Benmerita Universidad Autnoma de Puebla

Facultad de Lenguas
Fgum
Sharing sessions 2015

E-teacher program
English for Specific Purposes
STUDENT: CAROLINA AGUIRRE SOLANO

M.SC. Carolina Aguirre Solano, Sharing sessions Spring 2015.

5/21/15

U.S. Department of State,

Office of English Language Programs
http://exchanges.state.gov/non-us/program/e-teacher-scholarship-program

University of Oregon,
College of Arts and Sciences,
American English Institute
http://aei.uoregon.edu/
English for Specific Purposes,
Best parctices for Courses and
Materials
Winter 2015

Student: Carolina Aguirre

English for Specifi

c Purposes
English for academic purposes (EAP)
English for ocupational purposes

(EOP)
Blended EAP/EOP course

English for Specific Purpose vs

English General Purposes (materials )

English for Academ ic Purposes

Based on a thorough needs

assessment
Usually for more advanced learners
with higher language proficiency.
Employing authenthic texts and task
from a discipline-specific academic
discourse community.
(Westerfield 2012)

Needs Assessment Project

ESP brand
English for Academic Purposes
Target Area:
Medicine
Target learners:
Resident physicians taking their specialty
at BUAP

Direccin de Estudios de Posgrado y Proyectos

Especiales del rea de la Salud (DEPAS).
https://facmed.buap.mx
La Benemrita Universidad Autnoma de Puebla

cumple con su compromiso de formar recursos

humanos de calidad en materia de salud, al titular
( )a mdicos que concluirn sus cursos de
especialidad. Futuros especialistas que deben tomar
y aprobar un curso de Ingls, como requisito de la
titulacin (http://www.statuspuebla.com.mx/)

Stakeholders
Allpeople interested in the course.Clientorsponsor.

Depas (client)
Faculty of Language (DEPEA)
The resident physicians (Students-client)
ESP Practitioners (Teachers)

(most of the time the EGP practitioner)

(W esterfi
eld,2010)

M etodology
NEEDS ASSESSMENT
I. Target situation analysis.
II. Present situation analysis
III. Context.
IV. Action plan.
. (Coordinator, Secretary,

experienced ESP practitioner)

Part 1:
Target Situation A nalysis (TSA ) Task
Set what students need to be able

to do in English by the end of the

ESP course. (Set measurable goals
and objectives)
Examine authentic text, key aspects

of this genre and a mini-genre

analysis. (Text books vs Web sites)
http://www.cdc.gov/alcohol/fact-sheets/alcohol-use.
htm
http://www.cdc.gov/ncbddd/fasd/documents/fasd_eng
lish_spanish.pdf

Competence:
(Canale and Swain, 1980)

Linguistic
Grammatical

Sociolinguistic
Discourse
Strategic

Analysis to identify the learning

objectives.

Identifying authentic m aterial

W hat is authentic m aterial?

Material normally used in the

students specialist subject

area: written by specialist for
specialist. It is NOT written for
language teaching purposes.
(Jordan, 1997)

Considering Jordans (1997)and Basturkm ens (2010)

conceptions aboutauthenticity oftextand M illars
(2011)recom m endations for genre analysis,Iexam ine
three exam ples of
G overnm ent w ebsite based fact sheet about
health care.
1. Key aspects are:

Genre: Samples of three texts of the same genre.

They are government web-based fact sheets.

FASDs (Fetal Alcohol Spectral Disorders) [PDF]

Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorders Fact Sheet - English ...

Smoking and tobacco use. Quitting smoking
http://www.cdc.gov/tobacco/data_statistics/fact_sheets/cessation/quitt
ing/index.htm#benefits
Physical Activity and Health. Persons with disabilities
http://www.cdc.gov/nccdphp/sgr/pdf/disab.pdf

Competences :

Linguistic

Grammatica
l

Sociolinguis
tic

SCAN

Discourse

IDENTIFY

Strategic

DECIDE

These text are appropriate for

EAP/EO P M edicine and N ursing
Because it is written text wrote by

specialists for specialists, in this case

for specialists to use it as a tool to help
and inform people. It is also an
excellent example of how they the
target learners- being specialists can
learn to create fact sheets about other
health topics. (Aguirre,2015)

2.Linguistic Com petence

a.Important vocabulary:
nouns related to health items, adjectives and
nouns related to physical appearance , nouns such
as parts of the body, other words related to the
human abilities or skills. Sort of warning verbs
b.Grammatical features: Usually Present simple
active voice ,very specific nouns instead of personal
pronouns, modals to talk about possibility and
suggestion , structures with a conditional if-clause
and subordinate while-clause
(Aguirre,2015)

3.Sociolinguistic Com petence

a. This genre specifically intends to communicate

with people with a health problem as well as
doctors and nurses since they are responsible to
provide patients with useful information for care
and health prevention . (Aguirre,2015)
These fact sheets are part of a set of fact sheets

provided by the governments web site. Besides

the format uses quite simple vocabulary but
complex structures. The purpose is to warn people
about possible health problems so the message
sent is formal and serious. (Aguirre,2015)

4.D iscourse Com petence

a.General appearance of the text reflective of its genre.

It has a title and subheadings followed by a few short
concise paragraphs. The fact sheet has different
sections, it may have no pictures. The text is
presented in two columns. At the end there are some
logos of the association or sponsor. (Aguirre, 2015)
b."The moves (Dudley-Evans & St. John, 1998) of a text
within this genre are basically a serie of questions or
subeheadings and answers: Move 1 :TITLE /Move 2:
Question or Subheading/Step:Answer /Last Move:
Further information section/ Logos

5.Strategic Com petence

a.Students could cope with misunderstandings
when attempting to comprehend texts from
this same genre becasue this kind of text is
very easy to follow while reading because the
discourse structure is organized in short
concise paragraphs. The main characteristics
are the questions or subheadings that lead
the reader easily through it. The learners can
predict the content of the paragraphs by
reading the questions or subheadings and
they can also read for gist. (Aguirre, 2015)

Part1:
TargetSituation Analysis(TSA)Task

What do your target learners need to be able to do in English by the end of your ESP
course?
Goal:
Target learners: ESP/EAP Medicine.
Performance goals: By the end of the course

They will be able to comprehend text (medicine journals, medical reports, medicine articles, webbased health fact sheets)
They will be able to find information in text to support their ideas when giving their opinions.
Theywill answer open-ended and closed-ended questions accurately.
They will present their opinions, or arguments both orally and in written form.
At the end of the course they will successfully pass a formal Reading comprehension test

(Formulating goals and objective. Graves, 2000)

Part 2:
Present Situation A nalysis (PSA ) Task

Current level of English.

Current level of knowledge of their

area.
Wishes and desires about the
course.
Past learning experiences and
information.

Part 3:
Context A nalysis

People: Stakeholders.
Physical setting of the course.
Nature of the course.
Teaching resourses.

Part 4:
A ction Plan

The Challenges
Get information.
Get the materials for the course and
the necessary equipment.
Schedules .
Motivation.

CH ALLEN G E
time to consult as many stakeholders as
possible
(Frienderberg, et al. 27 in Westerfields , 2010)

According to this, it would be relevant to know

ESP
practitioners opinions about the courses they have taught so
far.

Get to know students needs and expectations.

There is no the necessary information that the Needs Assessment requires.

Conclusion
Good communication among stakeholders set

the basis for the appropriate conditions for the

course.
The analysis requires a lot of time.
Setting measurable goals and objectives for
students to be successful, as well as
The selection of the appropriate authentic
material
The material is extremely important for the
development of the course and to fulfill the goals

THANK YOU VERY MUCH

kro_lina1@hotmail.com