Task 3 – variables for design an ESP course

STUDENT

Maira Gissele Domínguez

Tutor

CLARA ESPERANZA BILBAO

Group

18

Teaching English for Specific Purposes

Universidad Nacional Abierta y a Distancia – UNAD

April 2020
Essay on needs analysis and components of an ESP course

Scenario:

A. You have been hired by a young tourist guide who already has an English level of B2,
and who is highly motivated to get a better job opportunity at a banana plantation. In three
months, this banana plantation is expected to hire new staff with a general knowledge of
English, who is also familiar with a specific vocabulary related with banana plantations,
production, machinery and distribution processes to be able to explain to foreign
business investors and/or visitors all the steps required for the development and
completion of the product, meanwhile they are showed them the different areas of that
banana plantation.  

Essay:

Learning a language is a complex process that involves a lot. English learning as non-native
speakers requires methods and depends on many variables. We could talk about general
English learning, but in this case we are learning about English for specific purposes which
involves strategies, processes, steps and resources different from general English learning
and teaching. 

Talking about ESP needs to refer to target situations for each learner, which will mark the
process for a teacher or learner. To start referring to needs analysis of ESP we need to talk
about the awareness of the target situations that makes the difference between general
English and ESP. In this case, we have the target situation about plantation, production
machinery and distribution of a product which in this case is banana. 

Target needs involves to consider necessities (what the learner has to know in order to
function effectively in the target situation), lacks (how the learner do something previously)
and wants (the person will determinate what he believe he needs to learn, it is a perception).
So, a course design should have necessities, lacks and wants considering for each of those,
objectives and subjective. 

Referring to the scenario, necessities of this situation are that the learner (a young tourist
guide) needs to learn and use vocabulary related to banana plantations, production,
machinery and distribution processes to be able to explain to foreign business investors
and/or visitors all the steps required for the development and completion of the product.
The lacks, he already has a B2 level of general English in a context of a tourist guide, but
he doesn’t use vocabulary related to machinery, plantations and processes in production.
And, the wants are that he needs to be able to explain to foreign business investors and/or
visitors all the steps required for the development and completion of the product,
meanwhile they are showed them the different areas of that banana plantation.  

The gathering information about target should be: questionnaires, interviews, observation
and data collection. Also, it has to be an analysis framework that involves to answer some
questions to provide the following information:

 The language is needed to get a new job or for work. 

 The language will be used speaking. 
 The content will be about production, machinery and distribution processes. 
 The learner will use the language with native or non-native English speakers who
will be investors or visitants. 
 The language will be used in guided tours in the learner’s own country.  

The methods to use on each target situation of the learners will depends on the motivation
and one of the ways to make them interesting is to use projects as learning situations plus
the language use. The context of this scenario that the language will be used is interesting
and practical. As a way for teaching having in mind all the context, needs, lacks and wants,
I would propose a project, where the learner will try to convince me to be an investor of a
production company. In the way, he will investigate and be in contact with the vocabulary
and expressions needed. 
There are a lot of factors to take in mind in teaching English for specific situations, but
following the course design, considering the needs, lacks and wants in a flexible way, we
can have great results and our students will used in the right situations. 
Bibliographic References

Hutchinson, T., & Waters, A. (1987). Needs analysis. In English for Specific Purposes
(Cambridge Language Teaching Library, pp. 53-64). Cambridge: Cambridge University
Press. doi:10.1017/CBO9780511733031.010. Retrieved from https://doi-
org.bibliotecavirtual.unad.edu.co/10.1017/CBO9780511733031.010