000028851 I certify my authorship of study project report submitted today entitled: A PROPOSED ESP SYLLABUS FOR STUDENTS OF TRAFFIC ENGINEERING AT HANOI UNIVERSITY OF CIVIL ENGINEERING Tôi xin xác nhận quyền tác giả của báo cáo dự án nghiên cứu được nộp h

000028851 I certify my authorship of study project report submitted today entitled: A PROPOSED ESP SYLLABUS FOR STUDENTS OF TRAFFIC ENGINEERING AT HANOI UNIVERSITY OF CIVIL ENGINEERING Tôi xin xác nhận quyền tác giả của báo cáo dự án nghiên cứu được nộp hôm nay có tiêu đề: ĐỀ XUẤT CHƯƠNG TRÌNH ĐÀO TẠO ESP DÀNH CHO SINH VIÊN KỸ THUẬT GIAO THÔNG TẠI TRƯỜNG ĐẠI HỌC KỸ THUẬT XÂY DỰNG HÀ NỘI

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I certify my authorship of study project report submitted today entitled:

A PROPOSED ESP SYLLABUS FOR STUDENTS OF TRAFFIC ENGINEERING AT HANOI UNIVERSITY OF

I w ould like, first o f all, to express m y great gratitude to all m y lecturers at HUFS during m y M A C ourse, especially M A T rần Q uang H uy, I am indebted to M A

Lẽ T hanh D ũng, m y supervisor.

I also ack n ow led ge m y great gratitude to Dr N guyễn Kim Ninh and Dr N guyễn Ngọc

H ung at HTJFS , Dr K nopper K at the British Council and Dr K leim ann H at City

U niversity o f N ew York.

M y ach ievem en ts cannot be separated from the help given to m e by the Post

G raduate D ep artm en t Library o f H U FS and its staff.

Finally, I w ould like to express m y special thanks to Dr N guyễn N hư K hải, Dr Nguyen

L ê N inh, D r L âm Q uang Cường, Dr L ê Xuân H uỳnh at H U C E and to all m y colleagues at the D ivision o f Foreign L anguages o f H U C E for their precious help given to m e during m y M, A Course.

Based on the fact that little attention has been paid to the designing o f syllabuses o f Englishfor specific purposes (ESP) for students at H anoi U niversity of Civil Engineering (HUCE),this study aims at designing a tentative ESP syllabus for students at the D epartm ent o f

T raffic Engineering o f HUCE

The study covers different parts as follows:

• The introduction to the study states the aims and the scope o f the study

• C hapter one reviews literature and studies on ESP and ESP teaching and learning by foreign authoritative and prom inent scholars and researchers

• C hapter two presents a critical analysis of ESP teaching and learning at some scientific and technical tertiary education institutions in Vietnam, and in HUCE, in particular Since the study is aimed at im proving ESP teaching and learning at HUCE, it focuses

on that at the target institution

• C hapter three draws up a possible ESP syllabus for students o f traffic engineering o f

H U CE alter identifying all the theoretical and practical bases related to the issue

• C hapter four concludes the study but not fully closes it The chapter suggests some objects for further studies

• The appendices include a questionnaire, two true ESP exam papers used at H U CE in

N ovem ber 1997, June 1998 and June 1999 and the content o f units 2 - 9 o f the proposed syllabus

3.7 The Syllabus 893.8 C riteria for M aterials Design or M aterials S election/ A daptation for the Course 963.9 R ecom m end atio ns/ Suggestions o f the M ethodology to Teach the C ourse 1043.10 recom m endations o f E valuation/ A ssessm ent M ethod/ procedure 105

In the era o f econom ic globalisation com m and o f one or m ore foreign languages is vitally im portant for a large num ber o f people In m any cases, people need to know a target language just to survive in the m odem society It is obvious that not all the languages spoken by different people in different com ers o f the world are equally important People need a language w idely accepted as a com m on m edium of international com m unication For m any reasons, including historical, econom ic, political ones etc , English language has gradually becom e the most w idely used language in all kinds of international relations This has resulted in a dram atical increase in the num ber

o f learners o f English in the world, in general, and in V ietnam , in particular Certainly, people learn English for different purposes, depending on their own interests, occupational or social positions etc, Kennedy and Bolitho (1984: p i) note: ‘The

im portance o f English as an international language continues to increase as more and more people are wanting or being required to learn English For exam ple, governments are introducing m ass education program m es with English as the first, and sometimes only, foreig n language; the growth o f business and increased occupational m obility is resulting in a need fo r English as a com m on medium o f com m unication; and access to much scientific and technical literature is difficult to those with no knowledge o f English These dem ands and requirem ents have resulted in the expansion o f one particular aspect o f English Language Teaching (ELT) - nam ely the Teaching o f English fo r Specific Purposes( ESP

Since the launch o f the ‘open d o o r’ econom ic policy by V ietnam Com m unist Party

and the V ietnam ese governm ent in 1987, w hich has blown a new life into V ietnam ’s econom y, m aking it open to international integration, English has becom e a very

im portant foreign language to be taught in V ietnam ese tertiary education institutions A great variety o f coursebooks and support m aterials (teacher’s and workbooks, audio- and videotapes etc ) o f general English has been im ported through different channels and then reprinted or re-photocopied and delivered to those who need them , including teachers and learners o f English This has brought a very good chance for education planning officials and English teachers to choose the “ right” book(s) for their courses of

general English The job to be done is only to adapt the available m aterials to match them

to the target syllabuses

However, apart from courses o f general English, English teachers in non-language training, especially in scientific and technical institutions are still under obligation to provide their students with ESP courses, the content and volum e o f which totally depend

on specific needs and requirem ents of each target institution, departm ent, academic year and in som e cases even o f a m inor group o f students A lthough a num ber o f ESP coursebooks is now com m ercially available, it is very hard to find the one which could meet well all the m ajor requirem ents and needs o f a target group o f students This is because a good ESP coursebook must be written based on the specificity o f a group of students identified only by means o f thorough needs analysis, which is impossible if we use a ready m ade ESP coursebook W hat is m ore, variables identifying an ESP course (tim e length, the students’ number, the students’ knowledge o f general English, learning conditions and context, the teaching staff and their know ledge o f the specialist subject etc ) are so specific that no ready-m ade ESP coursebooks and course plan can really meet all the basic dem ands o f an ESP course for a target group o f students

Based on this argum ent, it can be concluded that each education institution needs its own ESP course(s) and syllabus(es), which are desirably designed by its own English teaching staff, who lead the ESP syllabus(es) personally and thus make it much more

effective A nd this is the reason why I devote this lim ited study to designing a tentative ESP syllabus for students o f the D epartm ent o f Traffic Engineering o f H anoi University

o f Civil E ngineering, where I work as a full tim e teacher o f English language

My dissertation, apart from the introduction and appendices, consists o f four chapters:

C hapter one “ Literature R eview ”, in which I present an overview o f theoretical

issues of ESP discussed and analysed by foreign prom inent and high-qualified ELT experts and researchers The focus is exclusively devoted to definition o f ESP, needs analysis, language descriptions, theories o f learning, approaches to course design and the syllabus

Chapter tw o“ ESP teaching and learning in V ietnam and in HIJCE” provides an

overview o f different aspects o f ESP teaching and learning in our country and in Hanoi

U niversity o f Civil Engineering Since this study is aim ed at designing an ESP syllabus

for a departm ent o f HUGE, most o f the chapter will serve for describing those aspects in HUCE.

Chapter three presents “ A proposed ESP course for students o f the D epartm ent

of Civil and Industrial C onstruction in H U C E ” The chapter describes some adopted

approaches to basic issues of course design and then presents som e m ajor features o f the proposed course, which includes discussion on approaches to needs analysis adopted, approaches to language description adopted, the underlying language learning theories, approaches to course design adopted, the results of needs analysis (PSA and TSA), the structure o f the course, the syllabus, criteria for m aterial selection/ adaptation for the course, recom m endation/ suggestion o f the m ethodology to teach the course, recom m endation o f evaluation/ assessm ent m ethod / procedure and problem s and lim itations

Chapter four “ C onclusion”, which does not put a full stop to the study but suggests

som e possible developm ent for further study o f the issue

CHAPTER ONE: LITERATURE REVIEW

1.1-Definition and types of English for specific purposes ( E S P ):

1.1.1 D efinition o f E SP:

W hen dealing with any issue in either social or natural sciences, one cannot orientate his researches w ithout having an exact or at least acceptable definition of the issue The target issue o f this research (English for specific purposes) is not an exception, i.e it needs a precise or at least a com m only acceptable definition As usual, different experts

or researchers m ay give different definitions, depending on their own standpoints or

approaches to the target issue Robinson (1991: p i) even says: ‘ it is impossible to

produce a universally acceptable definition o f E S P \ A ccording to her, ‘English fo r specific purposes .would im ply that what is specific and appropriate in one part o f the globe m ay w ell not be elsewhere

.Strevens (1980) suggests that a definition o f ESP that is both simple and watertight

is not easy to produce

H ere this author would like to review definitions o f ESP and its analysis by a num ber

of prom inent researchers and experts and then draw what is the most com m on from those definitions, on which this author shall base m y study

Kennedy and Bolitho (1984: p 3) when mentioning approaches to ESP believe that

‘ ESP has its basis in an investigation o f the purposes o f the learners and the set o f

com m unicative needs arising fro m those purposes ’

M unby affirm s : ‘Is is necessary to define here w hat is m eant by the term ESP

ESP courses are those where the syllabus and m aterials are determ ined in all essentials

by the prior analysis o f the com m unication needs o f the learner '' (M unby J, 1978: p 2)

Strevens (1980) writes :‘ English fo r specific purposes is a particular case o f the general

category o f special -purpose language teaching ’ H e develops his definition of ESP with

giving out four absolute and two variable characteristics, namely:

‘ Absolute C haracteristics o f ESP :

ESP consists o f English language teaching which is :

- designed to m eet specified needs o f the learner:

- related in content (i.e in its themes and topics) to particular disciplines,

occupations and activities ;

- centred on the language appropriate to those activities, in syntax, lexis, discourse, semantics, etc;

- in contrast with “ General English”

Variable C haracteristics o f ESP :

ESP m ay be, but is not necessarily:

- restricted to the language skills to be learned (e g.: reading only; speech recognition only, etc);

- taught according to any pre-ordained m ethodology (i e., ESP is not restricted to any particular m ethodology- although com m unicative m ethodology is very often fe lt to be the m ost appropriate)'

(Strevens, 1980: pp 1 -2 )

H utchinson & W aters (1987) devote the whole first section titled “W hat is ESP1” of

their book “ English for Specific Purposes- A Learning-centred approach ” to thorough

analysis ot ESP definition They believe that ‘ as English became the accepted

international language o f technology and commerce, it created a new generation o f learners who knew specifically why they were learning a language., businessmen a n d - women who w anted to sell their products, m echanics who had to read instruction manuals, doctors who needed to keep up with developm ents in their fie ld and a whole range o f students whose course o f study included textbooks and journals only available

in English A ll these and m any others needed English and, m ost im portantly, they knew why they needed it”.

(H utchinson & W aters, 1987: p 6)

A fter presenting the famous “ Tree o f E L T ’ (see Figure 1) they conclude the section

by stating:

‘ESP m ust be seen as an approach not as a product ESP is not a particular kind o f language o r m ethodology, nor does it consists o f a particular type o f teaching material.

U nderstood properly, it is an approach to language learning, which is based on learner needs The fo undation o f all ESP is the simple question: W hy does this learner needs to learn a foreign language ?'

and they start section 2 by another statement about ESP:

ESP is an approach to language teaching, which aim s to m eet the needs o f

particular learners '

(ibid.: pp 19-2 1)

R obinson (1991), while discussing what is criterial to ESP, points o u t:‘ ESP is

norm ally goal directed ' and ‘an ESP course is based on a needs analysis, which aims to specify as closely as possible what exactly is that students have to do through the medium

o f English'

(Robinson, 1991: pp 2- 3)All the above listed quotations of prom inent authors, who doubtlessly are very-high- qualified experts and researchers o f ELT and ESP teaching, reveal that they all have

agreed on at least a very im portant idea o f ESP, that any ESP course m ust be based on

the lea rn ers’ need(s) In other w ords, ESP could not exist and develop if there were

no lea rn ers’ needs or learn ers’ needs are the most im portant if not only criterion (or distinguishing feature) determ ining any ESP course and all its constituents (syllabus, m aterial content and volum e, target skills, gram m ar and vocabulary

suggest a definition o f ESP based on the above presented ideas o f prom inent authors:

ESP is a special approach to language teaching or a particular case o f the general category o f special-purpose language teaching It has its basis in an investigation o f the learners' purpose(s) and needs w ithout which ESP itse lf w ould never grow out o f a num ber o f converging trends and then vigorously develop Thus, the reason fo r ESP to exist is to m eet the learners' needs

1.1.2 Types o f ESP:

We have just stated that ESP m ust m eet the learners’ needs It is obvious that different people pursue different purposes and have different needs That is why there must be different types of ESP to m eet this variety o f purposes and needs Some words here should be said about types of ESP:

Robinson (1991) when com m enting on her “ ESP fa m ily tree" (see figure 2) says: ‘A

m ajor distinction is often drawn between EO P (English fo r occupational purposes), involving work- related needs and training, and EAP (English fo r academ ic purposes) Cutting across this is EST (English fo r science and technology) .'

(Robinson, 1991: p 2)Applying her“ ESP fam ily tree” to our ESP teaching practice, It is noticed that most

o f the ESP courses being taught in the Vietnamese universities and colleges, including IIU C E, are EEP/EA P as an independent school subject Kennedy and Bolitho (1984: p 4) believe:

‘There are two main divisions, which help to distinguish ESP situations: English fo r

O ccupational Purposes (EO P) and English fo r Academ ic Purposes (EAP) ’ According

to them , ‘EO P is taught in a situation in which learners need to use English as a part o f

their work or p r o f e s s i o n and 'E A P is taught generally within educational institutions to students needing English in their studies'.

Apart from the two “ divisions”, they suggest English for Science and Technology

(EST), which is lan im portant branch o f ESP'

K ennedy & Bolitho and many other researchers have warned against confusing ESP

and EST They have pointed out that EST deals with scientific content whereas ‘ There

are m any im portant content areas in ESP which are not concerned with science - the law

a n d com m erce, fo r exam ple’

(K ennedy & B olitho,!984: p 6)

To m ake it easier to know the position of each branch and type o f ESP we can refer

to the ESP diagram proposed by Strevens in 1977 (see figure 3)

The “ESP tree” drawn by Elutchinson & W aters (1987) (see fig u re l) probably gives the clearest picture o f branches (types) o f ESP The top branches o f the tree represent the

m ost specific content areas o f ESP in the tree O f course, not all the ESP content areas can be presented in the tree It serves only as a proposed way o f classifying ESP types or areas One always can develop a selected branch into m ore specific fields For exam ple, from “ English for M edical Studies” we then can have “ English for Paeditricians” ,“

E nglish for Surgeons” , “ English for O phthalm ologists” etc

In short, depending on the concrete content o f a target field of educational, cultural, occupational, scientific and technical activities, one needs a special type of ESP for it.And at this point we can say again that ESP is aimed to m eet the needs o f a particular group o f learners, whose educational, occupational, scientific etc .fields o f activities, in

w hich they are supposed to use English, determ ine the needed type of ESP as well as the related content (gram m ar, vocabulary, language skills etc .)

H owever, it will be wrong to say that General English courses are not to m eet the learn er’s needs Any educational or training course, including those o f language teaching, m ust be designed to meet som eone’s needs This author totally agrees with

H u tchinson’s & W aters’(1987) point that : ‘ What distinguishes ESP fro m G eneral

English is not the existence o f a need as such but rather an awareness o f the need ’

(H utchinson & W aters, 1987: p 53)Thus, professional teachers of English language in non-language training educational institutions, who are responsible for ESP teaching, must always be adhered to this awareness To understand properly what we, our students and the education m anagem ent officials o f our institution(s) need and expect from the ESP course(s), which we are supposed to provide our students with, we m ust conduct an analysis of their needs

1.2 Needs analysis :

E arlier in this chapter it has been affirm ed that all kinds o f ESP courses are to serve

or to m eet learn ers’ needs This implies that an ESP course or m aterial designer m ust analyse the needs o f the learners who he or she designs the course or m aterials for How ever, to identify what a particular group o f learners need is not an easy job to do

The first point to be made here is, according to Brindley (1989), that needs1 do not have

o f them selves an objective reality ’ Law son (1979) identifies “ needs” as ‘ a m atter fo r agreem ent and judgem ent’ W hat is more, different people think differently of needs

This m eans that we get different answers from different people to the same question

‘W hat does this or that particular group o f ESP students need? ’ R obinson (1991: p 7)

notes: ‘The needs that are established fo r a particular group o f students w ill be an

outcom e o f a needs analysis project an will be influenced by the ideological preconceptions o f the analysts A different group o f analysts working with the same group

o f students, but with different points on teaching and learning, w ould be highly likely to produce a different set o f needs'.

She sum m erises discussions o f needs by several authors for exam ple, Berwick (1989), Brindley (1989), M ountford (1981) and W indowson (1981), by presenting different m eanings or types o f needs, which are:

• O bjective needs or goal-oriented needs identified as referred to students’ study orjob requirem ents, that is what they have to be able to do at the end o f their (English)language course

• Needs that m ean "what the user-institution or society at large regards as

necessary or desirable to be learnt fro m a program m e o f language instruction '

(M ountford, 1981: p.27)

• P rocess-oriented needs believed by W iddowson (1981)to be ‘ what the learner

needs to do to actually to acquire the language ’

• N eeds that m ay be viewed as wants or desires These are what the students them selves w ould like to gain from the language course Robinson (1991) also recom m ends “Target situation analysis” (TSA) and “ Present situation analysis” (PSA):

-Target situation analysis is the one ‘ which fo cu ses on students' needs at the end o f

C om m unication Needs Processor proposed by M unby (1978), which is evaluated by

R obinson as “ the best fram ew ork fo r a TSA type o f needs analysis" and which will be

presented later in this study

- Present situation analysis ‘ seeks to establish what the students are like at the start

o f their language course, investigating their strengths and w eaknesses' It should be

realized that ‘m practice, one is likely to seek and fin d information relating to both TSA

and PSA sim ultaneously Thus needs analysis m ay be seen as a com bination o f TSA and

P SA ' (R obinson, 1991: p.9).

The opinion that needs are perceived differently by different people and thus they are differently interpreted is universally shared

H utchinson & W aters (1987) propose to make ‘a basic distinction between target

needs (i.e what the learner needs to do in the target situation) and learning needs (i.e what the learner needs to do in order to learn).

(H utchinson & W aters, 1987: p 54)

To analyse the learner’s needs the two authors raise six questions: W hy? How?

W hat? W ho? W here? W hy? concerning the learner and learning situation, the answers to which provide useful inform ation for those who intend to design ESP course(s) and materials These questions need answering when we analyse either target needs or learning needs

* Target needs: H utchinson & W aters propose to look at the target situation in term s o f necessities, lacks and wants :

* N ecessities : This type o f need is ‘determ ined by the dem ands o f the target

situation, that is, w hat the learner has to know in order to function effectively in the target situ a tio n ' (H utchinson & W aters-1987: p.55) In other words, necessities can be

regarded as the scope o f the language know ledge and skills that the learner is supposed to gain on com pleting an ESP course designed properly to m eet the learner’s needs

* Lacks : In H utchinson’s & W aters’ opinion, if only necessities are identified, this

w ould not be enough because the concern in ESP is with the needs o f particular learners

To com plete the survey, we also need to know what the learner know s already, which

w ill help us to find out which o f the necessities he lacks ‘ The target proficiency, in

other words, needs to be m atched against the existing proficiency o f the learner The gap betw een the two can be referred to as the learner's lacks ’( ibid.: p56).

* W ants : In m any cases, the students’ and the teacher’s or the course sponsor’s opinion(s) o f what the needs are is not the same Their opinions som etim es m ay conflict with each other This is because an awareness o f needs is a characteristic o f the ESP

situation ‘ But awareness is a m atter o f perception, and perception m ay vary according

to o n e 's standpoint Learners m ay well have a clear idea o f the “necessities” o f the target situation : they w ill certainly have a view as to their “ lacks" (ibid.: p56 ) The term

‘wants ’.here m ay be interpreted as what the students think their need(s) are

In 1978 John M unby in his book : “Com m unicative Syllabus D esign” presented his

“C o m m u n i c a t i o n N e e d P r o c e s s o r ” (CNP) (see figure 4) in which he took ‘account

Figure 4: Com m unication N eeds Processor (by John M unby, 1978)

o f the variables that affect com m unication needs by organising them as param eters in a dynam ic relationship to each o th e r \ ( M unby, 1978: pp32, 33) These variables, as

sum m arised by M arlin (1992) are:

a) F our base-line parameters:

* Type o f ESP (EO P or EAP)

* Interaction

- with whom will the learner be com m unicating?

- what role-relationship will operate?

(clerk- client? Subordinate-superior? Salesperson-potential custom er? etc.)

* Instrum entality

- what m edium ( written or spoken ) is to be used?

- what m ode ( m onologue, dialogue etc ) is used?

- what channel ( face- to-face or m ediated?)The infonnation gathered will be filtered through a second stage:

b) F our “perfonnance” param eters:

* D ialect o f English needed

* Target level o f com m and of English

♦C om m unicative events com prising:

i com m unicative activities

( e.g w aiter serving custom er in a restaurant, expert or researcher presenting a scientific report or hearing it from a foreign colleague at an international workshop, student perform ing a laboratory experim ent in a polytechnic etc .)

ii subject-m atter( topic or vocabulary needed to carry out the com m unicative activity)

* Com m unicative key (what attitudinal tone is needed for a specific com m unicative event, given the relationship E.g “waiter serving custom er in restaurant” , would require the key “ polite, friendly, helpful” not “ intim ate” or “stiff”

A ccording to M unby’s model, those param eters serve for processing the

com m unicative needs o f a given learner The output o f the CNP is the com m unication needs profile.

M artin (1992) com m ents that M unby’s model m arked a m ajor step forward in ESP,

but ‘its strength - the detailed analytical fram ew ork applicable to target situation - was

also its w eakness’ ( M artin, 1992: p72 ) The model overem phasizes the im portance of

the target situation as a guide to course design and reveals a lack o f attention to process issue (e.g the learn er’s awareness o f their target objective may change during the course) A m ore balanced approach to needs analysis, that deals equally with PSA and TSA like that by H utchinson & W aters, who take into account both “target needs” and

“learning needs” in a rational way, would m ake the analysis m ore com prehensive and thus m ake the ESP course better meet the learner’s needs

• Learning needs:

H aving com pared an ESP course with a journey, H utchinson & W aters say: ‘It is

naive to base a course design sim ply on the target objectives, ju s t as it is naive to think that a jo urn ey can be planned solely in terms o f the starting point and the destination The needs, potentials and constraints o f the route(i.e the learning situation) m ust also

be taken into account, i f we are going to have any useful analysis o f learner needs'.

(ibid.: p 61)

H ere we still deal with a rather fam iliar issue o f language teaching: motivation The students’ future career (i.e the target situation) m ay require them an ability to understand long, boring or complex texts in English on their specialist engineering field(s) If, based on this target situation, we include sim ilar texts in our ESP syllabus(es),

it will be likely that we make our students reluctant to learn the materials The reason for the m atter is rather simple: Being still young students of only the first or second academ ic year, they still have no clear im age of their future place o f work and what it

requires from them They will find the m aterials satisfactory if the m aterials are quite interesting and this w ould m ake their learning m ore productive That is why H utchinson

& W aters con clud e:1 The target situation., is not a reliable indicator o f what is needed

or useful in the ESP learning situation.'' (ibid.: p 62) The sim ilar idea is expressed by

R ob inso n’s (1991: p 8): ‘ in som e cases, there is a discrepancy between students'1

specialist course o f study or jo b and the one which they w ould prefer In such cases, we might expect students learners an d authorities teachers to have different views o f the goals and content o f the ESP course.' Brinley (1984) also notice that conflict m ay also

develop between learners and teachers in relation to a num ber o f different facets o f the learning process

In short, needs analysis is a key issue in ESP syllabus and m aterial design A proper analysis of the learn ers’ needs m ay be considered the prerequisite condition for

the success o f an ESP course Before com ing to the next issue “L anguage descriptions”

this author would like to quote R obinson (1991: p 17) as saying: ‘As a results o f the

needs analysis, we should be able to draw up our objectives fo r the ESP course It must

be rem em bered, how ever, that the stages o f needs analysis, specification o f objectives and syllabus design are, in practice, not often discrete'

1.3 Language descriptions:

H utchinson & W ater (1987) com m ent on the link betw een ESP and language

descriptions : ‘A n y ESP course m akes use o f explicit or im plicit ideas about the nature o f

language These ideas are drawn fro m the various o f language description that have been developed by succeeding schools o f thought in L in g u istics' A ccording to them , six main

stages o f developm ent in Linguistics, som e o f which have not had pedagogic applications, can be identified They are:

1.3.1 - C lassical o r tradition al gram m ar

U ntil the 20,b century descriptions o f English and other languages were based on the gram m ar o f classical languages, G reek and Latin They were based on an analysis o f the role that each w ord plays in the sentence The reason for this was that the

classical languages w ere case-based ones ‘ w here the gram m atical fu n ctio n o f each word

in the sentence was m ade apparent by the use o f appropriate in fle x io n s'.

(Elutchinson & W aters, 1987: p 24)

ESP becam e an object of serious studies and applications when the classical or traditional gram m ar had been abandoned so its influence on ESP has never been strong

'N evertheless, it has continued to provide the teacher with a useful indirect source o f guidance., thus a knowledge o f the classical description can still depend on our knowledge o f how languages o p e r a te \ibid.: p 24)

A llen and W iddowson (1975) hold a view that we (English language teachers)

should not overlook m any useful virtues of the traditional gram m ar because ‘the

traditional handbooks provided an array o f terms and distinction which m ost o f us used

in learning to talk about our own language, and which m any people continue to fin d serviceable throughout thei lives'

1.3.2 - S tructural linguistics

The structural linguistics has as its core syntagm atic structures carrying the fundam ental propositions (statement, interrogative, negative, im perative etc.) and notions (time, num ber, gender etc.) Language users can generate sentences with different

m eanings by varying the words within these structural fram eworks In m odem English teaching practice we still com e across so called “substitution tables” used as a typical means o f explaining gram m atical patterns The tables have been developed as a result of application o f this m ethod o f linguistic analysis to language teaching

Com m enting on an ESP syllabus based on structural precepts and used by Ew er and

Latorre (1969), H utchinson & W aters say: ‘A t its best the structural syllabus provides the

learner with a system atic description o f the generative core o f the language-the finite range o f structures that make it possible to generate an infinite num ber o f novel utterances F or this reason the structural syllabus continues to be w idely used

(H utchinson & W aters, 1987: p 26)

1.3.3 - Transform ational G enerative (TG ) gram m ar

The structural description, however, reveals its weakness In some cases, the same clutch o f words, arranged in the same structure can have different m eanings (i.e can be differently interpreted) For exam ple, the sentence: “Tom likes pleasing wom en” can be interpreted as:

- (a) Tom likes attractive women

- (b) Tom likes m aking women pleased

A ccording to N oam Chom sky (1957), the structural description is too superficial because it can describe only the surface structure o f the language, and thus cannot explain relationships o f m eaning that are quite clear, but they rem ain unrealised in the surface structure A nother exam ple can show the w eakness o f the structural description

In the follow ing sentences:

(a) Janet is easy to please

(b) Janet is eager to please

the relationship betw een the w ords is the sam e if view ed from the structural description But actually it is not the same In the first sentence the subject o f the sentence (Janet) is the receiver o f pleasing w hereas in the second she is the doer Chom sky advocated avoiding analysing language in isolation from the hum an m ind that produces it His point is that language m ust be viewed as a reflexion o f hum an thought pattern instead o f being viewed as a phenom enon itself if we w ant to understand how it works C hom sky proposed two levels o f m eaning: a deep level concerned with theorganisation o f thoughts, which he called “com petence” and a surface level called as

“perform ance” , w here these thoughts are expressed through the syntax o f the language

H utchinson & W aters highly evaluate C hom sky ’s w ork for its im portant influence on linguistics and language teaching Their view is:

‘ for ESP the m ost im portant lesson to be drawn fr o m C h o m sky's work was the distinction he m ade betw een perform ance (i.e the surface structures) and com petence (i.e the deep level rules) In ESP we need to m ake a much broader view, but the distinction itse lf is still valid.'

A nd ‘P u t sim ply, describing w hat people do with the language (perform ance) is

im portant, bu t o f equal, i f not greater im portance is discovering the com petence that enables them to do it'

(H utchinson & W aters, 1987: pp 27, 28)

1.3.4 L anguage variation a n d reg ister analysis

The point o f this approach to description o f language is that different texts having the sam e illocutionary force and carrying the sam e m essage can be created in different languages The reason for this is that language can be viewed as part o f a com m unicative

w hole and thus its use shows considerable variety A num ber o f contextually dependent

factors m ake up the whole com m unicative act If one or m ore of these factors is varied,

the other factors will be affected H utchinson & W aters note: ‘Language, then, vary

according to the context o f use and it is this fa c t that enables us to distinguish, fo r exam ple, fo r m a l fro m inform al, written fro m spoken, self-sufficient language fro m context- dependent'' (ibid.: p 30)

In the 1960s and early 1970s m any researchers, such as Strevens, Ewer, Swales devoted their w ork to identifying the gram m atical and lexical features o f the registers used less or m ore typically in certain contexts such as an area o f know ledge (medical English, business English, scientific English etc) H owever, as H utchinson & W aters

state, ‘ .register analysis has., ultimately proved to be an insubstantial basis fo r the

selection o f syllabus items'’ (H utchinson & W aters, 1987: p 30) They also quote Coffey

as saying in his book “ESP-English for Specific Purposes” in Language Teaching” (Coffey, 1984):

‘Research and experim ent continue, but in general the results have not been encouraging .In short, register cannot be used as a main basis fo r selection, because there is no significant way in which the language o f science differs fro m any other kind o f language’

And they conclude: ‘Though attractive at the fir s t sight, the assum ption that

language variation im plies the existence o f identifiable varieties o f language related to specific context o f use has, in effect, proved to be unfounded’

(H utchinson & W aters, 1987: p31)

The first thing to do here is to point out the difference between “ functions” and

“notions” , w hich m ay usually be easily confused Functions are taken for social behavior and express the speaker’s or w riter’s intention: describing, threatening, warning etc

N otions denote the way in w hich the human m ind thinks N otions serve as categories into which the m ind and thereby language divides reality, e.g time, frequency, duration, gender, num ber, location, quantity, quality etc

It w ere the 1970s when the functional view of language began to have an influence

on language teaching due to its strong point: the functional description of language helps establish som e kind o f equivalence in the syllabuses for learning various languages This

U nit One A visitor to BOS Page 1

Possessive pronoun Genitive ( ‘s)

Q uestion words: W hat? W here? W ho?

Telephone conversations; business letter form at

D em onstrative pronouns: this/that/these /those

There is/there are

Prepositions: on, in, above, below, under, between, next to,

to the left/ right of, on the right/left

Q uestion word: how many?

D escribing location

Office furniture and equipment, stationary, cardinal numbers,

business letter term inology

A m em orandum : telephone conversations, com pany names Present progressive tense

ImperativePrepositions (continued)

Q uestion word: W hich?

Discussing activities; giving directions; giving com m ands

O rdinal num bers; parts o f building; some office activities

(from We M ean Business by Susan N orm an, Longman, 1982)

Figure 5: A Structural/functional syllabus

equivalence is very im portant for adult learners whose language learning experience as well as analystic and synthetic thought have already well developed It is obvious that

m ost o f ESP learners are adult Therefore the functional approach to language description

is w orth considering in ESP syllabus designing

T h e move towards functionally based syllabuses has been particular strong in the developm ent o f ESP, largely on the pragm atic ground that the m ajority o f ESP students have already done a structurally organised syllabus, probably at school Their needs, therefore are no t to learn basic grammar, but rather to learn how to use the knowledge they already have.'

(H utchinson & W aters, 1987: p 32)This language description, though, has its drawback It does not provide a system atic conceptual fram ew ork so it cannot help the learners to organise their language

know ledge H utchinson and W aters recom m end: ‘A more constructive approach to

describing language in structural or fu n ctio n a l terms is to seethe two as com plem entary, with each supporting and enriching the other.' (ibid.: p 32)

This com bination is witnessed in a num ber o f syllabuses o f both general English and ESP “The N ew Cam bridge English Course” written by M ichael Swan and Catherine

W alter in 1990 can serve as an exam ple of this kind o f syllabus o f general English The

“snake and ladders” syllabus (see figure5) proposed by Brumfit in 1981 can be seen as

such o f ESP

1.3.6 - D iscourse (Rhetorical) analysis :

The point o f this approach to language description is that the m eaning o f a sentence can change in different contexts The change is caused by two factors:

the socio-linguistic context: who speaks to whom and why?

- the relative positions of the utterances within the discourse

In the exam ple given by H utchinson and W aters (1987) the sentence “I t’s raining” have three different meanings:

(a) a refusal o f a request made by a parent to his or her child, who has just asked:

“Can I go out to play?”

(b) a reason or an excuse made by a husband to his wife, who has asked: “H ave youcut grass yet?”

(c) an advice or m ild w arning m ade by a person to his (her) friend, who has said: “I think I ’ll go out for a w alk”

A ccording to H utchinson and W aters: ‘We can identify two key ways in which the

results o f studies into the nature o f discourse have been used in ESP teaching m aterials: a) Learners are m ade aware o f the stages in certain set-piece transactions associated with particular specialist fields

b) The second use o f discourse analysis in ESP has been through m aterials, which aim to explain how m eaning is created by the relative positions o f the sentences o f a written text’

(H utchinson & W aters, 1987: p 35)

To conclude the review on language descriptions this author w ould like to quote

H utchinson & W aters as saying:

''There is no single source fr o m which a language course can, or should, derive its linguistic input The various developm ents, which we have described, are not separate entities Each state has reacted to, and drawn aspiration fro m those preceding it A

fu n c tio n a l description does not im ply that a structural is wrong, sim ply that it is not sufficient explaination o f what language is like The ESP teacher needs to recognise that the various approaches are different ways o f looking at the same thing All com m unication has a structural level, a functional level and a discour sal level T hey are not m utually exclusive, but com plem entary, and each m ay have its place in the ESP course'1 (H utchinson & W aters, ibid.: p 36)

(H arm er, 1991: p 31)

Up to now two m ajor theories o f learning have been proposed These are:

1- Behaviourism2- Cognitivism (still known as M entalism )And now let us have a brief look at these theories.

(H utchinson & W aters, 1987: p 39)

H arm er (1991) presents an experim ent carried out with a young baby by two psychologists, W atson and Raynor, who later (in 1920) published an article about the

experim ent prom pting the idea o f conditioning A ccording to H arm er, the idea is based

on the theory that you can train an animal to do anything (within reason) if you follow a

three-stage procedure: stimulus, response and reinforcem ent.

Skinner in his book “Verbal Behaviour” applied this theory o f conditioning to the way hum ans acquire their first language He argued that the m odel of stim ulus-response-

reinforcement accounts for how a human baby lcams a language

Behaviourism , which was after all a psychological theory, was adopted fo r some time by language teaching methodologists, particular in Am erica, and the result w as the audio-lingual m ethod still used in m any parts o f the world''

(H arm er, 1991: p 32)

H utchinson and W aters (1987) also note:

‘The sim plicity and directness o f this theory had an enorm ous im pact on learning psychology and on language teaching It provided the theoretical underpinning o f the

w idely used A udiolingual m ethod o f the 1950s and 1960s.This method., laid down a set

o f guiding m ethodological principles, based firstly on the behaviourist stim ulus-response concept and secondly on an assum ption that second language learning should reflect and

im itate the perceived process o f m other tongue learning ’

A nd then they quote some precepts o f the theory, which were:

‘N ever translate.

N ew language should always be dealt with in the sequence: hear, speak, read and write.

Frequent repetition is essential to effective learning.

A ll errors m ust be im m ediately corrected ’

(H utchinson & W aters, 1987: p 40)Despite o f attacks on the behaviourist approach to language learning by many “more

m odern” linguists and ELT researchers, the theory is still found applied in ESP teaching and learning Its third precept that frequent repetition is essential for effective learning is com m only regarded as an obvious truth The behaviourist m ethodology takes pattern practice for its basic exercise technique, which is widely accepted among language teachers as appropriate and successful H utchinson and W aters (1987) present two exercises taken from two ESP coursebooks published by O UP in 1978 and Longm an Inc

in 1980 as exam ples o f this application (see H utchinson & W aters, 1987: pp 40, 41)

H arm er (1991) says about audio - lingualism — a result o f the behaviourist

The A udiolingual M ethod and its behaviourist principles, however, revealed its

w eaknesses: they could not m eet m any dem ands o f the second language learners especially those o f the adult ones They wanted to understand the subject thoroughly and com prehensively, which could be reached by knowing gram m ar and, in m any cases, by translating Frequent repetition did not always help That is why the behaviourist approach to language learning and its principles began to be attacked by a num ber o f linguists and psychological theorists The term “cognitivism ” (or, as it is sometimes

called, “m etalism ” ) ‘refers to a group o f psychological theories which draw heavily on

the w ork in linguistics o f N oam C h o m sky'■( H arm er, 1991: p32) C hom sky’s theory :

as described by H arm er (1991): ‘Language is not a fo rm o f behaviour, Chomsky

m aintained On the contrary it is an intricate rule-based system and a large part o f

language acquisition is the learning o f the system There are a fin ite num ber o f gram m atical rules in the system and with a knowledge o f these an infinite o f sentences can be perform ed in the language It is com petence that a child gradually acquires, and it

is this language com petence that allows children to be creative as language users'1.

(H arm er, 1991: p 33)

- as described by H utchinson & W aters (1987): ‘H is (C hom sky's) conclusion was

that thinking m ust be rule-governed: a fin ite and fa irly sm all set o f rules enables the

m ind to deal with the po tentially infinite range o f experiences it m ay encounter'.

(H utchinson & W aters, 1987: p 42)Those tw o authors then give the concrete content of m entalism :

.learning consists not o f fo rm ing habits but o f acquiring rules - a process in which individual experiences are used by the m ind to form ulate a hypothesis This hypothesis is then tested and m odified by subsequent experience The mind, in other words, does n o t ju st respond to a stim ulus, it uses individual stim uli in order to fin d the

underlying pattern or system It can then use this knowledge o f the system in a novel

situation to predict w hat is likely to happen, w hat is an appropriate response or

w hatever.' (ibid.: p 42).

H arm er’s view of the influence o f the theory on language learning is:

‘ .the idea that language is not a set o f habits - that what m atters is fo r learners to

internalise a rule and that this w ill allow fo r creative perform ance - has inform ed m any teaching techniques and m ethodologies Thus students are often encouraged to use rules

to create sentences o f their ow n.'

(H arm er, 1991: p 33)

1.4.3 C ogn itive code: learners as th in king beines

The tw o above m entioned theories o f learning portray the learner differently: Behaviourism regards the learner as a passive receiver o f inform ation whereas M entalism advocates dealing with the learner as with a creative thinking being or an active inform ation processor The latter assumes that learning and using a rule require learners

'to apply their m ental pow er in order to distil a workable generative rule fro m a m ass o f

data presented, and then to analyse the situation where the application o f the rule would

be useful or a p p ro priate’.

(H utchinson & W aters, 1987: p 40)Here we see that the language learner has to do two things:

to distil a generative rule

- to analyse the situation where the rule can be used as an appropriate one

W hen the learner com es across a situation in which he must use language, he faces a problem He analyses the situation to identify the rule(s) to be used in the situation, i.e

he solves the problem H utchinson & W aters then continue: ‘The basic teaching

technique associated with a cognitive theory o f language teaching is the problem -solving

ta sk’ (ibid.: p 43)

The cognitive view o f languge learning has had a rem arkable im pact on ESP Many ESP courses include exercises serving as drills o f reading-related skills “English in Electrical E ngineering and E lectronics” by G lendinning (1980) can be an exam ple He inludes in his coursebook such kinds o f exercises as:

reading and sum m arizing

reading and note-taking

H utchinson & W aters conclude: iThe cognitive view o f learning seems to answer

m any o f the theoretical and practical problem s raised by behaviourism It treats the learners as thinking beings and p uts them firm ly at the centre o f the learning process by stressing that learning w ill only take place when the m atter to be learned is m eaningful to the learners.'' (ibid.: p 46)

1.4.4 L earners as em otional beings

To be successful in language teaching, professional language teachers should never forget that their own and their learn ers’ successes depend on m any factors, one o f which

is m otivation M otivation is in a certain sense a m atter of em otions The learners are people but not m achines They m ay do things, including learning language, either industriously, w hole-heartedly or reluctantly as they may like or dislike things

'T he relationship o f the cognitive and em otional aspects o f learning is, therefore, one o f vital im portance to the success or otherwise o f a language learning experience.

This brings us to a matter, which has been one o f the m ost im portant elements in the developm ent o f ESP - motivation

(H utchinson & W aters, 1987: p 48)

H arm er (1991) sees motivation as ''some kind o f internal drive that encourages

som ebody to pursue a course o f action H e presents two types o f m otivation known as integrative m otivation and instrum ental motivation:

‘a ) Integrative motivation

For this kind o f m otivation students need to be attracted by the culture o f the target language com m unity

b) Instrum ental motivation

This term describes a situation in which students believe that m astery o f the target language w ill be instrum ental in getting them a better job, position or status

(H arm er, 1991: p 3)ESP teaching and learning practice shows that the overw helm ing m ajority o f learners are instrum entally motivated The students are aware o f why they take the ESP course However, not all o f them like the course Taking this into account we are to m ake them like the course or at least find it not so boring To do this we should, as H arm er advises,

''try to be certain that we are supportive and encouraging to our students rather than critical and destructive.'' (ibid.: p 4)

H utchinson and W aters also suggest: ‘ as we shall see when we deal with needs

analysis, there is more to motivation than simple relevance to perceived needs.'

A nd ‘ The m edicine o f relevance m ay still needs to be sweetened with the sugar o f

enjoym ent, fu n , creativity and a sense o f achievement ESP, as much as any good teaching, needs to be intrinsically motivating It should satisfy their needs as learners as well as their needs as potential target users o f language In other words, they should get satisfaction fr o m the actual experience o f learning, not ju st fro m the prospect o f eventually using what they have learned ’

(H utchinson & W aters, 1987: p 48)

1.4.5 A cquisition an d learning:

Some researchers have centred on the distinction between language learning and language acquisition Stephen Krashen characterised acquisition as subconscious and learning as conscious H arm er (1991) com ments:

'The suggestion made by Krashen is that second (or foreign) language learning needs to be more like the child's acquisition o f its native language But how do children become com petent users o f their language? Their gradual ability to use language is the result o f m any subconscious processes They have not consciously set out to learn a language M uch foreign language teaching on the other hand, seem s to concentrate on getting the adult student to consciously learn items o f language in isolation - the exact opposite o f this process

And: 'T he suggestion made by Krashen, then, is that students can acquire language

on their own provided that they gel a great deal o f com prehensible input (that is roughly- tuned in the way we have described) This is in m arked contrast to conscious learning where students receive fin e-tu n ed input - that is language choosen to be precisely at their level C onsciously learned language, in other words, is only available in highly restricted circum stances, as a monitor Learning does not directly help acquisition.’’

(H anner, 1991: pp 33, 34)

H utchinson and W aters (1987) point out that their view is that ‘a good ESP course

will try to exploit both.' (conscious and subconscious processes)

1.5 Approaches to course design

C ourse design is defined by H utchinson and W aters (1987) as:

‘the process by which the raw data about a learning need is interpreted in order to produce an integrated series o f teaching-learning experiences, whose ultimate aim is to lead the learners to a particular slate o f knowledge

(H utchinson & W aters, 1987: p 65)

So far in practice o f ESP course design three approaches have been applied Theyare:

- language-centred course design

- skills-centred course design

- learning-centred approach

The approach advocates draw ing as direct as possible a connection between TSA and the content o f the ESP course Due to its direct orientation on the target needs language- centred course design is rather popular in ESP Figure 6 presented by H utchinson and

W aters (1987) shows how it proceeds They also detect som e weaknesses o f the approach, w hich at first sight seem s to be a logical procedure These are:

- In the procedure the learner at best plays only the role o f a m eans o f identifying

the target situation The learner is not considered in every stage o f the process 'Yet, in

this m odel the learning needs o f the students are not accounted fo r at all It is, therefore, not learner-centred, but sim ply learner-restricted

(H utchinson & W aters, 1987: p 66)-The language-centred process can be considered a static and inflexible procedure C onflicts and contradictions, which are widely accepted as inherent in any

hum an endeavour, are almost ignored ‘Any procedure m ust have flexibility, feedback

channels a n d error tolerance built in so that it can respond to unsuspected or developing influences.'1 (ibid.: p 67).

- The language-centred procedure may lead to a dangerous attempt to systematize language learning which is not system atic itself It m ay be argued that systém atisation of

know ledge is very im portant for the learning process ‘But the m ost im portant point here

is that it m u st be an internally-generated system not an externally-im posed system The

fa c t that know ledge has been system atically analysed and system atically presented does not im ply tha t it will be system atically l e a r n t (ibid.: p 68).

- In the language-centred approach an analytical m odel is also used as a predictive m odel, which is inappropriate Earlier in this study m otivation, which requires

ESP m aterial to be interesting for the learners, has been m entioned However, ‘an

analysis o f language items cannot tell you whether a text or an activity is interesting Thus, i f m aterials are based on the language-centred model, then, either there are other factors being used, which are not acknowledged in the model, or, and sadly this is what seems often to be the case, these learning fa cto rs are not considered to be im portant at all.'1 (ibid.: p 68) The approach reveals little about the com petence underlying the

perform ance

1.5.1-Language-centred course design:

This approach is also widely applied in ESP practice It has fundam ental theoretical and pragm atic principles, which are:

- The theoretical principle assumes that underlying any language behaviour are certain skills and strategies that the learner uses in order to produce or com prehend

discourse ‘ A skills-centred approach aim s to get away fro m the surface perform ance

data a n d looks at the com petence that underlies the perform ance’ (H utchinson & W aters,

1987: p 69)

- The pragm atic basis for the skills-centred approach, according to H utchinson and

W aters, ‘derives fro m a distinction between goal-oriented courses and process-oriented

c o u r s e s (ibid.: p 69) They quote H olm es (1982) as saying:

7 « ESP the main problem is usually one o f time available and student experience

First, the aim s m ay be defined in terms o f w hat is de sir able,-i.e to be able to read in the literature o f the students' specialism, but there m ay be nowhere-near enough time to reach this aim during the period o f the course Secondly, the students m ay be in their fir s t year o f studies with little experience o f the literature o f their specialism Accordingly both these fa c to rs m ay be constraints which say right fro m the start, “The aims cannot be achieved during the course

H utchinson and W aters com m ent on this approach: ‘In essence it sees the ESP

course as helping learners to develop skills and strategies which w ill continue to develop after the ESP course itself.'

(H utchinson & W aters, 1987: p 70)

A lso according to H utchinson and W aters, the skills-centred approach can claim to take the learner into account m ore than the language-centred approach for the follow ingreasons:

a) It view s language in terms o f how the m ind o f the learner processes it rather than

as an entity in itse lf

a) It tries to build on the positive fa cto rs that the learners bring to the course, rather than on negative ideas o f “lacks”

b) It fra m e s its objectives in open-ended terms, so enabling learners to achieve at

least something.'' (ibid.: p70).

1.5.2.Skills-centres course design

H utchinson and W aters also m ake clear that the approach, though, has a weakness: It regards the learner as a user o f language rather than a learner o f language.

1.5.3 A lerarn in g-cen tred approach

‘Course design involves putting the theoretical decisions about objectives and syllabus into a c o n t e x t That is what Robinson says in her book: “ ESP Today”

(Robinson, 1991: p 41) H ere this author would like to em phasise the w ord “context” , which, o f course, includes the concept “ learning context” The two above m entioned approaches pay little attention to this Recent developm ents in education researches have triggered a trend tow ards learner-centred education H owever, H utchinson and W aters

(1987) argue that ' .in the learning process., there is m ore than the learner to consider’ because ‘The learners w ill certainly determine their own route to the target and the speed

at which they travel to the route, but that does not make the target unimportant The target still has a determ ining influence on the possible routes ’ (H utchinson & W aters,

1987: p 72) They then conclude: ‘For this reason we w ould reject the term a learner-

centred approach in fa v o u r o f a learning-centred approach to indicate that the concern

is to m axim ise learning’ (ibid.: p 72).

They assum e: ‘We m ust look beyond the com petence that enables someone to

perform , because what we really want to discover is not the com petence itself, but how someone acquires that com petence’ (ibid.: p 73) They propose to see the relationship in

their diagram (see figure 8).In the diagram it can be seen that the learner is taken into account at every stage o f the design process if a learning-centred approach is applied

‘This has two im plications:

a) C ourse design is a negotiated process There is no single fa c to r, which has an outright determ ining influence on the content o f the course The ESP learning situation and the target situation w ill both influence the nature, m aterials, m ethodology and evaluation procedures Sim ilarly each o f these com ponents w ill influence and be influenced by the others.

b) C ourse design is a dynam ic process It does not move in a linear fa sh io n fro m

initial analysis to com pleted course N eeds and resources vary with time The course design, therefore, needs to have built-in feed b a ck channels to enable the course to respond to developm ents', (ibid.: p 74)

Figure 6: A language- centred approach to course design

exercises to

lb whichfocus on W require the