ESP theory

1
ESP theory practices

• Dr. Fengmin Wang
• Fall 2008

2
What is ESP?

• The EFL tree

3
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)

4
Why ESP?

• The expansion of demand for English to suit
  particular needs and developments in the field of
  linguistics and educational psychology

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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)

6
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

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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.

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The Components of a Curriculum

• Language view
• Language learning
• Educational view

9
Syllabus

• Structural/grammatical syllabus
• Notional syllabus (D. A. Wilkins, 1972)
• --semantic-grammatical categories
• --categories of communicative
• functions
• Threshold Level (1975)

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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)

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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

12
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

13
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

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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

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• 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