From general to specific

1. From general to specific Increasingly English is being used as the teaching medium for Business Studies, Medicine, Engineering etc at Higher Education and University levels.  This presents interesting challenges to for the English teacher faced with students who are not interested in learning English for its own sake but are concerned to have sufficient command of English to help them progress in their chosen careers. General English is being replaced by English for Specific Purposes but within an atmosphere of English for Academic Purposes. How can this best be done?

2. Gary Hicks University of Brighton, Training Coordinator Garnet Education Anthony Manning: University of Reading Ken Hyland: University of London Terry Phillips: Garnet Education

3. ESAP English for Specific Academic purposes

4. A change in focus “There is a wave of English building up. Within a decade nearly a third of the world population will all be trying to learn English at the same time.” David Graddol, Open University, 2008

5. From general to specific Increasingly English is being used as the teaching medium for BusinessStudies, Medicine, Engineering etc at Higher Education and Universitylevels.  This presents interesting challenges to for the English teacherfaced with students who are not interested in learning English for its ownsake but are concerned to have sufficient command of English to help themprogress in their chosen careers. General English is being replaced byEnglish for Specific Purposes but within an atmosphere of English forAcademic Purposes. How can this best be done?

6. Arguments for a general view • Language teachers lack the expertise and confidence to teach subject specific conventions • Low-level students need basic English • Skills and language across a range of disciplines is the same

7. English study at university • ENOP? • EAP? • ESP? • ESAP?

8. EAP provides … • Discourse structures and vocabulary spanning all academic fields • General skills to help decode and construct text in appropriate registers i.e., bottom up skills •

9. EAP Themes based on areas of human knowledge • not quirky • not invented • not ‘one-off’ human interest stories • not ‘teen’ topics

10. EAP Listening: to lectures Speaking: seminars, tutorials Reading: for research Writing: essays, assignments

11. EAP Listening and taking notes • not interactive listening • not ‘eavesdropping’ • not multiple listening • not ‘after doing’ comprehension questions

12. EAP Speaking from research • not phatic communion • not every function under the sun • not convergent, ‘what I know / think’

13. EAP Reading for research • not reading for pleasure • not every text type under the sun • not ‘after doing’ comprehension questions

14. EAP Writing in academic genres • not first person • not informal postcards, letters • not convergent, ‘what I know / think’

15. EAP Grammar the complex noun phrase clause joining clause embedding prepositional phrases stance adverbials

16. EAP

17. EAP (expanding the noun phrase) • Expanding the noun phrase… Childrenbecomeadults. Some children becomeviolentadults.

18. EAP (expanding the noun phrase) …childrenbecome violentadults. pre-modifying the head noun: A small number of children… How many / What proportion A small number of insecurely attached children… What kind?

19. EAP (expanding the noun phrase) …children … post-modifying the head noun: …of / with violent parents …who live with violent parents …(who live)living with violent parents …(who were) brought up by violent parents More specific? Background? Situation

20. EAP (expanding the main idea) According to research… According to well-known research… According to well-known research by Bandura… who conducted experiments into the origins of violence, Contrary to the theory of Freud, the well-known psychologist… who believed that children of violent parents become non-violent adults,

21. EAP (linking to consequence) ….children… become violentadults… whichperpetuates the cycle of violence. andpass on this violence to their own children. passingon this violence to their own children. (and are) locked in a cycle of violence.

22. EAP (adding stance) ….children… become violentadults… This researcher accepts that … This researcher does not believe that… It is, perhaps, surprising that… Surprisingly, It probably comes as no surprise that… Not surprisingly,

23. The advanced EAP sentence It is, perhaps, surprising that, contrary to the theory of Freud, thewell-known psychologist, whobelieved that children of violent parents become non-violent adults, a significant number of childrenbroughtup by violent parents becomeviolent adults, passing on their violence to their own children.

24. EAP (Lexical cohesion) • He chose the red Porsche ... • and carefully opened the door of the car. • He had it started in a moment ... • and eased the vehicle into the line of traffic. • Soon he was powering his acquisition along the motorway ... • and the coupe was flying. • For the first time since he spotted the machine, he smiled. • He’d make a fortune on this model. How many cars in this text

25. Students also need … Specific information from the field to activate schemata ESAP English for Specific Academic Purposes •

26. Top down • Activating schemata • Building background knowledge • Making hypotheses • Checking hypotheses against incoming data Extracting pragmatic meaning

27. What background knowledge? • What is the discipline? • What are its branches? • What does a practitioner do? • What is the history of the discipline? • Who are the great people in the discipline – biography? • What are the great works in the discipline – references? • What are the basic principles / knowledge in the discipline? • What are the current issues? • What are the contentious issues? • Are there any Health and safety issues (if relevant)? • How do you distinguish fact from opinion in the discipline? • What might the future hold?

28. Bottom up – also important • Decoding text into meaningful units • Extracting grammatical meaning • Comparing: grammatical meaning with hypothesis Extracting pragmatic meaning

29. Slide 12: Basic content for ESAP courses Slide 12: Basic content for ESAP courses Slide 12: Basic content for ESAP courses ELT/EAP: Ways of tackling complexity “I have been living in Seville for ten years.” “According to recent research conducted at the university of Reading, ....”

30. Slide 12: Basic content for ESAP courses Slide 12: Basic content for ESAP courses Slide 12: Basic content for ESAP courses EAP: Tackling complexity “It is perhaps surprising that, contrary to the theory of Freud, the well-known psychologist, who believed that children of aggressive parents become non-violent adults, a significant number of children brought up by parents suffering from bouts of aggression become violent adults, passing on their violence to their own children.”

31. Slide 12: Basic content for ESAP courses Slide 12: Basic content for ESAP courses Slide 12: Basic content for ESAP courses EAP: Tackling complexity “It is perhaps surprising that, contrary to the theory of Freud, the well-known psychologist, who believed that children of aggressive parents become non-violent adults, a significant number of children brought up by parents suffering from bouts of aggression become violent adults, passing on their violence to their own children.”

32. Top down & bottom up How do we learn? This seems like a simple but there is no simple In the next two lectures, we’re look at theories of I’m going to talk about from Ancient Next, theories from A Russian scientist, argues that mistakes are crucial in learning. However question. answer going to learning theories Greece Islamicscholars. Vygotsky, (contraryview)

33. ESAP • Disciplinary variations: • Disciplines see reality in different ways

34. Learning tasks • Humanities & social sciences Analyzing & synthesizing from multiple sources • Science and technology Describing procedures, defining procedures, planning solutions

35. Lexis and collocation • Common core ignores multiple meanings Consist means ‘stay the same’ in the social sciences and ‘composed of’ in the sciences Volume means “book’ in applied linguistics and ‘quantity’ in biology Abstract means ‘remove’ in engineering and ‘theoretical’ in social sciences

36. Reporting conventions • Social sciences; • Verbs which refer to writing activities: discuss, hypothesize, suggest, argue • Engineers and scientists: • Verbs refer to research activities: observe, discover, show, analyse, etc

37. Self-mention (per 1,000 words) • Philosophy 5.5 • Marketing 5.5 • Applied Linguistics 4.5 • Sociology 4.3 • Physics 4.1 • Biology 3.4 • Electrical engineering 3.3 • Mechanical engineering 1.0

38. Stance features (per 1000 words) • Philosophy 42.8 • Sociology 31.1 • App Ling 37.2 • Marketing 39.5 • Physics 25.0 • Mech Eng 19.8 • Elec Eng 21.6

39. Discipline Citations per 1000 words Sociology 12.5 Philosophy 10.8 Applied Linguistics 10.8 Marketing 10.1 Electronic Engineering 8.4 Physics 7.4 Mechanical Engineering 7.3

40. Some implications for teaching.. • Use target-language authentic texts • Encourage analysis • Encourage criticality • Encourage reflection • Use authentic/relevant models • Use expert informants

41. Conclusion • Misleading to think of universal genres and skills • Language use is situated within courses and disciplines • ESAP is about developing new kinds of literacy