by one elastic band) with the given specifi cations. The production of the vehicle itself is not assessed but students are assessed on two things in relation to the project

Conduct a series of meeting and come up with minutes

Write a technical report with appropriate diagrams

PROFESSIONAL AND TECHNICAL WRITTEN COMMUNICATION FOR ENGINEERS

The followings are the sections required in the technical report: Summary Introduction Materials and Specifications Engineering Principle Construction Procedures 1 and 2 Test Procedure Discussion of results Conclusion

PROFESSIONAL AND TECHNICAL WRITTEN COMMUNICATION FOR ENGINEERS

SAMPLE MATERIALS - ENGINEERING

STUDENTS’ WORK - ENGINEERING

SAMPLE MATERIALS - ENGINEERING

SAMPLE MATERIALS - ENGINEERING

Students will write a popular science journal article for a web-journal targeting a non-specialist audience. Students will be challenged to engage in spontaneous speaking task in a small group setting while in class. Students will be provided with guidance in developing a self-access language learning (SALL) plan, carrying this out, and reflecting on their learning experience and learning strategies used.

Pre-requisite: Students taking this course have to pass the fi rst-year course on academic writing so students will have already learnt how to write an essay with the use of reliable sources and proper acknowledgements.

ADVANCED ENGLISH FOR SCIENCE STUDENTS

An important feature of the course is the emphasis on learner autonomy and choices. A signifi cant proportion of the time of the course requires students to undertake self-access language learning. Such a decision is based on the results of the needs analysis (see Gardner 2007):

With more than 400 students taking the same course, there is a very wide range of language abilities

The logistical/scheduling arrangements give rise to the learning situation that students of different majors under the same Faculty are mixed together in a class

According to the statistics gathered by the University in 2001, only around 40% of the science graduates took up science-related employments.

Gardner, D. (2007). Integrat ing sel f-access learning into an ESP course. In D. Gardner (ed. ) , Learner autonomy 10: Integrat ion and support (pp.8-32) . Dubl in: Authent ik .

SPECIAL FEATURES

In most of the sessions they are divided into two 1-hour slots. Half of the students will come for one hour for spontaneous speaking practice and the other half will be working on SALL. The arrangements will be swapped in the second hour. In total, students are required to take part in at least 8 hours of SALL by the end of the course.

Students have to identify several learning goals, formulate a study plan, look for independent learning resources and reflect on their learning experiences.

CLASS ARRANGEMENTS

The course introduces engineering students to

professional and technical communication in the context

of oral presentations. The course will provide an intensive

English environment within the Engineering syllabus

which will engage students in verbal communicative

activities that are representative of the engineering

disciplines. Students work in groups and individually,

make decisions on gathering and reformulating data, and

select the appropriate language and register to deliver

professional presentations to a range of audience.

PROFESSIONAL AND TECHNICAL ORAL COMMUNICATION FOR

ENGINEERS

• Compulsory for all fi rst-year Engineering students

(>400 students)

• 12 weeks, 24 contact hours

• Three presentation assessments

(Diagnostic Pair, Group and Individual)

• Out-of-class learning component

• Self-Access and Reflection (SAR) Record

PROFESSIONAL AND TECHNICAL ORAL COMMUNICATION FOR

ENGINEERS

Two weaknesses identified by the teacher

Weakness identified by the student

Self Assessment and Reflection

Improvement shown in the next presentation

Evaluation of resources chosen and used, and the quality of reflection

QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS