ESP theory & practices

Dr. Fengmin Wang

Fall 2008
What is ESP?
The EFL tree
The Emergence of ESP
The demands of a Brave New World
--English is the key to the international currencies of
technology and commerce.
A theoretical shift of linguistics
--from defining the formal features of language
usage to discovering the ways in which language is
actually used in real world
A theoretical shift of education
--focusing on learner (language-centred vs. learning-
centred)
Why ESP?

The expansion of demand for
English to suit particular needs and
developments in the field of
linguistics and educational
psychology
A Learning-Centred Approach
to ESP
what people learn v.s. how people
learn
a shift from language-centred to
learning-centred approach
(Introduction: p.2)
What is ESP curriculum design?
processes
a rationale for the course, including the
overall educational goals; a framework for
course design
A curriculum plan describing intended
learning outcomes for the course prioritized
according to importance, to be expressed in
formats (lists of statements & paragraphs,
maps of major ideas, flowcharts of skills)
An instructional plan
An evaluation plan
Terms
Curriculum: a broad description of general goals by
indicating an overall educational-cultural philosophy
which applies across subjects together with a
theoretical orientation to language and language
learning with respect to the subject matter at hand.

Syllabus: a more detailed and operational statement
of teaching and learning elements which translates
the philosophy of the curriculum into a series of
planned steps leading towards more narrowly defined
objectives at each level.
The Components of a Curriculum
Language view
Language learning
Educational view
Syllabus
Structural/grammatical syllabus
Notional syllabus (D. A. Wilkins, 1972)
--semantic-grammatical categories
--categories of communicative
functions
Threshold Level (1975)
Conceptualizations of Learning: Historical
Roots and Epistemological Camps
by Marshall (1992) ; Mayer (1996)
work-oriented classrooms
learning-oriented classrooms
classrooms as sociocultural setting:
postmodern social
constructivisms (sociocultural,
symbolic interactionism, social
psychological constructionism, and
Deweyan)

Work-Oriented Classrooms
Behaviorist-derived: (1900s-1950s)
-- a fixed/static body of knowledge to
acquire;
--learning as changing the strength of
stimulus-response associations
--acquisition of facts, skills, and
concepts through drill and guided
practice

Learning-Oriented Classrooms
information processing (1960s-1970s)
schema-driven theory
--viewing memory representations as
knowledge rather than as information
--learning involves constructing 3
types of schemas (memory objects,
mental models, and cognitive fields)
that interact during the learning
process

Learning as Knowledge
Constructing (1980s-1990s)
Cognitive constructivist Piaget:
changing body of knowledge,
individually constructed in social
world; active construction,
restructuring prior knowledge through
multiple opportunities and diverse
processes to connect to what is
already know
Classrooms as Sociocultural
Setting (1980s-1990s)
lesson, knowledge, role,
communication are all socially
constructed by members of a
classroom in their interactions over
time; what counts as lesson,
knowledge, role, communication is
situationally defined in the classroom
context

Social constructionist Vygotsky:
changing body of knowledge,
mutually constructed with others;
collaborative construction of
socially/culturally defined knowledge
and values through socially and
culturally constructed opportunities,
tying to students experience