Teachers of English to Speakers of Other Languages, Inc.

(TESOL)

English for Specific Purposes: A Case Study Approach by Ronald MacKay; Alan J. Mountford
Review by: Joe Darwin Palmer
TESOL Quarterly, Vol. 12, No. 4 (Dec., 1978), pp. 461-464
Published by: Teachers of English to Speakers of Other Languages, Inc. (TESOL)
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Reviews
ENGLISH FOR SPECIFIC PURPOSES: A CASE STUDY APPROACH.
Ronald Mackay and Alan J. Mountford. London: Longman 1978. pp. xii + 227.
Is there any case, then, for not applying the criteriawe rightly apply to ESP
materials,as suggested in this collection, to ELT materials at large? (C. N.
Candlin, Preface to ESP: A Case Study Approach,p. ix.)
This book can be read as the story of the search for the best way to put
together an English language course for people who speak other languages.
The editors have written and commissioned a set of essays on the main problem English Language Teaching course planners face: how to do it right. It
is a measure of their success that the book reads like good fiction.
Following a clear introduction to the tasks of planning, writing and teachcourses
in ESP, the editors present a series of both theoretical and practical
ing
The
first, "Writing 'Writing Scientific English'" by John Swales, serves
papers.
as a narrative hook for the entire collection. It recounts the difficulties faced
by a materials writer who lacked an adequate conceptual framework. Swales
had taken on the job of preparing ELT materials for students studying engineering at the University of Libya during the 1960's.
In contrast with Swales' paper the next one in the collection, "Teaching
the Communicative Use of English" by J. P. B. Allen and H. G. Widdowson,
is an account of the ideas underlying some of the best current teaching materials. In particular, the principle that language must be revealed as communication is shown in practice.
A third paper, "Writing 'Nucleus'" by M. Bates, describes the considerations that were taken into account at the University of Tabriz in writing an
ESP core course ("Nucleus") that would serve the more specific interests of
students in technical disciplines.
The second half of the book consists of five case studies of ESP materials
prepared for foreign students studying in British universities: "A 'Social Survival' Syllabus" by R. Straker Cook, "A Programme in English for Overseas
Postgraduate Soil Scientists at the University of Newcastle" by R. Mackay
and A. J. Mountford, "Designing a Course in Advanced Listening Comprehension" by J. Morrison, "Language Practice Materials for Economists" by R. R.
Jordan, and "Study Skills in English: Theoretical Issues and Practical Problems"
by C. N. Candlin, J. M. Kirkwood, and H. M. Moore.
The case studies all show a concern for language in use. They are presented by the authors as exhibiting ways of dealing with the design factors of
good ESP courses-sociological, linguistic, psychological, and pedagogic. The
sociological factors are the peculiar characteristics of the learner and his needs.
461

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462

TESOLQuarterly

The linguistic factors relate to the kind of description of the language that is
both adequate and appropriatefor the learner. Not only the code features but
also the communicativefeatures of the language in use are carefully drawn.
The psychological factors dictate a distinction between teaching and testing,
and lead to effective communicationas an ultimate goal. The pedagogic factors
differentiate among the various language skills in such a way as to suggest
a very delicate prescriptionof just what the student needs to learn in order
to do what s/he wants with the language.
This is not a ragbag of a book; it pays much more than lipservice to language use. The book is appropriatelynamed English for Specific Purposes:a
Case Study Approach,for even though the three papers by Swales, Allen and
Widdowson, and Bates describe the thinking behind three recently-published
textbooks, English for Specific Purposes is an attempt to provide principles
for rationalizingany English language teaching operation. On the other hand,
the book lacks an arrangementof concrete steps for course planners to follow.
It does not spell out a definite methodology or techniques of syllabus design
nor is it sufficientto point out that, in the eight selections, all four factors of
good courses are taken into account. The reader has to ask himself whether
and in what combinationthe sociological,linguistic,psychologicaland pedagogic
reasons for choices are being made. An exception is Chapter Two, a paper by
RonaldMackayon "Identifyingthe Nature of the Learner'sNeeds."This chapter
contains a sample questionnaire and a structured interview with suggestions
for using such instrumentsto determine the uses to which the language will
be put. Nevertheless, none of the other papers or case studies shows a needs
survey in operation informing the writing of special course materials.
This was not an omission.It is just that the notion of a programconsisting
of steps being applied is a new one. We are ready now for a programthat spells
out the correctand effective order of events in making a good English language
course. These steps will be, with perhaps some additions as the requirements
become clearer and more delicate, the following:
1. Needs Surveys
2. Textual Analysis
3. Discourse Analysis
4. Methodology and Syllabus
5. Formative and SummativeEvaluation
6. Modificationof Methodology and Syllabus
1. Needs surveys are concerned with the initial step of informationgathering. Objective informationabout the learner, his age, previous learning or
acquisition of the language, his career goals, his special interests and the uses
he will have for the language must be determined.This informationwill suggest the special tasks that require particular functional skills, not just the
traditional four skills of language. Summarizing scholarly articles, working
as an air-trafficcontroller, or interpreting for a business firm, for example,

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Reviews

463

require all four skills in different proportions and in different relationships.

Identifying the learners and their purposes enables us to determine the functional registers and styles of the language that the learners need.
2. Textual analysis identifies the vocabulary and structuresof particular
registers and styles. It gives us informationabout the range and frequency of
lexis and grammarin the kinds of language that studentswant. It is not limited
to sentences alone but considers the analysis of macro-linguisticunits larger
than the sentence as essential to comprehension.Meaning does not reside in
words and sentences alone but in entire discourseswhich are connected through
context to situation.The cohesion of large stretches of language can be shown
through the analysis of the devices which give texture to a text. Cohesion devices include those of lexis, syntax, sentence connection, and thematicization.
3. Discourseanalysisconsidersthe rhetoricalfeaturesthat are characteristic
of the registers and styles under consideration.A discourse is a connected and
self-containedbody of language that has some identifiable instrumentalor integrative purposes. Certainpieces of language have noticeable boundaries;dialogues, for example, seem to be largely predeterminedby learned expectations
about their use in the social control of others. Written discourses have perceptible logical forms that we may characterizeas definition, illustration,exemplification,classification,and so forth. Discourse analysis is thus concerned
with acts of communicationand the characteristicfeatures of the discourses
found in certain registers.
4. Methodology and syllabus are two sides of the problem of materials
writing and classroomteaching. Since we lack an adequate theory of language
acquisition, experimentationin this area is sorely needed. Common practice
today confuses learning with teaching to a very large extent. We lack reported
controlled observation of the process and praxis of language acquisition and
'learning.A concern with linguistic and communicative competence wherein
we test students to find out not what they don't know but what they do know
and can do is needed. As always, classroomtechniquesfollow from the syllabus
and methodology that are chosen.
5. Evaluation of the materials and methods used depends upon sets of
techniques for gathering accurate and pertinent informationabout the effectiveness of the teaching. On the basis of such information,changes may be
made in order to meet the students' needs more thoroughly.Problems arising
from inadequately treated psychological, linguistic, and sociological considerations can be identifiedby measuringthe effectivenessof the course. The formative evaluation of every part of the materialsand methods includes a rigorous
scrutinyof each lesson and task in relationto each other and in relation to the
students' needs. An overall summative evaluation compares the special course
to others that have gone before or have been conducted as experimentalcontrols.
6. Modification of materials and methods follows periodically from the
informationgathered about the effectivenessof the course. Materialswhich do

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464

TESOL Quarterly

not meet the learners' needs because of a lack of consideration of their cultural,
sociological, linguistic, or pedagogical requirements have low motivational
value. Materials that are too difficult or too easy are relatively inefficient and
ineffective. Such materials are modified, or discarded, with new materials being
substituted. This evolutionary process continues as long as practicable.
The program described above has not yet been carried out consciously.
The parts and steps of it follow from the experiences reported in English for
Specific Purposes: a Case Study Approach. The book is indispensable to anyone who .cares about doing the job right, and the excellent subject and author
indexes accord the reader swift and easy access to those matters of immediate
importance to him.
Joe Darwin Palmer
TESL Centre
Concordia University
Montreal, Quebec
EDUCATIONAL LINGUISTICS. Bernard Spolsky. Rowley, Mass.: Newbury
House Publishers, 1978, Pp. viii + 191.
Sometimes the goings-on in academia are reminiscent of plots in the seemingly unrelated world of grand opera. Every now and then in that musical
genre a type like Gaetano Donizetti's medicine man, Dr. Dulcamara, catches
the spotlight and attempts to hawk his wares to a gullible public. If you are
acquainted with Donizetti's opera, L'elisir d'amore, you will remember Dulcamara's magical elixir which does everything from curing toothache to killing
rats. With no less aplomb, the author of the present book offers us a new science of language which will answer all the needs of first and second language
teachers. Dr. Spolsky's elixir is labeled "educational linguistics." Its composition
is highly touted and its supposed benefits rival those of Dulcamara's potion.
Our introduction to the medicine comes in the form of a sketchy first
chapter (6 pages in length) which Dr. Spolsky calls an "expanded" version of
an introduction written for another publication (chapters 2, 6, and 9 also appear to be rehashings of earlier papers). This first chapter is actually a quibble
over terminology. "Educational linguistics" is to be preferred over "applied
linguistics" because the former term patterns nicely with "educational psychology" and "educational sociology." Linguists are chided either for not having
relevant ideas about practical matters or for being over-zealous in seeking a
linguistic cure for all educational problems (probably few would argue today
that linguistics, by itself, is the right elixir in any event).
Readers should be forewarned about Spolsky's imprecision in terminology.
For example, the two key concepts, theory and model, are never defined and
are used indiscriminantly throughout the book. As a result, readers will not be
able to know when Spolsky is talking about substantive interpretations of how
learning takes place or how language works and when he is proposing models

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