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English Language Education

Rosa Muñoz-Luna
Lidia Taillefer Editors

Integrating Information
and Communication
Technologies in English
for Specific Purposes
English Language Education

Volume 10

Series Editors
Chris Davison, The University of New South Wales, Australia
Xuesong Gao, The University of New South Wales, Australia

Editorial Advisory Board


Stephen Andrews, University of Hong Kong, China
Anne Burns, University of New South Wales, Australia
Yuko Goto Butler, University of Pennsylvania, USA
Suresh Canagarajah, Pennsylvania State University, USA
Jim Cummins, OISE, University of Toronto, Canada
Christine C. M. Goh, National Institute of Education, Nanyang Technology
University, Singapore
Margaret Hawkins, University of Wisconsin, USA
Ouyang Huhua, Guangdong University of Foreign Studies, Guangzhou, China
Andy Kirkpatrick, Griffith University, Australia
Michael K. Legutke, Justus Liebig University Giessen, Germany
Constant Leung, King’s College London, University of London, UK
Bonny Norton, University of British Columbia, Canada
Elana Shohamy, Tel Aviv University, Israel
Qiufang Wen, Beijing Foreign Studies University, Beijing, China
Lawrence Jun Zhang, University of Auckland, New Zealand
More information about this series at http://www.springer.com/series/11558
Rosa Muñoz-Luna • Lidia Taillefer
Editors

Integrating Information
and Communication
Technologies in English
for Specific Purposes
Editors
Rosa Muñoz-Luna Lidia Taillefer
Department of English, French and German Department of English, French and German
University of Malaga University of Malaga
Malaga, Spain Malaga, Spain

ISSN 2213-6967     ISSN 2213-6975 (electronic)


English Language Education
ISBN 978-3-319-68925-8    ISBN 978-3-319-68926-5 (eBook)
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-68926-5

Library of Congress Control Number: 2017957540

© Springer International Publishing AG 2018


This work is subject to copyright. All rights are reserved by the Publisher, whether the whole or part of
the material is concerned, specifically the rights of translation, reprinting, reuse of illustrations, recitation,
broadcasting, reproduction on microfilms or in any other physical way, and transmission or information
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The use of general descriptive names, registered names, trademarks, service marks, etc. in this publication
does not imply, even in the absence of a specific statement, that such names are exempt from the relevant
protective laws and regulations and therefore free for general use.
The publisher, the authors and the editors are safe to assume that the advice and information in this book
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The registered company address is: Gewerbestrasse 11, 6330 Cham, Switzerland
Foreword

It would not be an exaggeration to say that teaching and learning foreign languages,
especially at the university level and for special purposes, without the use of the so-­
called new media and modern technologies (most of which, in fact, are no longer so
new) can hardly be imagined in the twenty-first century. Educators have always
been seeking alternative, unconventional, innovative and, at the same time, efficient
methods and techniques for teaching. They have also been applying all possible
technological innovations in the didactic process to make it more attractive and
interesting in order to increase students’ motivation and to improve and accelerate
learning.
Glottodidactics (language pedagogy) has moved a long way from the educational
applications of inventions such as radio, television, tape recorders and video and
overhead projectors (each of them being a real breakthrough when they appeared)
through language laboratories to CD players, computers and other electronic/digital
devices connected to the Internet with all its capabilities; these are all currently
known collectively as information and communication technologies (ICTs).
Moreover, in the last decade, the Internet has been transformed from a purely infor-
mative resource (enabling the use of online dictionaries and the gathering of ency-
clopaedic information and news, etc.) to something that also offers numerous
communicative functions (e.g. electronic mail, chat rooms, forums, discussion
groups, video conferences and e-learning platforms). It is now an interactive tool for
teaching and learning and an environment in which education may take place either
exclusively, in the form of e-learning, or partly collaboratively, as in blended learn-
ing, assisting and completing face-to-face contact; this concept is referred to as Web
2.0. It has changed the paradigm of communication among the users of the Internet,
increasing their autonomy and possibilities of integration and interaction and also
enabling their cocreation of the Internet.
Another issue in foreign language education, besides ICTs, but quite frequently
closely related to them and regaining popularity, is the use of ludic techniques,1

1
The terms ‘ludic strategy’ (strategia ludyczna in Polish)—understood as the use of techniques
referring to the ludic sphere of human activity for teaching purposes—and ‘ludic techniques’

v
vi Foreword

which comprise games, play (including music and the use of songs), simulation
(and other varieties of role-playing) and intermediate forms. Actually, these tech-
niques have been used in education since ancient times. However, in the last decade,
they have become the scope of the research for the young and still forming and
developing academic discipline of ludology, also known as game studies or games
research. Ludologists—games researchers—more and more often gather in ludolog-
ical associations, of which at least two are worth mentioning here: the Digital
Games Research Association (DiGRA) from Finland and the Games Research
Association of Poland (GRAP; in Polish, Polskie Towarzystwo Badania Gier
[PTBG]). Both organise regular international conferences and publish academic
journals.2
The term ludology is a neologism3 resulting from the combination of two words:
one derived from the Latin word ludus, meaning ‘play’ or ‘game’ (but also ‘the
place of exercises’ and ‘school’), and a derivative of the verb ludere, ‘to play some-
thing’ or ‘to have fun’, which had a broad usage in ancient Rome for games and
playing, and the Greek word logos, referring to reason and science and currently
used in the form of the suffix -logy to create names of academic disciplines. At the
same time, another term existed in Latin—iocus (iocari)—that referred to a much
narrower sphere of jokes and mischief. Yet, surprisingly, it is the latter that with time
expanded its meaning to signify ‘play’ and ‘to play’ and was transferred to Romance
languages, transforming into the contemporary jeu (jouer) in French, giuoco (gio-
care) in Italian, juego (jugar) in Spanish, jogo (jogar) in Portuguese and joc (juca)
in Romanian. Incidentally, many European languages do not distinguish between
‘play’ and ‘game’; thus, there is one word for both in German (Spiel), Dutch (spel),
Russian (igra) and—as mentioned above—French (jeu). Moreover, even if there are
two separate words, as in English and Polish (zabawa [play] and gra [game]), their
semantic fields are not always identical (crosslinguistically). Moreover, the mean-
ings of both terms often overlap, even within the same language, causing misunder-
standings among researchers even within a single language, let alone across
languages. Therefore, in the literature of cultural studies, psychology, sociology and
pedagogy, both terms coexist and very often are used interchangeably without

(techniki ludyczne) were introduced and analysed for the first time in Poland by Siek-Piskozub
(1995, reedited and completed 2001). The printing of a postdoctoral publication in 1995 was pre-
ceded by a paper read at the 26th Linguistische Kolloquium in 1991 (Siek-Piskozub 1993) and a
book for teachers: Siek-Piskozub (1994, 2nd ed. 1997), which has since also been translated into
Romanian.
2
More information can be found on their official websites: http://www.digra.org/, http://todigra.
org/index.php/todigra, http://ptbg.org.pl/, http://gry.konferencja.org/, http://ptbg.org.pl/
HomoLudens/,http://ptbg.org.pl/strona.php?id=9
3
None of the known ludologists to whom the authorship of the term has been ascribed (Gonzalo
Frasca, Espen Aarseth, Markku Eskelinen and Jesper Juul) has confirmed having coined it.
According to Juul, it was a Hungarian psychologist, Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, who first used the
term in 1982 in his article ‘Does being human matter? On some interpretative problems with com-
parative ludology’. Source: http://www.jesperjuul.net/ludologist/2004/02
Foreword vii

defining either of them, in spite of numerous attempts from the perspectives of mul-
tiple disciplines.
The famous Dutch historian and culturalresearcher, Johan Huizinga, in his clas-
sic work Homo Ludens: A Study of the Play-Element in Culture (1938), coined the
term in the title (playing person/person at play) as complementary to Homo faber
(creative person) after the original Homo sapiens (thinking person) had turned out
to be not suitable enough for humanity. Huizinga argued that Homo faber was even
less accurate than Homo sapiens, as many animals are also creative, and what refers
to creativity refers also to play. He claimed that human culture is created and devel-
ops in play and as play.
Both issues—ludic strategy and ICTs (often carrying numerous ludic features)—
turn out to be perfectly combined in the concept of gamification of higher education
and applied in the teaching of various subjects at the academic level (including
foreign languages). However, gamification should not be confused with simple
applications of ludic techniques in the didactic process, which would be nothing
new in education. It goes one step further and gamifies the whole process:
To cut a long story short, gamification is a structured design of non-game environments,
deliberately making them game-like in order to increase engagement, efficiency and positive
attitudes. We take systems of goal structures, rule-based choices, outcome measurement and
feedback from games and implement them in a non-game setting. Or, to be more specific, we
do not take anything from games directly—we use game mechanisms as models for the
restructuring of existing procedures of management, communication and assessment.4
(Mochocki 2010, https://sites.google.com/site/michalmochocki/highered-gamification)

Unfortunately, however, not all teachers care about mastering their technical
skills in order to keep pace with the rapid development of modern media and elec-
tronic devices. For various reasons, they do not improve their competences, which
makes them digitally handicapped if not almost completely ‘digitally excluded’. By
the same token, they risk losing trust, respect and authority in the eyes of their stu-
dents. Publications such as this one can get them more interested in this subject and
at least motivate them to try to develop themselves. Moreover, such publications can
make teachers realise that ICTs are very often within easy reach (and free, e.g. the
large amount of educational ‘freeware’ available on the Internet, including many
e-learning platforms) and do not require any specialist knowledge for use in their
everyday practice—only a little goodwill.
This book is dedicated especially to readers who eagerly seek pedagogical appli-
cations of ICT in the practice of teaching English for specific purposes (ESP),

4
Source: <https://sites.google.com/site/michalmochocki/highered-gamification> (Michał
Mochocki PhD, Kazimierz Wielki University in Bydgoszcz, Poland). Dr Mochocki is the initiator
and main author of the first gamified programme of studies in Poland: ‘GAMEDEC: Game Studies
and Design’ specialisation of the 2nd Gen Humanities BA programme at KWU in Bydgoszcz
(Poland).
More elaborate introductions to gamification can be found in dozens of places online. You can try
these: <http://gamification.org/wiki/Gamification>, <http://www.idea.org/blog/2011/10/20/what-is-
gamification/>, http://lithosphere.lithium.com/t5/Science-of-Social-blog/What-is-Gamification-
Really/ba-p/30447
viii Foreword

including English for academic purposes (EAP) as well as English for occupational
purposes (EOP). Its clear division into three parts, referring to these purposes,
enables readers to easily find chapters concerning the subject of their interest. It is a
precious source of multiple suggestions and guidelines supported by unique case
studies for practitioners to understand the pedagogical principles proposed by
scholars and educators. It can easily constitute a good foundation for readers who
want to begin their ‘adventure’ with the use of ICT in their practice and to under-
stand better the interrelationships between the benefits of ICT, the most popular
uses of technological tools in authentic instruction, the pedagogical principles
behind the integration of ICT into ESP and the relations between learners and teach-
ers as instructors or facilitators.
The book contributes significantly to the field of practice of teaching ESP and
helps to cultivate the idea of the autonomous foreign language learner.

Augustyn Surdyk

References

Csikszentmihalyi, M. (1982). Does being human matter—on some interpretive problems of com-
parative ludology. Behavioral and brain sciences Vol. 5, nr. 1, p. 160.
Huizinga, J. (1955). Homo Ludens: a study of the play-element in culture. Boston MA: Beacon
Press.
Mochocki, M. (2011). https://sites.google.com/site/michalmochocki/highered-gamification.
Retrieved on October 20, 2011.
Siek-Piskozub, T. (1993). Games and plays in foreign language teaching. In: J. Darski and
Z. Vetulani (Eds.), Linguistische Arbeiten, Sprache—Kommunikation—Informatik (Akten des
26. Linguistischen Kolloquiums Poznań 1991) (pp. 283–290). Tübingen: Max Niemeyer Verlag.
Siek-Piskozub, T. (1994). Gry i zabawy w nauczaniu języków obcych. Warszawa: WSiP.
Siek-Piskozub, T. (1995). Gry, zabawy i symulacje w procesie glottodydaktycznym. Poznań:
Wydawnictwo Naukowe UAM.
Siek-Piskozub, T. (2001). Uczyć się bawiąc. Strategia ludyczna na lekcji języka obcego. Warszawa:
Wydawnictwo Naukowe PWN.
Siek-Piskozub, T. (2007). Strategia ludyczna w glottodydaktyce. In A. Surdyk (Ed.): Kulturotwórcza
funkcja gier. Gra jako medium, tekst i rytuał, Vol. I (pp. 13–28). Poznań: Wydawnictwo
Naukowe UAM.
Surdyk, A. (2008). Ludology as game research in language pedagogy studies. Kalbotyra 59(3),
261–270.
Surdyk, A. (2009). Status naukowy ludologii. Przyczynek do dyskusji. Homo Ludens 1/2009,
223–243.
Contents

Introduction������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������    1
Rosa Muñoz-Luna and Lidia Taillefer
Part I Pedagogical Principles in English for Specific Purposes
I ntegrating Technology in ESP: Pedagogical Principles
and Practice������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������    7
Li Li
 sing Technology in the Teaching of ESP: Some Reflections
U
Based on Practice ��������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������   27
Sandra Stroo, Rosa Muñoz-Luna, and Antonio Jurado-Navas
I ndependent ESP Learners: The Case for Blended Learning ��������������������   37
Renia López-Ozieblo
Part II English for Academic Purposes
 he Internet as a Pedagogical Tool in the Writing Process:
T
A Research-Based Approach��������������������������������������������������������������������������   57
Mercedes Díez-Prados and Ana Belén Cabrejas-Peñuelas
 earning Management Systems for Teaching at University
L
Level: Students’ Attitudes and Real Usage in the Classroom����������������������   79
Antonio Jurado-Navas
 nglish for Academic Purposes: A Proposal to Improve
E
Listening Skills of Education Students����������������������������������������������������������   93
Ana María Ramos-García
 ultimedia EAP Learning in Virtual Reality: Second Life
M
in an English Department ������������������������������������������������������������������������������ 107
Lan Li

ix
x Contents

Part III English for Occupational Purposes


 SP and Free Online Dictionaries������������������������������������������������������������������ 127
E
Pedro A. Fuertes-Olivera
 ranslation, Virtual Environments and ICT Tools for Achieving
T
Competence in Language for Specific Purposes ������������������������������������������ 145
Encarnación Postigo-Pinazo and Concepción Mira-Rueda
 Business English Course in the Digital Era: Design and Analysis���������� 165
A
Lidia Taillefer
 nline Course Design for Translation into English�������������������������������������� 183
O
Leah Leone

Notes on Contributors ������������������������������������������������������������������������������������ 205


Contributors

Ana Belén Cabrejas-Peñuelas University of Valencia, Valencia, Spain


Mercedes Díez-Prados University of Alcalá, Alcalá de Henares, Spain
Pedro A. Fuertes-Olivera International Centre for Lexicography, University of
Valladolid, Valladolid, España
Department of Afrikaans and Dutch, University of Stellenbosch, Stellenbosch,
South Africa
Antonio Jurado-Navas Denmark Polytechnic University, Lyngby, Denmark
Leah Leone University of Wisconsin, Milwaukee, WI, USA
Lan Li The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Shenzhen, China
Li Li University of Exeter, Exeter, UK
Renia López-Ozieblo Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Hong Kong, China
Concepción Mira-Rueda University of Málaga, Málaga, Spain
Rosa Muñoz-Luna Department of English, French and German, University of
Malaga, Malaga, Spain
Encarnación Postigo-Pinazo University of Málaga, Málaga, Spain
Ana María Ramos-García University of Granada, Granada, Spain
Sandra Stroo UNT-Hockaday School, Dallas, TX, USA
Lidia Taillefer Department of English, French and German, University of Malaga,
Malaga, Spain

xi
Introduction

Rosa Muñoz-Luna and Lidia Taillefer

Abstract The present volume aims to demonstrate how technology has had an
impact in the world of English for Specific Purposes. By providing a thorough over-
view of several technological resources, the authors invite teachers, researchers and
language professionals to make the most of online and technological activities. The
book explores academic and occupational settings where the focus is on English as
a second language, always considering technology as the basis for innovation and
improvement.

Keywords English for specific purposes • Technology • Language • Innovation

The English for specific purposes (ESP) movement has played an important role
besides the teaching of general English since the 1960s. Current research develop-
ments have shown that specialised fields, professional jargon and academic lexicon
have established themselves as a linguistic and pedagogical framework for English
language-teaching scenarios. Specific language purposes drive the teaching and the
learning of a foreign language when this is going to be used in a particular environ-
ment. Since there is need for language for specific purposes courses, ESP seems to
function well as an umbrella term for a wide range of English language teaching
syllabi. ESP courses reflect different contextual needs addressing various audiences,
but these language courses share a vibrant teaching scene with a common point of
reference: innovation.
Innovation in the humanities brings inevitable competitive pressure to meet new
upcoming challenges that require proficient use of technology. Nevertheless, beyond
the role of technology uses, language teachers and researchers must now explore the
field of digital activities and resources. These are more attuned to the competences
of current learning environments. ESP and technology seem to fit together perfectly:
ESP courses follow a needs analysis that covers the needs of all educative agents
involved (e.g., teachers, students and materials). In this regard, technology answers
the digital needs of the aforementioned agents, bringing into ESP courses the neces-

R. Muñoz-Luna (*) • L. Taillefer


Department of English, French and German, University of Malaga, Malaga, Spain
e-mail: rmluna@uma.es; ltaillefer@uma.es

© Springer International Publishing AG 2018 1


R. Muñoz-Luna, L. Taillefer (eds.), Integrating Information and Communication
Technologies in English for Specific Purposes, English Language Education 10,
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-68926-5_1
2 R. Muñoz-Luna and L. Taillefer

sary instruments for the achievement of digital competence. In fact, technology


needs or new specialised digital literacies can be incorporated into the goals of
particular ESP courses.
In this arena, the creation and use of digital applications in the teaching of spe-
cific languages deserves special attention. Indeed, there is growing academic and
occupational interest in the topic, as it has been the focus of discussion in recent
years. Thus, we conclude that technology implementation in language for specific
purposes classrooms and professions can be viewed from two different but comple-
mentary perspectives:
• Teachers and other language professionals as digital users of online activities and
technological applications.
• Teachers and professionals as innovative creators of those applications, contrib-
uting from their practical experience.
Such a double conception of technology implementation and practice, in both
academic and occupational spheres, demonstrates the need for a double approach to
the matter. Language teachers and professionals are leaders in the use of informa-
tion and communication technologies (ICTs) and at the same time demand practical
hands-on training on a continual basis. Even if those two perspectives might seem
controversial, teachers, researchers, translators and other language professionals
should try to build bridges between both of them. Digital training and digital cre-
ation are two sides of the same language-teaching coin, thus leading to an inevitable
interdisciplinary context. This complex reality can unite teachers’ and profession-
als’ efforts, with the aim of accomplishing a range of goals that are beyond the
scope of a single discipline.
Consequently, the objective of this volume is to highlight the interdisciplinary
nature of ESP courses and to build bridges among them by means of classroom
technology innovations. Being cognisant of the varied contexts, levels and needs
that each student group requires, we want to provide technological solutions and
innovating methods for ESP courses in the fields of academic, medical and business
English. Furthermore, we offer ESP practitioners different ideas for online teaching
tools such as telematics dictionaries, virtual environments for translators, corpora,
video clips, wikis and learning management systems.
Following the ESP classification by Dudley-Evans and St. John, the book is
divided into English for academic contexts and English for occupational fields, with
an introductory section on principles and limitations of technology implementation
in ESP settings. In the first part of the volume, Li Li (University of Exeter), in chap-
ter “Integrating Technology in ESP: Pedagogical Principles and Practice”, explores
the benefits of technology in ESP teaching and the the reasons behind the slow
adoption of technological methods by teachers. She establishes some principles for
integrating technology in the classroom that solve deficient computer literacy and
lack of ICT awareness. In chapter “Using Technology in the Teaching of ESP: Some
Reflections Based on Practice”, leaving the theoretical perspective, Sandra Stroo
(University of North Texas-Hockaday School), Rosa Muñoz-Luna (Universidad de
Málaga) and Antonio Jurado-Navas (Denmark Polytechnic University) present a
series of electronic applications, computer programmes and classroom ideas to
Introduction 3

combine technology and the teaching of ESP. The boundaries of technology appli-
cability in the class are also enlarged by Renia López-Ozieblo (Hong Kong
Polytechnic University) in chapter “Independent ESP Learners: The Case for
Blended Learning”. She explores the new dimensions and uses of blended learning
modes in a society that is constantly looking for educational solutions. As part of the
teacher’s formation, digital consciousness and integrative practice are crucial in
order to effectively utilise computers and technological devices with the students;
therefore, López-Ozieblo’s chapter includes a series of pedagogical suggestions for
blended learning implementation in second language classrooms.
Within the English for academic purposes (EAP) strand, in chapter “The Internet
as a Pedagogical Tool in the Writing Process: A Research-Based Approach”,
Mercedes Díez-Prados (University of Alcalá) and Ana Belén Cabrejas-Peñuelas
(University of Valencia) have proposed the Internet as a facilitator resource for the
planning, writing and revising stages in the composition of a text in English as a
second language. These authors describe a pedagogical proposal in which Web 2.0
applications are employed to write essays in academic contexts. In this case, the
Blackboard platform can be of help to students and teachers alike, as it provides
both groups with information about writing tasks. In a similar vein, in chapter
“Learning Management Systems for Teaching at the University Level: Students’
Attitudes and Real Usage in the Classroom”, Antonio Jurado-Navas (Denmark
Polytechnic University) has examined students’ attitudes towards the use of virtual
environments where they are encouraged to learn. In this chapter, he aims to shed
some light upon so-called learning management systems and, more specifically,
upon the students’ real perceptions of them; according to the research subjects, the
teacher implication and actual management of the virtual platform are what moti-
vate them to learn without anxiety, regardless of technology level. A foreign lan-
guage skill that usually provokes anxiety in students is listening. With the goal of
improving the listening abilities of university students, Ana María Ramos-García
(University of Granada), in chapter “English for Academic Purposes: A Proposal to
Improve Listening Skills of Education Students”, designs a series of activities and a
teaching plan to facilitate and improve the listening practice in the classroom.
In another effort to create anxiety-free spaces, Lan Li (Hong Kong Polytechnic
University), in chapter “Multimedia EAP Learning in Virtual Reality: Second Life
in an English Department”, explores the online possibilities of virtual. Li describes
her teaching experiences in the English classroom using Second Life, a 3D simula-
tor which creates a parallel virtual universe where students and teacher can interact
in English as if they were part of videogame life. Thanks to Second Life, learners
are virtually immersed in a set of circumstances in which they are protagonists
interacting in English. Motivation is guaranteed for students who are digital natives
and who overcome interaction barriers online.
As far as English for occupational purposes is concerned, Pedro A. Fuertes-­
Olivera (University of Valladolid) introduces in chapter “ESP and Free Online
Dictionaries” a possible way of smoothly adapting to the virtual environment: the
use of free online dictionaries. These virtual tools are particularly useful when gain-
ing conceptual knowledge and insights into the theoretical framework in a certain
discipline or domain. In addition, he considers certain characteristics for deciding
4 R. Muñoz-Luna and L. Taillefer

on the adequacy of the dictionary to be employed, in this case, in the field of busi-
ness and economics. In chapter “Translation, Virtual Environments and ICT Tools
for Achieving Competence in Language for Specific Purposes”, Encarnación
Postigo-Pinazo and Concepción Mira-Rueda (University of Málaga) provide a
response for the recent increasing demand for medical tourism in Costa del Sol
(Spain). Medical translators are in need of a dynamic virtual tool which gathers
practical advice and pedagogical suggestions in order to become competent scien-
tific writers, translators and interpreters.
Within the same field of English for occupational purposes, the issue of ESP
course design is a topic of interest for native and foreign speakers, teachers and stu-
dents. In chapter “A Business English Course in the Digital Era: Design and
Analysis”, Lidia Taillefer (University of Málaga) analyses a complete course in busi-
ness English which blends online learning with face-to-face interactions: the ideal
combination for language progress. Her suggested activities have been designed and
developed within a plan for technology implementation in language teaching, and
these take into consideration students’ needs and teacher preferences alike. In the
last chapter of our volume, Leah Leone (University of Wisconsin-­Milwaukee) com-
piles theoretical and practical approaches to designing training courses for transla-
tors. She describes the benefits of online environments for translators’ training,
practice and professional development since almost all their learning and work will
occur on the web. The continuous emergence of online courses at graduate or post-
graduate levels propitiates contextualised training for translators, who will start and
grow professionally online. Leone proposes the use of backward course design, so
her chapter is also designed that way: From needs analysis, course designers move
to objectives and then align those with assessment and evaluation of students. In this
case, the author explains and elucidates Bloom’s revised taxonomy.
Technical solutions for pedagogical problems seem to be the perfect tools to create
a sense of shared innovation and progress. In addition, those technical improvements
are no longer perceived as highly-specialised notions, traditionally far from user-level
understanding. Nowadays, technology embeds affective issues in the classroom as it
considers the professional motivations, concerns and commitment of the students. In
fact, the type of training technological software offers is now entirely integrative,
combining cognitive procedures, factual knowledge and procedures. Technology is
currently accessible to everybody, and so is knowledge. Open source programmes
facilitate massive access to culture and information by average computer users, some-
thing that has also changed the nature of learning forever. Teachers and instructors are
no longer in possession of truth and resources, but resources are open and available
to everybody, and knowledge is always relative as it is socially constructed.
In conclusion, the different contributions presented in this volume aim to provide
holistic and cross-disciplinary solutions to upcoming challenges and technological
barriers recently arisen in the language teaching field in general and the ESP domain
in particular. Social sciences, computer sciences and daily technological devices
unite to create a more interactive learning background where new frameworks that
contribute to the integral development of the student, both academically and person-
ally, can be practised and constructed.
Part I
Pedagogical Principles in English for
Specific Purposes

The first part of this volume, consisting of three chapters, shows how the integration
of technology into education has been an important agenda for educational reform
all over the world and how English language teaching has been heavily influenced
by this move (Avalos 2011, pp. 10–20). Despite the benefits of technology in lan-
guage learning and teachers’ positive attitudes towards it, ESP teachers demonstrate
slow adoption in using new technologies for various reasons, despite the benefits it
can offer (Kumar and Rani 2016, pp. 26–34). The chapter by Li Li reviews the lit-
erature in both computer-assisted language learning and ESP in order to set out
principles for integrating technology and to offer some exemplary practice, cover-
ing various types of technological tools in both EAP and EPP contexts. These peda-
gogical principles could be used as guidelines to assist teachers to integrate
technology and as directions for teacher education in integrating technology.
Similarly, the chapter by Sandra Stroo, Rosa Muñoz-Luna and Antonio Jurado-­
Navas aims to provide an overview of the most commonly used and basic technolo-
gies in ESP. Since the authors’ cultural backgrounds are different, they have focused
on those that are common in their three educational university settings: the United
States, Spain and Denmark. Starting with academic management systems such as
Blackboard, they mention advantages and challenges of these and other software
resources that can be found within those management settings. Another key aspect
of new learning environments is student interaction and participation, which is the
main purpose of the application Educlick. Finally, mobile uses in the classroom and
audiovisual materials are broadly revisited. Undoubtedly, these technical and tech-
nological devices will also help to cover ESP needs.
In the same vein, Renia López-Ozieblo, after describing the different instruc-
tional options available online, argues that massive open online courses (MOOCs)
are not the optimum solution for ESP educators, whose role is to help learners com-
municate in the second language independently and develop their critical and cre-
ative thinking. Instead, she advocates a methodology that combines a face-to-face
6 I Pedagogical Principles in English for Specific Purposes

approach with the use of ICTs, blended teaching and, in particular, a flipped class-
room strategy. This has the benefit of maintaining social interaction, key to the
learning process, in the classroom while also developing it online.
References
Avalos, B. (2011). Teacher professional development in Teaching and Teacher
Education over ten years. Teaching and Teacher Education, 27, 10–20.
Kumar, S., & Rani, M. (2016). Attitudes of teachers towards the use of technology
and innovation in the classroom. International Journal of Research in IT and
Management, 6(11), 26–34.
Integrating Technology in ESP: Pedagogical
Principles and Practice

Li Li

Abstract Integrating technology into education has been an important agenda for
educational reform all over the world, and English language teaching has been
heavily influenced by this move. Despite the benefits of technology in language
learning and teachers’ positive attitudes towards technology, ESP teachers have
demonstrated slow adoption in using new technologies for various reasons, includ-
ing lack of awareness and deficient computer literacy and ICT pedagogy, despite the
benefits technology can offer to languages for specific purposes (LSP). In this chap-
ter, I review the literature in both computer-assisted language learning and ESP to
draw principles for integrating technology and to offer some exemplary practice in
both English for academic purposes (EAP) and English for occupational purposes
(EOP) contexts, covering four types of technological tools: corpora, web-based
materials, computer-mediated communication (CMC) and wikis. These principles
can be used as guidelines to assist teachers to integrate technology into teaching and
as directions for teacher education in integrating technology.

Keywords English for Specific Purposes (ESP) • Information and Communication


Technologies (ICT) • Computer literacy • Computer-assisted language learning •
Integrating technology • Technological tools • Corpus • Web-based materials •
Computer-Mediated Communication (CMC) • Wikis

1 Introduction

Research in technology use in second- and foreign-language classrooms has flour-


ished since 2000 (e.g., Chapelle 2003). Despite the positive attitudes towards using
technologies in teaching among language teachers globally (e.g., Baek et al. 2008;
Li and Walsh 2011), teachers still demonstrate difficulties and concerns in integrat-
ing technology. This is especially true with English for specific purposes (ESP)
teachers due to lack of awareness, more comfort with text environments, deficient

L. Li (*)
University of Exeter, Exeter, UK
e-mail: li.li@exeter.ac.uk

© Springer International Publishing AG 2018 7


R. Muñoz-Luna, L. Taillefer (eds.), Integrating Information and Communication
Technologies in English for Specific Purposes, English Language Education 10,
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-68926-5_2
8 L. Li

computer literacy and contentedness that technology does not deliver educational
success (Virkus 2008). The general observation is that apart from realizing the ben-
efits of technologies and getting tips on how to integrate technology in teaching,
teachers need to be aware of the principles of using technology in teaching. This
chapter aims to outline the principles and practice of technology use in ESP con-
texts. It is worth noting that although these principles are used in ESP contexts, they
are also applicable for the contexts of learning English for general purposes.
The goal of this chapter is to introduce principles of technology integration in
ESP instruction and to provide guidance for making it more practical in language
classrooms than it has previously been. First, I will discuss the characteristics of
ESP and the benefits of technology in language learning. Then I will outline five
general principles for integrating technology in teaching ESP, with some examples
in English for academic purposes (EAP) contexts and English for occupational pur-
poses (EOP) contexts, such as English for business purposes. Finally, I will provide
a brief discussion of the principles and practice and the role of teacher training in
cultivating the area further.

2 ESP and Its Characteristics

English for specific purposes has a long history and is becoming increasingly popu-
lar as globalization necessitates communication within and across their disciplines
internationally. The popularity of ESP has also resulted in the evolution of the defi-
nition and an increasing number of different definitions. Again, this is partially due
to differences between disciplines and the variety of situations where English is
used. The evolution of the definition has also seen shifts in ESP pedagogy from
specialised vocabulary acquisition to language use in context. Currently, ESP has
developed towards a learner-centred pedagogy that emphases the importance of
needs analysis. ESP learners need to understand authentic texts and how to com-
municate effectively in the situations they encounter in their discipline rather than
master field-specific terminology (Smoak 2003). However, vocabulary is still an
important learning element for ESP for at least two reasons: First, there is a widely
shared belief that students would be able to understand concepts and phenomena in
their disciplines better if they incorporated specialist language and terminology in
their academic work (Woodward-Kron 2008), and, second, students need to have
specialized discourse competence to succeed in their studies and engage in group
activities (Hyland and Tse 2007).
As discussed above, defining ESP is not an easy task, since the requirements for
English are different for different disciplines. For example, the kinds of communi-
cation skills and language genres in the contexts of business and medicine are com-
pletely different, since the purpose of communication is different. In a business
setting, people use language to market their products or negotiate deals, which
require establishing shared understanding and giving information and skills of
negotiation and discussion, whereas in a medical setting, understanding, listening
Integrating Technology in ESP: Pedagogical Principles and Practice 9

with empathy and giving instructions are more frequent, and it is very rare to see
doctors and patients need to negotiate. Despite the different needs for language,
Arnó et al. (2006) argue that Dudley-Evans and St. John’s (1998) extended and flex-
ible definition can serve as a framework that can encompass various ESP contexts.
Absolute Characteristics
• ESP is defined to meet specific needs of the learners.
• ESP makes use of the underlying methodology and activities of the discipline it
serves.
• ESP is centred on the language (grammar, lexis and register), study skills, dis-
course and genre appropriate for these activities.
Variable Characteristics
• ESP may be related to, or designed for, specific disciplines.
• ESP may use, in specific teaching situations, a different methodology from that
of general English.
• ESP is likely to be designed for adult learners, either at a tertiary level institution
or in a professional work situation; it could, however, be for learners at the sec-
ondary school level.
• ESP is generally designed for intermediate or advanced students; most ESP
courses assume some basic knowledge of the language systems. (Dudley-Evans
and St. John 1998, pp. 4–5)
This framework outlines the basic and fundamental characteristics of ESP. In
order to understand how ESP instructions can benefit from technology affordances,
it is important to unpack these characteristics. First and foremost, ESP is designed
for learners with specific needs, which means a needs analysis is the most important
step in teaching ESP. This point is emphasised by Belcher (2004) in her latest his-
toric review of ESP:
Unlike other pedagogical approaches, which may be less specific needs based and more
theory driven, ESP pedagogy places heavy demands on its practitioners to collect empirical
needs-assessment data, to create or adapt materials to meet specific needs identified, and to
cope with often unfamiliar subject matter and even language use. (p. 166)

So, broadly speaking, ESP concerns what learners need to know in their profes-
sional contexts. In other words, given the particular context in which English is
used, the variant of English will change. Therefore, for ESP, the ultimate goal is to
tailor language instruction to meet the needs of learners in specific contexts.
Addressing learners’ needs is referred as the commitment to the purposes of the
learners (Belcher 2009) and is shared by all branches of ESP, and it does not only
include learners’ needs at the language level, but also from material and teacher
aspects. According to Belcher (2009):
What the commitment entails is, (1) first and foremost (before, during, and even after
instruction), finding out what learners’ needs are, then (2) developing or adapting materials
and methods to enable needs-responsive instruction while concurrently (3) acquiring the
expertise to function as needs-knowledgeable instructors. (p. 3)
10 L. Li

Second, authenticity is a key feature of ESP. Here, authenticity refers to authentic


language materials and tasks. For ESP practitioners, much attention is given to
developing authentic materials based on the discourse in the taught discipline. This
is also referred as target genre students’ need to engage in the real-life work
situations.
Third, closely related to authenticity and learners’ needs is the teaching method-
ology. ESP adopts a learner-based approach; thus, all aspects of learning and teach-
ing are about addressing learners’ needs. However it is important to note that
learners’ needs vary according to the situations they are in, their disciplines and the
context in which they work. Their needs are also very much influenced by local
culture, their existing knowledge and their desire and motivation to learn.
Finally, it is worth noting that ESP mainly deals with adult learners who are at
intermediate or advanced levels. It is assumed that ESP learners have achieved a
certain level of English and are relatively mature; therefore, learners’ cognitive and
linguistic levels are critical in ESP course design, material development and peda-
gogical considerations. This is why needs analysis, discourse genre, corpora, situa-
tional practice, cross-cultural issues, context and authenticity of communication
and materials are important aspects of teaching ESP (Johns and Dudley-Evans
1991; Hewings 2002).

3 Affordances of Technology in ESP Instruction

Technology affordances can be simply defined as potential benefits that technology


can bring to the process of teaching and learning. Affordances of technology are
well documented in the literature, with different theoretical perspectives focusing
on different aspects. Generally speaking, the role of technology has shifted from
being a tutor to being tool to communicate due to shifts in pedagogical theoretical
position from behaviourism to socio-constructivism in recent years. Technology has
been used by ESP teachers for different purposes. For example, technological tools
are used to create suitable materials or relevant contexts for language learning
(Arnó-Macià 2012), to address learners’ needs and to achieve positive psychologi-
cal impact (Arnó et al. 2006). The fast-growing Internet provides ESP teachers with
a new tool to engage students in real-life communication, to bridge the intercultural
gap, to collaborate in their professional community and to access up-to-date infor-
mation relevant to their discipline. I have discussed the general benefits of technol-
ogy in language learning elsewhere (e.g., Li 2015), and here I will explicitly focus
on the multiple roles of technology in ESP teaching and learning.
Integrating Technology in ESP: Pedagogical Principles and Practice 11

3.1 Technology Enhances Language Learning

Macaro et al. (2012), in their review, provided some evidence that technology facili-
tates the acquisition of linguistic knowledge and the development of language skills.
Research suggests that multimedia presentation, including graphics and video clips,
has a positive effect on vocabulary acquisition (e.g., Kim and Gilman 2008;
Silverman and Hines 2009). For example, Rusanganwa (2013) investigated whether
the use of multimedia can facilitate technical vocabulary acquisition in physics
undergraduates in Rwanda, and the results suggest that multimedia has a large effect
on the recall of the concepts taught. Apart from vocabulary learning, technology has
also been reported to have improved writing (e.g., Mak and Coniam 2008), listening
comprehension and grammar accuracy.
Closely related to linguistic acquisition is the development of communication
skills. Developing communicative competence is the key purpose of learning
English and one very important aspect in real-life situations. For example, email is
becoming more important for communication than other methods, and being able to
communicate successfully and appropriately is considered an important communi-
cation skill. Computer-mediated communication (CMC), such as online forums and
synchronous and asynchronous communication tools, has become popular in efforts
to improve second-language learners’ communicative competence. The use of CMC
technologies such as emails, online forums and Skype has benefited learners in real-­
life communication. Research suggests that email exchange encourages students to
recognize that L2 is more than just learning vocabulary and grammar but a powerful
medium for communication (Warschauer 2000, 2003). Of course, facilitating
knowledge acquisition does not only stay at the linguistic level; research studies
show value of technology for development of intercultural awareness (Mueller-­
Hartmann 2000; Ware 2005), especially with CMC and network-based learning
(Kern and Warshauer 2000). Web 2.0 technologies develop opportunities to com-
municate and collaborate even further for people from the same profession from
different contexts. Blogs and wikis do not just provide learners a tool to communi-
cate but a space to work together and publish their work.

3.2 Technology Facilitates in Creating Authentic Materials

It is very likely that in many contexts where teachers are teaching those digital
natives (Palfrey and Gasser 2008). The development of digital and web materials
has enriched learners’ experience in the sense that they can gain more authentic
input and see how language is used in particular contexts. This is especially useful
for ESP, as ESP learners need to learn the authentic language that they can apply in
real-life contexts. In language learning, the authenticity of language materials and
tasks is emphasised by various researchers, and the use of authentic language mate-
rials is encouraged whenever possible. As such, students are not only able to learn
12 L. Li

the kind of language they need but also how it is used. The underpinning theory is
to experience rather than acquire the language. Designing materials for students’
needs is perhaps the very first thing faced by many ESP teachers, in which case
teachers are not simply teachers but also material developers, due to the unavail-
ability of the materials they need or the lack of authenticity of the textbook. This
task is very challenging for many teachers, and the Internet is believed to serve well
the authenticity of the text and the authorship of the language user—the two aspects
of communicative language learning (Kramsch et al. 2000). As such, the Internet is
considered an authentic resource for natural, context-rich and culturally specific
materials (Herron et al. 2002). These materials do not stay at the textual level but
also provide rich audio and visual materials that provide learners with multimodal
learning experiences (e.g., YouTube). The availability of up-to-date information and
tasks in different discourse communities provides both the teacher with authentic
language materials and the students with access to the information they need to
complete their tasks and projects. As I mentioned before, corpora have been used by
ESP teachers to develop suitable materials for their learners. The availability of
academic and occupational corpora enables both ESP teachers and learners access
to the authentic language used in their targeted context, and, by analysing corpora,
what learners need can be addressed.

3.3 Technology Mediates Thinking

Technology can also be used as a mediational tool (Li 2014), especially in network-­
based learning and computer-supported collaborative learning. Mediation is how
people use ‘culturally constructed artefacts, concepts and activities to regulate the
material world or their own and each other’s social and mental activity’ (Lantolf and
Thorne 2006, p. 79). Language is widely accepted as the primary mediational tool,
but nowadays the use of technologies is a new psychological tool that can mediate
interaction between humans and the environment around them. The multimodality
of technology materials can mediate ideas, thoughts and thinking processes through
images, sound and videos. Even in text-based chat rooms, the use of emoticons can
help express thoughts and emotions. The mediational role that technology plays in
network-based learning is vitally important. Students from different cultures and
backgrounds can take advantage of computer tools to represent their thoughts and
to bridge the gap in intercultural communication.
Integrating Technology in ESP: Pedagogical Principles and Practice 13

3.4  echnology Provides a Learning Environment


T
for Interaction

Interaction lies at the heart of language learning, and technology can provide learn-
ers with an environment where they can engage in authentic interaction. In ESP
teaching, interaction between learners can be promoted through the use of a particu-
lar technological tool, for example, a forum or an online discussion board. The kind
of interaction in which students engage in such a learning environment resembles
the real-life situation, as the task is genuine and the language is authentic. With the
development of network-based learning, project-based CALL (computer assisted
language learning) is also popular in assisting students to develop their interactional
competence. For example, in a German as a foreign language context, Chun (1994)
has argued that the use of network-based activity facilitates interactive competence
as learners ‘generate and initiate different kinds of discourse, which in turn enhances
their ability to express a greater variety of functions in different contexts as well as
to play a greater role in managing the discourse’ (p. 18).

3.5 Technology Facilitates Self-Directed Learning

In order for learners to become autonomous, they need to engage in self-directed


learning. Self-directed learning is also one of the key features of ESP courses (Carter
1983). For Carter, ‘ESP is concerned with turning learners into users’ (Carter 1983,
p. 134). In order for self-direction to occur, the learners must have a certain degree
of control over when, what and how they study. Technology in this sense offers a
great opportunity to realise self-direction. For example, in a self-access learning
environment, students are able to access the learning materials and direct their own
learning at their own pace. This not only involves students developing strategies to
learn the materials and gain competence in language skills (e.g., listening), but also
provides students an opportunity to control their own learning. In this context, tech-
nology can ‘support self-paced instruction and … support self-paced review of con-
cepts’ (Roblyer 2006, p. 48).

3.6 Technology Motivates and Engages Learners

Technology can be used as an effective tool to engage, motivate and regulate learn-
ers. In particular, motivation has been core to discussions about technology in lan-
guage learning in general (Braine 2004; Schwienhorst 2007). Teachers also widely
believe that the use of technology enhances student motivation (e.g., Li 2008).
14 L. Li

4 Five Principles for Integrating Technology in ESP

Based on the above discussion of benefits of technology, I propose five basic prin-
ciples in integrating technology in ESP.

4.1  rinciple 1: Understanding the Benefits and Roles


P
of Technology

In order to successfully and effectively integrate technology in ESP teaching, teach-


ers need to be aware of the benefits of technological tools for language learning.
Technology in general has a positive impact on language learning, but technology
cannot be simply added on to teaching or replace the teacher. Teachers need to criti-
cally evaluate the role of technology, as different tools have different functions. For
example, some tools are more appropriate for developing collaborative learning
(e.g., the use of wikis, blogs and other Web 2.0 technologies), whereas other tools
are more suitable to help students develop their linguistic knowledge and skills on
their own (e.g., the use of software, videos and corpora). Some tools are more useful
to help students to engage in real discourse communities (e.g., online discussion
forums and social networks), and others are good for identifying students’ needs
(e.g., corpora). Knowing the affordances of different technological tools helps the
teacher to select the best options to achieve their pedagogical goals.

4.2 Principle 2: Linking Technology to Learners’ Needs

ESP adopts a learner-centred approach, and learners’ need lies at the heart of design-
ing and teaching ESP. In understanding learners’ needs, there are three things teach-
ers need to do (Westerfield 2010). Frist, teachers need to understand the learning
objectives and the affordances of technology. That is, teachers need to know exactly
what the learners need to be able to do in the target language and how technology
can help to achieve this. Table 1 provides an example to illustrate how to link tech-
nology to learners’ future needs.
Second, teachers need to understand the current learners’ language levels and
expectations. This means that the teacher needs to have a good knowledge about
what the learners can do now and what they want from the course. The current
knowledge can be assessed through comparing student work and the existing aca-
demic or professional work.
Third, teachers need to know the learning environment, including what techno-
logical environment they have (e.g., one-computer classroom, network-based class-
room, self-access centre or distance learning), available resources (e.g., access to
Integrating Technology in ESP: Pedagogical Principles and Practice 15

Table 1 An example of linking technology to learners’ needs (Li 2017, p. 142)


What learners need How technology can help (examples)
Communication skills CMC tools (e.g., online discussion boards, emails and
videoconferencing) can be used to engage students in
real-life discourse
Academic writing skills Corpus analysis of published academic work to identify
how to use linking words, reporting verbs and tenses
Collaborative experience Wikis, project-based CALL
Engagement and participation in The use of social networking
a professional community

computers, Internet and software), students’ computer literacy level and their expe-
rience in using technology in learning.

4.3  rinciple 3: Integrating Rather Than Adding Technology


P
in Teaching

Technology needs to be integrated as part of pedagogy rather than an ‘add-on’ to the


existing teaching. ‘Integration’ puts the emphasis on pedagogy, which means tech-
nology is used to achieve pedagogical goals and teachers need to be aware of their
pedagogical beliefs, and research suggests that teachers use technology according
to their underlying beliefs about teaching and learning (see Table 2 for an example
of writing tasks using technology). Only by understanding their own beliefs can
teachers ‘integrate’ technology into their teaching rather than adding it as a supple-
mentary tool.
‘Integration’ also means that technology is integrated in assessment. For exam-
ple, for each pedagogical goal, teachers need to have a reliable, measurable and
clear assessment method. Mueller (2010) calls for authentic assessment, which
means real-life tasks that demonstrate meaningful application of essential knowl-
edge and skills. For example, email tasks with different purposes could be used to
develop students’ (internal and external) communication skills.

4.4 Principle 4: Considering the Role of the Teacher

When technology is integrated in teaching and learning, the role of the teacher will
be transformed as a consequence. Clearly, one of the factors influencing teachers’
use of technology innovatively is the understanding of the teacher’s role. Teachers
need to be aware of different roles they perform when different kinds of technology-­
supported activities are implemented. The challenge for teachers is to give control
to learners and explore their agency in learning. Technological tools in many situa-
tions can be used to assist learning, and the teacher needs to realise the supportive
16 L. Li

Table 2 An example of teachers’ pedagogical beliefs and the use of technology (Li 2017, p. 143)
Teacher’s pedagogical beliefs Main technology use
Writing is a means of Doing grammar and vocabulary exercises on a website
reinforcing speech patterns Using feedback tools (e.g., marking or track changes in
(product based) Microsoft Word) for peer reviewing, focusing on local
feedback, such as tense, spelling and grammar.
Writing is a process of Accessing Web database
constructing personal meaning Composing with the word processor
(process based) Using mindmap tools
Participating in collaborative web-based writing projects
Using prompted writing and grammar software in small
groups
Writing is an important Using corpus to analyse academic and professional
academic and professional skill discourse
(content based) Using academic and professional websites
Using online referencing sites (e.g., dictionaries and
libraries)
Writing is a text understood by Using blogs and wikis
individual readers. Participating in online discussion (e.g., wikis, blogs)
Participating in email exchange

Table 3 Teachers’ Roles (Adapted from Li 2017)


Teacher role Activity Technology
Organiser Students work together on a Wikis
collaborative writing project
Audience/reader Students presents their views and Blogs
opinions about topics in their
field
Guide Students develop a vocabulary Corpus
project for their discipline
Participant/facilitator Students initiate and participate Online forum
in discussion
Evaluator Students produce oral and written Digital recording software
work (with multimodal materials) and Microsoft Office
package

role of technological tools. In this learning situation, teachers needs to explore how
they support and facilitate this learning process rather than trying to be the control-
ler of this process and the absolute knowledge provider, as in traditional knowledge-­
transmission classrooms. Table 3 presents examples of different roles teachers
might perform in different activities when various technological applications and
tools are used.
Integrating Technology in ESP: Pedagogical Principles and Practice 17

These are just some examples of roles and possible technological tools in teach-
ing and learning. Of course, teacher’s roles cannot be restricted to those mentioned
above and can change depending on the students’ situations and tasks.

4.5 Enhancing Authenticity of Both Language and Task

Technology must be brought into the process of teaching and learning to address
authenticity—both at the language and task aspects. Teachers can use technology as
a tool to access authentic materials to prepare teaching so that students experience
and learn the authentic discourse they are expected to encounter in their profession.
Teachers should also use technology to increase the authenticity in learning tasks.
These tasks should resemble the kinds of tasks students are expected to carry out in
a real-life work environment, for example, discussing a project with a senior col-
league or solving a problem with colleagues. Technology can give students an
authentic environment to some extent; for example, in Second Life, law students
can have a virtual courtroom and business students can do virtual business.

5 Integrating Technology in Teaching

In this section, I present some ideas for using technological applications in teaching
English for specific purposes. These ideas can be approached from perspectives of
the disciplines, the learners and teachers, language skills and technological tools.
Since these ideas can be applied across disciplines and involve different language
skills, I chose four different kinds of technological tools to explore how they can be
integrated into teaching and learning.

5.1 Corpus

In many academic writing contexts, vocabulary acquisition and grammatical struc-


ture appear to be important features, and many investigations have been carried out
in these areas to assist learning English for academic purposes. In recent years, data-­
driven learning (DDL) has become popular. DDL is an approach which is rooted in
corpus linguistics. Friginal (2013) suggests that the ‘future direction of teaching
writing for specific purposes will include corpus-based textbooks, materials and
data’ (p. 209).
A corpus can be defined as ‘a collection of texts, written or spoken, which is
stored on a computer’ (O’Keeffe et al. 2007, p. 35). Two basic functions can be
identified with a corpus:
Another random document with
no related content on Scribd:
But, better yet, four of the happiest weeks of his life were
subsequently spent in that same hospital to which he had first been
taken relating to all and sundry his amazing adventure, he being
interviewed by no less than five representatives of Sunday editors
and eleven reporters for city dailies, all anxious to discover just how
it was that he had been blown through water and air up through so
great a thing as a river, and how he felt while en route. A triumph.
Rivers may be smart, but saints are smarter, thanks be.
And, to top it all, seeing that his right hand and arm might possibly
be crippled for life, or at least an indefinite period (the doctors did not
know), and in grateful appreciation of the fact that he had refused to
deal with various wolfish lawyers who had now descended on him
and urged him to sue for a large sum, he was offered a substantial
pension by the company, or its equivalent, work with the company,
no less, at good pay for the rest of his life, and a cash bonus into the
bargain, a thing which seemed to solve his very uncertain future for
him and put him at his ease. Once more the hand of the saint, you
will certainly admit.
But, lastly, there was the peculiar spiritual consolation that comes
with the feeling that you have done your duty and that a great saint is
on your side. For if all these things did not prove that the good St.
Columba had kept faith with him, what could? To be sure the river
had attempted to do its worst, and had caused him considerable fear
and pain, and perhaps St. Columba did not have as much control
over the river as he should or as he might like to have, or—and this
was far more likely—it was entirely possible that he (McGlathery)
had not at all times deserved the good saint’s support. But none the
less, in the final extremity, had he not acted? And if not, how would
you explain the fact that the tug Mary Baker was just at hand as he
arose out of the water two thousand feet from shore? And why was
it, if the saint had not been trying to help him, that the hospital doctor
had seen to it that he was hustled off to a lock just in time—had
seen, indeed, just such a case as this before, and known how to
handle it? Incontrovertible facts all, aren’t they?—or if not, why not?
At any rate McGlathery thought so, and on Sundays and holidays,
whether there was or was not anything of importance being
celebrated in his church, he might have been seen there kneeling
before his favorite saint and occasionally eyeing him with both
reverence and admiration. For, “Glory be,” as he frequently
exclaimed in narrating the wonderful event afterward, “I wasn’t stuck
between the shield and the tunnel, as I might ’a’ been, and killed
entirely, and sure, I’ve aaften thought ’tis a miracle that not enough
water come in, just then, to drown ’em aal. It lifted up just enough to
let me go out like a cork, and up I went, and then, God be praised, it
shut down again. But, glory be, here I am, and I’m no worse fer it,
though it do be that me hand wrenches me now and then.”
And as for the good St. Columba—
Well, what about the good St. Columba?
V
CONVENTION

T HIS story was told to me once by a very able newspaper


cartoonist, and since it makes rather clear the powerfully
repressive and often transforming force of convention, I set it down
as something in the nature of an American social document. As he
told it, it went something like this:
At one time I was a staff artist on the principal paper of one of the
mid-Western cities, a city on a river. It was, and remains to this hour,
a typical American city. No change. It had a population then of
between four and five hundred thousand. It had its clubs and
churches and its conventional goings-on. It was an excellent and
prosperous manufacturing city; nothing more.
On the staff with me at this time was a reporter whom I had known
a little, but never intimately. I don’t know whether I ought to bother to
describe him or not—physically, I mean. His physique is unimportant
to this story. But I think it would be interesting and even important to
take him apart mentally and look at him, if one could—sort out the
various components of his intellectual machinery, and so find out
exactly how his intellectual processes proceeded. However, I can’t
do that; I have not the skill. Barring certain very superficial
characteristics which I will mention, he was then and remains now a
psychological mystery to me. He was what I would describe as
superficially clever, a good writer of a good, practical, matter-of-fact
story. He appeared to be well liked by those who were above him
officially, and he could write Sunday feature stories of a sort, no one
of which, as I saw it, ever contained a moving touch of color or a
breath of real poetry. Some humor he had. He was efficient. He had
a nose for news. He dressed quite well and he was not ill-looking—
tall, thin, wiry, almost leathery. He had a quick, facile smile, a genial
wordflow for all who knew him. He was the kind of man who was on
practical and friendly terms with many men connected with the
commercial organizations and clubs about town, and from whom he
extracted news bits from time to time. By the directing chiefs of the
paper he was considered useful.
Well, this man and I were occasionally sent out on the same
assignment, he to write the story, I to make sketches—usually some
Sunday feature story. Occasionally we would talk about whatever
was before us—newspaper work, politics, the particular story in hand
—but never enthusiastically or warmly about anything. He lacked
what I thought was the artistic and poetic point of view. And yet, as I
say, we were friendly enough. I took him about as any
newspaperman takes another newspaperman of the same staff who
is in good standing.
Along in the spring or summer of the second year that I was on the
paper the Sunday editor, to whom I was beholden in part for my
salary, called me into his room and said that he had decided that
Wallace Steele and myself were to do a feature story about the
“love-boats” which plied Saturday and Sunday afternoons and every
evening up and down the river for a distance of thirty-five miles or
more. This distance, weather permitting, gave an opportunity to six
or seven hundred couples on hot nights to escape the dry, sweltering
heat of the city—and it was hot there in the summer—and to enjoy
the breezes and dance, sometimes by the light of Chinese lanterns,
sometimes by the light of the full moon. It was delightful. Many, many
thousands took advantage of the opportunity in season.
It was delicious to me, then in the prime of youth and ambition, to
sit on the hurricane or “spoon” deck, as our Sunday editor called it,
and study not only the hundreds of boys and girls, but also the older
men and women, who came principally to make love, though
secondarily to enjoy the river and the air, to brood over the
picturesque groupings of the trees, bushes, distant cabins and bluffs
which rose steeply from the river, to watch the great cloud of smoke
that trailed back over us, to see the two halves of the immense steel
walking beam chuff-chuffing up and down, and to listen to the drive
of the water-wheel behind. This was in the days before the
automobile, and any such pleasant means of getting away from the
city was valued much more than it is now.
But to return to this Sunday editor and his orders. I was to make
sketches of spooning couples, or at least of two or three small
distinctive groups with a touch of romance in them. Steele was to tell
how the love-making went on. This, being an innocent method of
amusement, relief from the humdrum of such a world as this was
looked upon with suspicion if not actual disfavor by the wiseacres of
the paper, as well as by the conservatives of the city. True
conservatives would not so indulge themselves. The real object of
the Sunday editor was to get something into his paper that would
have a little kick to it. We were, without exaggerating the matter in
any way, to shock the conservatives by a little picture of life and love,
which, however innocent, was none the less taboo in that city. The
story was to suggest, as I understand it, loose living, low ideals and
the like. These outings did not have the lockstep of business or
religion in them.

II

Well, to proceed. No sooner had the order been given than Steele
came to me to talk it over. He liked the idea very much. It was a good
Sunday subject. Besides, the opportunity for an outing appealed to
him. We were to go on the boat that left the wharf at the foot of
Beach street at eight o’clock that evening. He had been told to write
anything from fifteen hundred to two thousand words. If I made three
good sketches, that would make almost a three-fourths page special.
He would make his story as lively and colorful as he could. He was
not a little flattered, I am sure, by having been called to interpret
such a gay, risqué scene.
It was about one-thirty when we had been called in. About four
o’clock he came to me again. We had, as I had assumed, tentatively
agreed to meet at the wharf entrance and do the thing together. By
now, however, he had another plan. Perhaps I should say here that
up to that moment I only vaguely knew that he had a wife and child
and that he lived with them somewhere in the southwestern section
of the city, whether in his own home or a rooming-house, I did not
know. Come to think of it, just before this I believe I had heard him
remark to others that his wife was out of the city. At any rate, he now
said that since his wife was out of the city and as the woman of
whom they rented their rooms was a lonely and a poor person who
seldom got out anywhere, he had decided to bring her along for the
outing. I needn’t wait for him. He would see me on the boat, or we
could discuss the story later.
I agreed to this and was prepared to think nothing of it except for
one thing. His manner of telling me had something about it, or there
was some mood or thought in connection with it in his own mind,
which reached me telepathetically, and caused me to think that he
was taking advantage of his wife’s absence to go out somewhere
with some one else. And yet, at that, I could not see why I thought
about it. The thing had no real interest for me. And I had not the least
proof and wanted none. As I say, I was not actually interested. I did
not know his wife at all. I did not care for him or her. I did not care
whether he flirted with some one else or not. Still, this silly, critical
thought passed through my mind, put into it by him, I am sure,
because he was thinking—at least, might have been thinking—that I
might regard it as strange that he should appear anywhere with
another woman than his wife. Apart from this, and before this, seeing
him buzzing about here and there, and once talking to a girl on a
street corner near the Mail office, I had only the vague notion that,
married or not, he was a young man who was not averse to slipping
away for an hour or two with some girl whom he knew or casually
met, provided no one else knew anything about it, especially his
wife. But that was neither here nor there. I never gave the man much
thought at any time.
At any rate, seven o’clock coming, I had my dinner at a little
restaurant near the office and went to the boat. It was a hot night, but
clear and certain to bring a lovely full moon, and I was glad to be
going. At the same time, I was not a little lonely and out of sorts with
myself because I had no girl and was wishing that I had—wishing
that some lovely girl was hanging on my arm and that now we two
could go down to the boat together and sit on the spoon deck and
look at the moon, or that we could dance on the cabin deck below,
where were all the lights and musicians. My hope, if not my
convinced expectation, was that somewhere on this boat I, too,
should find some one who would be interested in me—I, too, should
be able to sit about with the others and laugh and make love. But I
didn’t. The thought was futile. I was not a ladies’ man, and few if any
girls ever looked at me. Besides, women and girls usually came
accompanied on a trip like this. I went alone, and I returned alone.
So much for me.
Brooding in this fashion, I went aboard along with the earliest of
the arrivals, and, going to the cabin deck, sat down and watched the
others approach. It was one of my opportunities to single out
interesting groups for my pen. And there were many. They came, so
blithe, so very merry, all of them, in pairs or groups of four or six or
eight or ten, boys and girls of the tenements and the slums—a few
older couples among them,—but all smiling and chatting, the last
ones hurrying excitedly to make the boat, and each boy with his girl,
as I was keen to note, and each girl with her beau. I singled out this
group and that, this type and that, making a few idle notes on my
pad, just suggestions of faces, hats, gestures, swings or rolls of the
body and the like. There was a strong light over the gangway, and I
could sketch there. It was interesting and colorful, but, being very
much alone, I was not very happy about it.
In the midst of these, along with the latter half of the crowd, came
Steele and his lonely landlady, to whom, as he said, this proffer on
his part was a kindness. Because of what he had said I was
expecting a woman who would be somewhat of a frump—at least
thirty-five or forty years old and not very attractive. But to my
surprise, as they came up the long gangplank which led from the
levee and was lighted by flaring gasoline torches, I saw a young
woman who could not have been more than twenty-seven or -eight
at most—and pretty, very. She had on a wide, floppy, lacy hat of
black or dark blue, but for contrast a pale, cream-colored, flouncy
dress. And she was graceful and plump and agreeable in every way.
Some landlady, indeed, I thought, looking enviously down and
wishing that it was myself and not he to whose arm she was clinging!
The bounder! I thought. To think that he should be able to interest
so charming a girl, and in the absence of his wife! And I could get
none! He had gone home and changed to a better suit, straw hat,
cane and all, whereas I—I—dub!—had come as I was. No wonder
no really interesting girl would look at me. Fool! But I remained in
position studying the entering throng until the last couple was on and
I listened to the cries of “Heave off, there!” “Loosen those stay lines,
will you?” “Careful, there!” “Hurry with that gangplank!” Soon we
were in midstream. The jouncy, tinny music had begun long before,
and the couples, scores and scores of them, were already dancing
on the cabin deck, while I was left to hang about the bar or saunter
through the crowd, looking for types when I didn’t want to be
anywhere but close beside some girl on the spoon deck, who would
hang on my arm, laugh into my eyes, and jest and dance with me.

III

Because of what he had said, I did not expect Steele to come near
me, and he didn’t. In sauntering about the two decks looking for
arresting scenes I did not see him. Because I wanted at least one or
two spoon deck scenes, I finally fixed on a couple that was half-
hidden in the shadow back of the pilot-house. They had crumpled
themselves up forward of an air-vent and not far from the two
smoke-stacks and under the walking-beam, which rose and fell
above them. The full moon was just above the eastern horizon,
offering a circular background for them, and I thought they made a
romantic picture outlined against it. I could not see their faces—just
their outlines. Her head was upon his shoulder. His face was turned,
and so concealed, and inclined toward hers. Her hat had been taken
off and was held over her knee by one hand. I stepped back a little
toward a companion-way, where was a light, in order to outline my
impression. When I returned, they were sitting up. It was Steele and
his rooming-house proprietress! It struck me as odd that of all the
couple and group scenes that I had noted, the most romantic should
have been that provided by Steele and this woman. His wife would
be interested in his solicitude for her loneliness and her lack of
opportunities to get out into the open air, I was sure. Yet, I was not
envious then—just curious and a little amused.
Well, that was the end of that. The sketches were made, and the
story published. Because he and this girl had provided my best
scene I disguised it a little, making it not seem exactly back of the
pilot-house, since otherwise he might recognize it. He was, for once,
fascinated by the color and romance of the occasion, and did a
better story than I thought he could. It dwelt on the beauty of the
river, the freedom from heat, the loveliness of the moon, the dancing.
I thought it was very good, quite exceptional for him, and I thought I
knew the reason why.
And then one day, about a month or six weeks later, being in the
city room, I encountered the wife of Steele and their little son, a child
of about five years. She had stopped in about three or four in the
afternoon, being downtown shopping, I presume. After seeing him
with the young woman on the steamer, I was, I confess, not a little
shocked. This woman was so pinched, so homely, so faded—
veritably a rail of a woman, everything and anything that a woman,
whether wife, daughter, mother or sweetheart, as I saw it then,
should not be. As a matter of fact, I was too wrought up about love
and youth and marriage and happiness at that time to rightly judge of
the married. At any rate, after having seen that other woman on that
deck with Steele, I was offended by this one.
She seemed to me, after the other, too narrow, too methodical, too
commonplace, too humdrum. She was a woman whose
pulchritudinous favors, whatever they may have been, must have
been lost at the altar. In heaven’s name, I thought to myself, how
could a man like this come to marry such a woman? He isn’t so very
good-looking himself, perhaps, but still.... No wonder he wanted to
take his rooming-house landlady for an outing! I would, too. I could
understand it now. In fact, as little as I cared for Steele, I felt sorry
that a man of his years and of his still restless proclivities should be
burdened with such a wife. And not only that, but there was their
child, looking not unlike him but more like her, one of those hostages
to fortune by reason of which it is never easy to free oneself from the
error of a mistaken marriage. His plight, as I saw it, was indeed
unfortunate. And it was still summer and there was this other
woman!
Well, I was introduced by him as the man who worked on some of
his stories with him. I noticed that the woman had a thin, almost a
falsetto voice. She eyed me, as I thought, unintelligently, yet genially
enough. I was invited to come out to their place some Sunday and
take dinner. Because of his rooming-house story I was beginning to
wonder whether he had been lying to me, when she went on to
explain that they had been boarding up to a few weeks ago, but had
now taken a cottage for themselves and could have their friends. I
promised. Yes, yes. But I never went—not to dinner, anyhow.

IV

Then two more months passed. By now it was late fall, with winter
near. The current news, as I saw it, was decidedly humdrum. There
was no local news to speak of. I scarcely glanced at the papers from
day to day, no more than to see whether some particular illustration I
had done was in and satisfactory or not. But then, of a sudden, came
something which was genuine news. Steele’s wife was laid low by a
box of poisoned candy sent her through the mails, some of which
she had eaten!
Just how the news of this first reached the papers I have almost
forgotten now, but my recollection is that there was another
newspaperman and his wife—a small editor or reporter on another
paper—who lived in the same vicinity, and that it was to this
newspaperman’s wife that Mrs. Steele, after having called her in,
confided that she believed she had been poisoned, and by a woman
whose name she now gave as Mrs. Marie Davis, and with whom, as
she then announced, her husband had long been intimate—the lady
of the Steamer Ira Ramsdell. She had recognized the handwriting on
the package from some letters written to her husband, but only after
she had eaten of the candy and felt the pains—not before. Her
condition was serious. She was, it appeared, about to die. In this
predicament she had added, so it was said, that she had long been
neglected by her husband for this other woman, but that she had
suffered in silence rather than bring disgrace upon him, herself and
their child. Now this cruel blow!
Forthwith a thrill of horror and sympathy passed over the city. It
seemed too sad. At the same time a cry went up to find the other
woman—arrest her, of course—see if she had really done it. There
followed the official detention, if not legal arrest, of Mrs. Davis on
suspicion of being the poisoner. Although the charge was not yet
proved, she was at once thrown into jail, and there held to await the
death or recovery of Mrs. Steele, and the proof or disproof of the
charge that the candy had been sent by her. And cameras in hand,
reporters and artists were packed off to the county jail to hear the
accused’s side of the story.
As I at once suspected on hearing the news, she proved to be
none other than the lady of the Ira Ramsdell, and as charming as I
had at first assumed her to be. I, being one of those sent to sketch
her, was among the first to hear her story. She denied, and very
vehemently, that she had sent any poisoned candy to any one. She
had never dreamed of any such thing. But she did not deny, which at
the time appeared to me to be incriminating, that she had been and
was then in love with Steele. In fact, and this point interested me as
much then as afterwards, she declared that this was an exceptional
passion—her love for him, his love for her—and no mere passing
and vulgar intimacy. A high and beautiful thing—a sacred love, the
one really true and beautiful thing that had ever come to her—or him
—in all their lives. And he would say so, too. For before meeting her,
Wallace Steele had been very unhappy—oh, very. And her own
marriage had been a failure.
Wallace, as she now familiarly called him, had confessed to her
that this new, if secret, love meant everything to him. His wife did not
interest him. He had married her at a time when he did not know
what he was doing, and before he had come to be what he was. But
this new love had resolved all their woes into loveliness—complete
happiness. They had resolved to cling only to each other for life.
There was no sin in what they had done because they loved. Of
course, Wallace had sought to induce Mrs. Steele to divorce him, but
she would not; otherwise they would have been married before this.
But as Mrs. Steele would not give him up, both had been compelled
to make the best of it. But to poison her—that was wild! A love so
beautiful and true as theirs did not need a marriage ceremony to
sanctify it. So she raved. My own impression at the time was that
she was a romantic and sentimental woman who was really very
greatly in love.
Now as to Steele. Having listened to this blazoning of her passion
by herself, the interviewers naturally hurried to Steele to see what he
would have to say. In contrast to her and her grand declaration, they
found a man, as every one agreed, who was shaken to the very
marrow of his bones by these untoward events. He was, it appeared,
a fit inhabitant of the environment that nourished him. He was in
love, perhaps, with this woman, but still, as any one could see, he
was not so much in love that, if this present matter were going to
cost him his place in this commonplace, conventional world, he
would not be able to surrender to it. He was horrified by the
revelation of his own treachery. Up to this hour, no doubt, he had
been slipping about, hoping not to be caught, and most certainly not
wishing to be cast out for sin. Regardless of the woman, he did not
wish to be cast out now. On the contrary, as it soon appeared, he
had been doing his best in the past to pacify his wife and hold her to
silence while he slaked his thirst for romance in this other way. He
did not want his wife, but he did not want trouble, either. And now
that his sin was out he shivered.
In short, as he confided to one of the men who went to interview
him, and who agreed to respect his confidence to that extent, he was
not nearly so much in love with Mrs. Davis as she thought he was—
poor thing! True he had been infatuated for a while, but only a little
while. She was pretty, of course, and naturally she thought she loved
him—but he never expected anything like this to happen. Great
cripes! They had met at a river bathing-beach the year before. He
had been smitten—well, you know. He had never got along well with
his wife, but there was the little boy to consider. He had not intended
any harm to any one; far from it. And he certainly couldn’t turn on his
wife now. The public wouldn’t stand for it. It would make trouble for
him. But he could scarcely be expected to turn on Mrs. Davis, either,
could he, now that she was in jail, and suspected of sending
poisoned candy to his wife? The public wouldn’t stand for that, either.
It was terrible! Pathetic! He certainly would not have thought that
Marie would go to the length of sending his wife poison, and he
didn’t really believe that she had. Still—and there may have been
some actual doubt of her in that “still,” or so the reporting
newspapermen thought. At any rate, as he saw it now, he would
have to stick to his wife until she was out of danger. Public opinion
compelled it. The general impression of the newspapermen was that
he was a coward. As one of them said of his courage, “Gee, it’s
oozing out of his hair!”
Nevertheless, he did go to see Mrs. Davis several times. But apart
from a reported sobbing demonstration of affection on her part, I
never learned what passed between them. He would not talk and
she had been cautioned not to. Also, there were various interviews
with his wife, who had not died, and now that the storm was on,
admitted that she had intercepted letters between her husband and
Mrs. Davis from time to time. The handwriting on the candy wrapper
the day she received it so resembled the handwriting of Mrs. Davis
that after she had eaten of it and the symptoms of poisoning had set
in—not before—she had begun to suspect that the candy must have
emanated from Mrs. Davis.

In the meantime Mrs. Davis, despite the wife’s sad story, was the
major attraction in the newspapers. She was young, she was
beautiful, she had made, or at least attempted to make, a blood
sacrifice on the altar of love. What more could a daily newspaper
want? She was a heroine, even in this very moral, conservative,
conventional and religious city. The rank and file were agog—even
sympathetic. (How would the moralists explain that, would you say?)
In consequence of their interest, she was descended upon by a
corps of those women newspaper writers who, even in that day,
were known as sob-sisters, and whose business it was—and this in
advance of any proof of crime or indictment even—to psychologize
and psychiatrize the suspect—to dig out if they could not only every
vestige of her drama, but all her hidden and secret motives.
As I read the newspapers at the time, they revealed that she was
and she was not a neurotic, a psychotic, who showed traces of being
a shrewd, evasive and designing woman, and who did not. Also she
was a soft, unsophisticated, passionate and deeply illusioned girl,
and she was not. She was guilty, of course—maybe not—but very
likely she was, and she must tell how, why, in what mood, etc. Also,
it appeared that she had sent the poison deliberately, coldly,
murderously. Her eyes and hands, also the shape of her nose and
ears, showed it. Again, these very things proved she could not have
done it. Had she been driven to it by stress of passionate emotion
and yearning which had been too much for her to bear? Was she
responsible for that—a great, destroying love? Of course she was!
Who is not responsible for his deeds? A great, overwhelming,
destroying love passion, indeed! Rot! She could help it. She could
not help it. Could she help it? So it went.
Parallel with all this, of course, we were treated to various
examinations of the Steele family. What sort of people were they,
anyhow? It was said of Steele now that he was an average, fairly
capable newspaperman of no very startling ability, but of no
particular vices—one who had for some years been a serious and
faithful employé of this paper. Mrs. Steele, on the other hand, was a
good woman, but by no means prepossessing. She was without
romance, imagination, charm. One could see by looking at her and
then looking at so winsome and enticing a woman as Mrs. Davis why
Steele had strayed. It was the old eternal triangle—the woman who
was not interesting, the woman who was interesting, and the man
interested by the more interesting woman. There was no solving it,
but it was all very sad. One could not help sympathizing with Mrs.
Steele, the wronged woman; and again one could not help
sympathizing with Mrs. Davis, the beautiful, passionate, desirous,
helpless beauty—helpless because she was desirous.
In the meantime, the District Attorney’s office having taken the
case in hand, there were various developments in that quarter. It was
necessary to find out, of course, where the candy had been
purchased, how it had been drugged, with what it had been drugged,
where the drug had been purchased. Chemists, detectives and
handwriting experts were all set to work. It was no trouble to
determine that the drug was arsenic, yet where this arsenic was
purchased was not so easy to discover. It was some time before it
was found where it had been procured. Dissimilarly, it was
comparatively easy to prove where the candy had come from. It had
been sent in the original box of a well-known candy firm. Yet just who
had purchased it was not quite so easy to establish. The candy
company could not remember, and Mrs. Davis, although admitting
that the handwriting did resemble hers, denied ever having
addressed the box or purchased any candy from the firm in question.
She was quite willing to go there and be identified, but no clerk in the
candy-store was able to identify her as one woman who had
purchased candy. There were one or two clerks who felt sure that
there had been a woman there at some time or other who had
looked like her, but they were not positive. However, there was one
girl who had worked in the store during the week in which the candy
had been purchased, and who was not there any longer. This was a
new girl who had been tried out for that week only and had since
disappeared. Her name was known, of course, and the newspapers
as well as the District Attorney’s office at once began looking for her.
There were some whispers to the effect that not only Mrs. Davis
but Steele himself might have been concerned in the plot, or Steele
alone, since apparently he had been anxious to get rid of his wife.
Why not? He might have imitated the handwriting of Mrs. Davis or
created an accidental likeness to it. Also, there were dissenting
souls, even in the office of the paper on which I worked, who thought
that maybe Mrs. Steele had sent the candy to herself in order to
injure the other woman. Why not? It was possible. Women were like
that. There had been similar cases, had there not? Argument!
Contention! “She might have wanted to die and be revenged on the
other woman at the same time, might she not?” observed the
railroad editor. “Oh, hell! What bunk!” called another. “No woman
would kill herself to make a place for a rival. That’s crazy.” “Well,”
said a third, “she might have miscalculated the power of her own
dope. Who knows? She may not have intended to take as much as
she did.” “Oh, Christ,” called a fourth from somewhere, “just listen to
the Sherlock Holmes Association in session over there! Lay off, will
you?”
A week or more went by, and then the missing girl who had
worked in the candy-store was found. She had left the city the
following week and gone to Denver. Being shown the pictures of
Mrs. Davis, Mrs. Steele and some others and asked whether on any
given day she had sold any of them a two-pound box of candy, she
seemed to recall no one of them save possibly Mrs. Steele. But she
could not be sure from the photograph. She would have to see the
woman. In consequence, and without any word to the newspapers
who had been leading the case up to then, this girl was returned to
the city. Here, in the District Attorney’s office, she was confronted by
a number of women gathered for the occasion, among whom was
placed Mrs. Davis. But on looking them all over she failed to identify
any one of them. Then Mrs. Steele, who was by then up and around,
was sent for. She came, along with a representative of the office. On
sight, as she entered the door, and although there were other
women in the room at the time, this girl exclaimed: “There she is!
That’s the woman! Yes, that’s the very woman!” She was positive.

VI

As is customary in such cases, and despite the sympathy that had


been extended to her, Mrs. Steele was turned over to criminologists,
who soon extracted the truth from her. She broke down and wept
hysterically.
It was she who had purchased the candy and poisoned it. Her life
was going to pieces. She had wanted to die, so she said now. She
had addressed the wrapper about the candy, as some of the
wiseacres of our paper had contended, only she had first made a
tracing on the paper from Mrs. Davis’ handwriting, on an envelope
addressed to her husband, and had then copied that. She had put
not arsenic, but rat poison, bought some time before, into the candy,
and in order to indict Mrs. Davis, she had put a little in each piece,
about as much as would kill a rat, so that it would seem as though
the entire box had been poisoned by her. She had got the idea from
a case she had read about years before in a newspaper. She hated
Mrs. Davis for stealing her husband. She had followed them.
When she had eaten one of the pieces of candy she had thought,
as she now insisted, that she was taking enough to make an end of it
all. But before taking it she had made sure that Mrs. Dalrymple, the
wife of the newspaperman whom she first called to her aid, was at
home in order that she might call or send her little boy. Her purpose
in doing this was to instil in the mind of Mrs. Dalrymple the belief that
it was Mrs. Davis who had sent the poison. When she was gone,
Mrs. Davis would be punished, her husband would not be able to
have her, and she herself would be out of her misery.
Result: the prompt discharge of Mrs. Davis, but no charge against
Mrs. Steele. According to the District Attorney and the newspapers
who most truly reflected local sentiment, she had suffered enough.
And, as the state of public feeling then was, the District Attorney
would not have dared to punish her. Her broken confession so
reacted on the public mind that now, and for all time, it was for Mrs.
Steele, just as a little while before it was rather for Mrs. Davis. For,
you see, it was now proved that it was Mrs. Steele and not Mrs.
Davis who had been wrought up to that point emotionally where she
had been ready and willing—had actually tried—to make a blood
sacrifice of herself and another woman on the altar of love. In either
case it was the blood sacrifice—the bare possibility of it, if you
choose—that lay at the bottom of the public’s mood, and caused it to
turn sympathetically to that one who had been most willing to murder
in the cause of love.
But don’t think this story is quite ended. Far from it. There is
something else here, and a very interesting something to which I
wish to call your attention. I have said that the newspapers turned
favorably to Mrs. Steele. They did. So did the sob-sisters, those true
barometers of public moods. Eulogies were now heaped upon Mrs.
Steele, her devotion, her voiceless, unbearable woe, the tragedy of
her mood, her intended sacrifice of herself. She was now the darling
of these journalistic pseudo-analysts.
As for Mrs. Davis—not a word of sympathy, let alone praise or
understanding for her thereafter. Almost unmentioned, if you will
believe it, she was, and at once allowed to slip back into the limbo of
the unheralded, the subsequently-to-be-unknown. From then on it
was almost as though she had never been. For a few weeks, I
believe, she retired to the home in which she had lived; then she
disappeared entirely.
But now as to Steele. Here was the third peculiar phase of the
case. Subsequent to the exculpation of Mrs. Davis and her noiseless
retirement from the scene, what would you say his attitude would
have been, or should have been? Where would he go? What do?
What attitude would he assume? One of renewed devotion to his
wife? One of renewed devotion to Mrs. Davis? One of disillusion or
indifference in regard to all things? It puzzled me, and I was a rank
outsider with no least concern, except of course our general concern
in all such things, so vital to all of us in our sex and social lives. But
not only was it a puzzle to me; it was also a puzzle to others,
especially those who were identified with the newspaper business in
the city, the editors and the city editors and managing editors who
had been following the wavering course of things with uncertain
thoughts and I may say uncertain policy. They had been, as you may
guess, as prepared to hang Steele as not, assuming that he had
been identified with Mrs. Davis in a plot to do away with his wife. On
the other hand, now that that shadow was removed and it was seen
to be a more or less simple case of varietism on his part, resulting in
marital unhappiness for his wife and a desire on her part to die, they
were prepared to look upon him and this result with a more kindly
eye. After all, she was not dead. Mrs. Davis had been punished. And
say what you will, looking at Mrs. Steele as she was, and at Mrs.
Davis as she was—well—with a certain amount of material if not
spiritual provocation—what would you?
Indeed, the gabble about the newspaper offices was all to the
above effect. What, if anything, finally asked some of the city editors
and managing editors, was to be done about Steele? Now that
everything had blown over, what of him? Go on hounding him
forever? Nonsense! It was scarcely fair, and, anyhow, no longer
profitable or worth while. Now that the storm was passing, might not
something be done for him? After all, he had been a fairly
respectable newspaperman and in good standing. Why not take him
back? And if not that, how was he to be viewed in future by his
friends? Was he to be let alone, dropped, forgotten, or what? Was he
going to stay here in G——, and fight it out, or leave? And if he was
going to leave or stay, with whom was he going to leave or stay?
Semikindly, semiselfish curiosity, as you see.

VII

The thing to do, it was finally decided among several of those on


our paper and several on other papers who had known him more or
less intimately, was to go to Steele himself, and ask him, not for
publicity but just between ourselves, what was to be done, what he
proposed to do, whether there was anything now that the local
newspapers could say or do which would help him in any way? Did
he want to be restored to a staff position? Was he going to stick to
his wife? What, if anything, and with no malicious intent, should they
say about Mrs. Davis? In a more or less secret and brotherly or
professional spirit they were going to put it up to him and then leave
it there, doing whatever they could in accordance with what he might
wish.
Accordingly, two of the local newsmen whom he quite honestly
respected visited him and placed the above several propositions
before him. They found him, as I was told afterwards, seated upon
the front porch of the very small and commonplace house in which
after the dismissal of the charge against Mrs. Davis, he and his wife
had been dwelling, reading a paper. Seated with him was Mrs.
Steele, thinner and more querulous and anemic and unattractive
than before. And upon the lot outside was their little son. Upon their
arrival, they hailed Steele for a private word, and Mrs. Steele arose
and went into the house. She looked, said one of these men, as
though she expected more trouble. Steele, on his part, was all smiles
and genial tenderings of hospitality. He was hoping for the best, of
course, and he was anxious to do away with any new source of
trouble. He even rubbed his hands, and licked his lips. “Come right
in, boys. Come on up on the porch. Wait a minute and I’ll bring out a
couple of chairs.” He hastened away but quickly returned,
determined, as they thought, to make as good an impression as
possible.
After he had heard what they had come for—most tactfully and
artfully put, of course—he was all smiles, eager, apparently, to be
well thought of once more. To their inquiry as to whether he
proposed to remain or not, he replied: “Yes, for the present.” He had
not much choice. He had not saved enough money in recent days to
permit him to do much of anything else, and his wife’s illness and
other things had used up about all he had. “And now, just between
ourselves, Steele,” asked one of the two men who knew him better
than the other, “what about Mrs. Davis and your wife? Just where do
you stand in regard to them? Are you going to stick to your wife or
are you going with the other woman eventually? No trouble for you,
you understand—no more publicity. But the fellows on the papers
are in a little bit of a quandary in regard to this. They don’t intend to
publish anything more—nothing disparaging. They only want to get
your slant on the thing so that if anything more does come up in
connection with this they can fix it so that it won’t be offensive to you,
you see.”
“Yes, I see,” replied Steele cheerfully and without much reflection.
“But so far as that Davis woman is concerned, though, you can
forget her. I’m through with her. She was never much to me, anyhow,
just a common——.” Here he used the good old English word for
prostitute. As for his wife, he was going to stick by her, of course.
She was a good woman. She loved him. There was his little boy. He
was through with all that varietistic stuff. There was nothing to it. A
man couldn’t get away with it—and so on.
The two men, according to their account of it afterward, winced not
a little, for, as they said, they had thought from all that had gone
before that there had surely been much more than common
prostitution between Steele and the woman. How could all this have
been in the face of Mrs. Steele’s great jealousy, Mrs. Davis’
passionate declaration about pure, spiritual and undying love?
Imagine it! After a few more words the men left, convinced that

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