Howard 1997

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title: Teacher Education for Languages for Specific Purposes

author: Howard, Ron
publisher: Multilingual Matters
isbn10 | asin: 1853593648
print isbn13: 9781853593642
ebook isbn13: 9780585149776
language: English
subject English language--Study and teaching--Foreign speakers,
English teachers--Training of.
publication date: 1997
lcc: PE1128.A2T36 1997eb
ddc: 428/.007
subject: English language--Study and teaching--Foreign speakers,
English teachers--Training of.
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Page i
Teacher Education for LSP
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Multilingual Matters
Distance Education for Language Teachers
RON HOWARD and IAN McGRATH (eds)
Encyclopedia of Bilingual Education and Bilingualism
COLIN BAKER (ed.)
Foundations of Bilingual Education and Bilingualism
COLIN BAKER
French for Communication 1979-1990
ROY DUNNING
Inspiring Innovations in Language Teaching
JUDITH HAMILTON
The Good Language Learner
N. NAIMAN, M. FRÖHLICH, H.H. STERN and A. TODESCO
Le ou La? The Gender of French Nouns
MARIE SURRIDGE
Linguistic Auditing
NIGEL REEVES and COLIN WRIGHT
Second Language Practice
GEORGES DUQUETTE (ed.)
Studies in Immersion Education
ELAINE M. DAY and STAN M. SHAPSON
Validation in Language Testing
A. CUMMING and R. BERWICK (eds)
Please contact us for the latest book information:
Multilingual Matters Ltd, Frankfurt Lodge, Clevedon Hall,
Victoria Road, Clevedon BS21 7SJ, UK.
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Page iii
Teacher Education for Languages for Specific Purposes
Edited by
Ron Howard and Gillian Brown
MULTILINGUAL MATTERS LTD

Clevedon • Philadelphia • Toronto • Adelaide • Johannesburg
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Page iv
Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data
Teacher Education for LSP/Edited by Ron Howard and Gillian Brown
Includes bibliographical references and index
1. English languages-Study and teaching-Foreign speakers. 2. English
teachers-Training of. I. Howard, Ron. II. Brown, Gillian.
PE1128.A2T36 1997
428'.007-dc20 96-33012
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
A CIP catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.
ISBN 1-85359-364-8 (hbk)
ISBN 1-85359-363-X (pbk)
Multilingual Matters Ltd
UK: Frankfurt Lodge, Clevedon Hall, Victoria Road, Clevedon BS21 7SJ.
USA: 1900 Frost Road, Suite 101, Bristol, PA 19007, USA.
Canada: OISE, 712 Gordon Baker Road, Toronto, Ontario, Canada M2H 3R7.
Australia: P.O. Box 6025, 95 Gilles Street, Adelaide, SA 5000, Australia.
South Africa: PO Box 1080, Northcliffe 2115, Johannesburg, South Africa.
Copyright © 1997 Ron Howard, Gillian Brown and the authors of individual chapters.
All rights reserved. No part of this work may be reproduced in any form or by any means without permission in writing from
the publisher.
Typeset by Archetype, Stow-on-the-Wold
Printed and bound in Great Britain by WBC Book Manufacturers Ltd.
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Page v
Contents
Contributors vii
A Note on Abbreviations xi
Introduction
Ron Howard And Gillian Brown 1
Part 1: The Context
1
LSP Teacher Education (Foreign Languages): Common and Specific
Elements
Richard Johnstone 11
2
ESP Teacher Education in the USA
Peter Master 22
3
LSP in the UK
Ron Howard 41
Part 2: Syllabus Issues
4
Five Questions for LSP Teacher Training
Tony Dudley-Evans 58
5
Needs Analysis: State of the Art
Richard West 68
6
Teacher Education and LSP: The Role of Specialised Knowledge
Gibson Ferguson 80
7
LSP or Language Education?
Ian Tudor 90
8
LSP Teacher Training in the use of Technology: Overcoming
Technofear
Philippe Delcloque 103
9
Teachers for Specific Purposes
Keith Richards 115
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Page vi
Part 3: Case Studies
10
TESP and Technophobes: Can Textbooks Teach Teachers?
Eric Glendinning 127
11
Discourse Analysis and Training Teachers of LSP: The Example of
French for Scientists
Robin Adamson 136
12
The ESP Coursebook: Effects on an In-service Training Programme in
Slovakia
Serena Yeo 148
13
Professional Participation: A Technique for LSP Teacher Education
Joan Maclean 158
14
The LSP Teacher and Independent Learning Strategies
Marina Mozzon-Mcpherson with Marijke Van Der Wolf 176
15
EFL Teacher Involvement in a Training Programme for Court
Interpreters in Zimbabwe
Jill Northcott 186
16
A Teacher Training Approach to a Degree in English Philology:
Implementing TESP
Juan Carlos Palmer and Santiago Posteguillo 202
17
Languages for Special Purposes: Using Information Technology in a
French for Business Course
Anthony Cheal Pugh 210
18
Accelerated Language Learning in an Intensive LSP Teacher Training
Programme
Marieken Swart 225
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Page vii
Contributors
Robin Adamson, University of Dundee
Robin Adamson is Director of the Centre for Applied Language Studies and Senior Lecturer in French at the University of
Dundee. She is one of the authors of Le français en faculté and Enfin de compte. She is convenor of the grammar team of the
Nuffield French for Scientists Project, which will publish 'CQFD, Le français des sciences et des techniques' in 1997.
Gillian Brown, University of Edinburgh
Gillian Brown is responsible for English courses for lawyers and law students, business students and professionals, and for
teacher-training courses in English for Business and Law at the Institute of Applied Language Studies. She is also Development
Coordinator for Modern Languages.
Philippe Delcloque, University of Abertay, Dundee
Philippe Delcloque started his academic career teaching French, Spanish and Linguistics at UMIST. After an excursion into the
professional audio business and work in machine translation, artificial intelligence and intuitive learning systems, he returned to
academia three years ago with a post at Napier University, Edinburgh. He is now Head of Languages at the University of
Abertay Dundee, and specialises in intelligent CALL and Open Learning.
Tony Dudley-Evans, University of Birmingham
Tony Dudley-Evans is a senior lecturer in the English for International Students Unit at the University of Birmingham, where he
is involved in both the training of ESP teachers and the running of an extensive EAP programme for overseas students. He is
also co-editor of the international journal English for Specific Purposes.
Gibson Ferguson, University of Edinburgh
Gibson Ferguson, a PhD in Applied Linguistics, is presently employed as a Lecturer in the Department of Applied Linguistics,
University of Edinburgh.
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Page viii
Eric Glendinning, University of Edinburgh
Eric Glendinning is the Director of the Institute for Applied Language Studies and the author of a number of ESP textbooks,
most recently Oxford English for Electrical and Mechanical Engineering.
Ron Howard, University of Edinburgh
Ron Howard is Development Coordinator for Distance Learning at the Institute for Applied Language Studies. His main
contributions to teacher education courses are on ESP, especially English for Medicine, and computer-assisted language
learning. He has directed or participated in workshops for ESP teachers in China, Poland, Hungary, Egypt, and Cuba.
Richard Johnstone, University of Stirling
Richard Johnstone is Professor of Education at the University of Stirling and Director of the Scottish Centre for Information on
Language Teaching and Research. He has directed several national research projects on the teaching and learning of foreign and
heritage languages at primary and secondary school.
Joan Maclean, University of Edinburgh
Joan Maclean is Head of the Medical English Section of the Institute for Applied Language Studies and is responsible for
courses for doctors and medical students and for medical English teachers.
Peter Master, San Jose State University
Peter Master is Associate Professor in the Department of Linguistics and Language Development at San Jose State University in
California. He is co-editor of English for Specific Purposes and The CATESOL Journal and the editor of the 'Issues in ESP'
column in TESOL Matters.
Marina Mozzon-McPherson, University of Hull
Marina Mozzon-McPherson is a Language Lecturer and Language Open Learning Adviser at the University of Hull. Her main
research interests are independent learning strategies and the effective use of technology to enhance the language-learning
process.
Jill Northcott, University of Edinburgh
Jill Northcott is currently working in the area of English for Business and Law at the Institute for Applied Language Studies.
She has previously worked with the British Council in Malaysia, and holds a first degree in English Language and Literature
and an MLitt in Applied Linguistics from the University of Edinburgh.
Juan Carlos Palmer, Universitat Jaume I, Castello
Juan Carlos Palmer has a first degree in English philology from the University of Valencia. At the moment he is teaching in the
ESP unit at the
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Universitat Jaume I. He is at present doing research in writing in English for Business, a subject in which he has recently
obtained his PhD degree.
Santiago Posteguillo, Universitat Jaume I, Castello
Santiago Posteguillo Gómez has a first degree in English philology from the University of Valencia. At the moment he is
teaching in the ESP unit at the Universitat Jaume I. He recently presented a PhD Dissertation titled 'Genre Analysis in English
for Computer Science'. This dissertation was awarded the European Doctorate Degree.
Anthony Cheal Pugh, University of Durham
Anthony Pugh is Honorary Senior Lecturer in French, and Director of the Language Centre. He has taught language, linguistics,
literature, literary theory, and, since 1992, French for Business. He is an author, translator and member of the advisory
committee of the Centre for the History of the Human Sciences.
Keith Richards, Aston University
Keith Richards is a lecturer in the Language Studies Unit at Aston University, where most of his work is focused on
postgraduate teacher development. He has worked in a number of countries in Europe and the Middle East, specialising in ESP.
His research interest is in educational discourse and teacher development, and recent publications include Teachers Develop
Teachers Research (edited with Julian Edge) and Distance Learning and ELT (edited with Peter Roe).
Marieken Swart, University of Stellenbosch
Marieken Swart, MA, taught English for 9 years at secondary level and for 5 years at a teachers' training college. She has been
a lecturer in English Communication Skills at the University of Stellenbosch in South Africa since 1989. She is also a
consultant in LSP at the Stellenbosch Business School. Her research interests include the design and development of academic
support programmes and computer-assisted language instruction.
Ian Tudor, Free University of Brussels
Ian Tudor studied Applied Linguistics at the University of Edinburgh, and has taught in Libya, Great Britain, Germany and
Belgium. His research is in the fields of course design and teacher education.
Richard West, University of Manchester
After teaching in Zambia, Iran and the UK, Richard West went to Manchester in 1985. His main interests are testing and
examinations, ESP and distance education.
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Serena Yeo, British Council, Koice, Slovakia
Serena Yeo works for the British Council as Regional Teacher Trainer/ESP Adviser, East Slovakia Region. She has an MA
TEFL, and has previously worked in Ghana, Portugal and Malaysia.
Marijke van der Wolf, HM Customs and Excise, Harwich
Marijke van der Wolf, whilst working as a part-time lecturer at the University of Hull, has been teaching Dutch in a wide range
of courses and levels; this includes working on a specialised course with HM Customs and Excise. She has recently taken up an
appointment as a Language Trainer at HM Customs and Excise in Harwich.
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A Note on Abbreviations
Some of the many acronyms and abbreviations used in language teaching are listed below. The abbreviation LSP is used in two
senses in this book. Sometimes, as in the title of the book, it can refer to all languages for specific purposes, and is inclusive of
ESP; at other times, it is used for languages other than English for specific purposes, as distinct from ESP. We hope that the
context always makes clear which of the two meanings is intended.
ALL Association for Language Learning/Accelerated
Language Learning
BE Business English
CALL Computer-Assisted Language Learning
CBI Content-Based Instruction / Computer-Based
Instruction
EAP English for Academic Purposes
EBE English for Business and Economics
EEP English for Educational Purposes
EFL English as a Foreign Language
EGP English for General Purposes
ELP English for Legal Purposes
ELT English Language Teaching
EMP English for Medical Purposes
EOP English for Occupational Purposes
EPP English for Professional Purposes
ESL English as a Second Language
ESOL English for Speakers of Other Languages
ESP English for Specific Purposes
EST English for Science and Technology
ETBI English Teaching for Business and Industry
EVP English for Vocational Purposes
GE General English
IATEFLInternational Association of Teachers of EFL
IWLP Institution-Wide Language Programmes
LAC Language Across the Curriculum
LE Legal English
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LSP Languages for Specific Purposes
MA Master of Arts
MATESOLMaster of Arts (TESOL)
ME Medical English
MSc Master of Science
MT Mother Tongue
NATECLANational Association for Teaching English and
other Community Languages to Adults
PGCE Postgraduate Certificate in Education
TEFL Teaching English as a Foreign Language
TESL Teaching English as a Second Language
TESOL Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages
TESP Teaching English for Specific Purposes
TLSP Teaching Languages for Specific Purposes
VESL Vocational English as a Second Language
VOLL Vocationally Oriented Language Learning
VOLT Vocationally Oriented Language Teaching
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Introduction
Ron Howard and Gillian Brown
This book is about the initial and continuing education of teachers of languages for specific purposes.
Recent years have seen a considerable growth in the number of LSP courses on offer. In Europe, this is related to the creation of
the European Community and to the breaking down of East-West barriers, but throughout the world there are similar trends
towards increasing academic and professional mobility and expanding markets, with the consequent need for specialised
language skills.
Parallel to the multiplication of courses, there is an increased need for LSP teacher education. And issues such as when this
should take place, what it should consist of, and how it should be achieved are tackled in this book. We cannot claim that
definitive answers to these questions are providedcould be providedbut we are confident that LSP teacher trainees and trainers
will find much to stimulate their thinking in these pages.
The book is based on a selection of papers originally presented at a symposium called LSP and Teacher Education, held on 16-
18 November, 1994, at the University of Edinburgh. The papers selected have, where appropriate, been updated and revised by
their authors for publication in the book, and three new chapters have been added. Peter Master has written on ESP and ESP
teacher education in the United States. To round out this overview of current ESP practice, Ron Howard has provided a chapter
on ESP and LSP in the United Kingdom. Thirdly, Keith Richards has contributed a chapter based on his research into the
'professional lives and beliefs' of the ESP practitioner.
The book is divided into three parts. The first part provides a context for the other two: a consideration of what should go into
the syllabus for LSP teacher education in the second, and a series of case studies in the third.

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Context
Robinson (1991: 79) writes: 'ESP courses, and the institutions around the world which offer them, are so varied that there can be
no single model for the ESP teacher.' The variety is even greater if the teaching of languages other than English is considered.
Part 1 attempts to provide at least a partial picture of that variety, and of some of the many different models of LSP teaching.
The opening chapter by Richard Johnstone outlines recent changes in LSP teaching in Scotland. In Scottish primary schools, a
foreign language is now being taught to children from the age of ten. The same policy should soon be introduced into other parts
of the UK, so that foreign language learning will eventually extend from the ages of 10 to 16 throughout Britain. Furthermore,
and this is of relevance to LSP, the aim is that much of the teaching will be content-based, that is teachers will be teaching other
parts of the curriculum through the medium of the foreign language. The implications of these new policies for LSP teacher
education in the UK are only just beginning to emerge, and we await developments with considerable interest.
The practice of ESP in the US is known to be different in some respects from that in the UK. The chapters by Master and
Howard illustrate some of the differences, as well as providing background information on the ways LSP is taught and how the
LSP teacher is educated in the two countries. To take one example, the training of International Teaching Assistants (foreign
postgraduate students who assist in the teaching of American undergraduates) is an important area in the USA, but is unknown
in Britain. Master includes under the 'umbrella' of ESP, a very broad range of teaching situations in addition to ITA training,
including the teaching of English for Academic Purposes from kindergarten to university, and the preparation of immigrants for
the US citizenship examination. He classifies the various branches of ESP under four headings (academic, professional,
vocational, and sociocultural), and examines the needs of the teachers, and the current state of teacher education in the US, for
each of the four categories. He concludes that ESP teacher education in the US today is 'minimal at best', suggests possible
reasons for the inadequacy, and makes recommendations in terms of both content and delivery of courses.
Using Master's classification, Howard describes the practice of the four branches of ESP in Britain. The provision of courses for
teachers of ESP is by no means ideal in Britain, but appears to be somewhat better than in the US. There are currently (1996)
three masters degrees specialising in ESP, as

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well as certificate and diploma courses, (some in specific branches of ESP, such as the Diploma in Teaching Business English
offered by the London Chamber of Commerce and Industry Examinations Board). The position is less satisfactory for teachers
of languages other than English, although some of the ESP courses mentioned would be suitable for LSP teachers. Howard
briefly surveys the growth of degree courses 'with language', where the language component is seen as an integral part of the
programme. Teachers on these courses are often in urgent need of training, as Adamson in Part 2 of this book confirms, and it is
to be hoped that publication of the book will help to draw attention to the problem.
Some readers may be surprised to see included under the heading of LSP such diverse situations as teaching survival skills to
recent immigrants, and teaching foreign graduates communication skills in universities. It may well be that all language teaching
is becoming so specialised that the old LGP/LSP distinction is disappearing. Certainly, it is good to remind ourselves of the
range of specialisations possible in our profession. But, in fact, in the next two parts of the book, a more restricted view of LSP
is taken, focusing on teacher education for what might be called 'mainstream' LSP teaching: academic LSP in colleges and
universities, and professional and vocational LSP for adults.
Syllabus
The discussion of what should go into the LSP teacher education syllabus is introduced by Tony Dudley-Evans, who identifies
five key topic areas: LSP theory (or at least the set of procedures followed in setting up courses); LSP methodology; genre and
discourse analysis; knowledge of subject content and disciplinary culture; and cross-cultural studies.
Although it is often said that LSP has no specific methodology to distinguish it from general language teaching (LGP), Dudley-
Evans argues that this is not entirely true. The teacher-student relationship in LSP is radically different from that in LGP: the
student is often an expert in a field of which the teacher has little or no knowledge despite needing to have at least a grasp of its
'conceptual structure'. This special relationship influences methodology in a number of subtle ways. For example, student-
initiated exchanges are more common in LSP. The LSP teacher must take a back seat more often than the general language
teacher, and this is one of the most difficult lessons she or he must learn. Another feature of LSP methodology, less often found
in LGP, is inter-disciplinary team teaching.
One area that has recently come into prominence is the study of

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cross-cultural differences. Each discipline has its own culture, but these disciplinary cultures may differ from country to country.
Such differences are particularly evident in languages for business purposesa fact reflected in the title change (from Language
Training to Language and Intercultural Training) of a journal devoted to business language teaching. Dudley-Evans gives
several interesting examples of these differences and points to the need for more research. The role of LSP teacher education in
this area could be to raise awareness of the existence of cross-cultural differences with a view to encouraging such research.
Indeed, encouraging research is an important function of TLSP courses in general.
The set of procedures referred to by Dudley-Evans has as its starting point the analysis of needs. Richard West's chapter
underlines the fact that much has changed in the approach of LSP practitioners to this important aspect of course design. Needs
analysis must now be extended to cover not only target situation analysis, but deficiency analysis, strategy analysis, and means
analysis, and, in the case of a large organisation or a whole country, language audit. West ends by describing how one
practitioner in Finland is using a computer database to analyse the results of needs analysis and match them with appropriate
materials. This could well be the direction in which LSP course design is heading.
Gibson Ferguson tackles the issue of subject knowledge, and makes a distinction between specialist knowledge, which is what
LSP learners have, and specialised knowledge, which is what the well-qualified LSP teacher needs. He identifies three elements
in specialised knowledge: knowledge of disciplinary cultures and values; knowledge of the epistemological basis of different
disciplines; and knowledge of genre and discourse. While genre and discourse analysis are seen to be clearly the province of the
linguist and an introduction to them is fairly standard in LSP teacher education courses, the first two kinds of knowledge still
tend to be neglected. Ferguson suggests courses about, rather than in, science, law, etc., as a way of inducting teachers into these
kinds of knowledge. This is a recommendation that has been made before, for example, by Kennedy (1979: 43), who thought it
would 'break down inhibitions and increase self-confidence', yet it is rarely put into practice.
If some specialised knowledge is necessary, the argument about how much is desirable is less easily settled. Should those
teachers who choose, or are obliged, to teach only one branch of LSP, e.g. French or German for Chemists (Reuben, 1994), aim
for something more than the kind of specialised knowledge Ferguson suggests? Should the possibly emerging trend for subject
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part-time, and for language teachers to seek qualifications in areas such as Business Studies, be encouraged?
Ian Tudor may appear to be arguing against LSP in his chapter, but in fact he is chiefly making a case for not dwelling on the
differences between general purpose language teaching and teaching LSP. His view is that the profession as a whole is
undergoing radical changes, and more important than any LGP/LSP distinction is the common need to incorporate skills such as
fostering learner autonomy into our teaching. Mozzon-McPherson argues in the third section of the book that, because they
focus so much on what is being learnt and on the information content of lessons, LSP teachers are at greater risk of neglecting
the learning process than LGP teachers. At the same time, it could be argued that because of the variation in their needs, which
often simply cannot be catered for by the LSP teacher, self-access materials and independent learning strategies are more
important for the LSP student that for others. Training in how to develop independent learning strategies is therefore an essential
component of LSP teacher education courses.
Another area common to LGP and LSP but possibly even more important in LSP is the use of modern technology, the subject of
Philippe Delcloque's chapter. As he points out, the computer can be used to create more flexible teaching materials and to
increase the possibility of individualisation, both vital in LSP. Unfortunately, the typical language teacher is subject to
'technofear'. This technofear is due not only to reluctance to change old ways and methods, but to the fact that until quite
recently language teachers had little access to computers and received little training in their use, while computers themselves
were far from user-friendly, and hard-gained knowledge of how to use one machine did not transfer to others. However,
Delcloque assures us that this should no longer be the case, and the efforts of manufacturers and software producers have
already made the task of trying to overcome technofear considerably easier.
Keith Richards concludes Part 2 with a look at LSP teachers themselves. He comments on the paradox that 'in a field where an
understanding of the target situation is centre stage. . . we have made no efforts to investigate the target situation of the ESP
teacher'. Without such investigation, it is difficult to achieve the 'acculturation' of LSP teachers, advocated by Boswood and
Marriott (1994). Trainees need to be inducted into the discourse community of LSP specialists, just as their students need to be
introduced to the discourse community of specific subject specialists. This involves making them aware of attitudes, beliefs,
values ('regulatory beliefs') as well as of preferred modes of speaking and writing.

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Richards finds in his study that ESP practitionersat least in the case of the two business English teachers he studiedare
enthusiastic about what they do, highly concerned about their students as individuals, and convinced that ESP is at the 'cutting
edge of language teaching'. His study may encourage other investigations of the target situations of LSP teacher in different
contexts.
Richards' chapter provides a welcome and necessary corrective to some of the more negative portraits of the LSP teacher in the
literature. Teaching LSP can be very rewarding and extremely exciting, and one of the most important aspects of LSP teacher
education is the generation of a sense of this excitement.
Methodology
Part 3 contains case studies of a varied sample of LSP teaching situations: French for Science in Britain (Adamson); service
English in Slovakian universities (Yeo); English for international conferences in Cuba (Maclean); Dutch for British customs and
excise officers (Mozzon-McPherson); English for court interpreters in Zimbabwe (Northcott); French for Business on an MA
course in Britain (Pugh); and Business English for the educationally disadvantaged in South Africa.
The section begins with Eric Glendinning's account of how a well-produced coursebook can overcome the teacher's lack of
subject knowledge. He recommends avoiding the over-exposure of the 'technophobe' teacher to unfamiliar language,
methodology and specialist content. At the same time, in a 'subject-driven' or content-based approach, he uses a combination of
lay graphics, lay texts and specialist texts, selected and organised according to specialist criteria. The lay graphics and texts form
a bridge between teacher and students, but at the same time because they are chosen and ordered in a principled way, serve to
educate the teacher in the disciplinary culture. The specialist text is set for homework. A key is provided, so the teacher has
relatively little responsibility for this more 'technical' section.
Totally untrained teachers, whether native-speakers or not, cannot be expected to use even well-designed LSP materials
successfully, as Robin Adamson found. She and her team were obliged to become teacher trainers as well as materials writers
and to provide detailed teachers' notes. Adamson carried out, as part of the Nuffield French for Scientists Project, an analysis of
the target situation of British undergraduates intending to spend a year studying in France; the research brought to light certain
cross-cultural differences, as well as similarities, between French and

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British academic procedures. The results of the study enabled the writing team to incorporate information about disciplinary
culture in the teacher's notes.
Serena Yeo recognises the advantages of a coursebook written by experts but at the same time argues that teacher involvement
in materials production often means greater commitment to the materials. Locally produced materials can take into account local
conditions and therefore may be more effective. Yeo points out that pre-service language teacher training in often minimal in
Slovakia, as it is in many other countries in Europe, and a good in-service training programme is therefore vital. The content of
her programme is carefully related to changing needs and priorities, for example whether teachers use commercial materials or
have to create their own, and is delivered in the form of group discussions, guest-speaker seminars, residential summer courses
and conferences. Some LSP teachers suffer from isolation, and establishing and maintaining contact with other practitioners is
essential for them. This can be achieved, as in Slovakia, through a quarterly newsletter, membership of organisations such as the
IATEFL ESP special interest group, and now, electronically through e-mail and the Internet.
Working with Cuban teachers, Joan Maclean was able to make her materials, although they were 'imported', acceptable by
giving a first-hand demonstration that they 'worked', and worked with the teachers' own students. Maclean writes of the failure
of general LSP courses to come to grips with the specific problems of the LSP teacher, and reports the success of an experiment
in combining a teacher education workshop with practical teaching experience on a concurrent course for language learners. The
teachers' involvement in a real course provided an opportunity for reflecting on practice and generalising from the experience, in
a reversal of the usual theory-into-practice approach of most teacher education.
Team teaching by a language teacher and a subject specialist has been widely discussed (e.g. Smyth, 1980). Team teaching by a
more experienced teacher and one or more trainees can also be an effective form of teacher education. Maclean's course in Cuba
is one case in point. Another is provided by Marina Mozzon-McPherson working with Marijke van der Wolf. In their course, a
specialist in independent learning worked with a language teacher, so that the students learnt independent learning strategies and
the language teacher simultaneously learnt how to teach these strategies.
The problem of lack of specialised knowledge was tackled by Jill Northcott, who describes how teachers were prepared for
teaching on a

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new course by visits to 'the theatre of operation' (Zimbabwean law courts), and by sessions with magistrates and with senior
members of the learners' profession (court interpreters). Like Maclean, she shows how the development of a new course can be
used opportunistically for the continuing education of teachers. The course materials, although largely written by Northcott,
incorporated ideas from the teachers, and were subsequently modified in the light of experiencethis was facilitated by the word
processor. (Will the LSP coursebook of the future be supplied on diskette or CD ROM to allow adaptation to local
circumstances and to give teachers a vested interested in using them?)
Observation of classes, when provided, is always highly-rated by participants on teacher education courses, as Maclean observes;
her technique of 'professional participation' goes one step further. Participation as a student in classes can also be highly
effective; putting the teacher in the place of the student gives insights into the learning process and encourages learner-
centredness, but is not usually possible in LSP because teacher trainees lack subject knowledge. However, in the case of EAP
and Business English (BE) for undergraduates, participation is more feasible since the level of subject knowledge required is not
so great. Santiago Posteguillo and Juan Carlos Palmer give their trainees the opportunity to take EAP and BE undergraduate
classes for credit in a philology degree programme in Spain. They hope to extend the range of ESP courses open to teacher
trainees to include courses for post-experience learners and in-company courses, though in this case only as observers. They
argue that the principles of LSP teaching cannot be introduced too early into the education of future teachers.
Anthony Pugh working with British undergraduate language specialists also introduces them to LSP in the shape of a French for
Business option. Some of his students will eventually become language teachers, and this experience should prove invaluable
for them. Not only is BE one of the most common varieties of language teaching, but LSP teachers need more and more to
acquire managerial skills themselves. The French for Business course is conducted using state-of-the-art technology, and it
simultaneously introduces participants to computer-assisted learning and information technology, helping to overcome
technofear. One of Pugh's students wrote in an e-mail message: 'Grâce à ce cours, j'ai conquis ma peur irrationnelle des
ordinateurs. . . '
In the final chapter, Marieken Swart reports that accelerated learning techniques, based on the principles first outlined by
suggestopaedist Lozanov, have been successful in South Africa, not only in Business English

Page 9
courses for poorly educated black Africans, but also in teacher education courses for their tutorsanother example of teacher
participation as a student.
Conclusions
What then can be concluded about teacher education for LSP? We would argue that a general language teaching course is a
necessary, if not a sufficient, preliminary to teaching LSP. A good general course should contain an introduction to needs
analysis, independent learning, educational technology, discourse analysis and genre analysis, and should develop awareness of
individual learner characteristics and the frameworks of inter-cultural differencesall highly relevant to LSP teaching. Ideally,
prospective LSP teachers should acquire this knowledge base as early as possible, e.g. in a first degree course in modern
languages or philology.
Once a teacher has made the decision to take up LSP, the most appropriate type of education depends on a number of factors.
Many teachers will acquire further skills 'on the job'; others will look for help from a course. Kennedy (1979: 42) proposed that,
'A training course should differ depending on the characteristics of the trainee. . . and on the second major variable, that of the
teaching situation for which the teacher is being prepared.' Those wishing to retain pluripotency as an LSP teacher may choose a
certificate or masters course in TLSP. Those who are already involved in a single branch of LSP may prefer a more focused
course, e.g. in teaching Business English. In either case, a choice has to be made of a full-time or part-time course, an
institution-based or an on-site course. The latter has the advantage as Richards points out of encouraging 'shared staff
development'.
Boswood and Marriott (1994:7) recommend an approach to LSP teacher education something like that in medicine or law, 'a
combination of overt learning and apprenticeship (internships, articling)'. Whatever the theoretical grounding they have had,
practical experience is invaluable to the LSP teacher: direct experience of the learners' target situation; participation in LSP
courses, where appropriate; observation of LSP classes; and teaching practice. This is not easy to organise, however, and
substitutes may be necessary. Peer teaching is less appropriate in LSP teacher training than in general language teacher training:
the gap between peers simulating learners and real LSP students is generally greater. Direct observation can be replaced to a
limited extent by viewing of video recordings. The ideal situation may be, after initial general language teacher education, for
more

Page 10
specialised training to take place in-service, either through extended on-site courses, as Richards recommends, or through
distance education, as Master suggests (see also Howard & McGrath, 1995). In this way, trainees would have access to most of
the 'apprenticeship' modes within their own institution or community.
References
Boswood, T. and Marriott, A. (1994) Ethnography for specific purposes: Teaching and training in parallel. English for Specific
Purposes 13(1), 2-21.
Howard, R. and McGrath, I. (1995) Distance Education for Language Teachers. Clevedon, UK: Multilingual Matters.
Kennedy, C. (1979) The training of teachers for ESP. In S. Holden (ed.) Teacher Training (pp.41-7). Oxford: Modern English
Publications.
Reuben, C. (1994) Building bridges. In G. Parker, and C. Reuben (eds) (1994) Languages for the International Scientist (pp. 23-
31). London: Association for French Language Studies and CILT.
Robinson. P. (1991) ESP Today: a Practitioner's Guide. Hemel Hemptstead: Prentice Hall.
Smyth, E. (1980) Team Teaching in ESP. ELT Documents 106. London: The British Council.

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Chapter 1
LSP Teacher Education (Foreign Languages): Common and Specific Elements
Richard Johnstone
Traditionally, foreign languages have been taught in schools as a contribution to students' general education rather than for
specific purposes, apart perhaps from the purposes of gaining a pass in the national examinations or of functioning in a general
way as a future tourist. However, important changes are now taking place in Scotland, which include some initial signs of
language-learning for specific purposes.
It is important to acknowledge from the start that what might be termed LSP (Languages for Specific Purposes) and LGP
(Languages for General Purposes), though of course representing different purposes in language teaching, are not diametrically
opposed in all respects. A glance at the contents of this book makes it clear, for example, that many of the topics that
contributors have chosen to addresse.g. 'Dealing with technophobes', 'Independent learning techniques'are precisely the same
topics as are being addressed within the context of LGP in schools.
The Context for Foreign Language Teaching in Scottish Schools

Until recently, the amount of time available for foreign languages in Scottish schools was very limited in comparison with other
countries. Pupils entered secondary school at the age of 12 with no foreign language from their primary school education. A
foreign language, usually French or German, was generally obligatory for the first two years of secondary, but optional
thereafter. If, at the end of this initial two years, pupils thought that enough was enough, they were generally allowed to drop
their foreign

Page 12
language, and many did. Perhaps their motivation would have been higher if they had been able to discern a set of more specific
purposes for learning a foreign language that meant something to them. At any rate, a two-year exposure hardly constituted a
significant induction into the learning of foreign languages for any purpose, general or specific.
However, as a result of national policy, the amount of time allocated for foreign-language learning in Scottish schools has been
increased and the subject is now more or less compulsory from the age of 12 to 16. In addition, there has been a major national
policy development with younger learners, as foreign languages are gradually re-introduced into primary schools in Scotland.
The previous large-sale experiment taking place in the 1960s and early 1970s in England received a strongly negative evaluation
(Burstall et al., 1974), which led to the demise of French in the primary school. Now, however, some 20 years later, modern
languages at primary school has become national policy in Scotland (though not south of the border) with the stated aim that all
primary schools in Scotland within the next few years should be offering a modern foreign language (French, German, Spanish
or Italian), preferably in the final two years of primary education, to pupils aged ten onwards.
As a result of these two major policy developmentsa foreign language for pupils in the final two years of primary and then to
the age of 16 at secondarythe scenario for languages in Scottish schools has changed dramatically from a two-year to effectively
a six-year compulsory period.
These developments must have implications for LSP. Pupils are now reaching school-leaving age in Scotland, having had a six-
year introduction to foreign languages. It is conceivable that during this time they will in fact to some extent have been learning
and using foreign languages for specific purposes. Their language course may possibly not be the sort of general, all-embracing
kind of language course that has been offered in the past, and that has perhaps contributed to the negative motivation of many
pupils. It also means that, by the end of these six years when they are 16 years of age, they will be in a good position to think
hard about what they might do with what will probably still be a fairly general competence in the language. A six-year, as
opposed to a two-year, languages platform will put them in a better position than in the past for studying a variety of languages
for a variety of specific purposes.
It is likely that in three ways a more specific focus on language teaching is likely to emerge in Scottish schools that will
complement the general purpose as already described.

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Specifity in Foreign Languages at Primary School
The first development is located in the Scottish primary school. Here, the objective of introducing languages has not been
simply to import into the primary school curriculum the general and rather vaguely defined syllabus with which pupils
traditionally begin at secondary school. On the contrary, a foreign language is not intended to be a subject in its own right in the
primary school. The intention has been to exploit the existing areas of the primary school curriculum through the particular
foreign language that the pupils are learning. This occurs in nothing like as powerful a form as partial or total immersion
programmes, but it does mean that the teachers in the primary schools actually have to think of the subject matter that they are
going to be teaching anyway and of how some of this might be exploited through the foreign language. It is not therefore
primarily a question of preparing a general language course that has its own kind of logic and its own sequence that may lead to
some vaguely defined use in the foreign country in three or four years' time. Instead, there are aspects of (for example) Religious
and Moral Education and of what in the primary school curriculum is called Environmental Studiesincorporating science, history
and geographythat are being exploited in small part through the medium of the foreign language. An element of specificity is
thereby introduced that sets a different and promising framework for the language as compared with the less specific framework
built into languages courses at secondary.
This approach has considerable implications for the kind of language awareness and language competence that the teachers in
the primary schools will require. During the pilot stage of the national initiative, in the early 1990s, the language was mainly
taught by secondary school teachers who visited the primary schools in the local area and worked alongside the primary teachers
who were not expert in the language. However, now that the pilot stage is over and that provision is being extended to all
Scottish primary schools, the teaching has to be undertaken mainly by the primary school teachers themselves. They, it is
considered, are in the best position to blend the foreign language into the specific areas of the primary school curriculum. This
has considerable implications for the kind of training they receive. If they do not have a foreign language, or perhaps if they did
but have largely forgotten it, how much training in the language will they require in order not so much to teach a standard
foreign language course (as at secondary), with its prepared materials and its defined progression through those materialsbut to
introduce the foreign language for somewhat more specific purposes related to the kind of primary school curriculum that they
are teaching anyway?

Page 14
As the language teachers in the primary schools are being trained to do this, they are at times having to learn a wider range of
specific vocabulary, structure and function than their professionally trained counterparts may actually use in secondary schools.
The national syllabus of competences (SOED, 1993) that teachers are expected to acquire as a result of the special training that
they receive includes elements such as: preparing, baking, cooking simple everyday dishes, specialities of the country; involving
pupils in simple experiments on water, air, sounds; simple gardening; making decorations with cardboard, e.g. measuring,
drawing, cutting, folding, sticking, colouring; involving pupils in mime, role play, the creation of playlets and songs, board
games, party games, sports, story-telling.
How is this rich variety of specific language carried forward to secondary education? There are problems of transition across
most subjects in the curriculum, but particularly so in foreign languages. This is so not only because a foreign language is a
relatively new aspect of the primary school curriculum but also because thus far very different teaching approaches have been
adopted in the two sectors. As has previously been stated, there is an element of 'languages for specific purposes' already in the
primary school by intention. In conducting the evaluation of the national pilot project, my colleagues and I repeatedly became
aware of children in primary schools at the age of 11 who were able to use language in specific ways, drawing on detailed and
precise vocabulary and structure in the process. Yet, when they proceeded to secondary school, they still tended to be plugged
into the omnibus French or German course which has remained much the same as it was before languages were introduced into
the primary schools. In fact, using a detailed system of classroom observation and analysis, our research team (Low et al., 1993;
1995) was able to document a wider range of language being used in late primary than in early secondary schools. Thus, there
has arisen the problem of how the specific aspects of language that children have been developing in the primary schools are to
be further developed at secondary school where the tradition has been one of generalist language teaching.
The national training programmes for primary school teachers then are based on an identification of certain specific language
needs arising from an intention to relate the foreign language to everyday classroom activities and the broad areas of the primary
school curriculum. These same programmes, however, are less explicit about other types of need that arguably are also
important for language teaching at primary school. In their book on English for Specific Purposes (ESP), Hutchinson and Waters
(1987: 2) argue that any notion of ESP must be flawed if it is geared

Page 15
exclusively to language use. They argue that ESP must also entail an analysis of the how as well as the what of learning. If the
national training programmes for languages at primary school in Scotland have achieved much in identifying what primary
teachers should be able to say, they provide little or no information that would enable them to gain some understanding of how
pupils at primary school are considered to learn a foreign language. A more fully developed syllabus of needs for this
population of primary school teachers, new to the game of incorporating a foreign language into their teaching approach, would
be likely to take account of their needs for knowledge not only of (a) specific aspects of language for use in class within the
broad areas of the primary curriculum, but also of (b) theories of second-language learning by young learners in institutional
contexts and (c) the cultures in which the particular foreign language is spoken, an aspect mentioned but not treated in depth in
the syllabus for the training programme. The training programme for practising primary teachers lasts 27 days, distributed over
more or less a school year. As such, it rightly had to be limited in its objectives. It remains to be seen in the light of experience
whether this amount of time will prove enough and whether within it the concentration on the very specific aspects of (a) to the
relative exclusion of aspects (b) and (c) represents the most appropriate way of equipping primary teachers with the knowledge
and skills for introducing a foreign language to their pupils.
Special Educational Needs

The second area where a focus on foreign languages for specific purposes is emerging is in the case of children with special
educational needs, particularly those with marked learning difficulties and disabilities of various sorts. In the past they have
generally not been offered a modern foreign language, but for understandable reasons relating to equal opportunities this is
changing. Children with recorded needs, whether in special or in mainstream schools, are increasingly being offered a foreign
language. At present the development is too thin on the ground for there to be a clear, consensual view as to what their specific
needs and interests may be in this area or of how these might be responded to, but already it raises questions as to who is going
to do the teaching, what the actual aims of this are, and what the particular skills of the teacher will be. Will the aim be the
develoment of communicative competence which tends to be the slogan under which most language teaching in schools is
organised, or will it be something different? Arguably, one major purpose would be in relation to personal development, e.g. of
self-concept, awareness of language and culture, confidence, interpersonal skills, learning strategies. It is doubtful

Page 16
if the standard, omnibus introductory course typically used in the early years of secondary education, geared mainly to
hypothetical tourist, penfriend or school-exchange scenarios, would be appropriate, so much remains to be learnt about the
specifics of this important emerging area.
Teaching Other Subjects at Secondary School Through the Medium of a Foreign Language
A third area of 'foreign languages at school for specific purposes' has manifested itself increasingly in other countries in Europe:
the teaching of subject matter at secondary school through the medium of the foreign languagein other words, not simply
teaching a foreign language as a subject with its own body of knowledge and its own procedures, but using it in order to teach
other subject matter. This is a development of potentially great significance. At present, even those students who represent the
very best of the output of Scottish secondary education are not on a par with their equivalents in several other countries
elsewhere in Europe. French, German and other students, on completion of their education at school, possess sufficient
competence in English as a foreign language, and indeed in other foreign languages, to enable them to study a variety of subjects
successfully at universities abroad. The same does not apply in reverse. The best Scottish students would have great difficulty if
they were to go to higher education elsewhere in Europe with the intention of studying various subjects there through the
particular language of the country.
It therefore becomes important that Scottish schools should aim to promote the study of foreign languages for the specific
purpose of being able subsequently to engage in academic learning in other countries. Otherwise, the best students in Scotland
will have been denied equality of opportunity for flexible study within European higher education in comparison with their
counterparts in other countries. This raises difficult but interesting questions. The teacher who is going to help students in
secondary schools to come to terms with (for example) history or geography or biology through the medium of the foreign
languagewhat kind of teacher should it be? Should it be a language specialist who happens to know some history or geography
or biology, or should it be a teacher of a subject such as these who happens to know the foreign languageor will it be done by
some combination of the two? Given the vocational mobility that is now legally possible within the EU, what might be achieved
by (say) a German teacher of geography working in a Scottish school alongside a Scottish teacher of German? Combined
operations of this sort would be bound to open up possibilities for very specific as well as general

Page 17
language learning. At present, all we can do is to pose questions, but this is an issue that in due course will have to be addressed
in Scottish secondary schools and that is already being really quite widely addressed in secondary schools in several other
countries in Europee.g. at present there are over 150 secondary schools in Germany involved in second-language-medium
subject teaching in respect not only of English but also of French, Spanish, Italian and Russian as foreign languages.
Developing Specific Competences in the Initial Education of Teachers

Initial teacher education (ITE) in Scotland and in England is nowadays very much directed to a syllabus of teaching
competences prescribed by the Scottish Office Education and Industry Department (SOEID, formerly SOED). Whatever their
school-teaching subject, students in training must demonstrate a working command of these particular competences by the end
of their training. The list includes competences in lesson planning: e.g. setting objectives, segmentation, introducing variety into
one's teaching, opening and closing lessons, classroom management, organisation of material, classroom control. There are
competences relating to instruction: e.g. the selection of appropriate methods, explanation, questioning, reinforcement,
responding to learners, diagnosing learning difficulty, introducing differentiated teaching as and when that is appropriate. There
are competences in relation to national policy and examinations, national assessment criteria, and so on. There are competences
relating to professionalismthese include punctuality, demonstrating a positive attitude to the profession, to pupils, to parents, to
schooling. These highly specific competences are considered to apply across all school subjects, and so it is the business of
those who train teachers to interpret them further in ways specific to each particular subject.
Nowadays, therefore, ITE is far from a combination of practical apprenticeship in teaching arising from teaching practice at
school and a civilised induction into educational philosophy, psychology and curriculum theory at the college. Instead, both the
school and college components are required to be directed to the 'delivery' of these specific, prescribed competences. There is
something good about this, e.g. the excellent partnerships that can be developed between schools and colleges, but there is also
something worrying about the very notion of a competence-based approach, e.g. the possible development of an unthinking
'checklist mentality', a point to which I shall return shortly.

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Languages for Specific Purposes in Further Education
Until fairly recently, further education (FE) colleges were under the control, financial and otherwise, of local government. As
such, they were something of a backwater because the local authorities tended to give priority to schools. But now the FE
colleges receive funding directly from the Scottish Office. Of course, it is never enough to cover the full range of what they
might wish to do. There is a deliberate calculation in this, because they are obliged to use their entrepreneurial skills in order to
generate additional income to cover their staffing and other costs. Partly as a result, within FE there has been an increase in the
number of modules that are being offered under the general heading of modern foreign languages, with a wider range of
languages on offer, but in addition there has been some move to blend a modern foreign language into programmes leading to a
vocational qualification. This tends to apply particularly in the service sector in areas such as catering or tourism.
In addition, there is a clear move on the part of FE institutions to sell their services to business. Languages staff now have to
think of how they are to develop in themselves a new range of awareness and skill, and of how they are to market these
services. This represents a challenge, because there is no clear evidence that businesses in Scotland as yet perceive a large-scale
need for languages services. These have to be marketed. It therefore becomes important to develop skills in giving advice,
lending support, negotiating with businesses what the specific wishes and needs of the particular business might be, following
things up and evaluation. It is also necessary nowadays to take account of the very detailed external standards that are being
introduced through the UK Languages Lead Bodya far cry from 'languages for general purposes'.
Another characteristic of this new context is that, although at one level there is an incentive to collaborate with other colleagues
who are doing the same thing, there is a counter-incentive not to collaborate, because if staff in one FE college package up the
specifics of their good practice and pass these on to the staff in the FE college a couple of miles down the road, the staff in this
latter college may be tempted to use the wisdom of their colleagues in the first college in order to take some of their market
away from them.
There is, however, quite a lot of self-help taking place, but significantly this is to some extent operating at the European level
through networks that are being supported by programmes such as LINGUA. There have been various examples of FE colleges
in Scotland benefiting from contacts

Page 19
with FE colleges in Denmark, France, Germany, Portugal and other countries and acquiring some of their much-needed self-
help in this way.
Within Scottish society at large, there is undoubtedly an increased interest in the teaching, learning and use of languages. There
are many indicators of this, but one that I know particularly well has been the huge interest of parents in requesting that their
children should begin a foreign language at primary school. The demand is understandable and almost irresistible. It causes
problems because the temptation is to introduce modern languages in primary schools across the country overnight, but this
would not be a good way of going about it. There is an increase even in the learning of minority languages: 30,000 adults are
learning Scottish Gaelic, for example, in evening classes and elsewhere. There is, to some extent, increased interest in foreign
languages within the business community, but we need to learn more about what this need is and how it might best be met. In
this connection there has been much talk of language audits in relation to business, although from a small-scale exploration of
this area with which I was associated, which focused on language audits in small to medium-sized businesses in Central
Scotland, the conclusion emerged that 'language audits' was a rather alien concept.
Indeed, I am not persuaded that this concept of language audit is particularly useful as a means of encouraging businesses into
the business of actually doing something about languages. From the evidence of our small project, I suspect that a better
approach would be for those who are interested in providing language training to put cogent arguments to businesses to persuade
them to take the plunge, purchase some language training and then begin to think about using language for purposes relevant to
the firm's business. For my part, audits can come later. Arguably, the first step should be to engage in language learning, since it
is essentially this very process of learning and using a foreign language that opens up possibilities which many businesspersons,
unused to thinking about languages, had never actually realised existed. So, the proper place for language audits, in my view,
would be during or after a course of language instruction, not before it. If introduced too early, decisions may be taken that do
not do justice to the potentialities that may be latent in many firms.
Concluding Thoughts
In conclusion I have two general thoughts to offer.
First, it will be important that research should be undertaken in order to generate helpful insights and reliable information on the
specific domains and modes of foreign-language use that actually occur and are needed. In

Page 20
what domains are foreign languages actually being used? Is there any evidence of language-shift taking place between particular
foreign languages and English? As the European Union widens and attracts other countries into it, English will almost certainly
be increasingly used as a vehicular language. It will be important therefore to ascertain the extent to which this will affect the
realities of language-use and influence perceptions of specific need. What point is there in teaching language X for highly
specific purposes, if for particular individuals in the emerging Europe these purposes are increasingly fulfilled by language Y?
My own preliminary impression, arising from personal experience of language-use for the specific purpose of academic
intellectual exchange, is that many of the conferences and seminars in which academics engage in various parts of Europe will
have English as a main language, but that it will be useful, and often essential, to be able to comprehend at least one or two
other languages also. Whether it will be essential to develop the same high level of proficiency across all four language modes
of listening, speaking, reading and writing to meet specific needs in every language that one is learning is much more open to
question
Second, teachers will increasingly be obliged to work within frameworks that are prescribed or at least strongly influenced by
forces external to the institution in which they work. This raises the questions of how to maintain some degree of autonomy,
flexibility and personal ownership within these frameworks, and of how valid these frameworks in fact are. In this respect, it
will be important to progress beyond the specific competences that are prescribed on paper, particularly since they do not have a
strong research base. The competences for initial teacher education (ITE), to give but one example, are the thoughts of the wise
people and others in influential positions. They do not arise from a careful analysis of what competent trainee teachers actually
think, feel and do. It does not matter whether it is competences in relation to ITE or competences in relation to levels of
language use by specific categories of learners (as set out by, for example, the Languages Lead Body). If operationalised simply
as a set of graded behaviours, a competence-based approach would be of little use. To make sense of it, I argue that there must
be insight into and understanding of the more general levels of knowledge, skill and attitude that underlie any set of behavioural
competences. This then raises the question as to how specific competences relate to more general learning. Perhaps a prescribed
inventory of specific competences is where one has to beginbut if there are, for example, five different levels of language
competence for vocational purposes that are supposed to meet the needs of businesses for foreign languages, this can be nothing
more than

Page 21
a starting hypothesis. It is necessary to put these competence-frameworks to the test.
How, for example, do these different levels of competence relate to notions of second- or foreign-language development arising
from research? Do learners simply work up through the different levels, as though they were climbing the rungs of a ladder? If
so, then what about notions of 'interlanguage', 'plateau', 'backsliding' and 'contextual variability' that are commonly cited in
papers on second-language-acquistion research? What we shall really need will be some kind of sensitive monitoring system
that enables us to identify immature competences, to describe them and to follow them through as they become more mature and
are transferred across a range of different contexts. Incidentally, do competences become more specific and/or more general as
they develop? Although the competence-based frameworks that others have developed and prescribed may help us to make
sense of certain situations, it will also be important to problematise them and to retain a just scepticism about their validity and
relevance.
References
Burstall, C. Jamieson, M., Cohen, S. and Hargreaves, M. (1974) Primary French in the Balance. Windsor: NFER.
Hutchinson, T. and Waters, A. (1987) English for Specific Purposes. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Low, L., Brown, S., Johnstone, R. and Pirrie, A. (1995) Foreign languages in Primary Schools. Evaluation of the Scottish pilot
projects: 1993-95. (Final Report to Scottish Office). Stirling: Scottish CILT.
Low, L., Duffield, J., Brown, S. and Johnstone, R. (1993) Evaluating Foreign Languages in Primary Schools. (Interim Report
to Scottish Office: 1991-93). Stirling: Scottish CILT.
Scottish Office Education Department (1993) Modern Languages in Primary Schools. The Training Programme: Competences.
Copies from MLPS Unit, Faculty of Education, University of Strathclyde.

Page 22
Chapter 2
ESP Teacher Education in the USA
Peter Master
Given the wide range of specific disciplines with which ESP practitioners must interact, materials development has always been
the primary focus of ESP. In fact, the short history of ESP tends to reflect the dominant domain of the day (first science and
technology, now business) rather than the dominant methodology. ESP teacher education, on the other hand, has received very
little attention, perhaps because there has never been a method of teaching ESP that has implied the consequent need for a
specific type of teacher behavior. In fact, most ESP teachers are language teachers who have trained themselves in a specific
area of ESP. Orr (1995: 11), for example, found in a survey of English for Science and Technology (EST) practitioners
conducted on the Internet (specifically, the EST-L) that 'only 5% of the language teachers who responded had university degrees
or employment experience in the field they currently serve. What did the other 95% do to develop their competence? They
studied' (1995: 11).
The father of teacher education in ESP is generally acknowledged to be Jack Ewer. In his pioneering work in EST teacher
education at the University of Chile in the 1960s, Ewer laid the groundwork for the kind of expertise that an EST practitioner
must have. One of the most important aspects of this expertise was an understanding of 'the concepts and potentialities of
modern science and technology, [and]. . . the ways in which scientists and technologists operate' (quoted in Swales, 1985: 53),
which insight in EST has since been generalised in ESP as the notion of occupational subcultures.
The responses to Ewer (1983) in a special issue of The ESP Journal by five EST practitioners working in the United States and
Canada foreshadowed the areas of concern on this continent. While every respondent to Ewer's article praised him for his
insights and his profound understanding of the needs of EST practitioners, different aspects were emphasised. Johns (1983: 49)
argued for the inclusion of discourse analysis (i.e. classifying vocabu-

Page 23
lary and grammar from texts in terms of frequency, type, and function, and then shaping the results into a data-based research
paper) as a component of EST teacher education, thereby enabling EFL teachers to read further research. Tarone (1983: 69)
believed that EST teacher trainees needed '. . . background information relating to language variation, and the way in which
structures and items may be used differently within different fields or vocations'. Latorre (1983) suggested that EST instructors
go beyond microteaching to peers to actually teaching EST learners in sci/tech departments, and he recommended having future
teachers do text analyses with computers (which today we know as concordancing). Rivers (1983: 67) agreed with Latorre that
education should include 'direct involvement with some science and technology classes on campus', which would allow the EST
practitioner to adapt to the different accents of US speakers and to the kind of writing required in science departments. She also
recommended individualisation within 'affinity groups' in EST teacher education classes. Finally, Palmer (1983: 64) argued that
the basic problem in training professional teachers was
to get the trainees to the stage of intellectual development where they have enough ability and confidence to be able to
concentrate their attention on their students' needs rather than on their own lack of understanding, or on a display of pride
in their own knowledge. They must attain the stage where these methodological principles are implicit in all that they do
in the classroom.
This summary of the responses of EST practitioners to Ewer (1983) reveals several interesting themes that are relevant to ESP as
a whole. One is that the ESP practitioner must be grounded in relevant aspects of applied linguistics (Johns, Tarone, and
Latorre). Another is that ESP practitioners need practical experience with the populations they will ultimately teach (Latorre and
Rivers). A third is that ESP practitioners need to become accustomed to working with subject experts (Rivers). The last
anticipates the question of the degree of content knowledge that the ESP practitioner needs to have (Tarone, Latorre, and
Palmer).
ESP in the USA

The principal areas of ESP focus in the US continue to be within the larger categories of academic, professional, and vocational
English (Johns, 1990, cited in Robinson, 1991), to which can be added a fourth category, sociocultural (or sociopolitical)
English. However, within these large categories, specific subcategories have been emphasised, as described below.

Page 24
Academic ESP
Academic English, which may be defined as English language instruction designed to provide for academic study needs within
educational institutions, has two principal subcategories: EAP and ITA training. EAP (English for Academic Purposes) occurs at
all levels of instruction, from K-12 (kindergarten through high school) to college/university. However, it is primarily associated
with college/university-level academic English and has become less of an umbrella term and more a category with definite
dimensions. For example, in the 22-campus California State University, the system-wide academic organisation for ESL
instruction is called the EAP Council, reflecting the recent tendency to exclude the term 'ESL' from the vocabulary of the
academy. Undergraduate EAP is primarily concerned with general study skills, while graduate EAP, when it is offered, tends to
be discipline-specific, e.g. English for Business and Economics (EBE), Science and Technology (EST), Medicine (EMP), Law
(ELP), and the Social Sciences, reflecting both traditional and newly emerging subcategories of ESP.
As an umbrella term, EAP also embraces ITA (International Teaching Assistant) Training, which has recently formed its own
Interest Section in TESOL (the organisation). ITA training is designed to provide teaching and language skills for non-native
teaching assistants working in American colleges and universities, where the students are primarily native speakers of English. It
is therefore devoted largely to improving oral proficiency and communication strategies. Oral proficiency is addressed by
attention to specific pronunciation skills and overall intelligibility, while communication strategies are addressed by attention to
listening and presentation skills. Listening skills are essential for communication with students during office hours (McChesney,
1994), while classroom presentation skills include cross-cultural sensitivity, e.g. what students expect of their instructors
(Stevens, 1989), and practical pedagogical techniques (e.g. Axelson & Madden, 1990), such as using the blackboard and
providing content organisers, which can help to compensate for an ITA's imperfect control of English.
Professional ESP
Professional ESP is becoming increasingly important as economics replaces political ideology as the driving force in
international relations. Professional ESP takes place in a formal business atmosphere, often in corporate offices, where both
trainer and trainees are professional peers (Andrews, 1990). Instruction focuses on high-level speaking, listening,

Page 25
literacy skills, and business customs. The primary category within this area of ESP is English for Professional Purposes (EPP),
although the terms 'Business English', 'Workplace ESL', and 'English Teaching for Business and Industry' (ETBI) are also
widely used. Indeed, the field is developing so rapidly that the acronyms have not yet been firmly established (Lomperis, 1996).
EPP differs from EAP not only in the setting but in the nature of the relationship between the ESP practitioner and the
institution. EPP practitioners must do much more than simply identify the needs of the students and provide appropriate
instruction since they also have to take considerable pains in presenting themselves to their potential clients. They must, in short,
successfully market themselves before they can hope to enter the classroom, and then carefully monitor their performance and
that of their students in order to justify and maintain the viability of their positions. EPP courses are usually provided on site in
private companies, but they are also sometimes offered in community colleges.
Vocational ESP
While professional ESP is primarily addressed to managers, executives, and other corporate personnel, vocational ESP is
concerned with the labor end of the business spectrum. The students are normally hourly workers who work in the
manufacturing or service industries (e.g. factories and restaurants). Courses in vocational ESP are usually offered in community
colleges and sometimes in university extension programmes or adult schools. Federally-funded projects, such as GAIN (Greater
Avenues for Independence), a programme to aid single women with dependent children, may provide funds to enable them to
attend such courses. Vocational ESP generally focuses on the linguistic skills and functions needed to acquire and perform
specific jobs.
The principal subcategories of vocational ESP are Pre-VESL (pre-vocational ESL), occupational-cluster VESL, and occupation-
specific VESL. Pre-VESL is designed to help the learner, usually a recent immigrant, to find and hold a job and to advance up
the career ladder. This requires learning how to read and respond to want ads, how to handle a job interview, how to behave in a
culturally appropriate manner, and how to make normal advancement. Occupational-cluster VESL is designed to prepare the
learner for a group of occupations that are 'bound together by common language needs, technical skills, and work culture'
(Wong, 1992: 98), such as VESL for health workers, VESL for restaurant workers, and VESL for service workers. Occupation-
specific VESL is designed to prepare

Page 26
learners, again usually recent immigrants, to function in a specific workplace, such as an autobody shop, a bank, or a mattress
factory.
Sociocultural ESP
Sociocultural ESP is a category of ESP that has as yet not been labelled in the field as such.
Like vocational ESP, sociocultural ESP is designed primarily for adults, usually immigrants (who often have limited incomes).
However, courses in sociocultural ESP are provided almost exclusively in the adult school setting. The most common
subcategories of sociocultural ESP are adult literacy, citizenship (e.g. amnesty programmes), and Survival English. Adult
literacy programmes aim to teach basic reading and writing skills to adult students who are often not literate in their first
languages. Citizenship classes are designed to prepare immigrants for the US citizenship examination and are thus principally
concerned with teaching content related to US history and institutions. Survival English is designed to enable recent immigrants
to function in society and to carry out basic necessities, such as finding a place to live, getting a driver's license, shopping, and
opening a checking account. Sociocultural ESP also includes ESL classes that take place in a specific setting, e.g. prison ESL, or
have a specific mission, e.g. AIDS education.
Principal Approaches Used in ESP Instruction

The principal approaches used in ESP instruction in the US are content-based language instruction (CBI) and ethnographic
approaches.
Content-based instruction
There has been some discussion in the literature about the boundary between ESP and CBI. Johns (1992), for example, claims
that ESP is often called CBI in the ESL setting, that CBI is concerned primarily with ESP in the K-12 contexts and is thus more
domestic in scope, and that it is more concerned with classroom issues such as student affect and instructional strategies than
research and theoretical issues. Brinton (1993), on the other hand, argues that CBI, like ESP, is also international in scope and is
not limited to K-12 settings. It differs from ESP principally in the fact that ESP grew out of commercial ventures, whereas CBI
grew out of academic needs. ESP is more narrowly focused and instrumentally motivated, whereas CBI is more broadly focused
and motivated 'by knowledge as an avenue to success in more general or intrinsic terms' (ibid.). The conflict between these

Page 27
two views is resolved if CBI is seen as an approach or syllabus (i.e. in contrast to a grammatical, notional/functional, or task-
based syllabus) and ESP as a subcategory of English language instruction (i.e. in contrast to English for General Purposes). If
CBI is then acknowledged to be the principal approach used in ESP, the question of boundaries becomes moot. This is an
example of the need for clarification of the nomenclature in ESP.
One of the key questions in the CBI approach is the division between language and content instruction, a question that has also
long concerned ESP practitioners. Is the CBI instructor (or the ESP practitioner) fundamentally a language teacher or
fundamentally a content teacher? The most sensible resolution of this conflict is team teaching Johns & Dudley-Evans, 1980) by
both a language instructor and a content instructor, which in the US is known as the adjunct model (Brinton, Snow & Wesche,
1989). Cooperation between language and content instructors is essential for the success of this model, but cooperation cannot
be presumed. Rather, it must be fostered through regular required meetings during paid school hours (Auerbach, 1992).
While the adjunct model is the best means of allowing language and content teachers to remain strong in their respective
domains, it is often not a cost-effective option and has even come under some criticism (Goldstein, Campbell & Clarke
Cummings, 1994). The alternative is either for the language teacher to learn content or for the content teacher to learn how to
teach language. While some have argued that the latter is the only feasible solution (e.g. Troike, 1993/94), others have argued
that it is the language teacher who is ultimately best prepared to teach CBI and ESP (Preece, 1996).
An alternative to the adjunct model for the implementation of CBI, according to Brinton, Snow & Wesche (1989), is theme-
based instruction. Theme-based instruction is appropriate at all levels of ESL/EFL instruction, particularly as a means of
contextualising predetermined linguistic objectives such as those often required by a school district. However, Stoller and Grabe
(to appear) argue that all instruction is built on themes and that the adjunct model is simply one method of carrying out theme-
based instruction.
Ethnographic approaches
The principal ethnographic approaches used in ESP in the US are case studies and mini-ethnographies. Case studies are used
primarily in academic ESP courses such as EBE (Uber Grosse, 1988), though they are

Page 28
also used in English for Medical Purposes (Kirschner, 1993) and can potentially be used in any form of ESP. Mini-
ethnographies are exemplified in Johns (1988), who had her EAP students perform ethnographies of academic culture in an
effort to get them to realise that different fields had different academic expectations. With the widespread availability of
computers, ESP students can also do certain kinds of discourse analysis in the classroom. One effective way to do this is to
provide students with a limited concordance and ask them to deduce the meaning of a particular vocabulary item, determine the
grammatical features of particular words, or analyse other textual features (Tribble & Jones, 1990), all within a particular
discipline.
What ESP Practitions Need

This section describes in detail what ESP practitioners are expected to do in using the CBI approach and in teaching their
respective categories of ESP. This will provide a basis for the evaluation of US ESP teacher education programmes as a whole.
Content-based instruction (CBI)
In order to provide their students with effective content-based instruction (Grabe & Stoller, 1995), CBI teachers must:
(a) let content (pre-specified or class determined) drive curricular decisions
(b) increase their knowledge of the content area
(c) find materials and resources that generate student interest and involvement
(d) build intrinsic motivation and knowledge.
Stoller and Grabe (to appear) suggest a means of integrating the last two requirements into a coherent whole which they call the
'six T's approach'. In this approach, a set of themes (the first 'T') is chosen, ideally with student input. Relevant texts (instructor-
compiled or generated and task-generated) are selected. Topics (i.e. subunits of the theme) are identified to explore more
specific aspects of the theme. Threads (i.e. relatively abstract concepts such as responsibility, ethics, or power) are exploited to
provide linkages among the themes. A series of tasks (i.e. day-to-day instructional activities concerning content, language, and
strategies) is provided, preferably leading to a culminating project. Finally, transitions (i.e. 'explicitly planned actions which
provide coherence across topics in a theme unit and across tasks within topics', Stoller & Grabe) are made to create a sense of
seamless unity for the students.

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Academic ESP
In order to provide adequate preparation for college/university-level work, the EAP instructor must be able to teach the
following:
(a) reading (e.g. scanning, skimming, extensive reading, critical thinking)
(b) writing (e.g. academic discourse, genres, grammar)
(c) listening/speaking (e.g. lectures, oral presentations)
(d) study skills (e.g. notetaking, preparing for an exam)
(e) strategies (e.g. test-taking, asking a professor questions).
The EAP instructor thus not only requires a thorough preparation as an ESOL instructor but must also be familiar with and have
practical experience of the needs of college/university students who are non-native speakers of English.
An ITA trainer, on the other hand, must be able to provide current or future ITAs with the following skills that are essential in
teaching college/university students, most of whom are likely to be native speakers of English:
(a) linguistic skills (e.g. pronunciation, syntax, discourse, genre)
(b) specific purpose skills (e.g. specific discourse structures and discourse events in particular disciplines)(Shaw, 1994)
(c) pedagogical skills (e.g. classroom techniques and strategies)
(d) cross-cultural skills (e.g. meeting US student expectations, interaction techniques).
The ITA trainer must not only foster these skills in an accessible form for the ITA but also do this in a rather short period of
time as many ITAs are already teaching classes. This requires taking expedient shortcuts to prepare the ITA as quickly as
possible. For example, rather than teaching the formal aspects of English pronunciation, Myers (1995) has had success having
ITAs repeat taperecorded lectures in their specific fields phrase by phrase in the language laboratory in order to improve their
pronunciation and fluency in the classroom.
Professional ESP
In professional settings, ESP practitioners require both instructional and administrative skills. They must be prepared to provide
instruction in the following:

Page 30
(a) accent reduction
(b) effective communication in meetings
(c) oral presentations
(d) workplace idioms and vocabulary
(e) technical and business writing
(f) business customs and culture
(g) customer service skills
(h) team-building skills
(i) training related to TQM (total quality management).
Professional ESP practitioners must also become versed in and/or develop an enthusiasm for the following (Andrews, 1990):
(a) networking
(b) establishing a reputation
(c) knowing compensation norms
(d) using a business approach with companies
(e) projecting a professional image
(f) being aware of company attitudes towards instruction
(g) involving management
(h) adapting teaching theory to specific needs
(i) encouraging learner independence
(j) staying current.
Vocational ESP
In vocational settings, ESP teachers are likely to work in either pre-employment or occupation-specific/occupational-cluster
training programmes. Practitioners in pre-employment training programmes usually teach the following job-seeking skills:
(a) where and how to look for a job
(b) deciphering want ads
(c) filling out job applications
(d) participating in interviews.
These programmes must also provide the following general occupational information:
(a) fringe benefits
(b) safety and health
(c) training procedures
(d) further education and advancement
(e) job expectations and responsibilities

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(f) worker's rights
(g) getting along with co-workers, employers, and customers.
An ESP practitioner in an occupation-specific/occupational-cluster VESL programme will need to teach the following language
skills, which vary according to the occupation concerned (West, 1984):
(a) vocabulary (e.g. tools, processes, supplies)
(b) functions (e.g. requesting work, following directions, apologising)
(c) situations (e.g. getting parts from a supply clerk, reporting a machine breakdown)
(d) structures (e.g. commands, questions, politeness forms)
(e) register (e.g., tone, speaking style, levels of formality).
They will also be expected to teach the following occupation-specific content:
(a) names and functions of tools, machines, and materials
(b) safety (e.g. rules, giving warnings)
(c) measurements and mathematics (e.g. computation of fractions)
(d) procedures and processes
(e) quality control language (e.g. workmanship standards, defects)
(f) job preparation (e.g. using the telephone, using public transportation).
Sociocultural ESP
In the sociocultural (or sociopolitical) setting, the ESP practitioner also requires specific areas of expertise. In adult literacy
programmes for non-native speakers, the ESP practitioner needs the ability and experience to teach basic reading and writing
skills to a culturally diverse population. Crandall (1993) believes adult literacy teachers need on-going staff development
opportunities rather than occasional workshops, including:
(a) classroom observations
(b) involvement in either a master-mentor or peer-coaching relationship
(c) involvement in curriculum/materials development and joint lesson planning
(d) participation in programme evaluation
(e) engagement in action research or reflective practice.
In citizenship programmes for adult non-native speakers, the ESP practitioner needs the ability and experience to teach content
(subject matter) related to US history, society, and institutions to a culturally-diverse population. In Survival English, the ESP
practitioner needs the

Page 32
ability and experience to teach everyday language and content to new immigrants while empowering them to resolve their own
problems (Freire, 1985). In other programmes, the ESP practitioner may be called upon to teach content related to societal needs
(e.g. AIDS, the elderly, prison populations) and therefore has to be familiar with that content and/or the learning styles and
needs of the student population.
The Current State of ESP Teacher Education in the USA

The logical place for teacher education in ESP is in MATESOL programmes, but as of this writing, there is not a single ESP-
track MATESOL programme in the United States. The regular courses in methodology usually include a reading or two on ESP,
but this is hardly sufficient training for an ESP practitioner. San Jose State University is in the process of building such a
programme, but it is still in the planning stages. ESP teacher education in the US today can thus be said to be minimal at best.
The specific state of teacher education in relation to CBI and the four categories of academic, professional, vocational, and
sociocultural ESP is considered in this section.
Content-based instruction
Most MATESOL programmes include the teaching of CBI in their methodology courses, which is an appropriate place to
discuss this approach as it can be used in many settings. However, there are no courses devoted solely to the teaching of this
approach.
Academic ESP
A few universities around the country offer a course in teacher education in academic ESP, e.g. 'English for Specific Purposes'
at the University of Minnesota (Tarone, personal communication, 14 November, 1995), 'Language for Specific Purposes' at the
University of Pennsylvania (Micheau, et al. 1996), and 'Teaching ESL for Academic Purposes' at California State University
Los Angeles (Brinton, personal communication, 10 November, 1995). Certificate programmes, such as the UC Extension
programmes at UC Berkeley and UC San Diego, occasionally offer courses or one-day workshops for educating teachers about
ESP. Pre-conference workshops, half-day courses offered prior to the national TESOL convention, are often devoted to ESP
topics (e.g. 'Introduction to the Language and Culture of Scientific Literature', van Naerssen et al., 1995), but it is clear that such
workshops are piecemeal approaches to academic ESP teacher education.

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Professional ESP
MATESOL programmes again seem the logical place for offering teacher education in professional ESP, but this is nowhere
done as a coherent programme, although the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign is in the process of building one
(Markee, personal communication, 8 November, 1995). Methodology courses may include a reading or two on professional ESP,
and some universities are beginning to offer full courses in professional ESP as part of the MATESOL curriculum. For example,
Portland State University offers a teacher-training course called 'English in the Workplace' (Terdal, 1995). San Jose State
University and UC Santa Cruz Extension also offer a teacher-training course called 'English for Specific Purposes: Workplace
ESL' (Wylie, 1994).
Otherwise, teacher education/training for professional ESP is limited to pre-conference workshops (e.g. 'Tools for Continuous
Improvement for Workplace Educators', Knowles et al., 1995) and conference presentations. Since it is 'continued support
following the initial training that is most crucial' (Guskey, 1986: 10), such short-term efforts to provide teacher education have
been criticised because they provide no time for trial, experimentation, or adaptation to a teacher's unique teaching context
(Berman & McLoughlin, 1976, cited in Kinsella, 1994). Instead, teachers need 'the opportunity to explore issues and workplace
challenges with colleagues' as they would in a graduate class (Holly, 1982, cited in Kinsella, 1994: 33). In most cases,
professional ESP practitioners train themselves, learning as they go.
Vocational ESP
While vocational ESP flourished in the USA in the 1970s, budget constraints have sharply reduced public funding for such
programmes. Nevertheless, programmes at the national level (e.g. the GAIN Programme, Catholic Charities) and community
organisations (e.g. the Armenian Social Service Center in Hollywood, California) continue to provide language and job training
programmes for learners with specific social situations or ethnic backgrounds. In addition, adult school ESL classes often focus
on job-related language skills, and some vocational concerns are now addressed in adult literacy programmes. Still, many
immigrants are on their own when it comes to finding jobs. As to teacher training, there is no programme that provides
preparation for vocational ESP, with the result that practitioners are usually dependent on conference presentations and self-
training for the few positions available.

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Sociocultural ESP
Adult literacy programmes are staffed primarily by part-time ESL instructors and volunteers. Volunteer training may involve
some introduction to working with a multicultural population, but there is no formal preparation. Adult literacy is usually
discussed in the methods courses in MATESOL programmes, and some even offer a specific course in adult literacy, e.g. San
Francisco State University (Terdy, 1993), but this form of sociocultural ESP is generally given little focused attention in teacher
education programmes. This lack of attention may be partly due to the belief that adult education is best learned on the job
(Crandall, 1983; Guskey, 1986), with the result that in-service training is considered to be of greater value than pre-service
training.
There was a surge in citizenship classes for adult ESOL students with the amnesty programme for illegal immigrants already
living in the US, which was introduced in the late 1980s. Pre-conference workshops were offered at the TESOL convention on
this theme, but many instructors were hired to fill the need without adequate training. The increased need for instructors
generated by the amnesty programme has since diminished, although regular citizenship classes are still offered in adult schools.
Nevertheless, little teacher training is provided and teachers base their instruction primarily on textbooks.
Survival English is usually discussed in MATESOL methodology classes because it is the primary kind of ESL offered in adult
schools and has been in existence for many years, but it has generally not been considered a form of ESP. There is usually no
separate programme devoted to preparing teachers for this kind of English instruction, and those who find themselves teaching it
usually base their instruction on commercial textbooks and self-generated materials. In other forms of sociocultural ESP,
teachers usually train themselves.
Conclusion
The inadequacy of ESP teacher education in the US has been made clear in the previous section. While most MATESOL
programmes make mention of ESP somewhere in the methodology courses, and a few offer full courses devoted to a specific
subarea (usually EAP or EPP), ESP practitioners are still largely left to their own resources when it comes to teacher education.

Page 35
Reasons for the lack of emphasis on ESP teacher training
There are several possible reasons for this lack of ESP emphasis in teacher training.
One is that ESP goes under different names in the USA, and indeed there are still problems of nomenclature in the field of ESP
as it continues to grow into new areas. A case in point is professional ESP, which is unsure whether to call itself 'English for
Professional Purposes (EPP)', 'Workplace ESL', 'Business English', 'English Teaching for Business and Industry (ETBI)', or, as
Lomperis (1996) suggests, 'English for Employment Purposes (EEP)'. There is also the confusion between CBI and ESP, which
I have attempted to clarify in this chapter.
A second reason is the notion that ESP is only applicable outside the United States (Baltra, 1987) or that ESP in the US goes by
other names, such as CBI or Workplace ESL (Johns, 1992). A third reason is the fear that many language teachers have of
teaching ESP because of their lack of content knowledge, which 'crisis in confidence' (Robinson, 1991) may extend to teacher
trainers, who are 'uncomfortable in science, business, and other disciplines outside of their own' (England, 1995: 12). A fourth
reason is the effect of changing populations and budgetary constraints, with the result that specialised teacher education
programmes are the most likely to be cut; however, teacher training programmes (e.g. ITA and EPP programmes) tend to fare
better than the broader teacher education programmes when the budget axe falls.
What should be done about it
The most obvious solution to the lack of ESP teacher education is the development of an ESP-track in MATESOL programmes,
or at least the inclusion of a comprehensive programme in a specific category, such as those offered in EAP at the University of
Minnesota and the University of Pennsylvania. Swales (personal communication, 7 November, 1995) considers the dearth of US
ESP teacher education programmes 'disrespectful to international students taking MAs and to Americans wanting to teach at the
tertiary level abroad'. Westerfield (personal communication, 10 November, 1995) says, 'If US teacher training programmes want
to prepare their students for overseas training assignments, they will need, in all good conscience, to include a strong ESP
component'. England (1995) argues that it is socially irresponsible for MATESOL programmes not to provide ESP training as
there is a worldwide demand, especially in professional ESP, for multicultural, multinational professionals.

Page 36
Teacher education can be provided in general ESP or in a specific category. A general ESP-track in an MATESOL programme
should ideally include the following:
(1) General TESOL training
(2) History and development of ESP
(3) Major subdivisions in ESP
(4) ESP skills (e.g. oral presentation, writing, reading, grammar, etc.)
(5) ESP materials assessment and development
(6) ESP curriculum
(7) ESP assessment and evaluation
(8) ESP administration (Swales & L'Estrange, 1983)
(9) In-depth focus in at least one area of ESP (e.g. EST, EPP, sociocultural ESP).
ESP professionals also need to be familiar with 'the expectations, traditions, and conventions in other professional cultures' and
'the language used by business or medical professionals in describing communicative events (applying principles of ethnography
to ESP)' (England, 1995: 12).
In the category of academic ESP, Micheau et al. (1996) have found that EAP teacher training also requires the acculturation of
international students to unfamiliar practices (e.g. cooperative learning, keeping teacher journals) and that attention to the
students' own language problems is not valued as much as hands-on teaching practice. On the other hand, ITA trainers must find
shortcuts so that their students can make use of what they learn as quickly as possible (e.g. Myers, 1995).
Professional ESP practitioners argue that a general ESP education programme like the one described earlier must go beyond
theoretical concerns and provide future EPP practitioners with site visits, exposure to EPP professionals in lectures and panels,
and other practical experiences (Boswood & Marriott, 1994). Furthermore, EPP practitioners must take on a number of roles in
addition to that of instructor, including justifier and explainer of the field (Lomperis, to appear). Finally, EPP practitioners must
be accountable, which is 'a key difference between traditional ESL teaching and teaching in the workplace' (Wylie, 1994: 7).
Sociocultural ESP practitioners should have a community service component as a supplement to their primary training, and adult
literacy programmes are 'acceptable practicum settings for teacher trainees' (Terdy, 1993: 540). However, practitioners also need
professional development after they have begun teaching. Such development should consist of some combination of theory-to-
practice experience, mentoring, and

Page 37
self-reflection (Crandall, 1993). Crandall (1993: 512) also recommends bringing together 'teachers and learners at all stages of
their development... to provide a laboratory where they [can] expand and demonstrate their knowledge, skills, and experiences'.
It is obvious that no training programme can possibly hope to prepare a teacher in all subareas of ESP. Rivers' (1983)
recommendation for 'individualisation within affinity groups' as a means of allowing individuals to specialise within the ESP
teacher-training classroom seems a logical solution to this problem. Indeed, all the responses to Ewer mentioned at the
beginning of this chapter are highly relevant today: ESP teacher trainees need a thorough grounding in applied linguistics,
practical experience with the populations they will teach, experience in working with subject experts, and a willingness to
become familiar with a certain amount of specific subject matter within the area of ESP they will be teaching. Most of the areas
essential in such training have been outlined in this chapter.
Delivery
While the MATESOL programme with an ESP-track seems the best method for providing ESP teacher education for new
teachers, such programmes cannot be expected to provide in-service teacher education. One increasingly important means of
providing this service (presuming one has a trained and experienced ESP professional to deliver it) is distance education, which
is usually delivered via television. In order for this to be effective, Barnard (1995: 23) believes that the teachers themselves must
be placed at the forefront of the enterprise because 'the real expertise lies precisely among the teachers rather than with the
(distanced!) trainer'. In his five-stage process (orientation, transfer, activation, application, and evaluation), Barnard suggests the
participants analyse 10-15 minute clips from various lessons in small groups, perform printed tasks related to the clips, write
lesson plans incorporating the new ideas, practice the new lesson in the local (genuine) learning context, and evaluate the lesson
either through a fellow teacher or self-analysis of a recorded videotape. Uber Grosse and Wagner (1994: 56) found that the most
engaging videotapes in their CBI distance training programme were those that showed students and teachers in action or
teachers discussing their students, concerns, teaching strategies and beliefs, while the least effective videotapes were lectures or
dense oral compression of information. Crandall (1993) also reports on the use of distance training for adult literacy, which
focuses on both teaching techniques and administrative strategies.
An even more exciting potential means of providing in-service distance

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education, assuming one has access to multimedia technology, is the Internet. Tillyer and McGowan-Gilhooly (1995) ran a
teacher-training seminar on the 'Fluency First' model via the Internet in 1996. There is no reason why ESP teacher training
could not be offered through the same format, although the practical aspects of working with ESP populations and exposure to
practicing ESP professionals would have to be provided locally.
In sum, the field of ESP in the US needs to become more fully professionalised. Clarifying the ESP nomenclature will aid in
this process, but more importantly, ESP practitioners need thorough training to bring them to the level of the professionals that
they often work for, among, and with and to provide the best possible form of specific purpose language instruction.
Acknowledgements
I am grateful to Denise Murray and Dovie Wylie for helpful comments on an earlier draft of this chapter and to Martha Bean for
her stimulating questions.
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England, L. (1995) Teacher education in English for specific purposes. TESOL Matters 5(2), 12.
Ewer, J. R. (1983) Teacher training for EST: Problems and methods. The ESP Journal 2 (1), 9-31.
Freire, P. (1985) The Politics of Education: Culture, Power, and Liberation. South Hadley, MA: Bergin & Garvey.
Goldstein, L., Campbell, C. and Clarke Cummings, M. (1994) Smiling through the turbulence: The flight attendant syndrome
and other issues of writing instructor status in the adjunct model. The CATESOL Journal 7 (1), 19-29.
Grabe, B. and Stoller, F. (1995) Teaching reading through content-based instruction. Presentation given at the All TESOL
Weekend, St Michael's College, July, 1995.
Guskey, T. (1986) Staff development and the process of teacher change. Educational Researcher 15 (5), 5-12.
Holly, F. (1982) Teacher's views on in-service training. Phi Delta Kappan 63(b), 417-18.
Johns, A. (1983) Teacher training in the People's Republic of China. The ESP Journal 2 (1), 49-50.
(1988) The discourse communities dilemma: Identifying transferable skills for the academic milieu. English for Specific
Purposes 7 (1), 55-9.
(1990) ESP in the USA: State of the art. Presentation given at the 2nd Latin American ESP Colloquium, Santiago de Chile,
November.
(1992) What is the relationship between content-based instruction and English for Specific Purposes? The CATESOL Journal 5
(1), 71-5.
Johns, T. and Dudley-Evans, A. (1980) An experiment in team-teaching of overseas postgraduate students of transportation and
plant biology. ELT Documents 106: Team Teaching in ESP. London: The British Council.
Kinsella, K. (1994) Developing communities of reflective ESL teacher-scholars through peer coaching. The CATESOL Journal
7 (1), 31-47.
Kirschner, M. (1993) ESP for physiotherapy. CATESOL News 25 (4), 5.
Knowles, M., Ely, D., Facer, L., Gifford, L., Rege, K., Schwalen, M, and Sutton, P. (1995) Tools for continuous improvement
for workplace educators. Presentation given at the TESOL Convention, Long Beach, CA, 28 March - 1 April.
Latorre, G. (1983) EST teacher training: Possible lines of further implementation. The ESP Journal 2 (1), 56-7.
Lomperis, A. (1996) Nomenclature in ESP. TESOL Matters 6 (2), 10.
(to appear) Language Training in the Global Marketplace: A Guide for Educators and Corporations. Upper Saddle River, NJ:
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Presentation given at the TESOL Convention, Chicago, IL, 26-30 March.
Myers, S. (1995) Using written text to teach oral skills: An ITA training class using field-specific materials. English for Specific
Purposes 14(3), 231-45.
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Preece, R. (1996) Content teachers and CBI/ESP courses: Problems and implications. TESOL Matters 5 (6), 9
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Content-based Classroom: Perspectives on Integrating Language and Content. White Plains, NY: Addison Wesley Longman.
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Swales, J. and L'Estrange, H. (1983) ESP administration and ESP teacher training. The ESP Journal 2 (1), 87-99.
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Quarterly 27 (3), 537-41.
Tillyer, A. and McGowan-Gilhooly, A. (1995) An on-line professional development seminar! TESL-L, 3 October.
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Troike, R. (1993/94) The case for subject-matter training in ESP. TESOL Matters 3 (6), 7.
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Wylie, D. (1994) Featured teacher education course. Teacher Education Interest Section Newsletter 9 (2), 7.

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Chapter 3
LSP in the UK
Ron Howard
In the second chapter of this book, Master surveys ESP in the United States and divides it into four main branches: academic,
professional, vocational, and sociocultural (Figure 1). This classification is based mainly on needs. To facilitate comparison
between the British and the American scene, I will refer to the same categories though I subdivide them somewhat differently,
according to location of course (Figure 2). Johnstone deals authoritatively in Chapter 1 with the teaching of foreign languages
for specific purposes in Scottish schools and further education (FE) colleges. I will extend this a
Figure 1
English for specific purposes in the United States (adapted from Johns, 1990)

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Figure 2
English for specific purposes in the United Kingdom
little to include higher education (HE) (Figure 3). I will also refer from to time to time to the teaching of LSP in other countries.
Languages for Academic Purposes: English

The first of Master's branches is Academic ESP, which he further subdivides into EAP (taught in schools, and in colleges and
universities) and ITA (International Teaching Assistant) training. I take as the main criterion for Academic LSP that the
language course is preparation for, or part of, another course.
English taught to immigrant children and adults 1 in Britain is known as English as a Second Language (ESL), or English for
Speakers of Other Languages (ESOL).2 Blackie (1990, Section 3.1.4) notes that in 1987 'there was every indication that their
[i.e. ESL/ESOL teachers'] stance and commitment makes them a discrete entity from EFL, and that migration from ESL to EFL
is probably insignificant, if it exists at all'. This may be less true today than it was ten years ago, but nevertheless typical
ESL/ESOL and EFL teachers differ in several respects. For example, ESL/ESOL teachers tend to have a degree or a
postgraduate certificate in education

Page 43
and to work in secondary schools and further education colleges, whereas EFL teachers often have a degree in Arts and
Humanities plus a language-teaching qualification and work in private language schools and universities.
EAP in schools
Language support for bilingual children in primary and secondary schools is provided by the ESL/ESOL teacher either working
in normal classes with the class teacher (a form of team teaching) or in separate classes.
Older children, i.e. those in the final year of school, may need further help to enable them to begin some form of vocational
training or to matriculate. This is provided again by ESL/ESOL teachers, but in FE colleges. These young adults, who are
permanently resident in Britain, are joined by overseas students also wishing to enter college or university, in classes very like
the typical EAP class (described in the next section) and indeed often labelled EAP.
Undergraduate EAP
Overseas undergraduates studying in Britain at the moment fall into three main categories. There are, first of all, those studying
full-time. The number of these requiring English language support seems to be small in comparison with postgraduatesat least to
judge by reports in the literature. Undergraduate students may be taught in mixed classes with postgraduates and others, in
universities and colleges. Occasionally, the number of overseas students enrolled for a particular course is high enough to
warrant special provision (e.g. Howe, 1993). Sometimes a group of students comes from a single country, sponsored by their
government perhaps, to study in Britain, in which case the host institution may provide special pre-sessional and in-sessional
language classes (e.g. Dudley-Evans, 1977).
Another category of student comes to Britain through exchange programmes: through the European Union's ERASMUS scheme,
or its successor SOCRATES, or through arrangements made between individual institutions, e.g. in Japan and the UK. These
students study here usually for shorter periods, up to a year. Their language preparation may be carried out in their own country,
but is often supplemented by EAP classes in the host institution.
An increasing number of EU universities now offer a degree with

Page 44
languages. Outside the UK and Ireland, that language is often English, in which case part of the course may take place in
Britain. Fanning (1993) describes the four-year BA in European Business Administration at Middlesex University offered in
partnership with similar institutions in France, Germany and Spain. Some students on this course spend the whole four years in
Britain, others only the third year. In the latter case, terminology is taught in years one and two, and Fanning (1993: 164) notes:
'Language teachers employed on the course therefore often need to demonstrate experience in the business world'. In the former
case, EAP teachers in the UK teach British Studies as an examinable subject in the course.
Postgraduate EAP
EAP courses are conducted in most universities and further education colleges for overseas students needing to improve their
English before (pre-sessional) and during (in-sessional) taught and research-based postgraduate degree courses. EAP for
postgraduates in Britain typically involves students from a range of disciplines, in extreme cases from across the entire campus,
in less extreme cases grouped by discipline to some extent. This type of EAP has always attracted a great deal of attention in the
literature (e.g. Mackay & Mountford, 1978), no doubt because of the challenges it poses.
More specific courses are also now available at a few institutions, for example a one-year graduate diploma in English
Language and Law at the University of East Anglia. According to the information in TEFL/TESL Academic Courses in the UK
(British Council, 1992: 24), 'The course is intended for overseas graduates who possess good academic qualifications but whose
proficiency in English is not of the level required for acceptance for graduate study in the School of Law. Participants study
English language and two courses offered as part of the undergraduate programme in the School of Law.' There are similar
courses for other subjects (Development Studies and International Relations).
Both undergraduate and postgraduate EAP courses typically include survival and cross-cultural communication skills in addition
to academic skills such as listening to lectures, participating in seminars and writing examination answers.
Non-existence of ITA training
Master's second main category of Academic ESP is international teaching assistant (ITA) training. In Britain there are, officially,
no ITAs,

Page 45
Figure 3
Languages other than English for Specific Purposes in the United Kingdom
though some teaching in English may well be carried out by foreign postgraduate students; consequently, there is no ITA
training programme.
Before looking at the next category of ESP in the UK, I would like to consider briefly the teaching of foreign languages for
academic purposes. Some aspects of this area are dealt with more fully by Johnstone in Chapter 1.
Languages for Academic Purposes: Foreign Languages

Foreign languages in British schools
Language teaching in schools can be considered a form of LSP if the language is used as a medium to teach school subjects; or
if it is related to vocational training. The former is happening in all primary schools in Scotland (see Johnstone, this volume),
and a few in England (5-7% according to the Times Educational Supplement 17 November 1995). It is also happening in
selected secondary schools with plans to extend this in the near future. If these plans go ahead, they will bring Britain into line
with other countries where foreign language medium schools are not uncommon.
The use of languages such as Welsh and Gaelic, and possibly some ethnic minority, or community, languages as the medium of
education can be included under this heading.
Pre-vocational language teaching in British schools and colleges
For young people over the age of 16, a variety of pre-vocational language courses are available in schools, and colleges of
further education. I have

Page 46
included these courses under the heading Academic rather than Vocational because they are one component in a course of study.
In some cases they are integrated within a vocational course, in others they are 'a ''bolt-on'' extra study carried by the student
alongside the main study areas' (Aplin & Stevens, 1988: 161). These courses have developed in part as a result of the 'awareness
in industrial and educational circles that the need to have a workforce which has a foreign language proficiency was not being
met' (p. 158). Course content is chosen so that it 'will be of direct use to the students in their employment' (p. 160).
A number of such courses are offered by professional organisations and examining bodies, e.g. London Chamber of Commerce
and Industry (LCCI) and the Royal Society of Arts (RSA), and can be adopted by school or college. These bodies may provide
syllabus, moderation of course design and its implementation, and examination. Aplin and Stevens comment that 'Some teachers
find these courses, particularly if they involve independent learning, very difficult to cope with' (p. 159). On the other hand, they
also mention that the vocational element is non-specific and that it may 'encourage those teachers who have been reluctant to
move into this field to know that they are not expected to be specialists in the world of commerce in order to be successful
teachers of a pre-vocational course' (p. 160).
Degrees with language in British universities and colleges
Another consequence of Britain's increasing ties with Europe is the teaching of foreign languages on many undergraduate
courses, e.g. French for Science (see Adamson, this volume). There is a similar movement in other parts of the world, for
example in Australia, where an increasing number of degree courses include languagesScience with Japanese (Mitchell, 1991);
Marketing and German (Fischer, 1992); joint language (Japanese, Thai, Chinese, etc.) and Engineering degree programmes
(Pattison, 1994).
At Glasgow Caledonian University, a degree in European Administration and Languages, in which the language component
accounts for 40% of the course, was introduced in 1994 (Ross, 1995)the counterpart of the Business Administration with
English degree at Middlesex described earlier (Fanning, 1993). The same university offers several degrees in science 'with
language', as do other British universities, especially the newer ones (ex-polytechnics). The purpose of the language component
is often to enable students to have industrial or academic experience in one of the EEC countries, especially France or Germany,
during their course. In the past, science students intending to spend a year abroad received little

Page 47
in the way of language tuition, and were expected to improve their language skills through self-access, working in language
centres. Some departments have recognised that this may not be adequate and have provided students with a language course in
the first two years, so that they are ready for the year abroad in year three. Follow-up tuition in the fourth year may also be
provided in some cases.
The teachers responsible for these courses are either seconded from the appropriate language department, or work directly for
the department involved, e.g. chemistry (Reuben, 1994b). In the first case, the language class will normally consist of students
from a number of different departments, as in typical EAP classes. In the second, there will be a more homogeneous group all
from the same field. The latter has the advantage that the teacher concerned needs to acquire basic knowledge of only one field,
and there may be a closer collaboration with the department concerned than is possible in the former. In the other situation,
teachers may be expected to know something about half a dozen or more fields. Or what is more likely, since that is virtually
impossible, the language class will be more general purpose than specific purpose. The single discipline situation has
disadvantages too: students and tutors may expect more specific language teaching than the teacher is able to provide.
Furthermore, the teacher is likely to be working alone or with only one or two colleagues, with a possible sense of isolation, and
lack of opportunity to share experience and ideas with peers (Reuben, 1994a: 7). Coleman (1994: 62) recommends a 'single,
central facility' to enhance 'quality assurance, shared expertise, team building, standardised assessment and certification,
concentration of teaching and learning materials and support technology. . . staff training and development, efficiency, research
output and a sense of professional identitybut,' he goes on, 'the creation of such a facility depends on overcoming vested
(especially financial) interests of other sections of the university, and so is all too rarely encountered'.
In some of these degree courses, little attempt is made to teach LSP; in others there is a real commitment to making the
language component integral. At Brunel University 'certain activities such as workshop and laboratory sessions, some lectures
and some seminars on technical subjects, are conducted in the foreign language by French or German engineers, who are either
on the academic staff or here on exchange as postgraduate researchers' (Hersh, 1994: 214). 3 In other programmes, e.g.
Economics and German studies, all subjects appear be taught in German (Fischer, 1992). Presumably the subjects are taught by
subject specialists who are able to speak German, and who may need help with pedagogic skills, but in some instances it may be
a language specialist who has mastered a content area.

Page 48
LSP in European universities
In many Eastern European countries, and in some EU countries, e.g. Spain (Montero, 1991), a foreign language is an optional or
a compulsory subject in degree courses. The language is a relatively minor part of the course in these cases, although it may
officially be a credit subject. The justification for its inclusion is that a foreign language is seen to be a way of increasing contact
between their own professionals and the world at large. Students have no immediate need for the foreign language and, in many
instances, what is taught is LGP rather than LSP. However, teachers often feel they are under pressure from their students and
from their colleagues in other departments, if not from the government, to introduce some specificity into their courses. As in
British universities, teachers may be seconded from the Faculty of Arts or equivalent, or may belong to a special language
department within a department of science, e.g. Engineering or Medicine. (See Yeo, this volume, for Slovakia.)
A more obvious form of LSP is taught in many of these countries, where large numbers of foreign students enrol for
undergraduate courses in the universities and technical colleges with the need for instruction in the local language e.g. Bulgarian
for Academic Purposes taught to Greek students in Bulgaria. This can reach the stage where there are more foreign students in
an institution than nationals. This situation is of course similar to that of the foreign undergraduates and postgraduates studying
in the UK; it differs from the situation in Middle Eastern countries (e.g. Saudi Arabia, Oman) where English is the medium of
instruction in a non-anglophone environment. For example, 'survival' skills in the foreign language would not be required in the
latter.
Languages for Professional and Vocational Purposes: English

Master distinguishes Professional and Vocational English on socioeconomic grounds: the former is principally concerned with
managerial or executive staff and the latter with those on the shopfloor. What the two branches have, importantly, in common is
that the learners are not trainees in their profession or occupation. They are usually post-experience language students. At the
same time the language course is not part of a wider course of study, thus distinguishing it from an Academic Purpose course,
though courses which overlap EAP and EOP are possible (Johnson, 1993). In Britain, English for Vocational Purposes tends to
fall within the province of the ESL/ESOL teacher in that it often, though not necessarily,

Page 49
involves those who have only recently settled in the country. I treat the two categories as one: English for Occupational
Purposes.
English for business
In Britain, Occupational ESP is generally what people mean when they speak of ESP. The target situation is linked to the
practice of an occupation, rather than to the acquisition of qualifications. Business English (BE) dominates (as a glance at the
catalogues of ESP coursebooks makes clear). It incorporates a wide range of course types and participants: from secretaries and
receptionists through departmental managers (finance, personnel, marketing, production), to bankers, accountants, auditors, and
many others.
BE courses are often taught on a one-to-one basis, in private language schools (see Richards, this volume for a description of
one school), or in language centres in the universities. More characteristically perhaps, overseas at least, BE training often takes
place in-company; as it does, in the case of foreign languages, in Britain. This is sometimes carried out by language trainers
within the company itself, and is sometimes contracted out to independent specialists. According to Ellis and Johnson (1994:
22), the latter is becoming more common. Training departments within a company may provide facilities for independent
language study.
Companies may also arrange intensive, residential courses for their employees. Other arrangements are also possible, including
'shadow training' (Barwood, 1994). In this interesting development, a learner is 'matched with a counterpart who is a native
speaker of the target language. For example, the production manager of an Italian factory of an international pharmaceutical
company could be matched with the production manager of a British factory which belongs to the same company and produces
a similar range of products' (Barwood, 1994: 7). It is hard to see this completely replacing language teaching for professional
purposes but where it does take place it has very significant implications for the role of the teacher, which 'shifts from being
primarily a classroom trainer to being a programme manager', responsible for matching shadow and counterpart and advising
and monitoring progress
Another sign of the numerical size of BE is the existence of examinations, e.g. the London Chamber of Commerce and Industry
(LCCI) Examinations Board's English for Business, English for Commerce, Practical Business English, English for the Tourism
Industry, Spoken English for Industry and Commerce.
Finally, something else which may be characteristic of BE is that some

Page 50
teachers have a background in the subject area. One small survey (Widhalm, 1995: 45) found that of 24 BE teachers, 11 had had
a 'business education'. It would be interesting to know how representative this is.
Other branches of Occupational ESP
Other branches of Occupational ESP include Medical English. For example, English for Saudi doctors who have trained (in
German) in Vienna and who need to develop English language skills in order to practise in their own country, where English is
the lingua franca among hospital staff. This tends to involve individuals, who may be taught one-to-one, or be mixed in groups
with quite different needs, in which case they are likely to be taught GE rather than ESP. Occasionally learners with a common
need are taught in a group e.g. English for Cuban doctors preparing to work in South Africa.
Languages for Professional and Vocational Purposes: Foreign Languages

In Britain, other languages are also increasingly being taught for business purposes, in a one-to-one situation or in intensive
courses for groups, in schools or in-company. Examinations leading to a certificate are available, e.g. the Royal Society of Arts
(RSA) Certificates in Business Language Competencefive levels in French, German, Spanish and Italian, as well as basic
Japanese.
Foreign languages for other purposes are also becoming more common. At IALS, University of Edinburgh for example, there
have recently been courses in French for Local Government Officers, Spanish for Insurance, German for Law, Japanese for
Finance, and Italian for Tourism, to mention a few. Mozzon-McPherson and van der Wolf in the third part of this volume
describe a course of Dutch for Customs Officers.
English for Sociocultural Purposes

English language tuition is provided for bilingual adults in ESOL classes at FE colleges, in community-based classes, or through
the Home Tutor Scheme. These classes are open to those who are permanently resident in the country, including asylum seekers,
4 e.g. refugees from Bosnia, Somalia, Zaire, Angola, Iran and Iraq. Course content includes some cultural input in the form of
careful explanation of situations unfamiliar to the students, and survival skills (shopping, using a washing machine, going to
hospital, etc.). Some courses may combine English language instruction with basic vocational skills, e.g. hairdressing, or car
maintenance. Britain has no

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equivalent of the US Citizenship classes. Women with small children who are unable to attend classes and those with disability
may be eligible for one-to-one tuition in the home. This is conducted by volunteer teachers, trained by permanent college staff.
For example, Barnet College in London runs three training programmes per year, each one providing 16 hours instruction on
basic ESOL teaching skills (Monica Fisher, personal communication). Volunteer teachers also teach in community-based classes
in various locations outside the colleges; crèche facilities are often provided.
Scope of LSP
This summary, incomplete as it is, demonstrates the diversity of what may be labelled LSP: from teaching communication or
pedagogic skills, subjects such as secondary school geography, US history or British studies, or even business and science
topics, all combined with varying degrees of direct language teaching; in a wide range of situations such as the student's home,
his or her workplace, and a whole variety of educational establishments; in a target language environment, or a foreign language
setting. The teacher may work in total isolation, or with colleagues teaching the same branch of LSP or different branches, and
teaching the same language or different languages, or may team-teach with subject specialists.
No single teacher would in a lifetime teach all of the different types of LSP in all of the different contexts, though some
practitioners may have experience of many, and in addition be involved in administration, teacher education, consultation, and
other roles. The initial training and continuing education of the LSP teacher is clearly a complex matter.
The LSP Teacher

As Richards (Part 2, this volume) points out, surprisingly little is known about 'the professional lives and beliefs of ESP teachers
around the world'. Although there are undoubtedly some LSP teachers who are untrained, and uninterested in a job they have
been obliged to take up through force of circumstances, there are many who are skilled and enthusiastic. I believe that the two
teachers described in Richards' chapter are by no means unrepresentative.
Strevens (1988: 43) claims that
While every good teacher of English is potentially a good teacher of ESP, he or she needs special help and training. The
teacher who is new to ESP needs advice, help and support from those teachers who already have the necessary experience.
[. . .] becoming an effective teacher of

Page 52
ESP requires more experience, additional training, extra effort, a fresh commitment, compared with being a teacher of
General English.
Current State of LSP Teacher Education in Britain

ESP teacher education
In Britain, the majority of 'mainstream' ESP teachers are university graduates from the faculties of Arts. They may well have
begun their careers by teaching with minimal pre-service training. After one or two years, many of them will have taken a
certificated course in TEFL, e.g. the RSA/ Cambridge Certificate and Diploma in Teaching English as a Foreign Language to
Adults (DTFLA), 5 or a postgraduate certificate of education (PGCE) in TESOL.6 Increasingly, teachers wishing to make a
career in EFL, especially perhaps in ESP, now do a masters degree course.
There are around 70 masters degrees in linguistics, applied linguistics, or ELT available in UK universities or equivalent. For
those wanting a more specific course, three of the MA programmes specialise in ESP,7 although many of the others offer an
option in ESP/EAP as part of the course (14 institutions specify an ESP module or option in their promotional descriptions
(British Council, 1992)). There are in addition six (advanced) certificate courses in ESP in higher education establishments, and
non-certificated courses are run by various institutions, including the British Council. Table 1 gives details of the syllabus of the
three masters degree courses specialising in ESP. The information is taken from British Council (1992).
An increasing number of teacher education courses are being offered as distance learning courses (see Howard & McGrath,
1995). These include some masters degree courses, e.g. the MSc in ESP from Aston. The University of London Institute of
Education has recently introduced an MA in TESOL by computer networking.
In addition to these general courses in teaching ESP, there are courses for teaching specific branches of ESP. Most common of
these is the teaching of Business English. The London Chamber of Commerce and Industry Examinations Board administers a
Diploma in Teaching English for Business (Dip. TEB). Courses preparing candidates for the diploma are run, for example, by
the London Guildhall University. Other institutions, e.g. IALS, the University of Edinburgh, offer a non-certificated two-week
course for teaching business English. There is also a parallel course in teaching English for Medical Purposes at IALS.
The Royal Society of Arts previously offered a diploma in Teaching

Page 53
Table 1 Comparison of course content in three masters degrees
specialising in ESP
Course University College of St Mark &University of
component ofAston St John Warwick
Text/discourse core core core
analysis
Linguistic core core core
varieties
Descr. of modern core core
English
Lexical studies core
Methodology core core core
Course/syllabus core core core
design
Materials core ? = project core
production
Needs analysis 8 core
Testing option core
Classroom option core
research
CALL/Ed. Tech. option option option
ELT management option option option
Self-access option (& option
DL)
Subject specialist option (BE) core
studies
Teacher option option option
development
Computational option
linguistics
Psycholinguistics core
Teaching literature option
English Across the Curriculum in Multilingual Schools, and another in teaching English as a Second Language in Further, Adult
and Community Education, but withdrew these courses in 1994, although they are still run as 'customer-specific schemes' in a
limited number of centres. One university (Thames Valley) has an MA and a diploma in Language in the Multiracial
Community.
Non-native speakers of English
In continental Europe, the typical philology degree course contains an optional module on methodology. This is inadequate
preparation for teaching ESP, but the situation may be improving, (see Palmer & Posteguillo, this volume). In a few centres in
some countries there is a strong

Page 54
in-service, in-house teacher training tradition; for example, the ESP Centre in Alexandria, which runs a 10-week course leading
to a certificate in Teaching ESP (Lilley, 1994). But these are the exception. Teachers, on the whole, train themselves with little
help from heads of department, or pay for courses abroad themselves.
Most of the certificates and masters courses previously mentioned are open to non-native speakers of English, who in 1989
constituted about one-third of the intake (Phillips, 1989: 16). The British Council supports, as best it can, requests for
workshops and seminars. Recently, the EU has funded a number of projects aimed at furthering the education of LSP teachers,
including those in the former communist countries.
LSP (foreign languages) teacher education
Teachers of foreign languages in British schools typically obtain teaching qualifications after gaining a first degree in languages,
though at least one university education department (Stirling) offers a concurrent initial teacher education programme as an
option on courses in French, German and Spanish. The PGCE in the teaching of some foreign languages is now available
through the Open University. The RSA offers a diploma in Teaching Foreign Languages to Adults.
In Scotland, the government has set up in-service courses on a day release basis for primary school teachers to help them with
implementing the new syllabus, (see Johnstone, this volume). These courses have so far been for teachers of German and French
and have been primarily concerned with improving language skills.
All of these are general methodology courses. At present, the only TLSP courses available to prospective teachers of LSP are
the masters degrees, which are heavily oriented towards English.
Conclusion
To summarise: In Britain, for EAP/ESP, in addition to general diploma and masters programmes, there are ESP certificate
courses and masters specialising in ESP. All of these are open to non-native speakers with a good level of English as well as to
native-speakers. Some programmes are available as distance learning courses. For ESL/ESOL, the situation at present is less
satisfactory, with most of the previously available certificate and diploma courses withdrawn. Outside the UK, there appear to be
few formal TESP courses in Europe or the Middle East; the Alexandria Certificate course (Lilley, 1994) may be the only one of
its kind.

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For British teachers of LSP, there are PGCE courses and the RSA DipTFLA, but nothing oriented towards specific-purpose
language teaching. There is a particular need for courses in this area.
Acknowledgements
I am grateful to Sue Argent, Christiane Cooper, Gillian Brown, Monica Fisher, Phil Hutton, Diana Kent, Monique Larkin, Tony
Lynch and Ian McGrath for answering my questions. Any errors or omissions in this chapter are my own responsibility.
Notes
1. The term 'bilingual' is preferred to 'immigrant' nowadays.
2. In the US, both these abbreviations are used to refer to any form of English for non-native speakers. Until fairly recently in
the UK, ESOL was used as a superordinate term, with two main branches, EFL and ESL, but teachers of English for bilingual
children and adults now prefer to call themselves teachers of ESOL rather than ESL.
3. These assistant teachers, unlike the American ITAs, are using their L1 to teach and could conceivably be placed in a course
on communication skills for British lecturers, (where they exist), in the kind of native- and non-native-speaker mix which is
familiar from MA TESOL and MA ELT programmes in this country.
4. Recent changes in government policy with regard to asylum seekers have aroused considerable anger and anxiety in the
ESOL community.
5. RSA/Cambridge certificate and diploma qualifications are undergoing a major restructuring at the time of writing. The goal is
to introduce an integrated series of qualifications under the Cambridge Integrated Language Teaching Schemes (CILTS). These
will include a gradation from pre-service certificates, through in-service certificates and diplomas to advanced diplomas. All
will be open to non-native speakers (replacing the old COTE and DOTE qualifications) as well as native-speakers. The first
advanced diploma will be in management; in future an advanced diploma in ESP is a possibility.
6. With the withdrawal of government funding for the PGCE in TESOL, this option is now much less likely.
7. A comparison of courses on offer in 1983-4 with those available in 1993-4 (British Council, 1983, 1992) reveals that the
number of masters specialising in ESP has risen from 1 to 3 (or possibly from 2 to 4: Birmingham in 1983-4 called its
programme the 'MA in Applied English Linguistics (with particular reference to ESP)', but it has dropped the specific
designation in 1993-4).
8. Needs analysis is presumably included under the heading Course Design in two of the courses.
References
Aplin., R. and Stevens, A. (1988) Pre-vocational and non-specialist language courses post 16. In D. Phillips (ed.) (1988)
Languages in Schools: From Complacency to Conviction (pp. 158-68). London: CILT.

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Barwood, C. (1994) Shadow training: extending the environment of training to match the needs for learning specific language
and culture. Language and Intercultural Training 15 (2), 7-9.
Blackie, D. (1990) English Language Teacher Supply: A Pilot Report. London: The British Council
British Council (1983) TEFL/TESL Academic Courses in the UK 1983-4. London: The British Council.
(1992) TEFL/TESL Academic courses in the UK 1993-4. Manchester: The British Council.
Coleman, J. (1994) Institution-wide language programmes. In G. Parker and C. Reuben Languages for the International
Scientist. London: Association for French Language Studies and CILT.
Dudley-Evans, T. (1977) Planning a course for science and engineering students. In S. Holden (ed.) Englishfor Specific
Purposes (pp. 38-40). London: Modern English Publications.
Ellis, M. and Johnson, C. (1994) Teaching Business English. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Fanning, P. (1993) Broadening the ESP umbrella. English for Specific Purposes 12(2), 159-70.
Fischer, G. (1992) German for professional purposes at the University of NSW. Babel 27(1), 30-1.
Hersh, A. (1994) How specialised need you be in three hours per week? In G. Parker and C. Reuben (eds) Languages for the
International Scientist. London: Association for French Language Studies and CILT.
Howard, R. and McGrath, I. (eds)(1995) Distance Education for Language Teachers. Clevedon, UK: Multilingual Matters.
Howe, P. (1993) Planning a pre-sessional course in English for Academic Legal Purposes. In G. Blue (ed.) (1993) Language,
Learning and Success: Studying through English (pp. 148-57). London: Modern English Publications in association with The
British Council.
Johns, A. (1990) ESP in the USA: State of the art. In P. Robinson. ESP Today: A Practitioner's Guide. Hemel Hemptstead:
Prentice Hall.
Johnson, C. (1993) Business English. Language Teaching, October, 201-9.
Lilley, A. (1994) The development of the Alexandria Certificate in Teaching ESP. Pharos: An ESP Newsletter 7(1), 82-8.
Mackay, R. and Mountford, J. (1978) A programme in English for overseas postgraduate soil scientists at the University of
Newcastle. In R. Mackay and J. Mountford (eds) English for Specific Purposes (pp. 127-60). London: Longman.
Mitchell, A. (1991) Teaching technical Japanesea case study of language for a specific purpose. Babel 26(1), 4-9.
Montero, B. (1991) New trends of the Language Department of the Universidad Politecnica de Valencia. ESPMENA 28, 1-10.
Pattison, A. (1994) Building bridges: A new joint language and engineering degree programme. Babel 29(1), 30-1.
Phillips, D. (1989) Pilot Study of the Career Paths of EFL Teachers. London: The Centre for British Teachers.
Reuben, C. (1994a) Foreword. In G. Parker and C. Reuben (eds) Languages for the International Scientist. London: Association
for French Language Studies and CILT.

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(1994b) Building bridges. In G. Parker and C. Reuben (eds) Languages for the International Scientist. London: Association for
French Language Studies and CILT.
Ross, M. (1995) The pattern of study in languages: the view from a new university. In R. Wakely (ed. in chief) Language
Teaching and Learning in Higher Education: Issues and Perspectives (pp. 17-26). London: CILT.
Strevens, P. (1988) The learner and teacher of ESP. In D. Chamberlain and R. Baumgardner (eds) ESP in the Classroom:
Practice and Evaluation (pp. 39-44). London: Modern English Publications in association with the British Council.
Widhalm, G. (1995) Business English at the Vienna University of Economics and Business Administration. Part 1: History,
teachers, and teaching materials. English Language Teaching News 27 (October), 39-47.

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Chapter 4
Five Questions for LSP Teacher Training
Tony Dudley-Evans
I wish to pose five questions that I believe are of relevance to LSP teacher training. These are:
(1) Does LSP have its own theory? Should we teach this theory if it exists?
(2) Has LSP developed its own methodology?
(3) How important is text analysis (genre and discourse analysis) to LSP teachers?
(4) Is a knowledge of subject content and disciplinary culture important for the LSP teacher?
(5) How important is an awareness of cultural differences to the LSP teacher?
I shall deal with each of these questions in turn.
The Theory of LSP

There is clear consensus about the definition of LSP. It is generally accepted that it is goal-oriented and based on needs
analysis, and that it frequently has the characteristics of being constrained by time limits and being designed for adult learners
(Robinson, 1991). There is also consensus on the 'family tree' with accepted classifications of ESP into English for Academic
Purposes and English for Occupational Purposes and the widespread use of the term English for Science and Technology
(Strevens, 1988). There is, however, less than complete consensus here with the use of other terms such as English for
Vocational Purposes (EVP) and English for Professional Purposes (EPP) rather than Occupational Purposes.
There is also an extensive literature about LSP/ESP especially in the area of English for Science and Technology. It has often
been noted that Swales' Episodes in ESP (Swales, 1988), which surveys the field from 1962 to 1981, concentrates exclusively on
English for Science and Technology. This

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literature began with what Bowyers has referred to as 'war stories and romances' (Bowyers, 1980) describing case studies of the
establishment of courses and materials (e.g. Higgins, 1983; Bates & Dudley-Evans, 1976), but has moved on into the areas of
discourse and genre analysis (Tarone et al., 1981) and more generalised descriptions of procedures for ESP course design
(Hutchinson & Waters, 1983). Interestingly, the rapidly developing field of Business English seems in the 1990s to be at a stage
similar to that reached by EST in the 1970s; there are very many case studies describing the setting up and running of courses
and actual published materials, the latter now far exceeding the numbers of textbooks published in EST. But there is as yet
relatively little published reflecting more generally on the practice of Business English and few linguistic studies of key genres
in business.
What we do not yet have is an extensive theory of LSP/ESP. Hutchinson and Waters (1987) and Widdowson (1983) have come
closest to it, but nonetheless there is not an established theory for ESP in the same way as there is for, say, Communicative
Language Teaching and Second Language Acquisition. 1 I would suggest that this is because the emphasis in LSP/ESP courses
has been on the procedures followed in setting up courses, carrying out text analysis and writing and evaluating teaching
materials. I would further suggest that LSP training needs to concentrate on this 'set of procedures', which extends needs
analysis to take on board other aspects of finding out about the context that students are to be prepared for, such as deficiency
analysis, language audits, means analysis and genre analysis (see West, this volume).
As part of the presentation of the set of procedures for LSP it is important to ensure that the definition of LSP/ESP is fully
understood. There can still be confusion about whether the definition of LSP/ESP is broad or narrow. It is still relatively
common to hear LSP /ESP defined as being related to specific content. Indeed Strevens' 1988 definition gives as an absolute
characteristic that it is 'related in content (i.e. in its themes and topics) to particular disciplines, occupations and activities'
(Strevens, 1988: 1). Similarly, it is still sometimes said that LSP teaching necessarily involves mono-skill teaching, particularly
reading. These two definitions are too narrow and it seems reasonable to define LSP more broadly such that it encompasses the
teaching of general academic or business language as well more specific language or skills. Blue (1988) refers to English for
General Academic Purposes (EGAP) and English for Specific Academic Purposes (ESAP). By extension we can talk of
Language/English for General Business Purposes (LGBP) and Language/English for Specific Business Purposes (LSBP).
That brings me to the second question.

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LSP Methodology
It is normally assumed that LSP does not have its own methodology. Indeed, Hutchinson and Waters (1987) place a great deal of
emphasis on this point and strongly deny that LSP/ESP can have its own separate methodology. The teaching of 'common core'
LSP/ESP with courses such as the Nucleus Series (Bates & Dudley-Evans, 1976 onwards) or the Focus Series (Allen &
Widdowson, 1974 onwards) or the Reading and Thinking in English Series (Moore et al., 1980) may indeed not differ very
much from the teaching of general English textbooks. Similarly, where the focus of a class is on the learner or on the learning
process, an LSP class will not differ radically from a General English class based on the same principles. However, more
specific LSP work requires a rather different methodology. In the team teaching work carried out in certain departments at the
University of Birmingham Johns & Dudley-Evans, 1980) the language teacher plays a very different role from that of a General
English teacher. In these classes a three-way dialogue is set up between students, the language teacher and the subject teacher.
The language teacher acts as an intermediary between the students and the subject teacher seeking clarification of points that
s/he feels may not have been understood fully, or making overt aspects of the disciplinary culture that may not be immediately
apparent to the students or the subject teacher. S/he also acts as the person in the triangle that is knowledgeable about
communication, about styles followed in academic lectures, what is involved in writing an examination question or answer and
other related matters. In these sessions the language teacher does not have the problem of having to deal with the actual subject
content as the actual subject teacher is present and can deal with any questions that arise.
In other subject-specific work where the subject teacher is not presentan approach similar to the adjunct model described by
Brinton et al. (1989)the nature of the communication is made very distinctive by the difference in subject knowledge between
the students and the language teacher. In classes where I have been helping students read a very difficult development
economics textbook in order to prepare them to understand the lectures given by the author of the book, the focus of the class
has been on the pooling of knowledge and on working together to see if we can tackle a difficult problem. The language teacher
provides expertise on the nature of the reading task, how to gain a general idea of the meaning of the text from the introduction
and conclusion of each chapter before reading the more abstract and mathematical 'middle' of the chapter. S/he also provides
information about the way that the language works, such as the use of

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nominalisation or the language of 'Cause and Effect'. The students provide knowledge about economics and what the lecturer
said in his previous lecture. The nature of the interaction in the class thus becomes very different from that in a normal language
class with the Initiation-Response-Feedback system presented by Sinclair and Coulthard (1975) becoming transformed by the
fact that students often carry out the initiation move.
The methodology may be different, but the implication for LSP teachers is not so much that they need to learn a wholly
different technique for teaching, but rather that they need to be flexible in their teaching, and prepared to take risks. To suggest
that a totally new approach to teaching in LSP is needed is surely wrong and certainly intimidating to many teachers embarking
on some LSP teaching. The main abilities required in the specific teaching situations just described is a willingness to listen, to
think on one's feet and an enjoyment of reacting quickly to problems as they emerge. In a sense LSP teachers need to have the
skills and sense of adventure of the jazz musician improvising around a melody or a chord sequence.
Relevance of Text Analysis to LSP

The 'chord sequence' in LSP teaching is provided by the knowledge about discourse and genre available in the various
explorations of key LSP texts. Johns and Dudley-Evans (1991) describe discourse analysis as one of the two absolute
characteristics of LSP, the other being needs analysis. Discourse analysis and, in particular, its main branch in LSP, genre
analysis, is the natural development of needs analysis. Needs analysis is very much a preliminary stage; once one has established
target needs, e.g. that a business person needs to participate and chair meetings, negotiate, engage in social conversation before
and after meetings and negotiations, and write various letters, such as letters of inquiry, letters of confirmation, the development
of a syllabus and teaching materials will depend on analysis of the key genres that have been identified.
There are various kinds of discourse analysis relevant to LSP work. The first is what Swales (1988: 189) has referred to as
'lexicostatistics', the counting of key lexical items or grammatical features. The early work by Barber (1988) has been criticised
for its lack of awareness of genre differences, but more focused counts of tense, aspect and mood features in research articles
(Oster, 1981; Shaw, 1992) have made a contribution to genre studies. Similarly, the use of corpora (Biber et al., 1994) and
concordancing (Johns, 1989; Stevens, 1991) have shown the frequency of lexical items and the contexts in which they appear.
Genre Analysis provides a much more global approach than lexicosta-

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tistics and concordancing and illuminates the relationship between the actual text and the conventions of the discourse
community (Swales, 1990) in which a text is being written or spoken. The work of genre analysts has tended to concentrate on
EAP, written rather than spoken text and, in particular, on the academic article but its investigation of the regularities of
communication patterns in text and the effect of the roles expected of the speaker/writer are of great relevance to other branches
of LSP, especially Business Language/English and to spoken language as well as written. Charles (1995), for example, has
presented an excellent genre study of business negotiations in which she examines the effect that buyer and seller roles have on
the development of the discourse.
As genre studies become more widely developed and known in the field of LSP, the problems of mismatch between what
materials suggest happens in genres and what actually happens (Williams, 1988) are likely to be less serious.
The main argument in favour of the use of genre analysis in teaching LSP is that it provides non-native speakers with the
linguistic and rhetorical tools they need to cope with the tasks required of them. It is also an important resource for the LSP
teacher and materials writer. Nonetheless there are clear dangers in a dogmatic and over-prescriptive use of the findings of genre
analysis and other types of discourse analysis. The controversies reported about the use of genre analysis in the primary school
with native speakers in Australia (e.g. Reid, n.d.) have generally focused on the dangers of over-prescription of a single 'right'
way of carrying out a written task thereby potentially hindering the development of a writer's 'individual voice'.
I believe that a reliance on the linguistic forms used to express the 'moves' in a genre can lead, unless it is sensitively handled in
the teaching, to the dangers mentioned earlier. It seems more important to sensitise learners to the conventions expected of them
in written or spoken tasks and to explain how they should use them for their own purposes in writing up their ideas or research.
Of course, the linguistic forms are important, but as in the teaching of functions and notions, one should make apparent the
range of possibilities for expressing a move or other units constituting a genre.
Importance of Knowledge about the Subject Content and Disciplinary Culture

Ewer (1983), a pioneer in early LSP/ESP teacher training, suggests that the EST teacher should be willing to 'acquire the
intelligent layman's outline knowledge of the disciplines his students are studying' (Ewer, 1983: 10). This produced a range of
reactions from those that contributed

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responses to Ewer's article in a special edition of the then named The ESP Journal (Vol. 2 No. 1, 1983). Abbott, for example,
presented a rather sceptical point of view asking how many disciplines an LSP teacher should become familiar with and
suggesting that he would have to 'burn the midnight oil for many months' (Abbott, 1983: 35) to become familiar with even two
science subjects. Adams-Smith (1983: 38), on the other hand, suggests that the teacher does not necessarily need to be able to
grasp a whole subject, but needs to keep an open mind and an interest in the subject area.
In my own experience I have found that for common-core LSP teaching, such as from the Nucleus General Science coursebook,
one is exploiting a number of core scientific principles, e.g. the carbon cycle or laws of probability, to present the core semi-
technical language of academic (or professional) communication. In order to exploit these situations fully, one needs to have a
full understanding of the content. This does not imply that the teacher does not or should not draw on the students' own
knowledge of that content, rather that, in order to prompt students to communicate about the situation one does need to
understand the situation itself fairly fully. But this kind of situation, although clearly scientific, is also, I would suggest, part of
the general knowledge that any teacher should have or seek to know. A knowledge of the basic facts of the carbon cycle, the
water cycle, how the internal combustion engine works does not require too many months of burning the midnight oil. A couple
of hours reading the Teachers' Notes or consulting a colleague from the science department should suffice.
Johns and Dudley-Evans (1980) suggested that the language teacher 'needs to be able to grasp the conceptual structure of a
subject his students are studying if he is to understand fully how language is used to represent that structure' (Johns & Dudley-
Evans, 1980: 7, emphasis added). The phrase 'conceptual structure' is, I now realise, an ambiguous one. Does it mean that the
LSP teacher needs to be able to understand and internalise the basic principles and key definitions of the discipline? The phrase
may well appear to indicate this, but, in fact, I now believe that it refers to the basic ways of thinking that a discipline follows,
the key patterns of communications of disciplinary culture (Becher, 1989). Working recently with groups of students from the
three disciplines of Plant Biology, Highway Engineering and Accounting, Banking and Finance 2 I have decided that the key
elements that I, as an LSP teacher, need to grasp relate to the view that the subject teachers present of the disciplinary culture.
Plant Biology is a well established discipline with an extensive literature and each piece of research builds upon that literature
and makes a small extra contribution to it. Highway Engineering is less well established as an academic discipline and its key
texts are, in fact, government documents

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laying down procedures for road and pavement (in the sense of road surfacing) design. Many of the lectures we have recorded
follow an overall problem-solution pattern (Hoey, 1983). Accounting, Banking and Finance also sees itself as a practical course
and students are encouraged to write assignments in terms of presenting advice for lay persons interested in investing money in
different markets.
These disciplinary cultures are international in nature, but there is nonetheless some variation from country to country, or society
to society. This leads to the final question, that of the importance of an awareness of cultural differences.
Relevance of an Awareness of Cultural Differences

A recent visit to Russia brought home to me the difficulty of adjusting to another culture. There is keen interest in Business
English, but learning Business English involves much more than learning appropriate lexis or even how to write/speak key texts.
It involves the learning of a whole new culture associated with the market system. Little wonder that a Russian student studying
in a pioneering Business School quoted in the Financial Times (14 November 1994) stated that 'the performance and style of
teaching are much more exciting than at university, but the hardest thing is to find out what the lecturers really mean'.
The area of cross-cultural communication is becoming increasingly important, especially in the area of Business English.
Business negotiation, for example, has generated a number of interesting studies about the differences in negotiating style
between different national groups. Garcez (1993) shows how in negotiating Americans start with the point that they wish to
make and then elaborate it whereas Brazilians prefer to build up to a point in a more indirect fashion. They can be more
straightforward in the American style, but feel rather uncomfortable doing so. Charles (1995) points to the greater formality of
Finnish business negotiations compared with British negotiations, and shows how Finnish negotiations where the relationship is
already established and the buyer and seller know each other still have a formality similar to a British negotiation where there is
not yet an established relationship and the buyer and seller do not know each other.
In an academic area, Mauranan (1993) found that Finnish writers of journal articles used much less metatext or text about text
than Anglo-American writers. She argues that the Anglo-Americans are more concerned to show a reader-oriented attitude and
to make explicit the point they wish to make and the relationship between the points. The Finnish writers, by contrast, show a
greater tendency to make points indirectly and

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to leave the links between them implicit. She goes on to argue that the rhetoric resulting from the Finnish approach may be
ineffective if the writer's assumptions and attitudes are not shared.
Maier (1992) investigated the difference between native speakers and non-native speakers in the use of politeness strategies in
business letters. She found that non-native speakers used 'potentially risky politeness strategies' (Maier, 1992: 202), preferring
positive politeness strategies, such as showing interest or being optimistic or offering a contribution or benefit. In following
these strategies, the non-native speakers were more direct and informal than the native speakers. The general effect of the use of
these strategies was that their writing may be perceived negatively, despite the excellence of the actual language used. Nickerson
(1993) also investigated the differences between native speaker letters and letters written in English by Dutch speakers. She
found much greater formality in the Dutch letters.
These are but a few examples of a rapidly developing area of research. A very useful summary of the research can be found in
Limaye and Victor (1991).
Conclusion
I have in this short paper addressed through the five questions the issues that seem important for LSP teacher training. It is
striking that in ESP, with which I am much more familiar than the teaching of other languages for specific purposes, the
teaching and materials production is increasingly being carried out by non-native speakers. At the beginning of ESP, 30 years
ago, both the teaching and the writing of materials seemed exclusively the preserve of the expatriate native speaker and many of
the early large-scale projects were dominated by them (e.g. the Tabriz project, the various Saudi Arabian projects run by the
British Council). It is refreshing that this is no longer the case and that many projects in which non-native speakers have been
dominant (e.g. the Brazil ESP/Reading Skills Project) have shown a sustainability that the early expatriate-dominated projects
did not.
The involvement of non-native speakers in ESP and LSP projects does, however, require the establishment of courses that
address the issues raised in this chapter and develop the confidence in teachers that they are able to cope with the challenges of
the different teaching style required.
Notes
1. Here we are concentrating on LSP teaching as part of language education (see Tudor, this volume). There is, however, a
theory of LSP/ESP developing from work in the area of genre analysis (especially Swales, 1990; Bhatia, 1993), and

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related work that draws heavily on the sociology of science and the work of Giddens (1979, 1984) in sociology. The theory
emphasises the need to become familiar with the expected roles that a writer or speaker has within specific 'social' contexts
and discourse communities.
2. The University of Birmingham in fact runs a MBA in International Banking and Finance, and a Masters in Development
Finance run by the Accountancy Department. These two programmes share many courses, including the English course. There
is also a separate Money, Banking and Finance course run by the Economics Department.
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Stevens, V. (1991) Classroom concordancing: Vocabulary materials derived from relevant, authentic text. Englishfor Specific
Purposes 10(1), 35-46.
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Regional Language Centre.
Swales, J.M. (ed.) (1988) Episodes in ESP. Hemel Hempstead: Prentice Hall International.
Swales, J.M. (1990) Genre Analysis. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Tarone, E.S., Dwyer, S., Gillette, S. and Icke, V. (1981) On the use of the passive in two astrophysics journal papers. In J.M.
Swales (ed.) (1988) (pp. 188-207).
Widdowson, H.G. (1983) Learning Purpose and Language Use. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Williams, M. (1988) Language taught for meetings and language used in meetings: Anything in common? Applied Linguistics
9(1), 45-58.

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Chapter 5
Needs Analysis: State of the Art 1
RichardWest
Origins
Syllabus design in general and needs analysis in particular remain neglected topics on most education courses for language
teachers (Brown, 1992). Despite the general agreement that needs analysis is the necessary first step in any LSP course, there
has not been a book devoted solely to needs analysis since Munby (1978) and so the intention of this paper is to provide a brief
survey of the current state of needs analysis as a starting point for discussion on training courses for teachers of LSP.
The term 'analysis of needs' was originated by Michael West in India in the 1920s when he was trying to establish why learners
should learn English (answer: in order to read) and how they should learn English (answer: through reading). West was dealing
with students of General English in what Abbott (1981: 12) calls a TENOR (Teaching English for No Obvious Reason)
situation and it was perhaps for this reason that the term then disappeared until around 1970. It then seems to reappear for two
main reasons: the work of the Council of Europe (e.g. Richterich, 1971) and early work in ESP (notably ELTDU, 1970; Stuart
& Lee, 1972/1985). Two examples from these two sources illustrate the major approach to needs analysis in ESP from that early
period. The Council of Europe categorised personnel and then characterised their requirements in terms of understanding,
speaking, reading and writing (see Table 1).
ELTDU (1970) and Stuart and Lee (1972/1985) were rather more detailed and were based on extensive research. Both analysed
business language needs by prioritising the situations or tasks required by different categories of personnel (Table 2).
These two exampleslike all early needs analysesanalysed learners' needs in the workplace and for this reason are referred to as
examples of target-situation needs analysis. It was target-situation analysis which was the

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Table 1 Council of Europe categorisation
Category: Pilots, deck officers and engineer officers (ship and
air)
Comments All persons will certainly have learnt one or more
foreign languages during their vocational training or
while practising their profession. It can nevertheless
be assumed that with technical developments and
international communication, they will be required to
learn a foreign language X.
Understanding
Will be required to understand information and
instructions given in a highly specialised language
resembling a private code. (+)
Speaking
Will be required to give instructions, information and
orders in a highly specialised language resembling a
private code. (+)
Reading
Will be required to read written information and
instructions in a highly specialised language
resembling a private code. (+)
Writing
May be required to enter data in a log-book in a
highly specialised language with fairly simple
syntax. (o)
Source: Trim et al., 1975: 69)
Table 2
Situations/tasks (20) Managers Secretaries Sales
Conversation with 4 2 3
1 person
Informal 4 2
meetings
Use of the 4 4 3
telephone
Reading reports/ 4 4 3
correspondence
etc., etc. 4 = high priority; 1 = low priority;= not
needed

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Table 3 Evolution of needs analysis
StagePeriodFocus Scope of analysis Examples
1 Early EOP Target situation Richterich, 1971,
1970s 1975/1980
analysis
ESP ELTDU, 1970 Stuart
& Lee, 1972/ 1985
2 Later EAP Target situation Jordan & Mackay,
1970s 1973
analysis
Mackay, 1978
3 1980s ESP and general Target situation Tarone & Yule, 1989
language teaching
analysis Allwright &
Deficiency Allwright, 1977
analysis Allwright, 1982
Strategy analysis Holliday & Cooke,
1982
Means analysis
Language audits Pilbeam, 1979
4 Early ESP Integrated/ Jones, 1991
1990s computer-based
analyses
Nelson, 1994
principal concern of that most well-known approach to needs analysis Munby (1978).
Evolution of Needs Analysis

The difficulty of reaching an agreed definition of needs analysis has been referred to by Richterich (1983: 2):
The very concept of language needs has never been clearly defined and
remains at best ambiguous.
This difficulty of definition arises from the ways in which the concept and focus of needs analysis have evolved since the early
1970sit is now possible to see that needs analysis has developed through at least three (possibly four) stages, each of which has
shifted and broadened the scope of analysis (Table 3).
From this table, five different concepts of needs analysis emerge:

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Target-situation analysis
This was the earliest form of needs analysis and the form we encountered in the early work of the Council of Europe (Trim et
al. 1975; ELTDU, 1970; Stuart & Lee, 1972/1985), in which the language requirements of the target situation were identified by
contemplating, questioning or observing those already in that situation. Such needs have also been called necessities or objective
needs, and they represent the destination of the LSP learner's language-learning journey. Target-situation analysis may operate
at various levels of detail:
(a) establishing priorities in terms of various languagesEnglish, German, etc.
(b) establishing priorities in terms of skills in one languagespeaking, reading, etc.
(c) establishing priorities in terms of LSP situations, functions or tasksspeaking on the telephone, listening to lectures, etc.
Deficiency analysis
One of the limitations of target-situation analysis is that it takes little account of the present state of the learner's present
language proficiency, and so some method is needed to assess the starting point of the LSP journey. Such needs have been
termed lacks, deficiencies or subjective needs as they estimate the 'learning gap' between present needs and target needs.
Strategy analysis
Having established the starting point and the destination, we need information about the preferred means of travelthe approaches
to learning or teaching. Strategy analysis, therefore, sets out to establish the learners' preferences in terms of learning styles and
strategies, or teaching methods.
Means analysis
This examines the teaching environment in which the language course is to take place and establishes the constraints and
opportunities of the ESP journey and encompasses four main areas:
(a) classroom culture/learner factorswhat is or is not possible within a particular educational culture or tradition
(b) staff profiles/teacher profileswhat is or is not possible with the staff available, considering numbers, language level, LSP
background, training, etc.

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(c) status of language teaching/institutional profileswhat is or is not possible given the status of LSP within the organisation or
institution, considering timetable and resource allocations, etc.
(d) change agents/change managementan assessment of what innovations are necessary or possible in order to establish an
effective LSP programme.
Language audits
The four concepts of needs analysis we have examined so far may be seen as complementary to each other and all operate at the
level of the organisation or institution. Language audits, on the other hand, are much larger scale operations establishing the LSP
practice of, say, a company or the policy of a ministry. An example would be the recent audit carried out for Hungary (Teemant,
Varga & Heltai, 1993). A language audit could and should embrace all the levels of needs analysis that we have identified:
• the target languages to be learnt and possibly the skills priorities within those languages
• the current deficiencies in terms of, for example, the proficiency levels of those leaving schools and entering LSP
programmes
• an evaluation of current teaching methods and alternative methodologies available elsewhere
• an assessment of the opportunities provided by an effective LSP policy and the resource implications of implementing such
a policy.
Methods of Needs Analysis

Many methods of carrying out a needs analysis have been developed (Table 4). What is important is that, wherever possible,
several methods should be used in order to obtain a complete and accurate picture. Typically, for example, previous research
will indicate the areas likely to figure on an LSP course, and then a combination of questionnaires and structured interviews will
establish a full picture of target needs, present deficiencies and preferred learning styles.
It is also important to use methods which can take account of changing needs. While both learners and teachers may have a full
and clear picture of needs at the start of an LSP course, it is inevitable that priorities will change as current needs are satisfied or
modified, and new needs emerge. Regular and on-going re-analysis of needs is therefore needed if an LSP course is to meet the
requirements of all those involvedlearners, teachers and sponsors.

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Table 4 Methods of Needs Analysis (Jordan,
forthcoming)
1. Pre-course placement/ diagnostic tests
2. Entry tests on arrival
3. Self-placement/self-diagnostic tests
4. Observation of classes
5. Questionnaires
6. Structured interviews
7. Learner diaries
8. Case studies
9. Final evaluation and feedback
10. Previous research
Requirements of a Good Needs Analysis Procedure

A needs analysis is the basis of any LSP course, and it is therefore essential that it should be credible to all those involved.
· Transparencycredibility depends not only on thoroughness and accuracy, but involvement and transparency. Involvement
means involvement of the participants but also, very often, the opportunity for the sponsors to specify their requirements.
· Repeatable during the coursein addition, it is important that this credibility is maintained by regular revision of the analysis
to take account of evolving needs.
· Learner-centredthe methods must take accountand be seen to take accountof learners' stated preferences in terms of both
language and learning styles.
· Taking account of both (a) target-situation needs and (b) learners' present deficienciesthe procedures must establish both
the starting point (present language proficiency) and the terminal or objectives (target needs) of the LSP course.
· Establishing a syllabus by indicating learning/teaching prioritiesthe needs analysis procedure should give an indication of
syllabus content giving an estimate of learning/ teaching priorities.
· Related to the target situation/real worldthe categories of need should be related to the target situation rather than linguistic
categories.
· Credible to both learners and sponsorscredibility entails transparency and transparency requires a common language (see
Yates, 1977) so that course designer, participants and sponsors can specify and

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negotiate their needs. Finally, the needs analysis will often have to be carried out in a culture which is not that of language
teaching. For example, learner-centred approaches and negotiated syllabuses may be commonly accepted in language schools or
universities, but alien to banks or manufacturing companies. A car company, for instance, does not offer to build a car to the
customer's specifications, but offers a range of options from which the customer chooses. Such a company may well find a
similar approach to needs analysis more transparent and even more professional (see Harbord, 1994, summarised later).
Current Approaches to Needs Analysis

Set-menu needs analysis
To meet the requirements of situations such as that with the car company, Harbord (1994) has developed a modular approach to
business ESP needs analysis which works on the principle of a set menu from which clients (sponsors or learners) can choose.
He offers 14 main courses (Table 5) from which clients can selectone course at a time, more than one course at a time, more
than one course in a sequenced programme, set courses with customised options, and so on. The approach is essentially one of
target-needs analysis and would need to be supplemented by other forms of needs analysis, but its virtue is that it provides a
common language for course negotiationa common language which is all too often missing between ESP teachers and ESP
sponsors.
Computer-based needs analysis
Harbord was working in Finland and, by coincidence, a different response to the demand for a professional approach to business
ESP needs analysis has also been developed in Finland by Nelson (1994). This employs a sophisticated computerised system
operated through several stages throughout the course (Figure 1). Nelson handles target-situation analysis through a traditional
questionnaire addressed to both the company and the students, and deficiency analysis through a placement test (Allan, 1992).
The results are interpreted and fed into a computer where they are matched with a materials database which holds details of all
the principal course books by level, exercise type, etc. The computer matching suggests appropriate teaching materials from
which the course content can be negotiated between students and teacher, thus introducing elements of strategy analysis. The
process can be repeated at the mid-course evaluation stage. Nelson's systemnow commercially available in a number of

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Table 5 Set-menu needs analysis
Presentations of company and product
• Designing a presentation in English
• Clarity of oral presentation
• Pronunciation and intonation
Basic telephone language
• Making and answering basic telephone calls
• Dictating and receiving numbers/names/addresses
• Arranging appointments on the telephone
Advanced telephone language
• Taking and placing an order by telephone
• Making and handling enquiries on the telephone
• Dealing with problems and complaints on the
telephone
Meetings and discussions
• Presenting facts and opinions
• Making suggestions and proposals
• Turn-taking and interacting
Business listening skills
• Extensive listening for general meaning
• Intensive listening for detail
computer formatshas gone some way to automate the needs analysis process without any loss of transparency or flexibility.
Target/deficiency needs analysis

A third example of a recent approach to needs analysis is that of Bheiss (1988) in East Jerusalem, working with trainee nurses in
a university teaching hospital. Bheiss used an expert informant (a native-speaker nursing tutor) to draw up a list of potential
target needs, expressed as subskillsreading medical textbooks, writing patient notes, speaking to doctors, etc.which then forms
the basis of two questionnaires. The first establishes target needs, using a scale to give a raw score for each potential need
(Table 6).
The second questionnaire is basically similar in format but assesses learner deficiencies (Table 7).

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Figure 1
Computer-based needs analysis
The overall 'requirement' is then calculated by combining the scores for need (103) with that for deficiency (31): 103 x 31 =
3,192. This score can then be compared with those of all the other subskills to establish the overall priorities of the LSP course.
The use of multiplication in the calculation has

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Table 6 Target needs
Reading subskills 0 1 3 4 5 Total = Need
Unnecessary Limited need Useful Necessary Essential
Nursing textbooks 0x0=0 0xl=0 2x2=4 9x3=27 18x4=72 4+27+72=103
Medical textbooks
Nursing notes
Medical notes
Etc.
Table 7 Learner deficiencies

Reading subskills 0 1 3 4 5 Total = Need
No Easy Troublesome Difficult Very
difficulty difficult
Nursing textbooks 3x0=0 21x1=21 5x2=10 0x3=0 0x4=4 21 + 10 = 31
Medical
textbooks
Nursing notes
Medical notes
Etc.
the effect of increasing high priority scores and decreasing low priority scores.
Conclusions
Needs analysis still has limitations in the design of general language courses but it is now well established as the necessary
foundation of any LSP course. Although this seems agreed, it still remains a neglected area there has been no book on the topic
since Munby (1978) and the whole area of curriculum design in general and needs analysis in particular is

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frequently given limited attention on many training courses for language teachers (Brown, 1992).
Note
1. Much of this paper is a shortened version of West (1994). An earlier version was given at the Budapest LSP Conference in
May 1994 and is published in Scott and Muhlhaus (1994): 77-83.
References
Abbott, G. (1981) Approaches to English teaching. In G. Abbott and P. Wingard (eds) The Teaching of English as an
International Language (pp. 11-36). London: Collins.
Allan, D. (1992) Oxford Placement Test. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Allwright, J. and Allwright, R. (1977) An approach to the teaching of medical English. In S. Holden (ed.) English for Specific
Purposes (pp. 58-62). Oxford: Modern English Publications.
Allwright, R. (1982) Perceiving and pursuing learners' needs. In M. Geddes and G. Sturtridge (eds) Individualization (pp. 24-
31). Oxford: Modern English Publications.
Bheiss, M. (1988) English for Nursing Purposes: The English language needs at the Nursing School of Al-Makassed Hospital
(Jerusalem). Unpublished MEd TESOL dissertation, University of Manchester.
Brown, G. (1992) The state of the art in applied linguistics. Review of English Language Teaching 2(1), 5-10.
ELTDU (1970) English for Business: Research and Preliminary Planning Report. Colchester: English Language Teaching Unit.
Harbord, J. (1994) Needs analysis in executive language teaching: A teacher/ student-friendly approach. Perspectives (Prague)
4, 46-50.
Holliday, A. and Cooke, T. (1982) An ecological approach to ESP. In Issues in ESP. Lancaster Practical Papers in English
Language Education 5 (pp. 123-43).
Jones, C. (1991) An integrated model for ESP syllabus design. English for Specific Purposes 10(3), 155-72.
Jordan, R. (forthcoming) English for Academic Purposes. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Jordan, R. and Mackay, R. (1973) A survey of the spoken English problems of overseas postgraduate students at the universities
of Manchester and Newcastle-upon-Tyne. Journal of the Institute of Education of the Universities of Newcastle-upon-Tyne and
Durham 125.
Mackay, R. (1978) Identifying the nature of learners' needs. In R. Mackay and A. Mountford (eds) English for Specific
Purposes (pp. 21-4). London: Longman.
Munby, J. (1978) Communicative Syllabus Design. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Nelson, M. (1994) The Complete Business English Generator. Turku, Finland: Media-Time Ltd. (UK distributor: Oxford
English Book Centre.)
Pilbeam, A. (1979) The language audit. Language Training 1(2), 4-5.
Richterich, R. (1971) Analytical classification of the categories of adults needing to learn foreign languages. Reprinted in Trim
et al. (1975/1980) (pp. 63-88).

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(1975/1980) Definition of language needs and types of adults. In Trim et al. (1975/1980) (pp. 29-88).
(1983) Introduction. In R. Richerich (ed.) (1983) Case Studies in Identifying the Needs of Adults Learning a Foreign Language.
Oxford: Pergamon/Council of Europe.
Scott, W. and Mühlhaus, S. (eds) (1994) Languages for Specific Purposes. London: CILT and Kingston University.
Stuart, W. and Lee, E. (1972/1985) The Non-Specialist Use of Foreign Languages in Industry and Commerce. Sidcup: London
Chamber of Commerce & Industry Examinations Board.
Tarone, E. and Yule, G. (1989) Focus on the Language Learner. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Teemant, A., Varga, Z. and Heltai, P. (1993) Hungary's Nationwide Needs Analysis of Vocationally-Oriented Foreign Language
Learning. Budapest: Ministry of Culture and Education/USIS.
Trim, J., Richterich, R., van Ek, J. and Wilkins, D. (1975/1980) Systems Development in Adult Language Learning. Strasbourg:
Council of Europe/Oxford: Pergamon.
West, R. (1994) Needs analysis in language teaching. Language Teaching 27(1): 1-19.
Yates, C. (1977) What objectives? In S. Holden (ed.) English for Specific Purposes (pp. 47-9). Oxford: Modern English
Publications.

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Chapter 6
Teacher Education and LSP: The Role of Specialised Knowledge
Gibson Ferguson
A starting point in planning teacher education courses for prospective or actual LSP teachers is a consideration of the types of
knowledge and skills that a well-qualified LSP teacher should possess. Prominent in these deliberations has been the frequently
asked questionhow much specialist knowledge should an LSP teacher have? The term 'specialist knowledge' is typically
construed as knowledge of the subject matter of the discipline or profession of the students taught.
The question is clearly legitimate, if not subtle, for it has an obvious bearing on the formulation of objectives for teacher
education. It is not, however, an easy question to answer for a number of reasons. First, it is difficult to quantify knowledge of a
subject other than in terms of crude labelsa lot, some, a littleand, in the absence of measurement, even these admit of
considerable subjectivity. Second, the formulation with the word 'should' indicates that the question has a normative element
and is not straightforwardly empirical. Third, and perhaps most importantly, there is the matter of variation: LSP teaching, like
all teaching, varies in its setting, goals, methodology, learners and so on. What is appropriate in one setting may not be in
another. A common response, therefore, to the question of quantity of desirable specialist knowledge is to say it 'all depends'.
The variables (what it depends on) cited by applied linguists (e.g. Robinson, 1991) include the following:
• whether the student is an 'expert' or an apprentice in the discipline
• the needs of the student (e.g. is the student seeking to activate an existing but dormant language proficiency, is he/she
seeking genre-specific skills, is the student more interested in writing, speaking, reading etc., and so on?)

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• the size of the class (large classes imply greater heterogeneity of subdisciplines)
• the teacher's role in the classroom and his/her preferred methodology (e.g. is the classroom mainly teacher-centred with the
teacher seen as provider of input; or is a more learner-centred methodology preferred where the teacher is more the orchestrator
of student-on-student learning activities?)
• the degree of specialisation of the texts and materials used on the course
• the degree of language proficiency of the students individually, and as a class.
The purpose of this paper is not to explore how each value of the variables above influences the dependent variable, desirable
specialist knowledge, for this would be to retread familiar ground. Instead, I wish to move on to different territory. The plan is
to review briefly previous work relating to the question of desirable specialist knowledge and then to argue for an alternative
view of the forms of specialised knowledge needed by a well-qualified LSP practitioner.
Specialist Subject Knowledge and the LSP Teacher: A Short Review

Explorations of the role of specialist knowledge in ESP teaching seem to have taken three forms:
(1) theoretical argumentation
(2) empirical research studies
(3) practical accounts.
Theoretical arguments
The theoretical arguments can be summarised briefly. Bhatia (1993) and others (e.g. Swales) have argued for authenticity in
text-task relationships. For example, if an authentic legal case report is used in class, it would be inadvisable to treat it as an
ordinary narrative. Legal cases have a particular function in the legal discourse community and are read for particular purposes.
Language teaching tasks using legal cases can only be authentic if they respect that particularity of function. It follows that LSP
teachers should have knowledge of the status and roles of different kinds of texts within the discourse community in question,
and it also helps if they understand how those texts are patterned at a macro-discoursal level and how particular meanings are
textualised at lower lexicogrammatical levels.

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Two points can be made briefly in connection with the argument above. First, it is premised on the desirability of authenticity in
task and text, which, though accepted by many (including myself), by no means enjoys universal endorsement for all teaching
contexts. Hutchinson and Waters (1987), for example, downplay the need for authentic specialised texts and possibly by
implication the need for specialist knowledge on the part of the teacher. Second, while the argument of Bhatia et al. does
indicate a need for knowledge of the role of texts in the specialist discourse community, it does not, I feel, establish the need for
knowledge of the substantive content of those texts.
Another source of evidence regarding the need for specialist knowledge lies in the work of linguists such as Halliday and Martin
(1993) and Myers (1991) on language itself. Halliday (1994), for example, points out that in the formation of noun compounds,
and in the nominalisations characteristic of much scientific discourse, some semantic information is lost: that is, the semantic
links between the chains of nouns in a noun compound are rendered inexplicit, and whereas a specialist may infer the links
easily from background knowledge, those same links may remain opaque for the non-specialist. Myers (1991) argues that in
scientific discourse some of the cohesive ties in the text are left implicit and can only be reconstituted by a person possessing
specialist background knowledge.
The essence of these arguments is that the grammar and discourse of science, not to mention the conceptual content, is such that
comprehension of the text is facilitated by specialist knowledge and hindered by its absence. What the arguments do not
demonstrate, however, is that text comprehension is a necessary pre-condition for the use of the text in the LSP classroom.
Empirical studies
There are a small number of empirical studies related to the issue of the ESP teacher's need for specialist knowledge. Selinker
(1979), for example, considered the question of what knowledge an ESL teacher would need to possess to understand a
particular genetics text. He concluded that he/she would need a grasp of the main concepts and presuppositions of the text,
otherwise attention would tend to focus on lower level features of grammar and vocabulary.
White (1981) compared the questions asked of a legal text by an EFL teacher and a solicitor. She found that whereas the EFL
teacher asked low-level factual questions, the solicitor focused on the legal point at issue in the text. The solicitor also pointed
out that the significance of the text lay

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in its relationship to a body of other texts; a relationship not appreciated by the EFL teacher.
Zuck and Zuck (1984) compared the questions written by six biologists and ten ESL teachers to test comprehension of a biology
text. They found that the teachers tended to focus on local, factual details whilst the biologists' questions tended to be more
global, require more inference and be more sensitive to the provisional character of scientific findings.
The drift of these studies is that EFL/ESL teachers are handicapped by a lack of specialist knowledge in that they ask
comprehension questions of a different nature and content from subject specialists. A recent study, however, has reached a
contrary conclusion. Ferguson and Maclean (1994) asked eight ESP teachers and six subject specialists to rank eight Life
Science texts for difficulty, and to write comprehension questions to test comprehension of significant points in two texts. No
definitions of difficulty were provided. The eight texts were drawn from a variety of sources ranging from professional journals
(e.g. Nature) to magazines of popular science (e.g. New Scientist, Scientific American).
The study found no difference in the rankings of teachers and subject specialists. There were also few differences in the
attribution of difficulty: both sets of judges referred to content and aspects of language as sources of difficulty. There were
similarly few differences between ESP teachers and specialists in the identification of the significant points on which the
comprehension questions were based. Neither did the teachers' questions show any insensitivity to the provisional or uncertain
character of scientific findings.
Unlike the other studies, then, this study provided no evidence that texts with a scientific content were read in different ways by
teachers and subject specialists. A possible reason for the contrast with previous work may lie in the sampling. The teachers in
the Ferguson and Maclean study all had ESP teaching experience and masters level applied linguistics qualifications. Also, since
many of the studies (e.g. Zuck & Zuck, 1984) were conducted ten years ago, it is possible that the elapse of time accounts for
the difference: ESP teachers now may be more sophisticated than ten years ago.
Whichever is the case, it does seem that these research studies make only a limited contribution to the question of how much
specialist knowledge an LSP teacher should possess. First, the sample sizes, both of texts and judges, are small. Second, the
types of text and the qualifications of the teacher judges vary across the studies, which impairs comparability and
generalisability. Third, the design of the studies either involved writing

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questions to test comprehension of specialist text, or focused on teacher comprehension of specialist text. And since testing is
not the same as teaching, and the use of specialist texts in class does not necessarily depend on the teacher's comprehension of
those texts, it would seem that the design of the studies does not allow a direct attack on the question of the quantity of subject
knowledge needed by the LSP teacher.
Practical accounts
The third source of evidence regarding the role of specialist knowledge in LSP derives from practical accounts based on
classroom experience. There are many of these but one particularly useful example is Sheerin's (1981) account of the use of
authentic medical case conference material. She shows that some imagined difficulties did not arise and illustrates some of the
strategies used to mitigate a lack of specialist knowledge and achieve a satisfactory lesson. Ferguson's (1991) account of using
case conference material in the medical English class is generally supportive of Sheerin's position, and illustrates some ways of
exploiting authentic case conference material in the absence of knowledge of the substantive case content.
The problem with practical accounts as a source of evidence is that while they provide richly detailed illustrations of how to
cope with specialist materials, they are inevitably limited to specific contexts and consequently fail to answer questions of a
higher order of generality. Moreover, in these accounts one meets different opinions: there are some who opine that specialist
knowledge is essential in the use of specialist material, others who acknowledge that while useful it can be managed without,
and so on.
Overall, taking all the sources of evidence into account, theoretical, empirical and practical, the picture regarding the quantity of
specialist knowledge needed by the LSP teacher remains unclear. The theoretical arguments are only partly persuasive, the
research evidence is inconclusive, and the practical accounts are limited by their very specificity. Also, the question itself may
be flawed or imperfectly formulated, as suggested earlier. It is suitable at this point, therefore, to argue for a different view of
the specialised knowledge it is desirable, and realistic to expect, in a well-qualified LSP teacher.
The Role of Specialised Knowledge

The term 'specialised knowledge' has been deliberately chosen to contrast with 'specialist knowledge' which is usually taken to
refer to knowledge of the content of the student's discipline or subject. Specialised knowledge, by contrast, involves three related
elements as follows:

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(a) a knowledge of disciplinary cultures and values; a form of knowledge which is essentially sociological or anthropological
(b) a knowledge of the epistemological basis of different disciplines; a form of knowledge which is philosophical in nature
(c) a knowledge of genre and discourse, which is mainly linguistic in character.
None of these three mentions specialist content knowledge. One reason for this de-emphasis is simply that such knowledge is
increasingly difficult to attain. It is a cliché that recent decades have seen an explosion in knowledge of such magnitude that it is
difficult for any one specialist to keep abreast of developments within his own discipline, let alone others. Specialisation and the
growth of subdisciplines is on the increase.
If this is so, and there seem few reasons to doubt it, it seems increasingly unrealistic to expect the LSP teacher, typically with a
humanities-biased education, to have much, if any, knowledge of the substantive content of the learner's subject. Even more
unrealistic is the expectation that the teacher education course can contribute much to the prospective LSP teacher's knowledge
of specialist content. First, the trainers do not usually possess diverse subject content knowledge. Second, LSP teachers are often
required to teach students from different disciplines, and career flexibility also argues against putting too many eggs in one
specialist basket.
A third point is that the requirement for specialist content knowledge may vary with the type of methodology employed or
recommended. For example, if it is thought appropriate that students answer comprehension questions on specialist text, then the
teacher may be viewed as the repository of correct answers and this will place a greater premium on the teacher's subject
knowledge. On the other hand, if specialist texts are used to stimulate information exchange between the specialists in the class,
the form of interaction shifts from teacher-student to student-student, and this may demand less subject knowledge of the
teacher.
The conclusion to be drawn is that it is usually unrealistic to provide specialist content input in the LSP teacher education
course. The argument, however, is primarily one of feasibility rather than desirability and does not mean, for instance, that the
prospective teacher should be discouraged from independently learning something of the content of the subject by, say, reading
popular science. Neither is there any implication here that specialist, authentic materials have no place in the LSP classroom.
Indeed, it is the very justifiability of the use of specialist material in certain contexts that is the ground for arguing that LSP
teachers need specialised knowledge and that the provision of that knowledge is the business of teacher education.

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The first type of specialised knowledge mentioned earlier was a knowledge of disciplinary culture. The term acknowledges that
disciplines differ not only epistemologically but culturally. Disciplines, as Becher (1981) puts it, are 'cultural phenomena'; that
is, they differ in their main and preferred modes of communication, they have different criteria for career advancement, they
privilege certain kinds of text above others, they have characteristic modes of publication, they have different public images and
status, they engage in public life in different ways, and their different goals incline them to engage in different kinds of
communicative event. No doubt there are other constituents: the point here is to illustrate the kinds of phenomena the term
denotes.
The principal justification for knowledge of disciplinary culture derives from Bhatia's point (1993) that specialist texts are used
within a discipline in a specialised way and that the exploitation of such texts in the LSP classroom should, if authenticity is a
goal, respect that particularity of function. To do so, however, implies an understanding of the role particular texts play in a
discipline and why they are constructed and interpreted as they are, and this, in turn, requires a knowledge of disciplinary
culture.
The second kind of specialised knowledge is a knowledge of the epistemological basis of different disciplines. In other words,
an understanding of the cognitive structure of disciplines, of their characteristic modes of enquiry, and of their criteria for
validating or falsifying knowledge claims. One way of inducting prospective LSP teachers into this kind of knowledge might be
through a course component about science rather than in science, a course about law rather than in law, and so on. The
component would deflect attention away from the detail that the specialist requires and towards an understanding of the general
elements of the mode of thought. It would be comparative in nature; perhaps a course in comparative research methods drawing
on the philosophy of science and social science would fit the bill.
The general point, whatever the precise content, would be to enable the ESP teacher to, if not think in a distinctive disciplinary
way, at least appreciate the modes of thought and conceptual characteristics of different disciplines. The advantage of such
understanding is that it would help the teacher in the construction of more challenging pedagogic tasks engaging relevant
problem-solving and thinking processes.
The third kind of desirable specialised knowledge is a knowledge of genre, or more precisely genre and discourse analytic skills
which would allow teachers to conduct their own analyses of fresh texts and genres. The

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reason for emphasising knowledge of this kind is that genre has become a key concept in LSP, and for good reason.
First, much of the public communicative behaviour of different disciplines is organised through genres: their conventionality is
an economising device. Second, genres are the communicative vehicles through which the language of the discipline is
manifested. Recent work in genre and discourse analysis (e.g. Bhatia, 1993; McCarthy & Carter, 1994) suggests that there are
powerful links between higher order features of text structure and organisation and lower level lexicogrammatical choices. In
other words, grammatical and lexical choices are constrained by how the discourse is shaped at a macro level, which, in turn, is
dependent on the communicative purposes that inform the genre. For example, legislative writing in English, as Bhatia (1993)
points out, is characterised by frequent nominalisation because the resulting noun phrases offer syntactic slots for the insertion of
the qualifications necessary in legislative drafting. Or, to take another example, the pattern of choices of tense/aspect and voice
in the research article is influenced by the rhetorical purposes of the different sections of the research article (Swales, 1990).
The argument is, then, that the lexicogrammar of specialist writing can be approached through the notion of genre, and that
genre with its links to grammatical and lexical choices opens a route to understanding the language of the discipline.
How far understanding the language of a discipline amounts to understanding its content is a related matter of interest and of
contention. There are some who would adopt what might be termed a 'naive realist' view that language is merely a vehicle for
the conveyance of a pre-existing, independent content and there are those who might adopt a more 'idealist' position that
language constructs and is constitutive of the content. It is probable that the truth lies somewhere between these two extremes
but whichever is the case understanding the language of a discipline, its discourse and grammar, is likely to be considerable help
in grasping how knowledge within that discipline is constructed.
A further reason for assigning importance to genre in LSP teacher education is that teaching LSP very often involves teaching
language for a genre-specific purpose. Students demand not just greater global proficiency in the language but greater
proficiency in the production and interpretation of particular genres: research articles, business letters, conference presentations,
doctor-patient consultations and so on. Given this demand, a focus on genre would be a desirable feature of a teacher education
course. However, this does not necessarily mean the teacher

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educator's job is to provide information about particular genres. Rather it is to develop transferable analytical skills by using
particular genres to illustrate general analytic procedures.
Conclusion
The purpose of this paper has been to argue for a particular interpretation of the specialised knowledge it is desirable, and
realistic, for the well-qualified LSP teacher to possess. This downplays the importance of specialist knowledge and draws
attention to some components of what has been termed 'specialised knowledge'. These are (a) knowledge of disciplinary culture,
(b) knowledge of the epistemologies of different disciplines and (c) knowledge of genre.
This discussion has been programmatic: it outlines what is desirable, not what has actually been implemented. It also focuses on
ends rather than means. This is justifiable since the first step in curriculum planning is to map out objectivesthe skills and
knowledge we wish prospective LSP teachers to acquire. Without thought about objectives it is difficult to proceed on a
principled basis to the second stage of selecting an appropriate programme of activities. Deliberation about appropriate
objectives for LSP teacher education may also contribute to our understanding of what is distinctive about LSP teaching, and
hence LSP itself.
References
Becher, T. (1981) Towards a definition of disciplinary cultures. Studies in Higher Education 6(2), 109-22.
Bhatia, V. (1993) Analysing Genre: Language Use in Professional Settings. Harlow: Longman.
Ferguson, G. (1991) Case conference materials in the teaching of medical English. EMP Newsletter 8, 7-14.
Ferguson, G. and Maclean, J. (1994) Estimating text difficulty and identifying points of significance: An investigation of
variability between ESP teachers and subject specialists. (Unpublished IELTS Research Report.) Cambridge: UCLES.
Halliday, M. (1994) An Introduction to Functional Grammar (2nd edn). London: Edward Arnold.
Halliday, M. and Martin, J. (1993) Writing Science: Literacy and Discursive Power. London: Falmer Press.
McCarthy, M. and Carter, R. (1994) Language As Discourse. London: Longman.
Myers, G. (1991) Lexical cohesion and specialized knowledge in science and popular science texts. Discourse Processes 14, 1-
26.
Robinson, P. (1991) ESP Today. London: Prentice Hall.

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Selinker, L. (1979) On the use of informants in discourse analysis and language teaching for specialized purposes. International
Review of Applied Linguistics 17(3), 189-215.
Sheerin, S. (1981) Some difficulties real and imagined in conducting medical case conferences in the teaching of doctor/doctor
language. Lexden Papers 2, 34-44.
Swales, J. (1990) Genre Analysis. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
White, G. (1981) The subject specialist and the ESP teacher. Lexden Papers 2, 9-14.
Zuck, L. and Zuck, J. (1984) The main idea: Specialist and non-specialist judgements. In A. Pugh and J. Ulijn (eds) Reading for
Professional Purposes (pp.130-5). London: Heinemann Educational.

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Chapter 7
LSP or Language Education?
Ian Tudor
Introduction
The debate whether specific-purpose language teaching (LSP) differs significantly from general-purpose language teaching
(LGP) has been a regular theme in the literature over the last two decades. For instance, in the preface to Mackay and
Mountford's (1978) English for Specific Purposes, Candlin identifies three priorities for ESP:
• it should remain loyal to collected rather than invented data;
• 'special purposes' should not be seen as involving specialisation only in form and discourse, but also in skills and tasks;
• with content being derived from students' work or subject of study, methodology should show an increasing concern for
learner-centredness.
Candlin then asks whether these priorities
are not in any case desiderata for course design [so] why limit their applicability to special purposes?
Thus, even at a time when LSP was trying to establish itself and to define its working tools, Candlin was questioning whether
the distinction between specific- and general- purpose language teaching was, in fact, a productive one to make. Within the
present context, viz. the relationship between LSP and teacher education, three main questions would therefore seem to arise:
(1) Do LSP and LGP differ in any significant way(s)?
(2) If so, in which way(s)?
(3) What implications do any such differences have in terms of teacher education?
In theoretical terms, and if one is willing to take an impartial look at language teaching situations, the distinction between LSP
and LGP is probably difficult to maintain. Let us take the case of an imaginary group

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of Russian academics preparing for a period of work in an English-speaking environment. Their English language programme
might well involve:
• academic reading and presentational skills in their specialist disciplines
• settling-in skills (finding accommodation, dealing with administrative formalities, etc.)
• conversational/interactive skills to facilitate the social integration of the learners concerned.
Conventional wisdom would tell us that the first component is clearly ESP. The settling-in skills component undeniably is
specific in orientation, but it is unclear whether most language teachers would consider it to be ESP or not. The
conversational/interactive component would generally be seen as EGP. In reality, however, do these distinctions really stand up
to scrutiny? Settling-in skills are highly specific in both situational and functional terms, and, as someone who lives and works
in a foreign language environment, I can confidently maintain that the ability to interact socially in a foreign language is a
highly complex sociolinguistic skill which calls for a variety of very specific competences.
In practice, of course, there are differences between these three skill areas from the point of view of the teacher who would be
asked to prepare and teach a course in these areas. Indeed, it is here, in terms of teacher skills that the 'S' of LSP may in reality
lie, rather than in any theoretical distinction in 'specificity' between the linguistic or functional demands of different domains of
language usage per se. Two sets of factors merit consideration in this respect.
The first would seem to relate to a notion of markedness with respect to the conceptual content of the domain of usage in
question. 'Markedness' in this respect relates, I feel, to an implicit notion of those domains of knowledge which the average
educated native speaker could reasonably be expected to be familiar with. Thus, in the example given earlier,
conversational/interactive skills and settling-in skills (while both 'specific' in a very real sense of the term) are less likely to be
classified as LSP because both relate to language domains which are taken to be part of the communicative repertoire of all
educated native speakers. Subject-specific academic reading and presentational skills, on the other hand, arise out of domains of
usage to which not all native speakers are expected to have access and therefore tend to be seen as LSP. I have not as yet come
across this definition of LSP, but it would seem to be a key, even if implicit, component in the distinction between LSP and
LGP.

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The second defining feature of LSP results from the first and would seem to relate to the pedagogical skills which the teacher
needs in order to handle the linguistic, functional and conceptual demands of domains of activity which are 'marked' in the sense
given earlier, i.e. which depart from what an educated native speaker would normally be expected to be familiar with. These
skills include, among others, the ability to develop and realise a teaching programme in a conceptual area that one does not
personally master (which has implications, among other things, for teacher-student role relationships), and the ability to analyse
specialised texts or discourse as a basis for the establishment of learning objectives and the creation of appropriate learning
activities. These skills, I feel, are viewed as being something 'extra', which need not be included in the pedagogical baggage of
the 'average' or general-purpose language teacher.
The first of these two features relates to the conceptual content of students' target domains of activity, and thus corresponds to
the traditional view of LSP. The second, however, relates to the mastery of a certain array of pedagogical skills, which would
tend to indicate the pertinence of examining the concept of LSP from the perspective of teacher education. The point I would
like to make here is that in the light of certain recent developments both in language teaching and in society at large, the LSP-
LGP distinction may be less helpful than it once was as a means of analysing the choices that are available to the language
teacher and, in particular, in terms of teacher education. Specifically, I feel that maintaining the LSP-LGP distinction may cut
off those who are interested in 'LSP concerns' from broad and meaningful trends in language education, and thereby impoverish
what is now LSP.
The Origins of LSP

Communicative language teaching, of which LSP is clearly part, developed in the 1960s as a result of two related sets of
concerns. The first arose out of a number of social and economic changes in various parts of the world, while the other involved
a rethinking of the nature of language and, as a consequence, of the finalities of language teaching.
A major role was played in the early development of communicative language teaching by the Council of Europe's Modern
Languages Project, which embodied the desire to facilitate interpersonal communication and social mobility within Europe. This
involved an emphasis in language teaching on the communicative and functional demands of the real-world situations in which
learners would wish to use language. During the same period, the economic expansion experienced by many Third World

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countries substantially increased the demand for language teaching (English in particular) as a means of facilitating the
transmission of knowledge in both educational and economic spheres. This pressing need for a wide range of different language
skills in a rapidly changing socioeconomic context required the language teaching profession to develop tools for identifying
students' target uses of the language and for converting these into coherent teaching programmes. Munby's (1978)
Communicative Syllabus Design represents probably the most coherent realisation of this needs-analysis-based approach to
course design, and has been an unavoidable reference point in the LSP literature since its publication.
During the same period, significant changes took place in the theoretical framework within which language was viewed. Hymes'
(1972) concept of 'communicative competence' introduced elements of cultural awareness and communicative effectiveness into
what 'knowing a language' was taken to mean: in this way, Hymes was instrumental in formulating a broader and more
integrative view of the goals of language teaching than that implied by the narrowly linguistic perspective on language
competence defended by Chomsky during the same period. Halliday advocated a functional approach to the study of language
based on the description of speech acts or texts, since 'only through the study of language in use are all the functions of
language, and therefore all components of meaning, brought into focus' (Halliday, 1970: 145). And, in the field of applied
linguistics, Widdowson (1978, cf. his significantly entitled Teaching Language as Communication) argued in favour of an
approach to language teaching based on the analysis of the communicative acts involved in both spoken interaction and the
production of written texts: Widdowson's view of language and of language teaching was realised in one of the first major ESP
textbook series, English in Focus, and also in the influential Reading and Thinking in English series.
These trends in the 1960s and 1970s led to a radical re-thinking of the terms in which language teaching goals were defined and
how students' needs were identified. They moved the focus of teaching away from the linguistic code viewed in a restrictive
sense to language as a system for communicating messages and for achieving functional and communicative goals in real-world
situations of use. Within this context, much of the most innovative work on needs analysis and communicative course design
was conducted by LSP practitioners, and our current understanding of language teaching owes an immense debt to their
pioneering work.

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Recent Trends
A number of trends which have arisen over the last 10 to 15 years, both in language teaching and in society at large, have
focused attention on the process side of teaching and learning. These trends reflect a perspective on language teaching which
cuts across the LSP-LGP distinction and raises questions of an essentially educational nature. Furthermore, they have introduced
into the debate a number of factors which call for a definition of 'specific' which includes far more than the concern with
objective needs identification which underpinned early work in LSP. Four such trends may be identified.
Subjective needs and learner involvement
Two main criticisms have been made of the view of needs analysis exemplified by Munby's model. The first is that it tends to be
too expert-driven, and fails to cater sufficiently for ongoing input from the learners themselves on the basis of their own
knowledge and insights into their target uses of the language. The result of this weakness is that course content is not
infrequently perceived to be 'external' and distant from the real language needs of the learners concerned. The other criticism is
more fundamental and relates to the neglect of learners' subjective needs, i.e. those needs which learners experience with respect
to the process of learning itself. Brindley (1984) explains this neglect of subjective needs as follows:
In the early stages of the 'communicative' movement in language teaching, 'objective' needs received a great deal of
emphasis, since language was seen primarily as a means to an end: effective communication in the learner's current or
future domain of language use. . . 'Subjective' needs, on the other hand, . . . were thought to be unpredictable, therefore
undefinable. Language teachers were thus able, in deciding on both content and methodology, to wash their hands of the
extremely difficult business of taking affective variables into account. . . The importance of methodology in
'communicative' courses therefore tended to be downplayed in relation to content, with the result that methodology often
turned out to be fairly traditional. (Brindley, 1984: 31-2)
During the 1980s considerable attention was paid to the subjective side of language learning (e.g. O'Malley & Chamot, 1990;
Skehan, 1989; Spolsky, 1989: Willing, 1988). This may be traced back in part to the learning strategy research of the 1970s (e.g.
Rubin, 1975; Stern, 1975), and has led to the increasing interest in learner autonomy (e.g. Wenden, 1991), learner-training (e.g.
Ellis and Sinclair, 1989) and the general area of learner-

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centredness (e.g. Nunah, 1988). While they differ in terms of emphasis, these strands of thought all have in common the belief
that learners should not be passive recipients of teaching, but that they both can and should assume an active and participatory
role in their language learning. In other words, the 1980s have seen an emphasis on learner empowerment and on the
educational role of the language teacher.
New teaching and learning options
Partly as a result of the concerns mentioned earlier and partly thanks to technological developments, the language-teaching
community now has at its disposal a wider range of teaching-learning options than has previously been the case. These include,
in terms of technological possibilities, CALL, interactive video and different modes of distance learning (cf. Boyle, 1994),
which are often presented as integrated, self-standing study packages. In terms of mode of study, increasing interest is being
shown in self-access learning and in a variety of independent or self-directed study options, not infrequently incorporating one
or more of the just mentioned technologies (cf. Heron, 1994). This confronts the teacher with the complex task of deciding not
only what to teach, but also how to teach, how to structure different learning possibilities into a coherent whole and, crucially,
how to help students to avail themselves of these different learning possibilities in an informed and self-directive manner. Quite
a handful of pedagogical tasks by anyone's standards!
The ideological climate
Crabbe (1993: 443-4) identifies three arguments that support the current interest in learner autonomy. One is the psychological
argument, and is based on the belief that 'we learn better when we are in charge of our own learning [and that the resultant
learning] is more meaningful, more permanent [and] more focused on the processes and schemata of the individual'. This
argument underlies most of the work which has been conducted on learner autonomy, learner training and, in general terms,
learner-centred approaches to teaching over the last 15 years and more. Crabbe describes the other two arguments in favour of
learner autonomy as ideological and economic.
The ideological argument, for Crabbe, is that 'the individual has the right to be free to exercise his or her own choices, in
learning as in other areas, and not become a victim (even an unwitting one) of choices made by social institutions'. Crabbe traces
this line of thought back to the work of educationalists such as Freire (1972), though it also shares common ground

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with the concern of the humanistic movement with issues such as responsibility, intellectual development and self-actualisation
(cf. Stevick, 1990: 23-4). Crabbe's economic argument is that 'society does not have the resources to provide the level of
personal instruction needed by all its members in every area of learning [and thus] individuals must be able to provide for their
own learning needs'.
The economic argument in favour of learner autonomy has come to be linked in ideological terms with the liberal, free-market
view of society which is gaining increasing credence throughout Western Europe and beyond, and which is far removed from
the ideas of Freire. The liberal philosophy maintains that individuals should assume responsibility for their learning in an active
and self-directive manner, and should not expect 'the other', whether it be the state or an educational institution to predigest their
learning for them. The combination of these two imperatives, the economic argument that budgets are fixed and that more must
be done with less, and in a more (cost-)effective manner, together with the transfer of responsibility to individuals in many
aspects of their lives, from health-care insurance to education, has placed the teaching profession under considerable pressure to
innovate and to discover alternatives to the traditional classroom-based and teacher-driven approach to language learning.
The degree to which these factors underlie or simply coincide with the two other sets of factors outlined earlier, viz. the concern
with subjective needs and learner involvement, and the development of new educational technologies, is a fascinating question
linked to the sociology of education. Whatever the case may be, however, the combination of the three has created an
educational climate very different from that which prevailed in the early days of LSPa period marked by economic expansion, a
generally optimistic attitude in society as a whole, and widespread faith in humanistic values.
Working with cultural diversity
Over the last decade, increasing attention has been given to the role played by culturally-based educational traditions and
expectations in course design and in the choice of methodology (Holliday, 1994; Holliday & Cooke, 1982; Riley, 1988; Tudor,
1997). This line of thought has focused attention on the ethnocentricity of many of the pedagogical procedures which have been
developed within the general framework of communicative language teaching. It has therefore encouraged teachers and course
designers to think about the cultural appropriacy of their choices and not to view language teaching as a decontextualised pursuit
of objective

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learning goals, but rather as culturally-specific social action. This trend may be seen as a corollary, on the sociocultural level, of
the recognition of the role played by subjective needs and individual differences in language learning.
The Future for LSP?

The accommodation of the factors outlined here must inevitably render more complex the decision-making process involved in
any language-teaching situation, which obviously includes what have traditionally been seen as LSP situations. Thus, in addition
to the concern with objective needs that represented the main contribution of LSP in its early days, educational planners and
teachers are now having to deal with a much wider range of imperativesimperatives which are an integral part of language
teaching from secondary school to university and to in-house language training programmes. Indeed, in the 1960s and 1970s
work in the field of LSP may be seen as having constituted the sharp end of research in language teaching. For a number of
reasons this is no longer the case, and it is now 'mainstream' language teaching which seems to be the more innovatoryor is it
that the LSP-LGP distinction is blurring, or simply becoming less relevant? It is difficult to avoid the feeling that if LSP persists
in remaining faithful to its original orientation and emphasis, it may be running the risk of becoming marginalised within
language teaching as a whole. Perhaps, in fact, it would be more productive to focus on language education as the key concept.
This would seem to be the message which Hutchinson and Waters (1984) were conveying more than ten years ago:
ESP is often seen as the best example of communicative teaching in that it is supposedly closely geared to students' needs.
However, we feel that needs analysis has been far too narrowly interpreted, implying, in effect, little more than the
analysis of linguistic data from the target situation. But ESP is first and foremost a learning process, and it is not possible
to have a communicative approach in ESP unless ESP is seen as primarily an educational matter. (Hutchinson & Waters,
1984: 112)
And, in essence, the same must apply to all language teaching, something which has been brought out by the recent trends
outlined here.
This is not to say that the concept of LSP (i.e. the imperative to gear teaching around the situationally- and functionally-defined
objective learning needs of students) is any less valid than it was 20 or 30 years ago, but simply that what should be seen as
'specific' has evolved to encompass considerations which include, but which go well beyond objective needs. These new
elements relate to:

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• the qualitative involvement of learners in the process of language study, and thus in decision-making, with the concomitant
need for learner education
• the availability of novel modes of study and new educational technologies, combined with economic and ideological
pressure on educational authorities, teachers and students to make creative use of these possibilities and to re-think language
learning out of the traditional classroom-based and teacher-driven mould
• a recognition of the importance of harmonising learning programmes with the educational traditions and cultural
expectations of the various participants involvedstudents, teachers, educational authorities and, in essence, the target society at
large.
In other words, then, the 'S' in LSP needs to be defined not only in terms of objective needs, but also in the light of the
educationally informed involvement of students in their language learning within the framework of a rich and varied array of
course design possibilities.
And the LSP Teacher?

The basic message of what has been stated earlier for teachers is probably very clear, namely that the demands made on their
professional skills, flexibility and adaptiveness are increasing significantly. This may be analysed under three main headings.
An educational perspective on needs analysis and goal-setting
LSP is not simply a matter of pedagogising what Hutchinson and Waters (1984) refer to as 'linguistic data from the target
situation', though this does, clearly, play a role within the wider process of goal-setting. It also involves an insightful analysis of
target situations with a view to the establishment of relevant and attainable learning goals and the translation of these goals into
a coherent course of study. This may be seen as the traditional task of the LSP teacher and involves the LSP-specific
pedagogical skills outlined in the introductory section of this paper. The growing concern with learner involvement, however,
means that the LSP teacher needs to realise this process in collaboration with students, so that needs analysis and goal-setting
become a consensual process combining the teacher's professional knowledge and the students' own insights into their learning
goals, as well as their expectations with respect to the broader process of language learning. Recent developments have thus
added a strongly learner-interactive and educational element to the LSP teacher's traditional tasks of needs analysis and course
design.

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Methodological skills
As Prabhu (1990) has pointed out, in agreement with an increasingly large number of teachers and researchers, there is no
universally 'right' way to teach. There are, however, appropriate local solutions. The teacher thus has to learn to 'listen' to
learners and be willing to respond to their subjective learning needsboth as individuals and as members of a given sociocultural
community. This calls for considerable personal and cultural sensitivity from the teacher, flexibility in terms of teaching style,
and mastery of a wide range of methodological alternatives. In the case of LSP teachers, who may frequently be involved with
learners from a range of different cultures, these qualities are likely to be of particular importance.
Course design and planning skills
These relate to the pulling together into a coherent pedagogical whole of the orientations and priorities derived from the last two
points. This, however, needs to be done in the light of the increasingly wide range of study modes (e.g. guided independent
study; a combination of in-class instruction plus self-access; cooperation with subject specialists or sponsors) and technological
facilities (e.g. CALL; interactive video learning packages) currently available. And, of course, every teacher operates within a
given sociocultural context, with the economic pressures and ideological imperatives proper to this context. These factors have
to be taken into account in course design as much as more narrowly pedagogical considerations. Teaching actions are most
obviously pedagogical in nature: ultimately, however, they are forms of social action.
Implications for Teacher Education

So far it has been suggested that language teaching has evolved considerably since the formative years of LSP, and that the
changes which have taken place render the traditional LSP-LGP distinction less productive than it may have been in the past.
This can be viewed in two ways. On the one hand, there are more options to choose from, more variety, and more challenges to
face: this is the positivistic viewpoint. Equally well, however, one must recognise the increased demands which are being placed
on teachers (cf. Tudor, 1993 for a discussion of the teacher's role within a learner-centred approach to teaching), and this at a
time when less funds are available for teacher training and development programmes. There is thus a danger that educational
developments may come to outstrip the adaptive potential of many teachers. This is far more than simply a personal problem for
a given number of teachers since, ultimately, it is the

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teacher who is the key agent of change in teaching. Educational change does certainly depend on 'systems', whether intellectual
or technological in nature, but these systems are realised via the individual teacher and his or her perception of and reactions to
them (cf. Prabhu, 1987). So, what can be done to help teachers be better able to respond to the demands of language teaching at
the end of this century and into the next?
One solution might seem to be 'adding more', or the expansion of teacher training programmes to include additional elements
such as 'Technology and language teaching', 'Options in teacher-student role relationships', 'Methodology and social context',
'Counselling language learners', 'Managing change in language teaching'. . . and many more that come to mind. This would be
fineup to a point at least. Two problems arise, however. The first is whether accumulating specifics really aids understanding or
fosters adaptability. The second is more practical in naturenamely whether there is likely to be the political will to expand
teacher-training programmes (which are already under threat in many countries).
Another solution would be to re-think the nature of teacher training and development along the lines indicated in the title of this
volume, i.e. around the concept of teacher education. This might involve:
• primary focus on learning processes rather than teaching actions, with the latter being assessed in terms of the manner in
which they foster the former
• consideration of the social context of learning as a guiding principle for the selection of teaching actions
• the development of analytical processes and investigative techniques within the framework of a context-analytic approach
to decision-making
• the development of a constructive acceptance of complexity and an understanding of the ways in which complex systems
self-manage and evolve.
These suggestions are very programmatic. Their realisation would clearly require a re-thinking of the orientation that would be
adopted in pre- and in-service teacher education programmes. It would also, however, call for an integration of teacher
education into curriculum revision and innovation. If language teaching, as has been suggested in this paper, is moving from an
emphasis on teaching procedures to the fostering of learning, from training to education, then a similar shift in teacher
preparation is also required. In essence, then, teacher education is an enabling condition for language education. The language-
teaching community has invested a great deal of energy over the last decade in developing a more

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educationally-oriented approach to teaching and learning. If these efforts are to bear their full fruits, however, it may be
necessary to devote a similar amount of effort over the next decade to developing parallel frameworks for teacher education.
References
Boyle, R. (1994) ESP and distance learning. English for Specific Purposes 13(2), 115-28.
Brindley, G.P. (1984) Needs Analysis and Objective Setting in the Adult Migrant Education Program. Sydney: New South
Wales Adult Migrant Education Service.
Crabbe, D. (1993) Fostering autonomy from within the classroom: The teacher's responsibility. System 21(4), 443-52.
Ellis, G. and Sinclair, B. (1989) Learning to Learn English. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Freire, P. (1972). Pedagogy of the Oppressed. London: Penguin.
Halliday, M.A.K. (1970) Language structure and language function. InJ. Lyons (ed.) (1970) New Horizons in Linguistics (pp.
140-65). Harmondsworth: Penguin.
Heron, E. (1994) FE turns to self-study. Times Education Supplement Extra: Modern Languages 14 October, v.
Holliday, A. (1994) Appropriate Methodology and Social Context. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Holliday, A. and Cooke, T. (1982) An ecological approach to ESP. In A. Waters (ed.) Issues in ESP (Lancaster Practical
Papers in English Language Education 5), 123-143. Oxford: Pergamon.
Hutchinson, T. and Waters, A. (1984) How communicative is ESP? ELT Journal 38(2), 108-13.
Hymes, D. (1972) On communicative competence. In J.B. Pride and J. Holmes (eds) Sociolinguistics (pp. 269-93).
Harmondsworth: Penguin.
Mackay, R. and Mountford, A. (1978) English for Specific Purposes. London: Longman.
Nunan, D. (1988) The Learner-centred Curriculum. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
O'Malley, J.M. and Chamot, A.U. (1990) Learning Strategies in Second Language Acquisition. Cambridge: Cambridge
University Press.
Prabhu, N.S. (1987) Second Language Pedagogy. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
(1990) There is no best methodwhy? TESOL Quarterly 24(2), 161-76.
Riley, P. (1988) The ethnography of autonomy. In A. Brookes and P. Grundy (eds) Individualisation and Autonomy in Language
Learning (pp. 12-34). London: Modern English Publications.
Rubin, J. (1975) What the 'good language learner' can teach us. TESOL Quarterly 9(1), 41-51.
Skehan, P. (1989) Individual Differences in Second-language Learning. London: Edward Arnold.
Spolsky, B. (1989) Conditions for Second Language Learning. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

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Stern, H.H. (1975) What can we learn from the good language learner? Canadian Modern Languages Review 31(4), 304-18.
Stevick, E. (1990) Humanism in Language Teaching. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Tudor, I. (1993) Teacher roles in the learner-centred classroom. ELT journal 47(1), 22-31.
(1997) Learner-centredness as Language Education. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Wenden, A. (1991) Learner Strategies for Learner Autonomy. Hemel Hempstead: Prentice Hall.
Widdowson, H. (1978) Teaching Language as Communication. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Willing, K. (1988) Learning Styles in Adult Migrant Education. Adelaide: National Curriculum Resource Centre.

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Chapter 8
LSP Teacher Training in the Use of Technology: Overcoming Technofear
Philippe Delcloque
Introduction
Language teaching is no stranger to the use of technology. The importance of audio was appreciated very early at the beginning
of the century, coinciding with the advent of the first gramophones. The realisation of the importance of the spoken language
given theoretical support through early linguistics further added to the need felt a long time ago for the use of technology as a
teaching and learning aid. More recently, the increased emphasis on communicative competence has provided both an incentive
and a disincentive for the use of computers in language teaching and learning: a clear incentive because of their potential use for
seriously interactive and individualised teaching, a disincentive because of their actual lack of serious interactivity and
intelligence.
Before trying to justify the integration of computer-assisted language learning (CALL) into LSP education, I will first describe
the use of technology in language education in general and the place of effective teacher training within this context. I will then
examine the rationale behind the introduction of CALL, briefly mention some national production and support policies, and
review some attitudes towards it within the further and higher education sectors in the UK. Finally, I will look at what actions
and measures may be deemed helpful in achieving more within the field of special language provision and delivery.
Technology in Language Education

Despite the emphasis on communicative competence, despite the increased need for individualisation, the higher education
teacher feels confident in the use of a mode of delivery which has been the norm for years and has the advantage of a 'coherent'
structure and often represents less

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preparation time: 'chalk and talk'. In special language provision, there is perhaps less room for this type of approach than in
general language teaching, although chalk and talk, which may now be more suitably called 'felt-tip and whiteboard', does not
preclude using interactive teaching techniques.
Audio
The one concession to technology some language teachers are prepared to make is the use of audio. Audio has featured very
highly in language learning for some time now but has not always been exploited well. Audio language laboratories have, to
some extent, fallen into disrepute because of their previous extensive use of structural drills. The student did not necessarily
understand the point of each exercise. What is more the practice session in the laboratory was not always preceded by the
appropriate explanation in class of the point under scrutiny so that the practice was only meaningless repetition. The language
lab did, however, introduce a vital concept into language tuition, that of students working simultaneously at their own pace. 1
Learning to use the audio language laboratory involved learning to master the teacher's console. Monitoring students' work by
pressing the relevant button and then pressing the communication button to talk to them could be learnt relatively easily, but all
the other operations, such as the transfer of the master tape to the student booths, understanding different input devices, and
understanding different zones, rendered necessary the use of what started looking like an aircraft cockpit instead of a user-
friendly console. The tutor then ended up having to call the technician if (s)he wanted to 'fly'! Many tutors are still totally
dependent on such assistance when they first use a laboratory or when a problem develops.
Video
Operating a VCR is less complicated than operating a language laboratory, but more complicated than operating an audio
cassette recorder, and there is still resistance to using this very useful aid in the LSP classroom. In addition, there are problems
with video materials.
In-house videos are expensive to produce and are often judged against the standards of Hollywood! They frequently feature
'pedagogic target utterances', which are easier to understand but lack spontaneity and realism. Few of them are truly designed to
be interactive and, mostly, they are used as classroom tools with the tutor controlling one video recorder.

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The real penetration of video into teaching has been in the use of 'authentic documents', not meant originally for a pedagogic
purpose but providing a degree of realism. Much use is also made of cable and satellite television. Another fundamental
problem with video is that some programmes, like television, which is essentially ephemeral, date very quicklya particular
problem in LSP.
Nevertheless, what can be effectively used in LSP are all kinds of documentary-type video tapes which are sold to the public.
They often feature technological innovations (e.g. 'Le TGV', 'L'énergie nucléaire'). They might deal with various aspects of the
culture of special fields and they are available for a small amount (between £10 and £20) from target countries. From a
copyright point of view, they may be used in education provided that they are under teacher control and that multiple copies are
not made and, of course, not sold or hired. These materials, however, require the teacher to write a full pedagogic exploitation
which will be more time-consuming than ready-made material in a textbook.
Interactive video
A further advance in technology was the introduction of interactive video. This term is often misinterpreted. People naturally
confuse it with interactive multimedia computers and with CDI (CD Interactive, a technology led by Philips). The original
concept was developed by the training industry. Interactive video has been used extensively in business training and, ironically,
in computer training too. In this mode, it is more a delivery medium than a truly interactive one. In language learning and
teaching, there are various interpretations of the term 'interactive video'. Some tutors use the video laboratory very effectively
with one student per machine, turning it into a highly interactive tool which is combinable with forms of teacher-directed
learning. In this way, the student can isolate each of the media, for example, watching the picture without the sound and trying
to ascertain some of the content, a sort of visual comprehension exercise. Conversely, comprehension can involve both sound
and pictures and supplement traditional aural comprehension, something particularly valuable at lower levels as the message
becomes easier to understand. 2
So, video recordings of news bulletins and items perhaps of a more perennial interest may be used as a basis for comprehension,
translation, discussion. In some cases, business situation 'scenettes' have been written to provide models for role-play activity.
But structured video materials are very scarce in special language pedagogy and, as a result, have had relatively little impact in
LSP teaching.

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Computer Technology: CALL
Early computers
In language learning, early programmes transferred to the screen all sorts of text manipulation exercises adding only the more
immediate feedback of the computer and its higher degree of interactivity. There was very little new in terms of pedadogic
concepts and adaptation to the medium. 3 Some modern grammatical programmes have, however, taken the best elements out of
those early efforts to produce effective remedial strategies.
The multimedia learning machine
Because of its incorporation of all the previously mentioned media and their integration, the multimedia computer is obviously
the most powerful tool which technology has ever offered the language teacher. It is also ironically one of the easiest to use
from the point of view of both the user and the tutor. Its potential is only just being realised but is still hampered by lack of
multidisciplinary work, time, financial resources and training. More importantly, success is once again hindered by the
perception, which often lags several years behind, that computers are difficult to use, that things have to be relearnt all the time.
This is no longer true. In fact in every technological innovation today, the ease-of-use issue is primary. The time when human
beings had to adapt to machines is slowly being replaced by machines adapting to the way human beings act and think.
In terms of teacher training, the transferability of learning is essential. The motivation for the teacher to learn something new has
to come from the knowledge that (s)he will be able to recycle that skill acquisition. At a time of increasing operating system
convergence and decreased cost for much more mature technologies, to which one should add a much lower learning curve,
teachers may at last not only use computers but author digital materials. In the use of technology in LSP, this is paramount,
given the shortage of ready-made digital materials.
Computer-assisted language learning (CALL) has been actively encouraged in the UK at national and international levels. Early
assistance was provided primarily by the ReCALL centre in Hull and by the TELL (Technology Enhanced Language Learning)
consortium which commissioned production from a number of key players in further and higher education sectors for the benefit
of all establishments in the UK. Naturally, much of the work is destined for general language teaching and has favoured some of
the main languages (French and German) largely because

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of the individual author or team's field; even the material available in Spanish is insufficient. Much of the material produced is
of a texto-pictorial nature, some of it designed for the lowest common denominator: DOS. There is a scarcity of effective
multimedia material. Few of the programmes distributed currently by TELL would fill a CD-Rom and none of them deal with
special language provision. This was reserved for other TLTP (Teaching and Learning Technology Programme) and Nuffield
funded projects such as French for Scientists and Engineers. It is probably fair to say that much of the material deals with text
manipulation, prompting some tutors to say: 'What is the point of producing pedagogic material on a computer screen which
looks very much like a textbook?' Indeed the only added dimension is better interactivity but the programme loses the often
liked 'thumbing' feel of a book. The implications of this are important as it adds to the disincentive for linguists to become more
computer literate.
CALL in LSP
Examples of specialised products other than those cited earlier include a pharmaceutical CD-Rom by Autocursus SA in
Strasbourg, French for Finance and Business in the Leeds Business School, the author's own work in French for the Hospitality
Industry and, soon, French (and German) for Nursing Studies in collaboration with the Lothian College of Health Studies
(Edinburgh) and the University of Abertay Dundee, and, finally, a business negotiation CD-Rom called 'Negoworld' which
involves a Napier language department team, the IUT at Villeurbanne (France) and Neuroconcept SA, the distributor of a very
intuitive language authoring tool for PCs called Speaker. The problem remains the perceived size of the LSP market. Despite
national and international funding, some of the best CALL products are privately financed and deal with general language
provision usually from an ab initio level. And yet it may be that the material is particularly needed in LSP because of the
specific delivery constraints and the requirement for flexible self-access materials. In addition, some surveys show that the
fastest growing market in languages is in languages for non-language specialists. This is not just true in further and higher
education. It reflects the business world at large where the just-in-time concept does not simply apply to production or
warehousing/stock control. It applies to any form of training, languages included.
Training
We have seen that in the early days of audio labs, the lack of training was already endemic in many departments, especially the
more cost-effective

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group training. How many language departments today organise formal training sessions with the technician(s) at the beginning
of each academic year? The technician soon tires of helping individuals on an ad hoc basis throughout the year. Some
technicians feel that too much training is not a good thing as the staff become less dependent on them. This appears to have
been particularly true of some computer technicians.
Secondary-school teacher training still does not place enough emphasis on technological acquisition. It does not encourage
authoring, simply consumption. In higher education and especially in LSP teaching, the problem is worse for at least two
reasons: first, because higher education tutors have rarely received any form of teacher training; second because some LSP
teachers (for example, foreign graduate students teaching on science with language degree courses) might be discipline
specialists rather than language teachers. Ironically, they often make excellent tutors because of their better undertanding of the
needs of their peers in the field. Yet, they are even less likely to have received any form of training in pedagogy and the use of
technological aids.
The role of the technician
The technician should have at least a triple role in language education. Firstly (s)he is a facilitator, a willing assistant who
ensures that competent help is at hand when needed; secondly (s)he is an organiser, an archiver, a non-textual media librarian
with the relevant range of organisational skills; thirdly (s)he is a trainer who, like any modern tutor, must encourage transferable
learning. This is the key to retention of information and the computer technician in particular has a duty to promote operating
systems which do not involve excessive use of human memory and/or technicity. Fundamentally, like the good teacher, (s)he has
a duty to keep his/her knowledge up-to-date, have flexibility of mind and be prepared to acquire new skills and knowledge.
Furthermore the boundaries between the audio-visual technician and computer technician must now be questioned. That does
not simply mean that the audio-visual (AV) technician should become more computer literate, it also means that the computer
technician should become more literate about audio and video.
It is finally essential that the entire AV and information technology structure of a department should not be decided largely by
the so-called superior knowledge of the technician. Issues of usability matter a great deal and must be aired so the maximum
benefit may be derived by the end user and practitioner.

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Materials production
Supposing that we now need less time to learn, do we have time to produce? For a long time the ratio of production versus use
for a high quality CALL programme was 100 hours to 1. Authors spent more time developing serious expertise in using the
tool, resolving technical problems than selecting the materials and working out the pedagogy. There are now much better
template systems dedicated to language learning (Libra, Speaker, Wida, Wincalis). A new role for the technician could be to
implement multimedia solutions on behalf of teachers both in terms of production and storage. This is a role that many AV
technicians would be able to undertake given these simple intuitive tools. They could be asked to look after and classify media
assets for reuse (animation, audio, still and moving picture files). They could also be doing all the scanning required, leaving
just the checking of optical character recognition to the linguist. What is necessary is to promote a sharing culture within
departments and between institutions. Many authors would not mind part of their template being used by others especially as
there may not be much commercial potential for the work.
Using and adapting what is on the market, which is getting cheaper all the time, is highly realistic, which is why it is important
to make products authorable, that is to say modifiable. My own current courses in French and German for Nursing Studies will
allow the tutor (optionally) to add, delete or modify lesson modules to adapt them for their particular need, making the material
more useful than a textbook. The concept of Multiple Media rather than Multimedia is also important. In designing the
materials, all the assets (textual and non-textual) should be exportable and reusable (printed text, audio cassettes, still pictures
on OHT or 36 mm slides, animation or moving picture videos, exercise booklets with keys). In this way, the teacher has a
complete and flexible solution which can be adapted to the context of use. The other advantage is for self-access or guided
tuition, which may involve teaching business people on the move with irregular and infrequent 'class' contact.
Multimedia CALL in LSP teaching: What is the added value?
The added value in the use of CALL in LSP has been described partly in the preceding paragraph: flexibility. All the arguments
for using computers also apply to class teaching, with increased individualisation and students being able to be simultaneous
active, learning at their own pace and from, perhaps, different starting points.
Students learn differently and cumulatively through their senses. Some

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have a preference or a special level of receptivity for reading rather than listening, for writing rather than speaking, or for acting,
doing, making. Students of science are often said to have a different mind set from traditional linguists. Their approach may be
more cartesian and yet experimental. Any form of interactive learning whether paper, audio, video or computer-based will have
an important part to play in effective retention strategies and will discriminate less between so-called conventional academic and
less conventional learning styles.
In more open/flexible learning situations such as those involving professionals on the move, the use of different media will
promote total immersion whilst fully accommodating working styles: audio cassettes in the car, video cassettes at home or in
hotel rooms, paper materials in all more static environments, interactive multimedia computer programs in the workplace and at
home.
We do not need tools which give us additional work. We do need good technical support. We need to use systems which reduce
the learning curve and which free the tutor and user from technical support. We need production time to be valued and
incorporated within timetables. We need training and time allocation strategies to achieve results for all teachers, those who are
active in production as well as those who are administering the 'cure'. The use of technology is neither panacea nor substitute. It
also needs to be integrated within a whole strategy at departmental, institutional, national and international levels.
We need it in order to increase interactive learning and individualisation. We need it even more in special language education
because our groups are often less homogeneous. The collective production experiments are in their infancy but need to be
encouraged. We will also need yet stronger links between the enterprise sector and education because, amongst other things, of
the necessity for good needs analysis.
Virtually the only type of material available to the LSP teacher at the moment is in the form of specialised textbooks
accompanied by audio cassettes. The alternative is to use various authentic documents, mostly on paper (magazines, leaflets,
parts of textbooks), but also training or documentary videos, etc. In many cases, we need to implement our own pedagogic
strategy for the use of those documents. This is a very lengthy process. Due to time constraints, we often have to take short cuts
and administer inappropriate material which is not sufficiently targeted or felt to be relevant by students.
The use of technology can also add value by exploiting the multisensory aspects of language learning. The material, however,
must be accompanied

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by a serious pedagogic analysis which can be offered ready-made to the tutor, who may of course adapt it to his/her
requirements. The method used by the TELL Consortium could be implemented by appointing specialist authoring centres with
particular areas of expertise and interest.
Design issues
The advantage of the practising LSP tutor becoming an author is that (s)he is in frequent contact with the student and can modify
the material as it is being tested on the recipients. One of the key issues in CALL production is feedback. It is not satisfactory to
give the solution immediately after the student's own rendition, whether (s)he wants it or not. It is not ideal either, in paper-
based exercise structures, which again simply give the solution at the end of the chapter or book. At least in that context, the
user has time to reflect and useful hints can be given on paper to guide him/her towards the correct answer.
The digital implementation should allow immediate semi-intelligent help in the use of the programme as well as gradual
guidance and hints to lead the user to the correct answer. In this way, the student working at his/her own pace is able to control
the learning process more effectively. Everything therefore is a matter of design. One inhibiting factor in this respect is in the
lack of real cooperation between, on the one hand, scholars involved in artificial intelligence and intelligent computer assisted
language learning, and, on the other, CALL producers and designers who may well be frustrated by the current limitations in the
intelligence of standard authoring solutions.
Individualisation
Individualisation is an essential concept in secondary education today; it is equally important in language training especially with
students who come from different discipline backgrounds. They often arrive in a language class with highly disparate linguistic
competence/experience and very different needs or vocational aims. By the time more multimedia laboratories become
available, there will hopefully be an increased number of readily available special language programmes to allow the tutor more
effective differentiation. LSP teachers will have had to be trained to cope with such developments.
The television/video/computer age generation is invading our schools and universities. We have already changed the way we
learn in dramatic fashion and we need to have the flexibility to keep learning throughout our working lives. There is still no
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young students but the key is diversity to increase motivation. There is a place for using all media in effective learning. It is
however fundamental to integrate the use of a particular medium in its appropriate context and this cannot come without more
effective teacher training.
Conclusion: Possible Actions

The most important action is to incorporate training within purchase budgets and to see it as a recurrent cost. It is essential to
organise formal training sessions for staff at regular intervals, to schedule them intelligently and to create self-teaching packages
for back-up and on-going training. Schemes which encourage staff to buy computers at home at discount prices or share
portables with their institution may also be encouraged as they have been in the USA. It is also useful to introduce staff and
students to intuitive operating systems which mirror the organisation of the real world and which are both sustainable and
retainable in human memory (Macintosh OS, Windows 95). It is essential to avoid exposure to non-intuitive interfaces which
may deter potential users.
It is now possible to have a computer-based multimedia laboratory which will double up for video and audio without any
increase in cost or difficulty in operation. Dependency on very large networks can be minimised and there is a great deal to be
said for the flexibility of self-contained workstations as well as smaller LANS (local area networks). Finally, the AV technician
should be encouraged to participate in the creative process and administer it.
Some of us may no longer be here to witness the considerable impact that information technology will have had on teaching and
learning strategies and on the organisation of the world. Before the end of the millenium, we are going to see some dramatic
progress in dynamic machine intelligence. We will be using computers which adapt to the way we learn and help us in the way
we teach. New forms of hands-free interaction may have become commonplace, particularly speaker-independent speech
recognition, creating a new exciting dimension to learning systems.
Linguists and the technology of learning
Linguists should have been at the forefront of the use of technology in learning. They were until 20 years ago. They have made
full use of audio, little use of video, and have been very slow to adapt to the computer revolution. This was felt to be the
privileged domain of engineers and scientists but the myths must be blown. When IBM invented the microcom-

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puter, it failed to realise to its cost that information technology was about operating systems and software, not hardware. When
Apple brought out the Macintosh 12 years ago, it was too expensive to become what it should have been, the computer of the
people, for the people. Windows 95 will further popularise intuitive learning systems to the point that there simply will be no
excuse to be scared of computers.
Blowing the myths is understanding that learning curves have been substantially cut, that retention is much easier than it used to
be, that the learning is transferable and therefore cumulative and that IT literacy does save people time in the long run by
rationalising their organisation and avoiding repetition and redundancy. What computers of all kinds have always been good at is
the storage and organisation of data. What they are becoming better at is interactive communication. This reaches into our
domain because the linguist is fundamentally a communicator.
Practical measures for departments invoved in LSP delivery could be:
(1) to appoint a general coordinator or a coordinator for each language taught to be responsible for assembling all materials to be
used whatever its nature (animation/audio/picture/text/video) in conjunction with the AV technician
(2) to encourage tutors on their travels to amass such materials
(3) to encourage intra- and inter-institution sharing of resources and use of the Internet
(4) to run training sessions in the use of all technologies (audio lab consoles and digital laboratories) after installing the latest
state of the art equipment including rapid production template systems dedicated to language learning
(5) to encourage intermediate training sessions (going beyond simple use) in the use of the authoring systems described in (4)
(6) to organise dissemination and sharing workshops.
Naturally all this requires funding and a departmental policy supported by the majority of tutors. Funding, however, is available,
particularly for collaborative ventures. And teachers may have to accept that one or several of their colleagues may see their
teaching load reduced in order to produce materials which everybody can use.
The motivation and rationale or 'I have a dream'
So, why should we bother? What is in it for us and our students? Increased motivation by exposure to different media, an
adaptation to learning and working styles, an increase in transferable skills and more effective differentiating strategies.

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My dream is to be in the centre of a multimedia laboratory where students are using different parts of a programme to suit their
particular need to work on their weaknesses which have been assessed in a semi-objective fashion. Some of them may be
watching satellite or a cultural video on the computer screen. Some of them may be around a table involved in a group
discussion or a brainstorming session. Some of them may be simulating a business situation in a role-playing exercise. Some of
them will be doing written work and I will have time to sit down and check it for them without any effect on the rest of the
class.
Most people call it utopia. Some people would call it chaos. But I am sure of one thing. None of those students will be looking
out of the window in boredom. Most of them will not be 'switching off' with little retention. And, strangely enough, most of this
can be achieved within current UK university budgetsexcept perhaps if all tutors wanted to practice it simultaneously.
Notes
1. Audio was, for a long time, remarkably absent from CALL programmes, possibly due to the pre-eminence of the IBM
compatible as the omnipresent platform in Europe, but, maybe also due to the fact that many linguists and CALL producers
originally used the computer only for typing text.
2. Another meaning of interactive video is the combination of Videodisk player and computer. These systems (Vektor
Connexions series /A la rencontre de Philippe, etc.) were excellent but too expensive.
3. Much of this, of course, was still due to the limitations of the most commonly available operating system, MS DOS.

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Chapter 9
Teachers for Specific Purposes
Keith Richards
Practitioners, Teachers and Customers
With the establishment of ESP came the recognition that the ESP 'practitioner', needed special skills and was, in some sense, a
'special' teacher, someone at the forefront of their profession. Fifteen years ago, Strevens (1980:119) summed up the challenge
with uncharacteristic bluntness when he claimed that 'ESP requires superior teachers'. However, the response to this in terms of
ESP teacher education seems to have been to focus on the mechanics of the discipline, and it seems high time that ESP looked
more closely at those in whose hands its reputation restsits teachers.
It is, of course, quite proper that ESP teacher education should concern itself with its knowledge base. Teachers need to be able
to confront professional challenges in areas such as specialist knowledge (Ferguson, this volume), knowledge of discourse
(Adamson, this volume) and genre (Bhatia, 1993), techniques of needs analysis (West, this volume), programme design and
materials production. They also need an understanding of the world of the language classroom (Richards, 1990). But what is
missing from discussions of ESP (and EFL) teacher education, and strikingly so, is any reference to the person who is
responsible for the teaching.
There is a paradox here: in a field where an understanding of the target situation is centre stage and where the importance of the
specialist is so clearly recognised, we have made no efforts to investigate the target situation of the ESP teacher. We have
paradoxically excused ourselves from the very understanding which we insist teachers must develop if they are to be successful
in the field of ESP.
This is not a problem confined to ESP: the field of EFL generally shares in our ignorance, and this in the face of a rapid growth
of understanding in the wider field of education. However, it represents a particular challenge to ESP, partly, as I have
suggested, because of the claims we make about ESP and partly because of the historical doubts which have attached

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to our field. We have lived from the start with the suspicion that we are too market-oriented and susceptible to 'the fashion and
bandwagon effect' (Strevens, 1978), and we have been confronted with the charge that we are concerned with training, in its
narrowest sense, rather than education (Widdowson, 1983). A view of ESP teacher education which sees it as a matter of
enabling a 'practitioner' to develop a narrow set of relevant skills exposes it to such criticism and fails to reflect the important
educational contribution which ESP makes to language learning and human development.
This paper reports the findings of a modest study of ESP teachers talking about their work and reaching educational decisions.
These findings suggest that ESP teacher education needs to address much more than the technical aspects of our work if it is to
meet the needs of its teacher 'customers'.
The Study
The investigation on which my claims will be based was carried out over 15 months in a small language school. As a participant
observer, teaching classes once a week and for a fortnight over the summer, I spent over 50 days in the school, equivalent to
perhaps one term's full-time presence and in line with similar studies (e.g. Nias, Southworth & Yeomans, 1989). The timetable
for the study is given in Figure 1.
Figure 1

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Timetable of research
The initial period of fieldnote collection allowed me to gain the confidence of the staff, who agreed to the taping of staff
meetings in the autumn of the first year, and this, in turn, laid the foundation for recording talk during the morning break, the
most 'active' period of the day. Interviews (f/t = core staff; p/t = temporary staff) offered the opportunity to explore issues
arising from fieldnotes and recording, and provided details of 'life history'. This 'multiple perspective' (Burgess, 1984) allowed
conventional ethnographic techniques to be supported by microanalysis of specific events (for advantages of this, see Erickson
(1992); for broader issues see Denzin & Lincoln (1994)) and also meant that interpretations of interview data could be set
against the evidence of fieldnotes and actual staffroom exchanges (for problems associated with interview data, see MacLure
(1993)). Although the aim was to focus on 'a year in the life' of the school, the extra three months in the second year provided a
valuable extra perspective on the first three months of the study. It would be foolish to suggest that any single case can represent
the whole, especially in such a broad and geographically diverse field as EFL/ESP, but the advantages of the single in-depth
study are well documented (for a discussion of research issues, see Hammersley (1992: Ch. 11)). This school was chosen
because it is small, demonstrably successful, highly rated in British Council inspections and FIRST 1 audits, and it has a core
staff of five teachers who have worked together in EFL for between 15 and 17 years, producing a shared total of over 80 years'
experience. Of the five core staff, one acts as principal, teaching ESP and general English, two teach general English and two
specialise in English for business. Apart from the obvious advantages of balance and experience, the staff also share what Nias,
Southworth & Yeomans (1989) have described as a 'collaborative culture', which provides a friendly and supportive environment
in which to work. Nowhere is the spirit of collaboration more evident than in the way in which the two ESP teachers work
together:
The fact that we know each other very well is useful because we can rely on each other. We know each other's way of
thinking about things. . . the feedback is almost constant. (Interview [I]: Louise2
My focus in this paper will be on the two ESP teachers in the school and, as far as possible, I will let them speak for
themselves. By drawing on their comments in interviews, their staffroom exchanges and my fieldnotes on their work in the
school, I hope to build up a picture of their interests and concerns which might be relevant to ESP teacher education.
Specifically, I should like to explore their views and treatment of the following areas: ESP

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and needs analysis; education and professional development; students and culture. To set the scene for this I should like to begin
by briefly considering the place of the two ESP teachers in the school.
The ESP Teachers

Both of the ESP teachers share in teaching general English and join the rest of the staff in the main staffroom, but there are
features which set them apart. Most obvious is the existence of a 'second' staffroom where they have their desks, a place with its
own collection of specialist business books where they prepare their lessons and exchange views and information on their
specialisation. A less explicit but equally striking difference emerges in the way they present themselves:
Louise, like Jenny is smartly dressed. Well made up, comfortable but serious blouse, short dark skirt and black tights.
Attractive and friendly clothes, but definitely appropriate to business. Paul and Harry present a much more casual picture:
crew neck jumpers, jeans (denims for Harry) and open-necked shirts. The contrast is clear but not stark. (Fieldnotes [F]:
12 January 1994)
There are also differences which emerge in consideration of general policy:
I very much have the view that we've got to push these business courses, whereas perhaps other members of staff would
say, 'Oh I think this. We can't really cope with that. We should stick with what we know we can do well.' There's a
conflict of interest to a certain extent. (I: Louise)
Such differences, however, need to be seen in the context of the closeness of the group as a whole:
that's what's so good about working here, the fact that we do get on so well even though we do have different ideas. We
respect each other's ideas. (I: Louise)
they're all actually very different people with very different political views, lifestyles, whatever. But as colleagues we get
on extremely well. We cover up our differences or we laugh about our differences. (I: Jenny)
Like other teachers, the two ESP specialists can expect to teach small classes, and they are very likely to find themselves
dealing with one-to-one classes, which they both particularly like:
I suppose my main interest in it [business English] is that it tends to be

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one-to-one so you really do get involved in the person and what they need. (I: Louise)
The differences between the two ESP teachers and other staff are recognised and respected, but the exchanges between them
and other staff reveal a commonality of concern and interest which is at times striking. As we shall see, there are recognised
areas of expertise attaching to ESP in this environment, but these emerge as elements in 'pooled' expertise rather than as explicit
markers of difference. In fact, the foundations of Jenny and Louise's interest in ESP indicate where the common ground lies.
Views of ESP
Two intimately related features emerge again and again in Jenny and Louise's discussion of ESP: the centrality of needs analysis
and the importance of the individual. We find, for example, that when Jenny is talking of what she likes most about teaching,
she points to one-to-one as a source of particular satisfaction because it offers the opportunity to focus on specific needs:
I've got enthusiasm in me most of the time and it's very rewarding if there's enthusiasm the other way. . . I get that with
business one-to-one, when you feel that and know what the student's needs are because we've discussed it, we've analysed
the needs. And in one-to-one you're really concentrating so much on their specific needs and they realise that and they
can see why you're doing a particular activity. (I: Jenny)
Louise bases her needs analyses on taped conversations because these allow a more relaxed and focused exploration of student
needs. She reviews the tapes in the evening, using them to plan her courses, and over the years she has amassed a collection of
such tapes, some of which she still listens to. But she emphasises that when she does return to them: 'It wouldn't be the language
I listen to, but the person'. ESP has moved a long way from Munby's (1978) mechanistic model of needs analysis, but perhaps
we need to invest more time in exploring the human dimension in the process of identifying course needsit is clearly at the heart
of the process as conceptionalised and practised by these teachers.
The importance of needs analysis in their professional world is carried over into contributions which they make to school
decision-making. The following extract is taken from a staff meeting in which a short ('general English') course is being
discussed. Louise has already argued that needs analysis is essential and the meeting is discussing this:

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Jenny: Yes on the first day, the language lesson's very often a
finding out what people want to do.
(1.5)
Harry: Er
Louise:But isn't that sometimes too general? Doesn't it
[
Harry: Isn't this
Louise:need to be specific to the individual.
[
Jenny: Yes.
(0.5)
Harry: Yes.
Louise:And also they take ideas from other people, don't they?
A: Yeah.
Louise:Which is not necessarily their own idea. Somebody says
'vocabulary' so 'Oh yes! I want vocabulary.' Somebody says 'I
want more grammar.' 'I want more grammar.'
Harry: Yeah but
Louise:'Fluency.' 'I want fluency.' And it doesn't become
discriminating enough for the individual. (Staff Meeting [M]:
2 December 1994)
(Numbers in round brackets represent pauses, in seconds. '[' indicates
utterances above and below overlapped.)
Louise here draws on her experience of needs analysis to make a point about the need for specificity and to highlight a potential
problem which can arise in the conduct of such analysis. The environment is a receptive one because the school is sensitive to
students' needs and a system of 'tutorials' provides regular formative evaluation, and the meeting of 'ESP' and 'general' English
perspectives here is a productive one.
This point is perhaps worth highlighting. Many graduates of ESP courses will find themselves in ESP situations, but others will
have to operate in less focused environments, and it may be valuable to include an element in ESP courses which explores the
challenges and opportunities which this offers. In the school I have studied there is certainly no suggestion that the ESP is
'watered down'. The two specialists are professionally committed to it and are convinced that it is in the vanguard of a sector
which is itself at the cutting edge of language teaching:

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[Asked whether the school has moved towards business.] I think it has and I think the EFL world is moving towards it as
well. (I: Louise)
[Of EFL/ESP compared with other language teaching.] I think it's heading in the right direction. . . I think we are leaders.
(I: Jenny)
Professional education
In the light of their views of ESP, it is hardly surprising that, like their colleagues, both Louise and Jenny recognise the value of
professional development. Both have attended ESP coursesin the case of Louise on a self-funded basisand there are plenty of
examples in my data of proposals and discussions relating to attendance at courses and conferences. When a visitor came to the
school and discussed his ideas on teaching, the response of the staff was as polite as their assessment was revealing:
They pride themselves on keeping up with developments and seemed to think that his ideas were well out of date. (F: 19
January 1994)
For understandable financial and practical reasons, individuals tend to be singled out for registration on professional courses, and
it is rare to find a complete staff following a course together. However, the experience of this school suggests that if the benefits
of such an approach were more widely known, it might represent a more attractive proposition.
Not long after the school was established, the staff confronted the problem that they lacked formal EFL qualifications, and their
concerns received a sympathetic response from the principal of the organisation of which their school is a part. The whole staff
embarked on a RSA/Cambridge DTEFLA 3 course which proved to be a transforming experience. The results on an individual
level were clear enough, and Louise's description might stand for any of her colleagues:
It really did change a lot of things I was doing in the classroom. It made me think afresh and it was really valuable from
that point of view. (I: Louise)
More important, though, was the effect it had on interaction and development in the school generally:
Whereas previously we'd only socialised as a staff and not talked about work things very often, we suddenly found
ourselves talking about work related things. And so we started working together much more, together as a team. (I: Jenny)
Much has been made of the benefits of a collaborative culture for school effectiveness (e.g. Nias, Southworth & Yeomans,
1989; Cousins, Ross &

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Mayne, 1994; Hargreaves, 1995; but see Cole, 1991) and the role of the principal in this has been highlighted (e.g. Leithwood,
1992; Corrie, 1995), but the potential contribution of shared staff development courses has not been discussed. However, if the
example of this school is representative, it may be worth designing ESP courses to be targeted at whole staffs rather than
individual representatives. It is surely worth at least exploring the value of longer 'part-time' courses perhaps delivered on-site,
so that a two-week (ten-day) institution-based course might also be offered on-site for one day a week over a period of ten
weeks. An essential element in such a course would be a component on cooperative development (Edge, 1992), exploiting the
shared experience to the full.
Students
The importance of the student as an individual was highlighted earlier, but it is something which cannot be over-emphasised, not
least because ESP has for so long been associated with specific skills and the discourse relevant to them.
The overwhelming presence of 'people talk' in my data suggests most strongly that, whatever the swings in the debate about the
nature of ESP, teachers in this school see it and EFL as essentially educational concerns. Time and again it is through the
discussion of individual students that issues in needs analysis, methodology, course structure, materials and language are
explored. Such powerful evidence in professional practice of a belief in the inseparability of personal and linguistic development
represents an eloquent argument for the inclusion of a 'human' element in TESP courses.
How such a component is integrated and which elements are to be forefronted is a matter for individual course designers, but I
should like to try to illustrate an aspect which has already been touched on in this collection. Dudley-Evans' (this volume)
argument for the consideration of culture in ESP courses is one that would receive an enthusiastic response from the teachers I
have studiedLouise so far as to rate it as 'probably more important than anything' (F: 18 March 1994). But it is not only a
candidate for inclusion in the content of an ESP course, it is also a pervasive feature in the discussion of classroom practice. The
emergence of the subject in two quite distinct staffroom discussions illustrates this:
As part of the preparation for my lesson, Jenny had mentioned that now J had gone another Polish student had arrived.
She said that the student was a little shy and that she was pairing with S, who was also shy because of a cultural
background which involved a lack of contact

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with women. Jenny did say that there were no real problems, though, and that proved to be the case. However, when I
returned from the lesson, it was to find two Polish students from Paul's class in the staffroom. They're exchanging words
with Harry and Paul and don't seem too happy. It transpires from Paul and Harry's discussion that the split between Poles
and Japanese in the class is not working. The Japanese seem to have clammed up entirely and are not happy because they
claim that the Poles are hogging all the talk in class, while the Poles are less than happy about their reception by the
Japanese and their placement. (F: 22 February 1995)
It has been suggested that teachers tend to rely on 'typification' (e.g. 'George is just idle') when discussing students (Rist, 1973)
and that in exchanging staffroom news teachers are particularly concerned to shore up their own professional identity
(Hammersley, 1984), but the evidence of these data points rather to a genuine interest in individual development as part of the
pedagogic challenge facing committed professionals. Even where there is evidence of what might appear as cultural
stereotyping, this serves as a useful shorthand in pedagogic discussions. Jenny's question about Maria's nationality in the
following extract reflects a recognition that Spanish and Japanese students have different interactional styles and that this has
significant pedagogic implications:
Ed: Well I don't know. Sumi just said she wants to change class
because
(1.0) basically she says she doesn't like Maria.
Jenny:Doesn't like what?
Ed: (?) student.
Jenny:Oh.
Ed: She keepswhen she says something she keeps cutting her
off.
Jenny:Oh, I see.
[
Ed: I haven't noticed.
(0.5)
Jenny:Oh (2.0) What er nationality is Maria.
Ed: Spanish but she doesn't sh- not at all doesn't dominate the
class.
(Staffroom Talk [T]: 22 February 1995)
There is a strong case, then, for including a consideration of cultural differences in any TESP course, and this need not be
confined to ESP course content: cultural sensitivity may not be the preserve of the ESP teacher but it is an important prerequisite
in effective teaching.

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Ways Forward
I have drawn on the data from this small-scale study because I believe that it offers an example of the sort of in-depth
perspective on teachers' professional lives which is essential if we are to develop appropriately focused teacher education
programmes. While I accept that the sample is small, the lack of disconfirming evidence within this data set, and in a taped
collection of over 30 life-history interviews with teachers from 10 different countries (most of these conducted in their place of
work), suggests that it is not unrepresentative.
Ultimately, of course, any claims about effective teacher education can only be validated by appropriate investigations into the
process of that education itself. The following proposals are therefore offered not as conclusions but as considerations:
We must practise what we preach. There is a need to understand much more of the professional lives and beliefs of ESP
teachers around the world, and until we apply our peculiarly appropriate skills to understanding this professional context we
cannot claim to be applying the principles of ESP to teacher education.
• Needs analysis is fundamental to ESP and recognised by teachers as such. Perhaps research and debate in this area could
pay more attention to its human dimension, which features so prominently in the professional considerations and discussions of
the teachers in this study.
• The individual student is the focus of all ESP teaching, and there should be a place in any teacher education course for
exploration of this important dimension.
• Many ESP teachers have to work in 'general English' environments, not all of them as collaborative as the situation
described here. It would be worth considering whether and how teachers should be prepared for making the most of their work
situation.
• Short institution-based courses may be the norm, but the advantages of more extended on-site courses should be
considered, and a place should be found on any course for a component on cooperative development.
Perhaps not all of these proposals will prove practicable and productive, but I believe that they represent orientation towards a
concern for the human and educative side of ESP which has not always been to the fore. It is an orientation reflected in the
choice of 'education' rather than 'training' in the title of this collection and one which would draw a ready response from the ESP
teachers I have come to know.

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Notes
1. FIRST is an organisation in the UK open to language schools, which offers quality assurance based on a charter and quality
audits.
2. All names have been changed.
3. Royal Society of Arts/University of Cambridge Local Examinations Syndicate Diploma in the Teaching of English as a
Foreign Language to Adults.
References
Bhatia, V. K. (1993) Analysing Genre: Language Use in Professional Settings. London: Longman.
Burgess, R. G. (1984) In the Field. London: George Allen and Unwin.
Cole, A. L. (1991) Relationships in the workplace: Doing what comes naturally? Teaching and Teacher Education 7(5), 415-26.
Corrie, L. (1995) The structure and culture of staff collaboration: Managing meaning and opening doors. Educational Review
47(1), 89-99.
Cousins, J. B., Ross, J. A. and Maynes, F. J. (1994) The reported nature and consequences of teachers' joint work in three
exemplary schools. The Elementary School Journal 94(4), 441-65.
Denzin, N. K. and Lincoln, Y. S. (1994) Entering the field of qualitative research. In N. K. Denzin and Y. S. Lincoln (eds)
Handbook of Qualitative Research (pp.1-17). Thousand Oaks: Sage.
Edge, J. (1992) Cooperative Development. London: Longman.
Erickson, F. (1992) Ethnographic microanalysis. In D. Le Compte, W.L. Millroy and J. Preissle (eds) The Handbook of
Qualitative Research in Education (pp. 201-225). San Diego: Academic Press.
Hammersley, M. (1984) Staffroom news. In A. Hargreaves and P. Woods (eds) Classrooms and Staffrooms (pp. 203-214).
Milton Keynes: Open University Press.
(1992) What's Wrong with Ethnography? London: Routledge.
Hargreaves, D. H. (1995) School culture, school effectiveness and school improvement. School Effectiveness and School
Improvement 6(1), 23-46.
Leithwood, K. A. (1992) The principal's role in teacher development. In M. Fullan and A. Hargreaves (eds) Teacher
Development and Educational Change (pp. 86-103). London: The Falmer Press.
MacLure, M. (1993) Mundane autobiography: Some thoughts on self-talk in research contexts. British Journal of Sociology of
Education 14(4), 373-84.
Nias, J., Southworth, G. and Yeomans, R. (1989) Staff Relationships in the Primary School. London: Cassell.
Richards, J. C. (1990) The dilemma of teacher education in second language teaching. In J. C. Richards and D. Nunan) Second
Language Teacher Education, (pp. 3-15). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Rist, R. (1973) The Urban School. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
Strevens, P. (1978) Special-purpose language learning: A perspective. Language Teaching and Linguistics: Surveys. London:
Centre for Information on Language Teaching and Research.

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(1980) Teaching English as an International Language. Oxford: Pergamon.
Widdowson, H. G. (1983) Learning Purpose and Language Use. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

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Chapter 10
TESP and Technophobes: Can Textbooks Teach Teachers?
Eric H. Glendinning
Introduction
Some English teachers find themselves teaching ESP when they have little or no knowledge of the specialism of their students.
This chapter looks at the problem and considers ways in which the textbook writer may help. In this role, we can consider the
textbook writer as teacher-trainer. The chapter is illustrated by reference to an approach adopted by the author in two recent
textbooks in ESTone on electronics and one on engineering.
It is perhaps in the area of EST that the problem is most acute. In teaching EBP, for example, the culture of the business world
is not so remote for most ESP teachers whereas that of the engineer and scientist may seem more distant. The author has taught
and observed EST classes in a number of countries, both developing and developed, but his most recent experience has been
with EST as practised in Italian technical colleges. This experience has influenced his views. The chapter focuses on course
design and text selection with less emphasis on methodology.
The Problem
Much of the ESP teaching described at conferences and in journals takes place in sheltered environmentscompanies, private
language schools, and university institutions, contexts which are well-resourced and offer relatively easy access to specialist
informants. Practitioners in such contexts have the interest, the encouragement of peers or employers, and possibly even the
leisure to write and present their view of ESP.
The situation in many ESP classrooms, is rather different. Typically, the teacher has a background in arts; she has little or no
training in TESP; she is part-time which means that she has no (paid) time for consultation with

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subject specialists and is on an unequal footing with them; she is interested in general language and cultural enrichment; she
may have very little interest in the specialism of the learner and indeed may feel threatened by the specialism. She is a
technophobe in the sense of someone not comfortable with science and technology.
In contrast, the learner has followed a General English course at school and has no wish to repeat the process. Indeed he may
regard English as a hindrance to the pursuit of his 'real' studies. He is full-time and hence more a part of the institutional context
than the teacher; he finds cultural enrichment uninspiring; he plans to make a future in technology. He is a technophile.
There is a clear problem in designing materials to suit both teacher and student. My interest in the problem is not purely
pedagogic. An important consideration for textbook writers in choosing which audience to address is that, while the student buys
the book, it is the teacher who decides which book will be bought.
What should a good ESP textbook offer? From the student's viewpoint, the closer the textbook relates to his specialism, the less
irrelevant English study appears. The teacher wants a textbook which is easy to teach and does not pose a threat to her position.
Conducting a lesson is, first and foremost, handling a collection of friendly and unfriendly people in a way that maximally
protects or projects, and minimally hurts or diminishes, one's own self-image as a teacher. (Prabhu, 1992: 229))
Teachers come to terms with learners in a way that least erodes their status, in their own eyes, in the learners' eyes, and
perhaps in the eyes of fellow teachers and superiors. (Prabhu, 1992: 233-4)
ESP textbooks are a threat to the self-image and status of the teacher if they include:
• language beyond her competence
• methodology beyond her experience and control
• specialist content beyond her comfort level.
The temptation for all teachers faced with such threats, as Prabhu notes, is to fall back on familiar routines. In the case of the
ESP teacher, this means familiar General English texts and techniques. Hence the teacher I observed in Italy teaching A Room
with a View to a class of electronics students.

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Solutions
How can the textbook writer produce teaching materials which keep both sides of the classroom happy? Let us consider the
choices facing the ESP textbook writer in three areas:
(1) course design
(2) methodology and
(3) text.
Course design
In designing a textbook for a specific group of learners in an educational context, a natural starting point for the textbook writer
is their English syllabus. However, this may provide little help. Syllabuses for tertiary level ESP tend to be vague. The following
is from an Italian example:
Students should have an understanding of the culture and civilisation of the foreign country which will permit them to use
the language with an adequate understanding of the meanings which are to be transmitted.
In contrast, when we turn to the content subject we find a detailed, carefully sequenced list of items easily turned into a weekly
teaching schedule.
What are the options facing the textbook writer in such a situation? There are two basic approachesone I will call language-led
and the other subject-driven.
Language-led approach
The language-led course is the product of the traditional ESP approach. There are at least three stages. First a needs analysis
from which one obtains a list of the functions, concepts, and skills the learners require now or on completion of their studies.
Second these functions and skills are broken down into exponents and microskills. Finally these exponents and microskills are
put into a teaching sequence.
The result of this exercise is a language-led coursebookthe spine, the stem of the textbook is a set of language items or skills.
Strengths
The strengths of the language-led coursebook are that it is built on the one foundation, language, which is meaningful across
specialisms. In addition, such a book is meaningful to the teacher experienced in General

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English and familiar to the studentperhaps over-familiar. The language items and skills can be exemplified and practised in
contexts which the teacher finds unthreatening.
Weaknesses
However, in practice there are a number of problems.
In all needs analyses we obtain answers which conflict. First, there is a question of focus: Do we consider language needs now
(when the learners' need for English may be minimalthey need English only for the English classroom) or future professional
needs? Our informantsstudents, specialist teachers and company training officersoften have different views about what a
language course should contain or may give replies which are so general as to be unhelpfulfor example, 'to be able to read
textbooks', 'to understand technical terms'.
Then there comes the problem of converting the results of the needs analysis into a set of teachable language items and
microskills. Here we rely on those old and unreliable devices of the textbook writerintrospection and intuition.
A further problem comes in the sequencing of these items. We rely on criteria such as frequency, coverage, difficulty and so on.
Although we now have concordance evidence for frequency, as far as difficulty is concerned we fall back on intuition and
introspection. It is not surprising that the sequence of language items is remarkably similar across ESP textbooks. The same
problem occurs when we try to break down skills such as 'reading a textbook' into microskills.
A final problem is that as texts are chosen to exemplify language, there tends to be little progression in terms of the subject from
one text to another. The content knowledge the teacher picks up through using the texts is haphazard. As far as the specialism is
concerned, the textbook does not teach the teacher.
Subject-driven approach
The alternative approach, and one which I have adopted in recent textbooks, I call subject-driven. Others use the term 'content-
based'. The stages are as follows:
Identify the key topics in the specialism with the help of the specialist syllabus and a subject specialistthis may entail what
Swales has called 'taking tea in exotic staffrooms'. Then sequence those topics according to the order of presentation of the
specialism. Select texts which exemplify the

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topicsthe nature of these texts is discussed later; again we need the help of the subject specialist. Teach key language features as
they arise and skills for decoding texts as required.
Weaknesses
Naturally there are problems in such an approach:
• obtaining specialist help to select suitable topics
• ensuring the syllabus lags and not leads the specialism
• finding suitable texts
• understanding the texts.
From the textbook writer's point of view the difference between a language-led and a subject-driven textbook is that between a
hill-walker and a mountain-climber. The hill-walker looks for the easiest way up; the mountain-climber for the hardest.
Producing subject-driven textbooks is the more demanding task.
Strengths
There is much more of a natural development to the specialismespecially where based on mathematics and physics. The subject-
driven approach produces a course which is meaningful to the learners, which is likely to motivate them as it so clearly relates to
their discipline. And because the texts are chosen and sequenced according to the subject, the course provides an opportunity to
teach the teacher the basics of the specialism. The learner is seduced into language; the teacher is seduced into content.
Methodology
Can textbook writers influence how the ESP teacher teaches? We cannot 'teacher-proof' materials. Teachers teach the way they
want to teach, the way they think is best regardless of textbook writers. Indeed in ESP, it is almost a point of honour to depart
from the text. But textbook writers can seek to influence.
What are the options for the textbook writer regarding methodology? The traditional approach to TESP is based on striking a
bargain, forming a symbiotic relationship between teacher and learner: You know about the specialism, I know about the
language. Let's work together. (See, for example, Drobnik, 1978.)
However, we cannot operate effectively as ESP teachers without some knowledge of and some interest in the specialism. We
may claim to our

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students that we know nothing about the specialism if that suits us pedagogically but in practice we need to know something
about it, for example when choosing appropriate supplementary materials and when designing classroom activities which allow
students to use their specialist knowledge.
Problem-solving tasks offer one way of allowing students to display a great deal of specialist knowledge in return for
comparatively little specialist pump-priming by the teacher. We can categorise problem-solving tasks in ESP according to the
degree of specialist knowledge required by the teacher in devising the task and providing the input, and the learner in solving the
task:
(1) No specialist knowledge required by the teacher or learner, e.g. logic problems. The argument for such tasks is that they pose
the same cognitive challenge that engineers and scientists face in their professional lives.
(2) Specialist knowledge required by learners to reach a solution but no specialist input required from the teacher, e.g. groups of
engineers studying technical English are asked to design a plant for recycling domestic refuse. Groups compete to find the most
effective solution. (This involves separating and recycling glass, plastics, metals, paper and organic waste.) Each group presents
its solution to the class who decide together which is the best.
(3) Specialist input required from the teacher and specialist knowledge required by the learners to reach a solution, e.g. a group
of doctors learning English for Medical Purposes are each given different test results for a patientblood tests, ECG printout, x-
rays, etc. Each learner explains in English his/her findings to the group. Together the group agree on a diagnosis for the patient.
We can summarise these categories in Table 1.
Table 1
(Teacher) Input (Learners) Output
1 General General
2 General Specialist
3 Specialist Specialist
The second type would seem a suitable compromise for the technophobe teacher and the technophile student.
There is not space to discuss the pros and cons of problem-solving tasks

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here. But they are particularly appropriate for engineers and technicianssolving problems is how they will spend much of their
working life. I include them alongside a range of communicative techniques now common to both EGP and ESP classrooms:
jigsaw reading and listening, role plays, information transfer, information-gap, etc. Including such activities in an ESP textbook
gives further comfort to the technophobe because of their familiarity from the EGP classroom.
Text
The problem of suitable text is the oldest in ESP.
What are we to do. . . where we ourselves just do not understand the. . . textbooks and professional articles our students
are required to grapple with? (Selinker, 1979)
The problem of understanding other people's specialisms is not unique to ESPscientists no longer understand other scientists. On
the occasion of the tercentenary of the Royal Society, the President remarked that when the Society was founded members could
understand each others' papers regardless of specialism whereas now the only text they had in common was the menu in the
Society's dining room.
Assuming the ESP textbook writer decides to use authentic texts, ('authentic' simply in the sense of 'not devised for EFL
learners'), he/she has a choice of specialist or lay.
Using specialist texts drawn from sources used by native-speaker peersstudent or professionalmay increase learner motivation.
Such texts should also help establish appropriate schemata. The disadvantages are that it can be extremely difficult to find texts
of the right length and level which are complete in themselves and understandable out of context. When such texts can be found,
there is a risk that the teacher may not understand the concepts and is therefore not motivated, particularly so in the case of the
technophobe. What are the alternatives?
Lay textstexts which deals with the specialist topic at the level of the educated lay personare one alternative. The advantages are
that such texts can be understood by both teacher and student, pose little threat to the former and may be of interest for their
content to the latter. Problems of appropriacy remain. The use of school level topics in ESP textbooks for professionals has been
dubbed the 'bicycle pump syndrome'demotivating to the serious technophile. In addition, such texts may be conceptually over-
simplified, dangerous as well as demotivating. Sources such as the New Scientist or the science pages of the national press are
often used but

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these texts may pose problems of registerthe use of journalese is unlikely to prepare learners for the real world of textbooks and
manuals.
An alternative, or rather a complement, to the lay text is the lay graphic. Lay graphics illustrate technical concepts with the
minimum of languageusually only the labelling. The specialist content for the teacher is undemanding, for the learner the
language content is equally so but he can add to the specialist content from his own knowledge of the specialism.
By combining lay graphic, lay text and specialist text on a common theme in a teaching unit, it is possible to meet the needs and
interests of both technophobe and technophile. Table 2 illustrates this three-stage approach.
Table 2
Lay graphic Lay text Specialist text
Use Classroom: Classroom: Homework:
Pre-tasks, Skills Comprehension
Priming, development
Warm-up and practice,
Presentation of
language items,
Teaching the
teacher
Concept density Low Low High
Three-stage Approach
The graphic is used as a basis for warm-up activities such as group surveys. The lay text, reading or listening, provides materials
for skills development and practice as well as the teaching of language items which occur naturally in the texts. The lay text
also serves as a means of teaching the teacher about the specialism.
It is important to note that the texts are linked in themes and that the themes are sequenced according to the specialist syllabus.
The unit closes with a specialist text on an aspect of the theme. The conceptual density is high but the text is set for homework
which students correct either by comparing answers or using the key. The comprehension questions on this text are set by a
subject specialist. The more specialist the text, the more student-centred the work.

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To illustrate, a unit of English in Electronics (Glendinning & McEwan, 1993) starts with a graphic of a digital watch which
forms the basis for a class survey on digital watches and their functions. Class surveys are common in EGP teaching and the
activity poses no threat to the teacher. The lay text explaining how a digital watch operates is more daunting but the initial
activityinformation transfer resulting in the completion of a cause-and-effect flow chart is not. The language work focuses on
cause and effect structures which occur in the text. The closing specialist text on the electronics of the counter circuit is
conceptually dense, but is set for homework. The comprehension questions are simply a check on how well the students have
understood the technical information in the text. Answers are provided in the key.
Summary
• In EST there is often a divide between teacher and students in terms of interest in and comfort with science and
technology.
• The ESP textbook may be seen as high risk.
• A language-led course may seem the safest model for such teachers but it does nothing to educate the teacher about the
specialism.
• A subject-driven course sequenced according to the specialism is more likely to motivate the student and at the same time
can teach the teacher.
• Problem-solving tasks provide opportunities for students to use specialist knowledge but require comparatively little
specialist knowledge from the teacher. (They provide a good return on investment.)
• It is possible to combine lay and specialist texts in such a way as to meet the interests of the student without increasing the
risk for the teacher.
With this mix of course design, task and text we can ensure that ESP textbooks can better serve both technophobe and
technophile and perhaps teach the teacher as well as the learner.
References
Drobnic, K. (1978) Teaching EST without becoming a scientist. ESP-MALS Journal, 64-72.
Glendinning, E. and McEwan, J. (1993) English for Electronics. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Prabhu, N.S. (1992) The Dynamics of the language lesson. TESOL Quarterly 26(2), 225-41.
Selinker, L. (1979) On the use of informants in discourse analysis and 'language for specialized purposes'. IRAL 17(3): 189-215.

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Chapter 11
Discourse Analysis and Training Teachers of LSP: The Example of French for Scientists
Robin Adamson
This paper presents some conclusions about teacher training in the area of languages for special purposes from the point of view
of the course writer. Although course writers and teacher trainers may seem to be working in quite different fields, our
experience has shown that the two areas of work can overlap to a significant extent.
The ideas presented here arise from discourse analysis carried out as part of the preparation of course materials for the Nuffield
French for Science and Engineering Students Project, CQFD: Le français des sciences et des techniques, to be published by
Hodder and Stoughton in 1997. This inter-university project, involving the universities of Abertay, Dundee, Heriot-Watt,
Liverpool and St Andrews is funded by the Nuffield Foundation. Our aim is to produce well-researched teaching and learning
materials for the increasing numbers of British students in science and engineering departments who are being encouraged to
study French as an integral part of their degree.
As part of the background research for the project, a corpus of videos and sound recordings of science lectures, tutorials and
laboratory sessions was obtained. I have analysed this authentic material for typical features of the discourse, particularly those
which might cause problems for foreign students. We have tried to include the defining features of the discourse of science
education in the materials we have produced, so that students who take the course will be hindered as little as possible by
linguistic problems when they go to study in France and find themselves in classes with native speakers of French. This
essentially linguistic application of discourse analysis in the preparation of teaching materials in languages for special purposes
is not unusual, although perhaps not quite as widespread as one

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might hope. The basic linguistic analysis was extended to three extra-linguistic aspects of the situation in which science French
is taught and learned, and these extensions led us, somewhat to our surprise, towards training teachers of LSP.
The methods of discourse analysis used for the Nuffield Project followed to some extent both the French and the
British/American traditions. Although the main emphasis was originally on linguistic detailssemantic and syntactic patternsthe
notion of discourse was progressively interpreted in a wider sense, to include an increasing number of features of the broader
situation in which the language of science is used by students. As the work progressed, the importance of this wider
communicative situation became increasingly apparent.
Because we were thinking of British students going to study in France as part of their degree, the analysis was first extended to
include patterns of learning and teaching in the sciences in France. It seemed obvious that these patterns, within which the
discourse of science functions, would affect the ways in which students would understand and use the special French they had
been taught. This stage of the analysis was directed mainly at the students and included the structure of textbooks, of lecture
courses, of tutorials and the language of lecturers and tutors as well as the language used by French students in the various
different learning situations they find themselves in.
This led naturally to a second extension of the analysis to include aspects of science education in British universities. If there
were important differences between the two systems, this too could have an effect on our students' use of the language they had
learned. Tutors needed to be aware of the two systems so that any similarities could be exploited in the language preparation
classes. We could then take advantage of the British students' familiarity with specifically scientific types of learning to facilitate
their learning of science French.
Once our attention had been drawn to these two additional types of discourse or situation analysis they were taken into account
in the preparation of course materials. This led us to realise that there was a third aspect of the wider situation which also needed
to be analysed: the language learning and teaching context in the British universities where the linguistic preparation of science
students was taking place. Feedback from the piloting of the Nuffield materials had shown that we could expect the linguistic
preparation of science students to take place in a situation very different from the one in which students of languages for general
purposes learn and are taught. It became increasingly clear that within the LSP

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situation the role, qualifications, experience and expectations of the tutor were key elements in the students' success in learning
the language, and this third extension of the analysis was aimed mainly at helping tutors.
A superficial comparison between the situation of science students (who are learning French for special purposes as a minor
addition to their main subject/s) and the situation of the tutor (whose main interest and qualifications (if any) are in French)
immediately showed that differences in perceptions of the importance of the language classes could cause difficulties in the
classroom. As we probed deeper, the extent of the differences between the students and the tutors became ever more obvious, so
that, instead of being mainly concerned with the language content of the course, we became increasingly worried about specific
aspects of the situation in which the course was to be delivered and about the problems encountered by the tutors who were to
deliver it. Such teachers needed, we felt, to be made aware in their training of the importance of the wider structures within
which the special language/s they are teaching operate, and of relevant features of the teaching and learning situation in which
they have a vital role. There seemed to be no way of ensuring that tutors were trained in this way, so the inclusion with the
teaching materials of detailed guidancea kind of teacher trainingseemed a possible solution. Thus, for us as materials writers, a
preoccupation with 'What' had become concern about 'How', and we found ourselves considering the wider problems of LSP and
teacher education.
Analysis of the wider situation in which communication takes place is a standard part of the type of discourse analysis
recommended by Coulthard (1977), Levinson (1983), McCarthy (1991), Sinclair and Coulthard (1975) and Stubbs (1983) in the
British tradition, where the University of Birmingham has taken the lead in the analysis of classroom discourse in English.
Similarly, French authors such as Charaudeau (1983), Kerbrat-Orecchioni (1980, 1986), Maingueneau (1984, 1987), Moirand
(1990), Peytard & Moirand (1992), Péry-Woodley (1993) and Vion (1992) find it necessary to consider discourse as it operates
in a wider structural context than the strictly linguistic one. Without going into the domain of sociolinguistics (for example,
Goffman, 1981), we can nevertheless situate each linguistic interaction in a structure which encompasses or touches on other
typical features of human experience, all of which may be perceived as being held together in a network of interrelated elements.
As Maingueneau (1984: 206) says:

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The text is part of its historic development, of the discursive space inside which it has arisen, of the institutions in which it
operates, of the isomorphisms which constitute the network in which it is held. (My translation)
Our extension of the analysis to include the first two elements mentioned earlier: science education in France and in Britain
(Adamson, 1994,1996a, b) showed that, because of some of the basic similarities in the British and French systems of education
in the fields of science and engineering, British students who go to France will probably recognise the 'discursive space' and the
'network of isomorphisms' in which the language they have learnt operates, even though their level of linguistic competence may
prevent them from functioning adequately within them.
On the other hand, the teachers involved in their linguistic preparation in French before they go to France may find the
framework of scientific discourse (whether in French or in English) very foreign. Most language teachers will probably have an
arts background; few have any direct experience of teaching or learning science. This sometimes leads to panic and a lack of
confidence. It can also produce the 'I'm not a scientist, of course' syndrome, in which teachers shrug off their lack of knowledge
of the discourses of science and of the framework within which they operate, and decline any responsibility to take them
seriously.
It was at this point that we identified the first elements of teacher training that might be involved in the preparation of LSP
courses. We are not trainers of teachers of languages for special purposes and we cannot, of course, make the teachers
specialists in the discipline whose language they will be teaching. We could, however, by including in our materials some work
on the wider frameworks within which the specialist discourse operates, help them to be more confident in their approach to the
discourse. This would allow them to take fuller advantage of the skills their students, who are specialists, bring with them to the
classroom. Thus we decided to include with our materials, in the teachers' handbook, some information about how science
education works, how teachers and students in science and engineering departments organise their academic work and how they
interact with one another.
The handbook should also contain, we felt, some suggestions for taking advantage of the students' prior experience, and for
using this to help them to adapt quickly and successfully to the French environment. Tutors who show that they are aware of the
students' background as skilled learners of science will be able to develop the students' confidence in their own abilities. They
will be able to show them that their prior experience of

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learning in the sciences is not irrelevant and that they are not coming totally unequipped into this new world of LSP. All this
will enhance the learning experience. What is equally important is that if tutors have understood the networks in which the
language they are teaching operates, they will not feel so alienated by their lack of experience of the scientific world. Where
teachers of LSP feel a lack of confidence as a result of their ignorance of the specialist domain of their students, this is bound to
have a detrimental effect on their teaching. This lack of confidence is, as we shall see later, one of the great problems for
teachers of languages for special purposes in higher education.
The responses to the formal piloting of the Nuffield Project's CQFD materials in 1993-94 and 1994-95 made us more sharply
aware than before of the need for the third type of extended discourse analysis (analysis of the teaching and learning situation in
linguistic preparation classes in British universities), and of its implication for LSP teacher training. The responses to the piloting
were of a completely different kind from those we were accustomed to receiving. This change of response has prompted us to go
beyond the production of well-researched, useful, tested teaching materials into the area of teacher training.
Some members of the Nuffield Team had already collaborated in the production of other materials for university students of
French, notably Le français en faculté (Adamson et al., 1980, 1986) and En fin de compte. . . (Adamson et al., 1988). All are
highly experienced teachers of French in British universities, with special expertise in language teaching. Although most of our
teaching has been to classes of students specialising in French at university, some of us have also taught the language to non-
specialist students and to students in continuing education. Our previous books, though, were intended for specialist students and
they have been successfully used by many colleagues in the profession.
Each of the books we have worked on has been extensively piloted, usually over two full academic years, in a number of British
and antipodean universities, before being published. The final versions owe a great deal to the comments and suggestions of our
colleagues. We therefore decided to follow the same pattern with the Nuffield materials and they were piloted in universities in
Britain and Northern Ireland in 1993-95.
The type of response we had received in piloting our earlier materials habitually came from colleagues very like ourselves:
lecturers with long experience and considerable expertise in the teaching of French language to specialist language students in
the arts faculties of various universities which all resembled one another. These colleagues normally responded by

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telling us what did and what did not work, and by suggesting modifications to the materials to make them more effective or
easier to use with students. Le français en faculté was published simply as a students' book, without any special notes for
teachers, and it still seems to work well.
For En fin de compte. . . the situation was somewhat different, since we had moved into communicative methods of teaching
French to specialist students in their final honours year, and we knew that many of our colleagues who would be using the book
would not be familiar with the methodology and would not necessarily share our conviction of its efficacy. We thus produced a
separate teachers' book in which we explained the research which had gone into the production of the book; we suggested ways
in which our colleagues might use the book in their various institutions; we gave some indication of how the students might be
tested. This could not properly be called teacher training, but it prepared us, to some extent, for the situation we found when we
moved to preparing materials for science and engineering students.
For the Nuffield Project, we have had numerous requests to pilot. There is a considerable expansion in the teaching of foreign
languages for this group of students and a great shortage of suitable teaching materials. We nevertheless restricted the numbers
of piloters because of the problems with copyright and the necessity of limiting the administrative load (for which we are not
funded). The responses to the new materials were, at first sight, disappointing. We had prepared detailed questionnaires for
piloters, and had asked them to complete these for each unit or chapter of the 'book'. None of these was completed. The
responses from non-members of the team, when they came at the end of the year, made virtually no suggestions for improving
the detail of the materials. They almost all concerned the problems encountered in the programming of the course, in using the
different units in class, in knowing what was essential and what was not, in finding or creating additional texts/videos or
activities.
This caused us some concern, and at first we felt we had perhaps seriously misjudged the level and type of the materials we had
created. We were confident, however, that the research on which the course was based was sound, and saw no reason to re-think
that part of our work. It was as a result of feedback meetings with piloters, and subsequent Nuffield Team discussions of the
matters raised at those meetings that we began to see that the problems might lie, not in the materials (far from perfect though
they were), but rather with the situation in which they were being used. As old hands in communicative language teaching, we
should have realised that all aspects of the situation had to be taken into account, if we were to

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communicate appropriately with the colleagues who were involved in piloting.
We now realised that, because of our previous experience, we had made some fundamental assumptions about the various
constraints operating in universities where languages are being taught to science and engineering students. We had assumed, for
example, that the people teaching the courses would not only be experts in French language, but that they would have
experience of teaching and examining it in a university situation, that they would be accustomed to using published materials,
and that they would have the usual skills of adapting, shortening, lengthening, embroidering such materials. We did know that
they would probably not be accustomed to the language of science, either in English or in French, and had adapted the materials
accordingly, although even here we had not appreciated the seriousness of the problems this might cause.
The particular features of the language teaching and learning situation in LSP to which piloting drew out attention led us to look
closely at some of the pressures on higher education in Britain as the century closes. As Britain becomes ever more closely
involved with the European Union, at all levels of society, higher education is under increasing pressure to introduce a European
dimension into the education of all students and to produce graduates who can take their place in a European work environment.
Thus, the demand for a foreign language component in degree programmes of all kinds is increasing. With a declining pool of
18-yearolds, universities are increasingly competing with one another for the available students. In order to attract students,
universities feel the need to introduce innovative and attractive courses for which they do not always have the necessary
resources. The addition of foreign languages to degree programmes, particularly those with a vocational element, is seen as one
of the relatively low cost ways of addressing such problems.
The results of the piloting taught us a great deal about the situation in which foreign languages are being taught to science and
engineering students in British universities. It is radically different from the situation in which languages are taught to specialist
linguists or even to non-specialist students in arts faculties. Many more universities now have a language centre, as well as
modern languages departments. There is an understandable unwillingness, or sometimes a refusal, by hard-pressed established
teaching staff in modern languages departments, to extend their activities into teaching foreign languages for special purposes, or
as subsidiary subjects. The task of teaching these courses falls to staff in language centres, usually part-time native speakers,
recruited locally. Thus

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classes in French, German or Spanish for scientists, for business purposes, for tourism, for lawyers or for accountants are being
taught in language centres by native speaker tutors who are not professional language teachers and whose experience, if any, is
likely to have been in continuing education and other non-academic types of teaching.
The profile of these teachers is completely different from that of the staff in traditional modern languages departments. Recent
studies by the University Council for Modern Languages have shown that the typical university lecturer in foreign languages is
an experienced professional lecturer, a relatively highly paid man in a full-time permanent post, a very well qualified specialist
(usually with a PhD) in the foreign language he teaches. He is a native speaker of English, aged 40 (or more probably 50), with
20 years or more of professional experience and a research interest in literature probably of a period earlier than the 20th
century.
Tutors in language centres, on the other hand, recruited because they are available locally, are likely to be female, in their early
30s, part-time and hourly-paid (at low rates), native speakers of the language they teach, with few, if any professional language-
teaching qualifications. Their only experience of education is as a pupil or a student, and therefore the only education system
they know is the one in which they were educated. They often have little or no experience of teaching and no access to
professional networks or appropriate professional training. They are sometimes teaching their native language not because they
want a career in language teaching, but because, obliged to live in a foreign country, their only asset in an increasingly difficult
job market is the fact that they are native speakers of a foreign language. And they usually do a magnificent job.
In preparing language-teaching materials, the assumption is normally made that the user of the materials will be a highly
competent professional, capable of understanding the rationale behind the materials and willing and able to adapt them, add to
them, select from them as the classroom situation requires. In the Nuffield project we had made this assumption. The responses
to the pilot have shown us that this was an error. A cry for help came from people without the necessary professional experience
to make their own decisions about using the materials, from people who had not been trained for the job they were being asked
to do. Professional language-teaching colleagues are excessively hard pressed, and are constantly being told that money is
scarce. Faced with the growing threat of increasingly invasive assessment procedures and of competition with other institutions,
they are nevertheless required to innovate, to develop new courses and to take increasing numbers of students. The decision to
recruit

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relatively inexpensive staff for the new LSP courses is therefore understandable, if sometimes not pedagogically desirable.
These are political problems. Our problem, as writers of course materials, is that we have discovered that, because of the typical
tutor hired in by universities to teach languages for special purposes, our books will have to contain a substantial element of
'teacher training'. We have added, for example, very precise information about how the course should be timetabled. This
involves preparing plans for use in institutions where the number of hours for teaching the course is fewer than what we have
considered as the necessary four hours. This would not be necessary for experienced teachers who would be able to select the
aspects of the course which must be dealt with in class and to identify those which could be done by students working at home
or in a language resources centre.
Tutors teaching languages for scientists and other types of LSP often do not have sufficient classroom experience or training to
allow them to read the textbook in the way experienced teachers do, imagining the classroom implications of what is presented
in the book. This ability to situate the discourse of the textbook in the wider context of classroom implementation, to manage
classes creatively, to envisage all the practical details of what may happen during a class, comes only with training and
experience. New language-teaching materials, based largely on communicative methodology, require skills in organising pair
and group work, role-plays, differentiated learning and other teaching techniques which were almost certainly not used in
classrooms when today's tutors were pupils or students, and considerable professional skill is needed to plan and organise such
activities. Unless precise instructions are given in how to manage these activities in the classroom, tutors will feel threatened
and insecure and the students' learning will suffer.
We have had to include answers to the exercises. This, in the current climate of self-access learning, is now a relatively common
practice in textbooks in order to allow students to correct their own work if appropriate. In our case, some of the tutors have had
difficulties in understanding the purpose of the task, and have not been sufficiently confident in their own professional skills to
feel they can rely on their own answers. We have had to include more exercises than we (or our publishers) originally thought
were necessary, since the tutors do not have the skills required to supplement the exercises given with similar materials, or to
adapt exercises to the particular needs of their classes.
It is only as a result of feedback from tutors that we have become aware of the extent to which textbooks normally rely on
teacher expertise for their

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adaptation to the classroom situation. There is in most published teaching materials an implicit assumption that those using the
books will be able to apply the necessary techniques of classroom management and organisation. It seems that in materials
produced for language teaching in higher and further education, because of the particular features of the teaching situation
outlined here, very detailed descriptions of classroom techniques will have to be included. The need to train native speaker
tutors for further and higher education is beginning to be recognised and some universities, for example the Open University,
are responding to the need for this type of training by introducing special courses. Demand for courses of this kind seems certain
to rise.
The other main area in which absence of prior training has caused problems is in assessment and evaluation. Without any idea of
current theories of assessment, or of the various ways in which it is possible to measure language acquisition and diagnose
difficulties, many native speaker tutors are at a loss. Some find the marking of quite simple exercises difficult and the setting
and marking of task-based examinations (both written and oral), for example, can be a major hurdle. In the absence of any
training, most tutors will naturally assume that the only type of assessment possible is the type they experienced when they were
studentsalthough for most new courses in languages it is not appropriate. Our Nuffield books will contain detailed suggestions
for formative and diagnostic assessment at the various stages of the course, and ideas for the summative evaluation at the end of
the course.
As tutors become aware of the importance of training and begin to see how damaging the lack of it can be, they are in danger of
completely losing confidence in themselves and this is an even worse handicap than not being trained. Including many more
elements of what might loosely be called teacher training in new materials may be one way of bridging the gap and allowing the
new type of foreign-language tutor to make maximum use of her skills.
We have come a long way from the discourse analysis which was to be used simply as a tool to describe typical linguistic
structures for inclusion in our course books. The analysis of the network, or framework of educational structures in which the
language for special purposes operates has shown that teachers of language for special purposes, and therefore those who write
materials which they will use, need to be aware of this wider dimension so that the tutors' insecurities and lack of confidence
can be overcome, and full use made of the tutors' native-speaker language skills. It will give tutors the confidence they lack
when faced with teaching

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their native language in domains where they do not feel at home. It will help both tutors and students to understand the context
in which the language is to be used and will ensure that the language-learning process gives full value to the prior experience of
the learners.
The Nuffield experience has forced us, as creators of teaching materials, to focus our attention on the wider situation in which
our material will be used. This in turn has given us a new understanding of the term 'special purposes'. We have had to analyse
the situation in which the students will find themselves when they are studying abroad and using the language for a clearly
defined special purpose. We have had to consider in some detail the kind of colleague who will be asked to use the materials
and the pressures operating in the institutions where they work. This has meant looking at 'special purposes' from the perspective
of a particular type of language tutor, in order to help them to take a positive attitude to a new, and sometimes threatening
linguistic and social domain, and to help them to perform as professionals in an area for which they are often ill-prepared.
We have had to confront the evidence of enormous changes in our profession and accept unwelcome political realities. The task
of preparing materials for language teaching has altered, and it is becoming increasingly apparent that teaching materials for
LSP must include some elements of training for the teachers who will use them. There is a paradox here. Since we are not
teacher trainers, we are, in the absence of appropriate training and experience, in a position uncomfortably similar to the one in
which, as we have seen, native speaker language tutors in higher education in Britain today find themselves. The next step
would appear to be training for the trainers.
References
Adamson, R. (1994) Scientific discourse: The example of French travaux dirigés. In G. Parker and C. Reuben (eds) (1994)
Languages and the International Scientist (pp. 91-114). London: CILT/ AFLS.
Adamson, R. (1996a) Science French: The language and structure of cours magistraux. Languages for Engineering and
Science: LSP Theory and Practice. Limerick: University of Limerick.
(1996b) The discourses of science: Discourse analysis and the teaching of French. Les Cahiers de l'AFLS.
Adamson, R., Coutin, M-T., Coleman, J.A., Hare, G.E., Lang, M., Lodge, A., Mason, I., Taylor, S., Wakey, R. and Walker,
A.L. (1980, 1986) Le français en faculté. London: Hodder and Stoughton.
Adamson, R., Bartlett, P., Devereux, J., Gallien, C., Lang, M. and Taylor, S. (1988) En fin de compte. . . London: Hodder and
Stoughton.
Charaudeau, P. (1983) Langage et discours. Paris: Hachette.
Coulthard, M. (1977) An Introduction to Discourse Analysis. London: Longman.

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Goffman, E. (1981) Forms of Talk. Oxford: Blackwell. (French edition (1987) Façons de parler. Paris: Minuit.)
Kerbrat-Orecchioni, C. (1980) L'Énonciation. De la subjectivité dans le langage. Paris: A. Colin.
(1986) L'Implicite. Paris: A. Colin.
Levinson, S. C. (1983) Pragmatics. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
McCarthy, Michael (1991) Discourse Analysis for Language Teachers. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Maingueneau, D. (1984) Genèses du discours. Bruxelles: P. Mardaga.
(1987) Nouvelles tendances en analyse du discours. Paris: Hachette.
Moirand, S. (1990) Décrire des discours produits dans des situations professionnelles. Publics spécifiques et communication
spécialisée. Le français dans le monde, Numéro spécial, août-septembre, 52-62.
Péry-Woodley, M.-P. (1993) Les Écrits dans l'apprentissage. Clés pour analyser les productions des apprenants. Paris:
Hachette.
Peytard, J. and Moirand, S. (1992) Discours et enseignement du français. Paris: Hachette.
Sinclair, J. and Coulthard, R. M. (1975) Towards an Analysis of Discourse. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Stubbs, M. (1983) Discourse Analysis: The Sociolinguistic Analysis of Natural Language. Oxford: Basil Blackwell.
Vion, R. (1992) La Communication Verbale. Paris: Hachette.

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Chapter 12
The ESP Coursebook: Effects on an In-service Training Programme in Slovakia
Serena Yeo
Background to the project
The British Council ESP project in Slovakia began in 1991 in what was then Czechoslovakia, with a strong emphasis given to
EST. Five lecturers were based at the technical universities in Prague, Brno and Pilsen, Bratislava and Kosice *. When Slovakia
became independent from the Czech Republic on 1 January 1993, there were two posts in the new Slovakia, based at the
technical universities in the two largest cities, Bratislava in the west and Kosice in the east. While the lecturer in Bratislava was
entering his seventh year in Slovakia and the Slovak Technical University and had been able to consolidate his position, the post
in Kosice had run into a number of difficulties in the past, not least a lack of continuity as each post-holder stayed for only one
academic year. These British lecturers felt themselves under-valued and their strengths under-utilised as their timetables
consisted largely of undergraduate teaching and conversation classes. There seemed to be little interest in devoting time to in-
service training, curriculum development or much needed materials writing projects within the language department of the
Technical University, although the British Council lecturers perceived a need for teacher education in such areas. It was decided,
therefore, to fundamentally alter the basis of the post.1 Thus when I arrived in Slovakia it was to work from the local British
Council Resource Centre, with a much broader remit than the post had had formerly. I was still to work with the Technical
University, but I would also be able to work with the other four non-technical universities in the city, with universities in the
rest of Slovakia on an occasional consultancy basis and with secondary schools teaching ESP if I so desired. This left me with
much more freedom than had previously been available, allowed me to

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concentrate on teacher education rather than on under- or post-graduate teaching and to do outreach work in the region and
beyond.
Considerations in the Slovak Situation

This chapter will concentrate on the ESP coursebook and in-service training at the tertiary level because this was the main
emphasis in the first year of the newly defined project. It is also in this area that the ESP coursebook takes on a great
significance regarding in-service work, as different universities or faculties within one university have a policy of either (1)
using their own in-house published materials or (2) adopting western textbooks. The needs of the two groups of teachers diverge
according to this decision.
However, there are many other background factors which have to be considered when designing the in-service training
programme in Slovakia, and seven of these will now be mentioned briefly.
(1) The organisation of the language-teaching staffsome universities have a language department responsible for a number of
faculties, while others have a language-teaching section attached to each faculty. In Kosice *, the Technical University has the
former organisation and the other universities the latter. The needs of teachers vary because of this organisational pattern, i.e. a
teacher who teaches in two, three or even more faculties of differing specialisations in one semester (and may teach in totally
different faculties in the following semester) will have a different approach to, and background knowledge of, the content area
of the ESP taught from someone who is continuously based in one faculty and who therefore has the opportunity to get to know
the students' needs and to learn at least some basic principles from the content area. This swapping of subjects may also have a
negative effect on teacher confidencean area I will return to later.
(2) The need for ESP to be very specificthe view is generally held by members of the language departments and by the Deans
and Rectors of the universities. Thus the six faculties at the Technical University must each have their own coursebooks. A
general technical coursebook is not seen as suitable. Consequently, different coursebooks are used in each faculty and decisions
have to be made regarding whether to adopt a western published book, or to design materials to be published by the university.
(3) The historical situationuntil recently there was little or no choice for the language teacher, especially the teacher of ESP.
Books used had to be those available, and these were Slovak produced, usually in-house.

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Additionally, universities did not cooperate with each other and so teachers had no idea of what was being taught in other
faculties.
(4) Confidence levelsmany teachers feel unprepared for ESP. As is usually the case, they are almost always arts graduates,
predominantly from languages, who are not naturally comfortable with the scientific, technical, business etc. content of the ESP
coursebook. To compound this feeling of insecurity, many teachers have not yet had the opportunity to visit an English-
speaking country because this was impossible while they were younger and now family and financial constraints apply. Yet
students from Slovakia are travelling (so much that English for Strawberry Pickers might be a viable course in the future),
working abroad during the summer vacation or for longer periods prior to entering the university. There has also generally been
a great improvement in the standard of teaching of English in the secondary schools and therefore the students' English on entry
to the universities is of a noticeably higher level each academic year. This leads to the situation where on many five-year
courses the students in the first year have the best language skills and teachers must increasingly cope with language standards
approaching their own. All these factors added together mean that many teachers are lacking in confidence.
(5) Economic constraintssalaries for university teachers are extremely low (secondary teachers earn about 20% more and even
this is a pittance) so that many able and enthusiastic teachers have left for better paid jobs in the private sector. This means there
is a large shortage of English teachers in the Slovak education system as a whole. However, those who remain are often very
dedicated to their professionI often hear the phrase 'English is my hobby'. Many of those who remain act as translators,
interpreters, tour guides or give private classes in order to make ends meet, and this being a largely female preserve run the
family as well. This means that it is difficult to organise teacher education sessions outside normal teaching hours, and that
energy levels may be low.
(6) The coursebookis a major influence in the classroom especially as teachers are largely, and understandably, unwilling to
spend time preparing other materials. More often than not the coursebook also becomes the syllabus and teachers work through
from the start to as far as they can get within the time allowed. Assessment is organised by individual teachers, even where there
is a credit system in place, so teachers have the freedom to test what they have actually taught and in whichever way they wish.
As is not uncommon on ESP courses, the

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time allocated is very short. Many courses consist of one lesson of one and a half hours per week for two years or four
semestersa total of less than 80 hours.
(7) Other in-service coursesthe Ministry of Education does not organise any such courses for teachers, indeed there is very much
the opinion that it is unnecessary to do further training after graduating from a teacher-training course. USIS 2 organises in-
service courses for general English at the secondary level plus an intensive two-week course once a year for a mixture of
tertiary and secondary level teachers, and British Council lecturers provide a number of in-service training courses at primary,
secondary and tertiary levels, but this is all that is available for teachers of English at the moment.
The ESP Textbook

As has already been mentioned, there are two main options available to the faculties regarding textbooksto produce one or buy
from the west (materials banks are not yet an option although this is one area for possible development in the future). The
locally produced books are commonly known as skripta (singular form skriptum). These are written by members of a department
for use only within the department, and are published by the university print shop and sold to students. As the Slovak idea of
intellectual copyright differs substantially from what is acceptable in Britain for example, many of these contained a mixture of
materials from other publications (acknowledged or not), and often contained a substantial amount of Slovak. They were usually
produced in incredibly tight time framesa matter of weeks being not uncommon, and were additional to the normal work load.
On top of this, teachers had almost no training in materials development, no access to computers to improve the standard of
presentation, and were conscripts to the task, rather than volunteers.
It should be remembered that the authors of these books are usually still members of the department and so the books cannot be
too harshly criticisedindeed it would be unfair to be too hard on teachers who were only doing their best in extremely difficult
situations. Tact is necessary when discussing them, and methods of optimising learning and adapting exercises discussed. Also
an important consideration is that funding for the departments is still based partly on a points system where credit is given for
each publication. Thus so many points are given per paper published, skriptum produced etc. To encourage a department to
adopt a western book as opposed to publishing its own book may well punish it financially, affecting staffing levels, money
available for buying books and equipment

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Table 1 Advantages and disadvantages of in-house versus western published
materials
In-house materials + Western published materials -
• Based on content area syllabus • Based on? Are they appropriate
here?
• Subject specific • General, to appeal to a wider
market
• Realistic to Slovakia/Central Europe • Realistic to?
• Deal with linguistic problems of • Deal with general/Western
Slovak students, appropriate level European linguistic problems
• Fit length of lessons and number of • Often longer courses than in
classes Slovakia
• May be more suited to past learning
experiences
• Necessary methodology accessible to • External methodology,
teachers and students 'communicative bias'
• Relatively inexpensive • Very expensive, especially
complete sets
• Written by Slovak teachers
• Contain Slovak instructions,
explanations, etc.
• Contain word lists with Slovak
equivalents
• Better than nothing, better than having
class sets only
In-house materials - Western published materials +
• Reading comprehension based only
• Integrated skills or specified
skill(s) focus
• Lack of variety of exercises •Variety of exercises
• Little integration of skills
• Greater integration of skills, even
on single skill focused books
• Texts often out-dated in content, • Can be up-to-date regarding
chosen by content
language teachers
• Lack of variety of register/text type
• Variety of text, although length
often uniform
• Good reproduction
• Poor quality reproduction, black and
white, few graphics, many errors
• Researched over a period of time
• No training given to teachers, little
time allowed for writing
• Lack of theoretical background, e.g. • Based on theoretical background
language acquisition, in writers
• Unimaginative and uninspiring • Written by 'experts'
• Supporting materials
• No teacher's book, answer key,
audio/video support, workbook
• Not based on students' needs or
subject course
• Represent what students should know
on finishing subject year 5
• No trialling • Sometimes trialling
• No 'quality control' • Controlled by publisher, editor
• May be recycling, graded units
• Often written on a unit by unit basis,
no recycling, no continuity
• Contents based on texts found =
syllabus
• Students dislike them • Students prefer them

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etc. Table 1 highlights some of the arguments that can be put forward in defence or support of locally produced or western
published books.
ESP Training
When planning the in-service programme it is essential also to look at what input teachers have had on their pre-service courses.
Most teachers have attended a five-year teacher training course at the philosophy or pedagogy faculties at one of four
universities in the country. These courses, although designed to produce teachers of languages, have a heavy bias towards less
practical aspects of the language. Apart from language classes, subjects such as didactics, stylistics, translation, and history of
the English language predominate. Only in years three and four is methodology taught, and that for a 45-minute lecture followed
by a 45-minute seminar. This means that methodology makes up a very small component of the teacher-training course and
cannot cover all the necessary aspects of teaching. ESP is offered as an additional and optional subject at only one or two
faculties for one semester. While this is better than nothing, it does little to improve the confidence levels of the trainee teacher,
many of whom will get their first teaching jobs in one of the vocational schools where ESP is taught. Additionally a small
number of tertiary level teachers will have trained as Russian teachers formerly and then undergone retraining as English
teachers (a process which is still continuing as the demand for Russian teachers continues to fall).
The In-service Programme

In order to develop the in-service programme it was necessary to keep these details in mind and then find out the needs, wants
and lacks of the teachers. This was done initially through a mixture of questionnaires, interviews, informal and formal
discussions and observations. However, it takes very much the form of a process syllabus and is consumer led. All work done
has been negotiated in advance and has either been suggested directly by the participants or agreed upon after I have proposed a
topic/area that I think might be of interest. Although I do put out two semesterly programmes for different groups of lecturers,
these are always open for revision and, at least in the case of the technical university programme, do undergo often quite
considerable revision throughout the semester as needs and priorities change. It was in the early stages of acquainting myself
with the situation that it became clear that the choice of textbook type could be an important influence on the direction and
organisation of the work of the in-service trainer. Different strategies would

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be necessary to help the teacher deal effectively with the two types of book used to maximise learning, and so priorities would
be different.
The traditional Slovak teacher
It is necessary to look for a moment at how the language teacher in Slovakia has traditionally taught. It must be stressed at this
point that teachers and teaching methodology are developing and, if you like, catching up with more modern methods of
language instruction, but some of the practices outlined here are still common in many classrooms. This is despite the increasing
use of western textbooks based on a different view of language teaching and learning in the basic and secondary schools.
Traditional Slovak methodology consists of:
• grammar-based lessons, many exercises and rules explained
• little or no free practice of language
• translation
• word lists with Slovak equivalents, often out of context
• reading comprehension text as core of unit
• comprehension based on questions
• no listening, speaking, little extended writing
• teacher as authority figure
• lock-step work
• bottom-up emphasis
• memorisation, often of content as well as language.
These approaches fit closely with the methodological principles underlying the exercises in most skripta. This is hardly a
surprising find when it is remembered that the people who write these courses have been trained in this way and often rely on
experience more than anything else to help them in the task of writing the book (of course this is true to a certain extent of some
western writers too). While users of both types of book may need help with all of the following, the priorities will be different. It
can also be noted that many of the highlighted areas are not specific to ESP at all, and denote perhaps a lack of grounding in
modern teaching methodology rather than a lack of ESP methodology. However, these will all be covered with the ESP situation
in mind and using examples from this.
In-service training content
So what is it exactly that the teachers need, want or lack? Many areas are the same for many teachers regardless of the
differences in teaching situation, but because my training time is limited I must concentrate on the

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most important or immediate areas for each group. This will vary from department to department, and also to a lesser extent
regionally if we consider that the east of the country has largely missed out on foreign training in Slovakia or abroad in the past,
with opportunities very much going to cities such as Prague and Bratislava.
For skripta users the following areas seem to be of most importance:
• communicative methodology, learning through using language
• adapting exercises to make them more interesting, varied
• adding exercises/tasks such as warm-ups, pre-reading tasks etc.
• second language acquisition theory, e.g. vocabulary
• importance of integrated skills
• learner training/independence
• learner styles
• top-down approaches, discourse patterns
• importance of skills rather than learning the content of each unit
• EAP skills, e.g. giving presentations, abstract and article writing
• pair/group work
• role of vocabulary and grammar.
For skripta writers all these would be important, but there needs to be an emphasis on:
• writing exercises or tasks
• choosing textsrelevance, difficulty, interest, possibility for writing good exercises
• trialling units teaching skills
• top-down approaches, discourse
• the learner as an active participant in the class
• needs analysis.
For teachers using western books I concentrate more on aspects such as:
• putting into the context of the Slovak/Central European situation
• pair/group work
• the learner-centred classroom
• rationale of exercise types
• audio/video techniques
• tasks.
The exact input will also vary considerably according to the individual coursebook used.

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Means of accomplishing this input
The in-service teacher education programme takes a variety of forms within the country as a whole, some of which are run with
my project colleague and others which are not.
(1) Seminar programme for all faculties
(2) Seminar programme for individual faculties
(3) Discussion groups on common problems
(4) Informal discussion with individuals/small groups
(5) Guest seminarshalf/whole day, and consultations
(6) Summer course in Slovakiaintensive/residential
(7) International ESP conference
(8) Networking + IATEFL ESP SIGNET
(9) Participation in conferences abroad
(10) ESP spectruma quarterly newsletter/journal
(11) Courses held in UK for (a) potential teacher trainers; and
(b) teachers to receive input on an ESP/ specialised course.
A main aim of all this is to increase the profile of ESP teaching and to improve the confidence levels of many of the teachers
who find themselves teaching ESP. As in any situation, the management of change must be done in a careful way with the
emphasis on Slovak ownership of the final product. For this reason the title of Advisor is particularly apt, as the situation very
much calls for advice to be given, but the final decision to be made by the respective faculty or department. For this reason,
while my opinion is that departments should not be writing their own materials unless the conditions for doing this improve (e.g.
training in writing materials, access to computers/training, reduced teaching load, time to plan, write and trial all materials), I
continue to support departments who have decided to write a new skriptum in order to make it as good as possible within the
constraints imposed upon the author(s). It is a moot point whether this is the right policy or whether the truth about the quality
of many of the books should be told more bluntly, but on balance I feel there is no reason why these Slovak produced books
shouldn't be better than imported books given the right circumstances. At least this is the direction in which we are moving now,
and teachers are becoming more aware of the past shortcomings of these skripta. There is also the appearance of one or two
skripta of a much higher quality than previously, which reflects the growing awareness of teachers of what is necessary to write
good materials.

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Conclusions
There are obviously a large number of factors to be considered when implementing the in-service training programme,
especially when, as in Slovakia, this is done without the active support of the Ministry of Education and is participated in
completely on a voluntary basis. It is vitally important in this situation to provide what is wanted, because too much imposition
of input may lead to empty sessions. As far as the ESP coursebook is concerned, the choice of textbook type does make a
difference to the content and relative importance of aspects of the content of the training programme. While in-service and
western published books each have both their advantages and disadvantages, on a programme such as this where the time
available is very short, the choice of one over the other may have a substantial impact on both the content and ordering of the
programme.
Notes
1. This decision was taken in a meeting between Rosemary Hilhorst, Director British Council Slovakia and Barrie Robinson,
ESP lecturer at the Slovak Technical University, Bratislava.
2. United States Information Service.

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Chapter 13
Professional Participation: A Technique for LSP Teacher Education
Joan Maclean
Conventionally, teacher education courses consist of lectures or seminars on theory, together with small tasks or larger projects
to give practice in the application of that theory. Experience of working on short LSP teacher education courses, however, has
led me to argue that for such courses at least this approach has serious deficiencies. When invited recently to carry out a
workshop for medical English teachers in Cuba I therefore decided to risk taking a different approach: I taught a two-week
English course for medical researchers, with the teachers teaching along with me and observing. The positive response to this
workshop was far beyond my expectations, and after the event I am still exploring the possible reasons for its success. This
paper is an account of my thinking before, during and after this LSP teacher education workshop.
Background: Dissatisfaction
Our experience of LSP teacher education courses at the Institute for Applied Language Studies in Edinburgh is of full-time in-
service ESP courses, lasting from two weeks to two months. Participants are experienced language teachers, but the majority
have little or no experience of ESP. With a few exceptions, even those who could claim to have been teaching ESP by virtue of
years of appointment in ESP units usually turn out to have been teaching, in the main, general English.
Participants recommend our courses to their colleagues and post-course evaluations are on the whole positive, so it could be said
that the courses are reasonably successful. However, we have a persistent and chronic problem: participants complain that the
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This problem appears not to be confined to courses at our institution, as teachers who have attended ESP courses at other centres
have made similar comments along the lines of: 'It was a good course, and I enjoyed it. The tutors were kind and helpful. But it
was of little practical value for me. It was too general. It has not helped me at all in my own teaching situation.'
Interestingly, although this is by far the most frequent complaint in end-of-course questionnaires, pre-course questionnaires
often indicate that participants hope to learn something about the theory or principles of ESP. Yet at the end of the course they
rarely complain that theory and principles were unclear or inadequately dealt with, though they might well have done so. It is
also worth noting that on one course, which includes two sessions of class observation, the highest ratings are regularly for the
class observation, even from those who asked beforehand for theory.
Conversely, course tutors complain that participants want 'tips for teachers', or their courses designed for them, or their materials
written for them, rather than a principled basis that will enable them to do these things for themselves.
What then goes wrong during these courses in relation to theory and practice? I argue here that the source of the problem is that
the model on which teacher education courses are usually based is not appropriate for courses for teachers moving from general
language teaching to teaching LSP.
Problems with the Conventional Approach

Most teacher education courses are based on a model of professional practice deriving from 19th century views of knowledge as
the rational application of science. (The model has been called by Schön (1983) the model of technical rationality and by
Wallace (1991) the model of applied science.) In this model, professional practice is viewed as instrumental problem-solving,
that is, professionals are considered to select means that will achieve clearly pre-defined ends. Professionals are experts in that
their selection of means is made on the basis of applying what Wallace calls 'received knowledge', i.e. an accepted body of
theories, principles and facts which they have previously mastered.
In the related model of professional education one first learns the theory, then one applies it in practice. This is the model
prevalent in most university professional education, e.g. for medicine, law, engineering, and teaching. It is the model of applied
linguistics. Master's degree courses in applied linguistics concentrate on theory; but with the assumption that teachers will find
the theory useful when, somehow, implemented in practice. Teacher-

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training courses, on the other hand, differ from master's degree courses in that their direct, rather than indirect, objective is to
develop professional skills. Their underlying model is still theory into practice, but responsibility is taken by the course
providers for encouraging the transfer of theory into practice. Typically, theoretical input is followed by teaching practice (or
simulated teaching practice, as in peer teaching). Transfer is also encouraged by integrating theory and practice as much as
possible. For example, on in-service courses theoretical principles are not always presented in lectures, but are drawn from
existing professional knowledge through a process of reflection, analysis and discussion. For pre-experience teachers, problem-
solving techniques encourage discovery learning, and experiential input is provided for follow-up reflection and discussion, with
general statements of principle or theory as outcome. But the basic model is still the theory-into-practice model.
The technical rationalist or applied science model has been criticised, notably by Schön (1983), for not representing the realities
of professional practice. In professional practice objectives are not always clearly defined, and indeed Schön argues
convincingly that an important function of the professional is first to define the problem. It is also questionable whether
professional judgement is, for the most part, conscious application of principle, even if only because there is rarely the
opportunity for one-to-one matching of situational components and theoretical principles. But quite apart from these substantial
objections, the conventional theory-into-practice model has particular drawbacks with reference to LSP teacher education
courses.
Since the model requires that theory be taught, the question arises: what theory should be taught to experienced general language
teachers transferring to teaching LSP? Is there a theory of LSP teaching that is distinct from the theories that inform general
language teaching? The basic principles of language teaching, at their most general and most powerful, are likely to be true for
all language teaching, including teaching LSP. The same could be said, indeed, of the basic principles of education, that in their
most general expression they are relevant for the teaching of history, mathematics, literature or medicine. However, while it may
be useful for teachers to be reminded of general educational concepts, that is not the objective of language teachers attending
LSP teacher education courses. They are looking for something specific to their proposed new area of expertise. LSP is
distinctive not in its theory, but in the effects of the application of general theories (such as language variation) and general
principles (such as learner-centredness and relevance) in certain specific contexts.

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Content on conventional LSP teacher education courses, then, is bound to be unsatisfactory, as there is no LSP theory to fill the
theory part of the theory-into-practice model. Procedures such as needs analysis, course design, exploiting authentic texts, etc.,
though not unique to LSP teaching, are more often carried out by the LSP teacher than the general language teacher, and so can
usefully be described. Special language can be analysed, if participants are from the same field of LSP. Some general theory
may be added to the mix, for example an overview of current theories of the reading process. Probably to compensate for the
lack of LSP theory, coverage tends to be extensive even on short courses: three-week LSP courses at our institution typically
include needs analysis, course design, genre analysis, materials writing, developing skills, and testingfar more than is undertaken
on our three-week courses for general language teachers, which have a narrower focus. Treatment of so many areas in such a
short time must be superficial, and it is hard to see what new understanding participants can achieve.
Using the theory-into-practice model brings problems not only for content but also for methodology, as techniques normally
used for encouraging transfer are simply not available in LSP courses. It is not usually possible to offer teaching practice on
short courses of any kind, but on short general-language-teaching courses a commonly used alternative to teaching practice is
peer teaching. For many LSP contextsany where the students have subject knowledgepeer teaching is not appropriate. The
possession of subject knowledge alters the response to texts, the communication in the classroom, and the respective roles of
student and teacher. If participants teach each other, the simulated lesson will not be like the real lesson would be. Experiential
input for follow-up discussion and analysis is inappropriate for the same reasons. Reflection techniques cannot be used with
general language teachers because they have no LSP experience to draw on, probably not even as learners. Drawing on general
language teaching experience can actually be counter-productive, reasserting rather than breaking down inappropriate
preconceptions about the criteria for selection and sequencing of language content ('How can the students possibly give
presentations when they don't even know the past perfect tense?') and also about the role of the teacher. In LSP the relationship
between teacher and student is usually more adult-adult than the parent-child relationship still more common in general language
teaching. Inculcating acceptance of this different role, with all its implications, is a key component of LSP teacher education.
A more promising method than reflection is the case study, where presentation of principles of, for example, course design is
followed by

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simulated application. If done properly this can be a useful learning experience, but it is very time consuming for an unreal
exercise (Swales & L'Estrange, 1983). Unless the case study closely mirrors the participants' own teaching situation they tend to
be reluctant to expend much effort on it, so that an awkward compromise is reached whereby the exercise is still too long in the
context of a short course but not long enough to mean much.
The best and most common solution to the theory-into-practice problem in LSP courses is the project in which participants are
asked to prepare a course, or a set of materials, or a lesson plan for their own teaching situation. This task has reality, and can be
small or large-scale according to the time available. However, the value of the task is limited as only the participants know their
own learners and teaching situations. The course tutors can check, up to a point, that theory appears to be understood or
procedures efficiently carried out, but cannot check that the implementation is appropriate. Here the participants are on their
own.
Ron Mackay (1983) tells a tale which is relevant here. I give a shortened version:
One sunny winter's day, long before spring had arrived, a rabbit met a little sleepy-looking dormouse running about
disconsolately among the snow banks. 'What are you doing awake?' said the rabbit. 'Aren't you supposed to be asleep
during the winter?'
'Oh dear me', said the little dormouse. 'Of course I should be asleep, but a nasty squirrel keeps coming into my nest
hoping to find some nuts to eat, and he keeps waking me up. What should I do, Mr Rabbit? What should I do?'
'I have an idea,' said the rabbit. 'Let's speak to a very wise friend of mine, Mr Owl. He'll know what to do to let you get
back to sleep till spring comes. Come with me.' And the two little animals went tripping through the forest till they came
to the foot of a very high tree.
'Mr Owl,' called the rabbit, addressing two very bright eyes which could just be seen in the darkness of the topmost
branches. 'Mr Owl, I have a friend who needs your advice right away!'
So the owl flew down, sat on a tree stump beside the rabbit, and listened to the dormouse explain the problem he was
having with the squirrel who kept disturbing his winter sleep.
When the dormouse had finished, the owl blinked one eye and then the other and said, 'I think I can help you. What you
must do is find a way of preventing the squirrel from entering your nest and waking you up from your hibernation.'
'Yes! Yes!' squeaked the dormouse, dancing delightedly from one

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hind leg to the other. 'Yes! You are quite right. And exactly how, Mr Owl, do you suggest I stop the squirrel?'
'Ah,' said the owl blinking both eyes at once. 'Aha! I am a consultant. I give you the basic principle to follow to solve
your problem. How you put the principle into practice is your concern.' And with that the owl disappeared back up into
the shade of the very tall tree and closed his eyes. (Abridged from Mackay, 1983)
The transfer from knowing the theories and principles of language teaching to implementing these appropriately as an ESP
teacher is exactly what we need to give help with.
An Alternative Approach: Professional Participation

So many difficulties arise from the theory-into-practice model that for the Cuban workshop I decided on a different approach.
The problem of transfer from general language teaching theory to LSP teaching expertise is reminiscent of the well-known gap
between knowing grammatical facts and using grammar appropriately in communication. In language courses the transfer of
grammar knowledge can be encouraged by a communicative methodology, a learning-by-doing approach, with authentic tasks.
Looking for an equivalent in teacher education, I decided that the teachers should teach an LSP course. The teachers would then
be learning by doing, not by doing tasks as course participants, but by carrying out the authentic professional tasks of teaching,
in a classroom, with learners.
In making this decision I gambled on being able to turn to positive advantage the previous professional experience of the
teachers, which I knew to be richer in general English teaching than ESP. This may seem perverse in view of my earlier
rejection of the value of general language teaching experience as a basis for reflection in theory-to-practice courses. My hope
was that they would respond to the immediate ESP classroom experience rather than cling to preconceptions.
The Cuban Workshop for Teachers of Medical English

Teachers, learners and structure of the workshop
Twelve teachers attended the workshop. One was a scientist with excellent English who had been asked by the head of her unit
to teach her colleagues so that they could attend conferences. The others were teachers employed by the Ministry of Public
Health. Of these, all had experience of teaching general English to medical students, some had experience of using

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one or two medical English textbooks with older medical students, and some also had experience of using a similar mix of
materials with doctors. All had master's degrees in English language teaching and many had attended various in-service
workshops. Three had attended conventional short teacher education courses at IALS. On the whole they were accustomed to
teaching groups for 1½-2 hours a week, and had little experience of selecting what to teach in a course, other than planning at
lesson level.
Twenty-five doctors and medical researchers attended the English for Medical Congresses course that was the core of the
workshop. Their scores on a pre-course dictation test ranged from 92% to 15% evenly spread. Twenty-six actually took the test
but one was encouraged to leave as even her vocabulary knowledge was extremely limited. The others at the low end of the
scale had reasonable reading ability. The doctor who scored 15% had just had a paper accepted for an international congress in
Los Angeles five months after the course.
The workshop consisted of:
2 Preparatory sessions with the teachers 9.30-
days 4.00
10 English for Medical Congresses course and 8.30-
days sessions with the teachers 1.00
2.00-
4.00
1 dayFollow-up session with the teachers 8.30-
1.00
The course within the workshop

The English for Medical Congresses course is a course in fluency and presentation skills, in a medical context. It has been
developed over a period of ten years and versions have been run at different intensities for different nationalities, in mixed and
monolingual classes, and at different language levels. I chose this course for the workshop because (a) it is a well-tried course,
(b) I was confident that it would be appropriate for the learners, since I knew the target needs for medical congresses and knew
that the course was adaptable down to low intermediate level and (c) it concentrates many salient features of ESP teaching.
Being a course in presentation skills, it lies on the intersection of ESP Business and EAP, and exemplifies the ESP approach that
is narrow-angle but develops capacity.
This course ran over two weeks (10 days) with three hours of classes each day plus an optional self-directed (study or tuition)
hour. The course is structured with graded tasks to develop skills. An outline is given in an Appendix to this paper.
On the first day the majority of participants were hesitant and embarrassed

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about speaking English, and were able to give, orally, only halting descriptions of simple graphs. Any complex communication
with the lowest group had to be in Spanish. After a few days no more Spanish was needed, and everyone was talking more
freely. On the last day each participant gave a 10 minute scientific presentation, without reading.
Teaching and observation
All the teachers were actively teaching in 15 out of 28 sessions: that is, they helped the learners in the 8 sessions for individual
work on writing abstracts and preparing papers; in the 7 sessions where learners were cross-grouped in different ways according
to task the teachers were all involved in class management, facilitating group work, anda major component of this coursegiving
feedback on performance; I led one plenary session.
For the remaining 12 sessions, the learners were placed in three groups according to their test scores (8 advanced + 8
intermediate + 9 very low intermediate). The three groups rotated around three teachers: myself and two 'lead' teachers (pre-
selected). The remaining teachers were in fixed observation groups of 3, 3 and 4, and they worked out a complicated rotation
which allowed them to observe all three teachers teaching all three groups. 'Observe' is too passive a term for the reality, as in
many sessions the observers corrected written work or filled in feedback sheets. It became rapidly apparent that all teachers
were eager to take as much responsibility as they could get, so 4 of these 12 sessions, where the learners were giving short
presentations, were in fact chaired in rotation by the 'observing' teachers.
The sessions with the teachers
Each teacher received all the course materials, including audio and video cassettes, together with supplementary related
materials and teaching notes. This was the tangible outcome of the workshop for them.
The sessions with the teachers were firmly focused on the course. In the first two days, I presented the rationale of the course
design and methodology (from the viewpoint of learner needs), and presented some of the materials, partly through explication
and partly through teaching. The teachers also had to make up a checklist, with examples, of pronunciation and grammar
problems for Spanish speakers of English. We used their collection for this course, but, interestingly in view of their teaching
experience, it was weak on medical English examples. They collected during the course better examples for another time.

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The afternoon sessions during the course consisted of some reflection on the morning but not much. There was no need to
stimulate this; it was evident that they were thinking and evaluating all the time. If they had not been, I was prepared to make up
worksheets for them to fill in each day while observing and teaching. I was pleased not to have to focus their attention in this
way, but to let the teachers draw from the complexities of the situation what meant most to them individually. I did encourage
discussion of possible unsatisfactory elements (e.g. would informal talks on Day 5 have been better after the video case
presentation rather than before?) and also of management problems for the next day, like what to say to the weak group at the
start of the course, and how to cope with inadequate AV equipment. But the afternoon workshops were mainly devoted to
preparation of the sessions for the next day: handing out papers, previewing videos, talking through the lesson plans, predicting
likely reactions to the lesson and discussing how to handle them. Again, sometimes I presented these with explication and
sometimes by teaching.
The final session reviewed the medical participants' end-of-course questionnairesa procedure new to most of the
teachersdiscussed the problems in general of running such courses and the few specific problems of this course, and my
proposal that Cuban learners are too teacher-centred. They also constructed timetables for possible future courses in different
durations and intensities.
Evaluation
The English for Medical Congresses course felt successful, with an excellent, vigorous, cooperative, excited atmosphere.
Teachers respond to exhilarated learners, and I am sure the atmosphere positively affected the teachers, carrying them through
their own sessions in the afternoons.
The wide range of language level among the medical participants turned out to be a blessing, albeit in heavy disguise, as the
materials were exemplified at all levels, sometimes with modification, sometimes not.
For me, there were two particularly positive moments, one on the first day and one on the last. After the test on the first day I
set up the opening 'read and report' activity and, leaving 4 teachers in charge, rushed through to another room to see to the tests
and placement. Eight teachers greeted me with large smiles: the tests were already marked, the participants divided into groups,
and the papers arranged in order so that I could check. We all returned to the other room where 25 participants were now in full
voice, moving about the room reporting to each other. The 4 teachers were

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shining with amazement, saying 'Look, it's working! Look, they're all talking, even the weak ones!' For the next 20 minutes they
unobtrusively kept things moving, matching up lost individuals into pairs, but periodically some would exit from the room to
exclaim excitedly to each other about how well it all worked. This vignette represents exactly the nature of the teacher
participation throughout the whole course. They were willing, eager, responsive and active, in classroom organisation and
management as well as helping students.
The second critical moment was during the final session when I asked the teachers if they had not felt frustrated by the lack of
time to deal with the very large numbers of grammatical errors made on the course. They acknowledged the difficulty, but
declared 'it wasn't meant to be that sort of course'. Rigid views on sequencing and selection are common and persistent amongst
teachers more used to general language teaching. These teachers had seen the value of reprioritising in the light of different
objectives and purposesthe essence of LSP teachingand were therefore, I felt, in the position to make real choices for future
courses.
End-of-course questionnaires from the medical participants enumerated as the main good points the authentic nature (relevance
and usefulness) of the activities, the helpfulness of the teachers, and the opportunities to practise speaking. Several medical
participants commented that it would be important to have lots of teachers again on any future courses. The few negative
comments were that the course was too short.
The teachers were also positive in their end-of-workshop questionnaires, the most frequent comment being appreciation of the
opportunity to see the materials actually working. A number commented along the lines 'Now I have seen it, I know what
happens and I want to try it myself.' The few negative comments were that they would have liked more teaching time than could
be allotted in the sharing out.
Many participants, both medical researchers and teachers, assured me that this was the best course they had had in their lives.
This view from the medical participants was understandable since it was their first experience of a speaking-focused, intensive,
Medical English course. The point of view of the teachers interested me more, as it justified my decision to run the workshop in
this way.
The thankyou card the teachers gave me at the end of the workshop was signed 'the sleeping beauties'.

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Analysis and Comment
Ewer (1983: 10) identified five categories of difficulty facing teachers transferring to LSP from what he calls 'aimless, inchoate
and teacher-centred' general language teaching: (1) attitudinal (2) linguistic (3) conceptual (4) methodological and (5)
organisational.
In this workshop, the linguistic and conceptual aspects were dealt with differently from the rest, in that linguistic and conceptual
information was overtly presented to the teachers. When preparing for the next day's lessons we reviewed special language
features, such as medical abbreviations, pronunciation of terms, and typical collocations, as well as genre characteristics of
research papers, abstracts and case reports. Conceptual information about medical congress activities and culture was given in
the sessions before the start of the course.
With regard to organisation and methodology, there was no explicit input other than encouragement to 'think-in-action'the term
used by Schön (1983) to denote professional activity. Thinking-in-action was encouraged by discussing each lesson beforehand,
with statements of intent and prediction, so that teachers could reflect during the lessons on what was happening and how it
matched with prediction. Their understanding of these processes was based on a mixture of their previous professional
experience and their current experience on this course. Attitudinal changes were an outcome of this learning.
Surprises
Most of the teachers were so excited by the success of the fluency activities that it made me wonder about their normal
methodology. Read and report activities had been described in conventional workshops previously attended by some of the
teachers, and indeed had been carried out in peer teaching sessions; but I had the impression that for many this was their first
experience of the hubbub of a class moving around and talking to each other, and of the exhilaration of the risk of unleashing
such an activity and losing traditional control. Given my scepticism of the value of lecturing and peer teaching on conventional
workshops, I should have been less surprised by this.
I was, however, very much surprised that the teachers showed no reluctance to teach in front of each other. Teachers are
accustomed to professional privacy, and I expected them to find this threatening. McIntyre (1988: 104) comments on contrasting
findings in two studies of teaching practice. In one study, student-teachers used defensive-avoidance strate-

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gies, blaming their inadequacies on either the system or unsatisfactory pupils, while in the other study, student-teachers had a
rational approach, with their own repertoires and agendas, and were eager to have as much feedback as possible, even negative,
about their performance. McIntyre suggests that the difference arose because the first group was in an exposed situation but the
second was in a protected and simplified environment. It may be that the Cuban teachers responded so positively because they
were in their own environment, teaching their own students, and because the teaching tasks were so thoroughly discussed before
each lesson that they were communal property.
I had also feared that in a training workshop the teachers might feel loss of face before their learners, especially in an
educational culture which accords considerable authority to its teachers. This did not appear to be the case, perhaps because
updating and training in new techniques is a familiar activity in medicine and is, in fact, a sign of professionalism and expertise,
rather than the opposite. Another possible explanation is the full involvement of all the teachers from the start, and the quality of
their actual teaching.
Finally, I would like to comment on not so much a surprise as an unexpected factor. On the third day of the workshop, which
was the first day of the course, I was acutely aware of what I can only describe as a tension of allegiance in the Cuban teachers.
They felt sympathy, protectiveness and solidarity with the Cuban learners who were struggling with a dictation test from the
foreign teacher, and they related professionally with the teacher who was using a range of strategies to steer the group through a
frighteningly difficult test. This tension of allegiance was never so marked as in that first half hour, but I am convinced that it
ran as an undercurrent throughout the course, with effects that I have not analysed. I speculate that this contributed to the
teachers' acceptance of the new materials and the communicative methodology, in that the materials worked not just with any
learners, but with their own students.
Important factors
In summary, the following are likely to have been important factors for the success of this workshop:
(1) Responsibility and ownership of course. The teachers were empowered as much as possible at every stage by encouraging
shared responsibility and ownership of the course. This was done by sharing teaching, testing, marking, class management,
decisions about problems, questionnaire analysis, etc. It is possible that the sense of ownership may

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have been further enhanced through working in their own environment with their own students.
(2) Situated knowledge. The teaching, observation, interpretation and thinking took place in the classroom, the teachers'
professional environment. They were at ease in the classroom, which facilitated the learning process. Their learning was
founded on a substantial base of familiar knowledge and skills, allowing the 'thinking-in-action' process, or professional learning
by doing, using previously acquired skills while incorporating new skills and adjusting familiar concepts to accommodate new
concepts. They thought as teachers, i.e. their attention was focused on the learners, so that they concentrated on the learners'
needs and reactions instead of their own lack of understanding or display of knowledge. Then they found themselves
successfully editing abstracts, giving feedback on presentations, etc. with an accompanying development of self-image as expert.
(3) Seeing things work. The value of this was emphasised by the teachers in the end-of-course questionnaires. Teachers were
able to see for themselves the effects of the clearly defined purpose and focus of the course on the selection of content, course
shape and sequencing, and on the methodology and the role of the teacher. The teachers' learning process is shown
diagrammatically in Figure 1.
Figure 1
Teachers' learning process (adapted from Korthagen, 1988: 37)

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For breaking down preconceptions and introducing new ideas, demonstration that something works is far more effective than
the 'preaching' in conventional theory-into-practice courses.
(4) Acquiring something tangible. Every teacher went away with the complete set of English for Medical Congress materials,
including copies of the video and audio recordings, and teaching notes. They also made notes during the discussion sessions of
how the materials could be used in different ways on other courses. In the final post-course workshop teachers drafted plans for
using these materials, sometimes adapted, sometimes supplemented, in part-time courses of different lengths and intensities, to
suit their usual teaching situations.
Limitations
This paper began with an account of dissatisfaction with LSP teacher education courses at our institution. Successful as the
Cuban workshop was, it is not clear how reproducible it would be in other situations, because it is not clear at this stage, on the
basis of one experience, how essential the different contributing factors are. For example, on a summer course at IALS in
Edinburgh we could not provide classes of students from the countries of the teacher-participants, and this might prove to be a
crucial element. However, workshops very like this would be possible whenever teacher education courses are held in the
teachers' own environment.
Another limitation might be that workshops of this kind may be less effective when built round a broadly-based LSP course.
The course within this workshop had the very clear objective of enabling learners who could not present papers in English to do
so, and it was therefore easily demonstrated whether materials and methods were working or not. It would be more difficult to
have this instant certain feedback when working with more diffuse objectives such as those typical of ESP courses for first year
undergraduates in a non-English medium university.
This workshop was devised to enable teachers with general language-teaching experience to extend their expertise into LSP. The
approach is less suitable for inexperienced teachers, as they would bring less to the start of the learning cycle (see Figure 1) and
could correspondingly be expected to gain less. On longer teacher education programmes there would be time for a more
synthetic approach based on explicit analyses of the many complex and interacting features of principle and practice; a
workshop of this nature could, however, have a place as a demonstration and practice component within such a programme.
These are all limitations in the sense of limited applicability in different

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teacher education contexts. There is, however, a far more serious drawback for widespread implementation of this approach, and
that is the difficulty of quality control. As in any approach, outcome can be evaluated against behavioural objectives. The
particular difficulty here lies in managing formative quality control, i.e. ensuring throughout the course that procedures are being
adjusted as necessary for optimal learning. This is a problem common to all practice components in teacher education courses,
but it is especially acute when the entire course is centred round practice.
Conclusion
This Cuban workshop derived from an authentic task approach to teacher training. The authentic activities it is based on are at
one level the surface activities of teaching itself and at another level the 'thinking-in-action' processes described by Schön (1983)
as typical of expert professional behaviour.
Of course professional behaviour can also include the conscious application of principle, as assumed in the theory-into-practice
course model of teacher education. However, conscious application of principle tends to be used by experienced professionals as
an analytical tool when things are going wrong, or at particular planning points (such as the course design stage of language
teaching). It does not account for the regular complex thinking behaviour of the experienced professional at work. There are
other ways of thinking than beginning from theory.
The approach taken in this Cuban workshop is not new. It is an example of the 'cognitive apprenticeship', a well-tried mode of
training professionals in many fields, but currently somewhat out of fashion. Criticisms of the apprenticeship, or craft approach,
are well summarised by Wallace (1991: 6-7), who quotes Stones and Morris (1972: 7): 'the master teacher told the students what
to do, showed them what to do and the students imitated the master'. Wallace points out that this model, sometimes called
'sitting with Nellie' is a static model of routine procedures, with prescriptive demonstration, unthinking imitation and no learning
beyond that. Any method can be badly implemented, and this description is of the apprenticeship mode of training at its worst.
Belcher (1994) quotes a more positive view from Brown, Collins and Duguid (1989): 'the mentors (1) 'model' by making their
tacit knowledge explicit and revealing their problem-solving strategies; (2) 'coach' by supporting students' attempts to perform
new tasks and then (3) fade, after having empowered the students to work independently' (Belcher, 1994: 24). This is a dynamic
model of a cognitive apprenticeship in which learners are encouraged to question, evaluate and

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incorporate new insights, while being supported through guided practice to develop professional skills.
Many professional training models today consist of a theoretical component followed by an apprenticeship, but not much is
known about how these components interrelate to develop professional knowledge (Calderhead, 1988). Interestingly, in the field
of medicine, students commonly report that when they start their clinical work in hospitals they have to 'relearn' all they studied
before so that it makes sense in a clinical context; they do not deny the value of book learning, but agree that it relates to a
different kind of knowledge than the knowledge required in a clinical context. Similarly, teachers are thought to have different
types of knowledge. Richards (1994), in a plea for more research in this area, mentions among other types of teacher knowledge
content knowledge, knowledge of learners and their characteristics, curriculum knowledge, craft knowledge, and situated
knowledge. It seems reasonable to expect that these knowledges develop in different ways, and that there must be more than one
appropriate model for teacher education courses.
I have argued in this paper that a reflective 'thinking-in action' approach is peculiarly relevant for general language teachers
transferring to teaching LSP. Compared with general language courses, LSP courses have a more restricted but more defined
purpose, providing a focus which is not so much a limitation as a condition of LSP teaching. This is what makes the essence of
LSP teaching when contrasted with general language teaching, and thisnot application of theoryis what the LSP teacher has to
reflect about in professional practice.
Appendix: English for Medical Congresses: Course Outline

DAY A.Introduction to course. Plenary: timetable, etc. and
1 dictation test for placement in groups
B.Read and report. Plenary: meeting other participants
through an introductory reading and speaking activity
C.Describing figures and tables. Groups: vocabulary
review and basic written practice
DAY A.Difficulties for Spanish speakers. Groups:
2 pronunciation and grammar problems
B.Presenting figures and tables. Groups: each participant
is given a different graph or table to present using the
OHP
C.Follow-up work on difficulties for Spanish speakers.
Individual study and tuition

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DAY A Abstracts. Groups: information structure and language
3 features
B Listen and report. Cross-groups listen to different audio
talks, then give oral summaries to their original group
C Prepare talks and abstracts. Individual study and tuition
DAY A Informal talks (1) Groups: first half of the group give
4 talks about their work and answer questions
B Writing case reports. Groups: guided writing practice,
genre and language focus
C Prepare talks and abstracts. Individual study and tuition
DAY A Informal talks (2). Groups: second half of the group
5 give talks about their work and answer questions
B Case presentation. Groups: video listening
C Prepare abstracts and case presentations. Individual
study and tuition
DAY A Presenting cases. Groups: each participant presents a
6 case for discussion, using OHP
B Presentations: planning and style. Plenary: discussion of
how to present information effectively, with reference to
styles of speaking and preparation of papers and visual
aids.
C Return abstracts, prepare conference program.
Individual study and tuition
DAY A Presentation techniques. Groups: video-recorded paper
7 presentations are used as models for presentation
techniques, with particular focus on language signals.
B Discussion skills. Groups: asking and answering
questions, commenting, agreeing and disagreeing:
useful phrases, and practice
C Review and preparation. Individual study and tuition
DAY A Data presentation practice. Participants work together in
8 threes on adapting tables of data for visual presentation
(video-recorded)
B Preparation of posters. Participants work in pairs on
adapting information in a research article to poster
format
C Poster session. Plenary: practice in asking and
answering questions quickly and concisely
DAY A,Rehearsals, preparation, tutorials
9 B,
C
DAY A Conference: part 1 (two simultaneous sessions)
10
B Conference: part 2 (two simultaneous sessions)
C Conclusion

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References
Belcher, D. (1994) The apprenticeship approach to advanced academic literacy: graduate students and their mentors. English for
Specific Purposes 13(1), 23-34.
Brown, J., Collins, A. and Duguid, P. (1989) Situated cognition and the culture of learning. Educational Researcher 18, 32-42.
Calderhead, J. (1988) The development of knowledge structures in learning to teach. In J. Calderhead (ed.) Teachers'
Professional Learning (pp. 51-64). London: The Falmer Press.
Ewer, J. R. (1983) Teacher training for EST: Problems and methods. The ESP Journal 2(1), 9-31.
Korthagen, F. (1988) The influence of learning orientations on the development of reflective teaching. In J. Calderhead (ed.)
Teachers' Professional Learning (pp. 35-50). London: The Falmer Press.
Mackay, R. (1983) The need for close integration of components in ESP programs. The ESP Journal 2(1), 58-9.
McIntyre, D. (1988) Designing a teacher education curriculum from research and theory on teacher knowledge. In J. Calderhead
(ed.) Teachers' Professional Learning (pp. 97-114). London: The Falmer Press.
Richards, K. (1994) From guessing what teachers think to finding out what teachers know: The need for a research agenda.
TESOL Quarterly 28(2), 401-4.
Schön, D. (1983) The Reflective Practitioner: How Professionals Think in Action. Aldershot: Avebury.
Stones, E. and Morris, S. (1972) Teaching Practice: Problems and Perspectives. London: Methuen.
Swales, J. and l'Estrange, H. (1983) ESP administration and ESP teacher training. The ESP Journal 2(1), 87-99.
Wallace, M. (1991) Training Foreign Language Teachers: A Reflective Approach. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

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Chapter 14
Marina Mozzon-McPherson with Marijke van der Wolf
If you give a man a fish, you feed him for a day.
If you teach a man to fish, you feed him for a lifetime.
(Confucius, 551-479 BC)
Introduction
In recent years, a great shift has taken place in language teaching and learning from language-centredness to learner-centredness.
The 'synthetic' approach, in which the emphasis lay on the need to understand grammar and to memorise verbs before genuine
communication in the target language could take place, has now been more or less replaced by the 'analytic' paradigm of
language course design, which is organised round units that focus on communicative functions, topics and situations from the
very beginning. The learner, and his or her needs, is placed at the centre of the course design rather than the target language
system (Little, 1989). This learner-centredness not only brings to the fore the importance of needs analysis, but also a careful
consideration of any affective barrier to learning, thus shifting the emphasis to learning strategies and learner autonomy.
But autonomy to do what? And why should a learner wish to take on responsibility for his/her learning?
Naiman et al. (1978), in their study of the characteristics of good language learners, found that the most successful language
learning is connected with assuming responsibility for learning. A 'good language learner' (Rubin & Thompson, 1982) is one
that finds his/her way, asks a lot of questions, makes guesses, organises his/her information, uses mnemonics, takes every
chance to use the language. Learners are, above all, individuals with very different learning styles and needs. Some learn more
quickly and easily than others; some are predominantly auditory channel learners,

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others are visual. Some favour logical analytical thinking, others creative lateral thinking. Other factors influencing learning
styles and needs include variations in preferred time and place of study, and ability to concentrate. Learner strategies aim to help
learners acquire the knowledge and skills they need to plan and implement effective language learning, help them discover how
they learn, and apply the most effective method for them. Learner strategies can also help teachers maximise their input and
increase the chance of long-term learning.
In a changing society where mobility of workers creates new and varied job opportunities, more and more people may need to
retrain several times in their working life. According to this reality, life should be seen as a continuing process of education.
Rogers (1969: 120) states that:
Teaching and the imparting of knowledge make sense in an unchanging environment. This is why it has been an
unquestioned function for centuries. But if there is one truth about modern man, it is that he lives in an environment
which is continually changing. . . We are, in my view, faced with an entirely new situation in education where the goal of
education, if we are to survive, is the facilitation of change and learning. The only man who is educated is the man who
has learned how to learn; the man who has learned how to adapt and change; the man who has realised that no knowledge
is secure, that only the process of seeking knowledge gives a basis for security.
In addition, the establishment of the Single European Market and the growth in international trade demand business people who
can deal with customers and suppliers who have a different native language. Consequently, one would expect that institutions
which provide language teaching should be embracing a philosophy which responds to the demands of the new world and hence
shifts the authority (Britten, 1988) away from the trainer and hands it to the learner. After all, teachers cannot learn for students
and in order to increase learner independence, and responsibility for learning, the traditional roles need to change (Stevick,
1981). Moreover, research has demonstrated (Candy, 1988: 75) that adults learn more effectively if consulted.
Pedagogically speaking, it is therefore desirable for the teacher to shift the emphasis towards effective ways of learning rather
than effective ways of inputting content. This means that it is no longer enough to pay attention to the creation of good,
interesting activities or the careful selection of the functional content of the course (how to answer the phone, leave a message,
etc.). The way forward is to look at how learners learn and what strategies

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they apply when they perform tasks, and to train them to actively reflect on the process they went through to perform the tasks.
Unfortunately, the provision of learner training as an empowering device for students (Ellis & Sinclair, 1989), which has already
found its way into mainstream textbooks of English as a Foreign Language, is hardly noticeable in other language courses, let
alone in language courses for specific purposes.
To sum up, language teaching that draws on such humanist, cognitive and sociolinguistic views of learning will encompass the
following:
• emphasis on meaningful communication
• respect for the learner
• tendency to see learning as a form of self-realisation
• learners' high profile in the decision-making process
• re-orientation of the teachers' role to that of facilitator whose task is to create the right conditions for learning to develop
and to maintain a supportive class atmosphere
• stress on collaborative learning
• relevance of learners' needskey role of needs analysis which includes learning styles (Munby, 1978; Hutchinson & Waters,
1987)
• emphasis on learner autonomy as an objective in language programmes (Dickinson, 1987; O'Malley & Chamot, 1990;
Oxford, 1990).
The Rise of a New Profession: The Language Open Learning Adviser

With the proliferation of self-access centres and the shift towards autonomous learning, it has become apparent that there is a
gap in the profession and that it is not possible at present to use teachers as full-time open learning advisers because of lack of
training and experience in that role. It became apparent that an adviser needs to be not only a linguist but also a person with
special knowledge and experience in the area of 'counselling' and the ability to use needs analysis effectively to design and
develop individual study programmes for students. It also became apparent that such skills were essential elements of the 'new
teacher' as a facilitator. One of the authors (Mozzon-McPherson) has taken up this challenge and has been practising as language
open learning adviser at the Language Institute, University of Hull, since 1993.
At an early stage of her appointment, she noticed that the majority of students who were taking languages as part of their degree
did not have any idea of how to use the resources effectively. Students had problems

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with their time management, goal setting and self-assessment. They tended to rely on their teacher to tell them what to do, and
use the self-access as a 'quick-fix' solution to their language problems. In some cases they were reducing themselves to
memorising huge chunks of language texts in order to pass exams. It was also clear that, where the teachers (mainly EFL staff)
were well informed and confident about how to use the resources effectively and were liaising with the adviser, the students
were coming to the centre with a more independent approach. They were asking focused questions, they could identify their
needs and inform you of strategies they were using and which did or did not work.
However, teachers who are able to help their students in this way are the exception, and there is, at present, a particular lack of
these skills amongst LSP teachers, who are often material writers and developers, concentrating once again on the content and
on the 'specific purposes' element more than on strategies to enhance effective learning.
Open learning is a practical solution to many teaching problems but the essential pre-requisite lies not only in the resources and
their accessibility but also in how to exploit them effectively. O'Malley and Chamot (1990: 154) note that 'probably the most
important issue is developing in teachers the understanding and techniques for delivering effective learner strategy instructions
to students'.
Learning how to learn a language is a complex skill to acquire. It involves focusing on the process of learning as well as on the
content of the learning. It is concerned with being informed about the language itself, about yourself as a learnerthrough self-
assessment, reflection and experimentationand therefore involves training in independence.
The acceptance of the positive effects of independent learning strategies on the learning process has thus given rise to a greater
need for open learning advisers. So far, the role of the open learning adviser has been to guide language learners through the
maze of materials available in the language centres, and to encourage the learners to find ways in which they can study and
practise the language independently outside their classroom hours. With the ever-changing learning environment, it becomes
essential that the roles of the teachers or trainers are also redefined according to these new parameters. In this light, the LSP
teacher should not only teach the students the language according to the accepted language teaching programme, but should also
spend time teaching the students how to acquire skills that will enable them to study the language independently by
incorporating into the teaching programme training sessions in using these independent learning techniques. This entails that the
teacher should

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be aware ofand should usethe resources available in the language centre in order to be able to direct the learners through
activities which teach them how to exploit such resources effectively. Unless the teacher raises awareness of learning styles and
techniques, independent learning will never take place.
The Teacher's Point of View

The majority of teachers would agree with the general philosophical goal of learner-centredness, and would tell you that they
are no longer using front-teaching as part of their methodology. They are, on the contrary, involved in communicative teaching
and take into account the needs of their learners. In reality, whilst the majority may strive to change how and what they teach,
many continue with a fundamentally teacher-focused approach, excluding students from planning, pacing and evaluation of
classroom tasks, hence still limiting the level of independence of the learner to assigned activities. Self-access is one means of
achieving autonomy. One problem with it is that it involves a very tangible environment, in most cases with state-of-the-art
audio, visual and computer equipment. These should have the potential to enhance language learning, and assist the teacher in
solving language problems, but the focus tends to be on the resources, rather than the concept of autonomy underlying open
learning.
Some teachers are reluctant to see the self-access centre and the open learning adviser as valuable adjuncts to their classroom
performance; others embrace the new environment and the concept of autonomy enthusiastically but they are not given the time
to re-train. It is the opinion of the authors that unless institutions are committed to learner training as part of the students'
timetable and to staff development, such scepticism is bound to persist.

Very little attention has been given, in the past, to training in which teachers are familiarised with techniques for implementing
learning strategies. The language teacher in this case study (van der Wolf) comes from a traditional language-learning
background, and had undergone no such training before our collaboration. She was not very familiar with the latest
developments in the new learning environment, and had not yet focused on teaching her students independent learning skills,
beyond encouraging them to use the language centre's facilities and materials to consolidate the work done during their tutorials
with her. In this respect, the role of the open learning adviser becomes even more important, because she is the person

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who can train the teacher as well as the learner in developing independent learning skills and effective use of the language
centre.
It was decided to carry out an experiment based on the close collaboration between the language teacher and the language open
learning adviser, who would teach on a course together, i.e. 'in tandem'. This tandem teaching would cover a course that dealt
with raising awareness of the learning process, teaching how to design and produce self-study materials to fit course aims and
objectives, and encouraging continuous self-assessment, in addition to language training. Thus the language teacher would be
trained in developing these skills in the students at the same time the skills were being taught to the students.
The teacher received this idea of tandem teaching with enthusiasm and decided to join in the experiment. She was about to
embark on a new course of Dutch for Customs and Excise officers which seemed to offer a good opportunity to implement the
new teaching methods.
Tandem Teaching: A Challenge

A preliminary needs analysis was conducted by the open learning adviser and discussed with the language teacher. The students
were a small group of eight Customs and Excise officers, including the director of their unit, who needed specific work-related
language training in Dutch. The group appeared to be of mixed ability. Their ages ranged from 20 to 50. Most of the learners
had gone through traditional language-learning programmes and were wary of this new start. They all enjoyed their jobs,
however, and were motivated to start learning Dutch because of the potential implications for their work.
Hence, the course was specifically focused on the social and communicative aspects of the working environment of Customs
and Excise officers with emphasis on reading and listening skills in the area of drug dealing. What will follow is a basic outline
of certain parts of the course set-up and how independent learning strategies were built into, and combined with, the programme
to be carried out by the students.
The course consisted of weekly two-hour sessions during a period of ten weeks. Each session was split into:
(1) one hour teaching
(2) half an hour independent learning techniques
(3) half an hour consolidation.
The open learning adviser and the language teacher worked closely together and met once a week before each session took place
to discuss the

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previous lesson and the programme for the lesson to come. The open learning adviser planned the half hour independent
learning session based on the topic and grammar the language teacher intended to discuss in class that day.
Each lesson started with a one-hour teaching session by the language teacher. If the areas to be covered were 'questioning
passengers' and the 'present tense', for example, the teacher expanded upon the vocabulary, phrases and grammar which the
students had been asked to study at home beforehand, by way of exercises and short role plays. After this first hour, the open
learning adviser took over, and introduced learning strategies and ways of studying specifically designed to practise the topics
discussed in the previous hour. This could take the form of advising the students on how to devise their own dictionary or how
to create gap-fill exercises to be exchanged inside and outside class contact hours. In the last half hour of the session, the
language teacher discussed the independent learning strategies with the students. If they had made their own gap-fill exercises in
the half an hour with the open learning adviser, the teacher picked one of the students' exercises, photocopied it for all the
students and asked them to do the exercise in class. She then discussed the answers to the exercise in class, encouraging a
discussion on the learning benefits of making one's own exercises in order to allow the students to become aware of the
usefulness of the specific technique. She then advised the students to use the techniques they had learnt that day for self-study
to consolidate the areas covered, and in preparation for topics for the following week's session if possible. Because the students
learnt new methods of studying each week, by the end of the course they had a whole range of strategies to work with
independently.
In order to increase their awareness of the learning process, and to see the benefits in their own personal and professional
development, students were repeatedly advised to keep a log in which they could jot down the instances in which they had used
the language successfully or less so (Sheerin, 1989; Oxford, 1990; Cotterall, 1995). They were also encouraged to find ways of
relating their learning directly to their work by looking for written material that would be useful for grammar exercises, or by
noting situations which would serve well for role play exercises. As a result of this basic training, the group started to develop
its own internal responsibilities. One volunteered to keep the dictionary up-to-date, another made sure that all materials would
be available in a folder at work, and each developed and shared new activities (puzzles, exercises, interesting articles on drugs,
etc.). A course within a course developed. The idea was that, eventually, one of the students would volunteer to be a mentor
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liaise closely with the open learning adviser and the language trainer in the selection and development of materials.
Throughout the course, the language teacher became more aware of the advantageous possibilities involved in the training of
independent learning skills as part of the language teaching programme. It allowed her to focus on certain aspects of grammar,
for example, in a much more intensive way than had previously been possible. The fact that the students were responsible for
the creation of certain grammar exercises created a different, more motivated attitude in the students to learn grammar. As well
as learning the language in a much more intensive way, the students were inclined to contribute more to the lessons in the way
of role-plays, letters, newspaper articles. Moreover, as a result of the information given to the students by the open learning
adviser, the teacher managed to gain an insight into the ways in which the language centre facilities and materials could be used
most effectively, where previously she had only used the centre as a library facility, and to advise students appropriately. The
language trainer and the advisor worked closely as a team to work through a series of input, practice and action sessions, so that
language and skills developed in tandem. 1
LSP and Teacher Training

Give us the tools and we will finish the job. (Winston Churchill)
As underlined by Hutchinson and Waters (1987), language for specific purposes is not very different from general language.
What has made the LSP teacher different from a general language teacher is the increased demand for authenticity of texts, and
the expert audience he/she is faced with. The latter sometimes undermines the LSP teacher and creates in her the illusion that it
is necessary to become an expert in the subject area in order to be able to teach the language.
In our particular instance, the introduction of learner training made the language tutor realise that she did not need to become an
expert in drug dealing and customs and excise tasks but that she should behave as a 'good language learner' and show an interest
and positive inquisitive attitude towards the LSP content.
Conclusion
The question arises whether the role of the open learning adviser could eventually be taken over entirely by the LSP teacher.
Will tandem teaching always be the most effective teaching method, or can more be gained when

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the whole programme is in the hands of just one person: the language teacher? Our experience suggests that the language
teacher could take over much of the adviser's role provided she has received the appropriate training. This would allow the open
learning adviser to devote more time, for example, to helping the language teacher to keep up with the latest developments in
information technology. 2
The language teacher of the future, trained to incorporate these training methods for independent learning into her programme,
would still work closely with the open learning adviser in order to give the students the maximum opportunity to use all the
materials and facilities that are available. This cooperation could well be in the form of tandem teaching courses, whereby half
an hour of several sessions is taken by the open-learning adviser who develops the strategies learnt by the students in
combination with the latest programmes available in the language centre and/or separate learner training workshops open to all,
staff and students.
Unfortunately, the Dutch for Customs and Excise Officers course was too short to allow us to fully develop its potential, but the
tutor and the adviser are still in contact, and they are planning a second course to develop this experience further. In the
meantime, the Dutch tutor has been appointed to the Customs and Excise training centre in Ipswich with the responsibility to
develop such courses and training for all their sites.
It is clear that there needs to be a reorientation of the role of the teacher with the tutor being perceived more and more not as the
person that knows best, or even as the language expert, but as the facilitator or moderator. Translated into teacher training, this
means introducing learner training into teacher training courses. It means, when and if necessary, asking trainees to learn a new
language and analyse their own learner autonomy; it involves a much more reflective look into ourselves as learners. It means
revising the way needs analysis is designed and used, syllabuses are negotiated, lessons are planned, and self-assessment is
conducted to take into account learner training.
Our experience with this course in fostering autonomy has been encouraging, and has led us to conclude, adapting Cotterall
(1995: 226):
• autonomy in language learning is desirable
• dialogue is more important than structures
• relationship between learner, teacher and adviser is central
• training is needed to prepare teachers how to help learners to learn how to learn
• in other words the role of the teacher has been redefined for this new kind of learning.

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Although this was only a short project, the experience of tandem teaching between the Dutch teacher and the open learning
adviser has been positive and it is currently being repeated in other courses within the university and offered as part of the
portfolio for outside full-cost courses.
Notes
1. What worked in this 'tandem' was the absolute lack of knowledge of Dutch by the adviser, which compelled the tutor to take
very little for granted and reduce the jargon to the minimum! It also means that the adviser could ask the new learners a lot of
questions and, by so doing, turn the learner into a micro-teacher. This reversed role allowed the learners to monitor how deep
their learning has been.
2. The now well-established use of the Internet and computer conferencing is another crucial tool in fostering autonomous
language learning and collaborative learning. One of the authors (Mozzon-McPherson) is currently advising students via e-mail
and computer-mediated conferencing, and further researching into the effects of such technology on learner training and teacher
training.
References
Britten, D. (1988) Three stages in teacher training. ELT Journal 42 (1), 3-8.
Candy, P. (1988) On the attainment of subject-matter autonomy. In D. Boyd (ed.) Developing Student Autonomy in Learning.
New York: Kogan Paul.
Cotterall, S. (1995) Developing a course strategy for learner autonomy. ELT Journal 49 (3), 219-27.
Dickinson, L. (1987) Self-instruction in Language Learning. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Ellis, G. and Sinclair, B. (1989) Learning to Learn English. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Little, D. (ed.)(1989) Self-Access Systems for Language Learning: A Practical Guide. Dublin: Authentik Language Learning
Resources Ltd. in association with CILT.
Naiman, N., Frohlich, M., Stern, H.H. and Todesco, A. (1978) The Good Language Learner (Research in Education Series 7).
Ontario: Ontario Institute for Studies in Education.
O'Malley, J.M. and Chamot, A. (1990) Language Strategies in Second Language Acquisition. Cambridge: Cambridge University
Press.
Oxford, L.R. (1990) Language Learning Strategies. Boston: Heinle & Heinle.
Rogers, C. (1969) Freedom to Learn for the 80's. Columbus, OH: Charles E. Merrill.
Rubin, J. and Thompson, I. (1982) How To Be a More Successful Language Learner. Boston: Heinle & Heinle.
Sheerin, S. (1989) Self-Access. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Stevick, E.W. (1981) Teaching Languages: A Way and Ways. New York: Newbury House.

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Chapter 15
EFL Teacher Involvement in a Training Programme for Court Interpreters in Zimbabwe
Jill Northcott
Introduction
At the risk of cataloguing yet another in the series 'war stories and romances', 1 I would like to present an account of two
consultancy visits and the design and delivery of an ESP course as part of a training programme for interpreters in the
Magistrates Courts in Zimbabwe. In this paper I intend to focus more specifically on the involvement of EFL/ESP teachers in
that project.
My own involvement stemmed from a request from the British Council (BC), Harare to the Institute for Applied Language
Studies (in the knowledge that we had experience in running specialist English for Legal Purposes courses) for a consultant to
quality review a locally conducted language needs analysis into the training needs of interpreters in the courts, conduct further
research and run a one to two-week workshop with staff in a local college (Speciss College) to design and develop a course in
English for Law for the court interpreters. The administration of justice in Zimbabwe is (December 1993) often the subject of
considerable delay because of the shortage of properly trained court interpreters. Modest funds had been made available (from
the British High Commission) to provide some training in this area.
At first sight the specific context might appear to be a strange one for the ESP specialist. Zimbabwe uses English as the medium
of education from primary through to tertiary level and could perhaps be categorised as an ESL rather than an EFL situation. A
training programme might conceivably be envisaged as focusing more on training in court procedure and legal

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knowledge than language skills development. What contribution can be made by the ESP specialist here?
Ann Corsallis of the Institute of Linguists (personal communication) stresses five golden threads of training for public-service
interpreters:
• knowledge of the structure and aims of the service
• knowledge of the procedures and processes
• enhancement in both languages to express both formal and informal meaning
• transfer techniques
• good practice, code of ethics, personal and professional development.
ESP perhaps has much to contribute in this area. Johns and Dudley-Evans (1991) propose a broad remit for ESP:
It is our contention that all courses in specialised language and practice fall under the English for Specific Purposes
rubric. (Johns & Dudley Evans, 1991: 308)
They point out that ESP no longer has to argue the case for its existence and that, in fact, other disciplines are drawing upon the
insights of ESP related research.
ESP may in fact, begin to expand beyond its classroom role to assume a substantial consultancy role in a wide variety of
academic and professional environments. (Johns & Dudley Evans, 1991: 308)
A second question arising relates to the role of EFL in an English-dominated country such as Zimbabwe. ESP has developed
primarily in EFL contexts. The EFL Department of the College (Speciss) responsible for the court interpreters' training
programme had not previously run courses for Zimbabweans. Their EFL work was mainly with foreigners living and working in
Zimbabwe and with specialist groups from Portuguese-speaking Angola and Mozambique. As an EFL unit they felt rather
isolated in Zimbabwe although their work was expanding and with the changes in South Africa and the urgent need for
language training in Namibia (as a result of the decision to adopt English as the national language) they hoped to become an
important centre for the Southern African region. However, in Zimbabwe itself the use of English is by no means a settled
concern. Dubin and Ohlstain (1986) point out that in an English-dominated country, the languages of ethnic groups may
predominate in interpersonal functions in home and family life. Affective attitudes to using English are by no means wholly
positive (as might be expected in a country with a relatively recent colonial past). Until Independence no black Rhodesian could
reside in the city of Hararethe perpetrators of this apartheid were English not

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Afrikaans speakers. The University of Zimbabwe, through the Communication Skills Centre, offers special ESP courses to all
first-year students and demand for their services is increasing. There is a general perception that the standards of English are
falling coupled with the desire to raise the status of the local languages. Dubin and Ohlstain note a sharp discrepancy between
the achievements of English instructional programmes and societal needs in countries where affective factors related to learners'
attitudes and economic factors interfere with the exploitation of the support for learning the language which is available. O-level
English is still the touchstone of English proficiency in Zimbabwe which shows evidence of fitting into Dubin and Ohlstain's
category as illustrated earlier.
Teacher training for EFL and ESP is a problematic area in Zimbabwe. Few of the Speciss College EFL staff have formal EFL
qualifications (although some of the Zimbabwean teachers have Master's degrees from the University of Zimbabwe's Linguistics
Department) and it is impossible to obtain these qualifications locally. Many of the teachers are anxious for professional
development and any workshops or other opportunities for teacher development are greeted enthusiastically. Interestingly, the
University of Zimbabwe's Communication Skills Department has an impressive ESP research record but appears to have made
little inroad into the field of ESP teacher training.
Richards (1989) highlights the traditional separation of ESP as an object of study from the occupational environmentthe theatre
of operations.
ESP can regard the environment in which it operates in two quite distinct ways: as an object of study and as a theatre of
operations. In the past there has always been a tendency to separate these too firmly, with one path leading to academic
respectability and the other to financial reward. (Richards, 1989: 215)
He argues for the synthesis of both, an argument which, I believe, has relevance for ESP and teacher training and development.
I use both words because of the commonly accepted view (against which Richards argues, incidentally) that training is a more
limited concept, suggesting a simple filling of the learning gap between the trainee's present level of competence and the
competence necessary for the performance of the job. Whilst acknowledging this to be a useful conceptualisation with practical
application, I take the view that such a definition of training is an inadequate one for the ongoing process whereby teachers
adapt themselves to enabling learners to maximise their potential for learning in the many and varied teaching situations they
may find themselves in in the course of their careers. Hamblin (1974) has a kinder definition which I propose to adopt

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for the purposes of this paper (for teachers, court interpreters and consultants alike).
Training includes any type of experience designed to facilitate learning which will aid performance in a present or future
job. (Hamblin, 1974)
I suggest that ESP teacher training (and I make the assumption that anyone training to teach ESP is already a trained teacher in
some capacity) should be essentially located within the context of the field of operations and that the academic study of ESP
should be put to work to equip the teacher within this context. My experience suggests that the knowledge required by ESP
teachers may not simply be located within the Applied Linguistics/ESP academic research field, which is reasonably accessible.
ESP teachers are more frequently hampered by pragmatic constraints, in particular inadequate information about the background
to the course (student needs, expectations of sponsors, etc.) which is often available but withheld by some other stakeholder.
Given the maximum access to information and control over the nature of the course, experienced EFL and Communication
Skills teachers are very motivated to acquire the necessary skills and expertise to perform well and build up the resources to
serve them in other ESP situations. What more formal general ESP teacher training can achieve is an academic research-based
foundation to confirm experience and build confidence as well as the possibly more obvious role of contributing to course
design. ESP training in an academic vacuum (even in the most applied of Applied Linguistics courses) without the practical base
and the impetus of an actual course to run is of limited value. This is by no means an attempt to denigrate academic ESP
research. Discourse and genre studies have obvious academic value in themselves and are a valuable part of equipping the
teacher for the field partly by providing a way into understanding the nature of particular subject disciplines and acting as a
'shortcut' to circumvent the teacher's lack of subject specific knowledgeone of the most common complaints of the ESP teacher.
I am merely arguing for a better synthesis of the practical and the academic ('field of operations' and 'object of study')
particularly within the context of ESP teacher education.
Recent years have seen a growing concern for cultural appropriacy and sustainability in ESP as in other development projects.
There are many problems and pitfalls here, not least in calling in British consultants to advise on projects which would perhaps
be best understood by nationals of the countries concerned. Many of these issues are outside the scope of this paper but I intend
to touch on some aspects of this issue of relevance I believe for ESP teacher education.

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Dubin and Wong (1990) reflect on their experience of teacher education with the BC in Hungary, concluding that:
the process (of teacher education) is. . . a subtler one than the mere importation of ready-made educational solutions. It
involves dialogue, interaction between outside 'experts' and native practitioners. . . (Dubin & Wong, 1990: 151)
They stress the need to understand as much as possible about the teachers' own views of their needs and expectations, adopting
an ethnographic approach in order to understand the members of another culture from an insider's viewpoint and suggest that
such information-gathering should go on throughout the programme. I would also wish to expand their notion of dialogue to
include partnership between native 'experts' and outside 'practitioners'. This more inclusive notion of partnership might
contribute in some way to answer the charges of linguistic imperialism levied against ELT (summarised thus by Phillipson
(1992: 247): 'ELT is not sensitive to its socio-political and economic contexts').
Court Interpreters' Training

I intend now to return to narrative mode to give an account of the Court Interpreter Training Project. The original specifications
for my first consultancy to Zimbabwe were modified somewhat in the light of the Training Needs Analysis Report produced by
two local consultants, a legal adviser from the University's Law Faculty and the Head of the University's Communication Skills
Department as a language adviser. The Head of Speciss Training expressed disappointment at the scope and depth of the report,
particularly with the apparent lack of information regarding a language training component. It was also apparent that they saw
no clear role for a consultant and that it would be impossible for their staff to attend a full-time two-week workshop. My terms
of reference were subsequently modified to 'refining the needs analysis, seeking commitment from the Ministry of Justice,
agreeing how to implement a training programme and establishing what role Britain can play'. However, I had already faxed
Zimbabwe with suggestions following receipt of the report of the needs analysts.
My own reading of the report suggested that an ESP focus had much to offer and that a short intensive language enhancement
programme with a Legal English focus using communicative methodology at the beginning of the training programme would
begin to meet the language-training needs of the interpreters. This could be tackled by Speciss EFL staff, who had been
described as experienced and trained EFL teachers. I also

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proposed a modified version of the two-week training programme originally mootedperhaps four or five workshops. Early
discussions in Harare confirmed my initial feeling that this was perhaps an attempt to kill two birds with one stoneimproving the
performance of the existing court interpreters and developing a permanent training capacity as well as developing the ESP
teaching skills of locally-based teachers. This would appear to be quite a mammoth task given the timescale. (The needs
analysis was conducted in December; my two-week consultancy visit was in January and it was intended that the training
programme be put into operation before the end of April.)
My first concern was to meet with the needs analysts to discuss their report and then conduct further ethnographic investigation,
analysing the language needs of the court interpreters and investigating the target situation by observing them at work as well as
speaking to relevant parties in order to identify the language-based skills required, which might then be developed in a language
programme.
Second, I needed to negotiate with Speciss staff to organise a practicable programme of workshops. I had faxed the BC with a
suggested programme for the workshops, assuming that these would need to be organised in advance. I quickly learned,
however, and accepted, that nothing in Zimbabwe happens until it happens!
Ethnographic Needs Analysis

I intend to make only brief mention of the first of the two concerns referred to earlier. The Training Needs Analysis had
highlighted the interpretation problems faced by the court interpreters. These included problems related to their role and function
within the court system. As full-time public service employees based in the courts they had understandable problems with their
supposedly impartial role. Interpreters were sometimes biased towards the prosecutors and saw their role to be assisting in
obtaining a conviction. There was a tendency for them to screen out what they considered irrelevant. This was compounded by
the fact that sometimes they were simply required to convey the essential meaning of statements rather than interpreting
everything. At times they were required to rephrase statements made in the vernacular in the language of the courts. Statements
and exclamations made by the accused in the examination of witnesses, for example, had to be rephrased in acceptable question
form, thus 'He's lying!' becomes 'I put it to you that you are not telling the truth.' (Most accused persons in the magistrates
courts have no legal representation and are required to make their own defenceexamining and

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cross-examining witnesses as well as summing up their case.) The interpreters also have to know when to remain silent rather
than interpreting inadmissible evidence.
Possible miscarriages of justice resulting from poor interpretation in the courts was a concern for the Ministry of Justice, given
the imbalance already existing in the judicial procedure. Criminal trials are held in the Zimbabwean Magistrates Courts. These
courts have a wider jurisdiction than their English counterpart and approximate more to the Scottish Sheriff Courts in their
remit. The adversarial system of criminal justice relies on a contest between equals but in a situation where an accused person
has no legal representation the scales are weighted heavily in favour of the state. In this context the interpreter's role is a vital
one.
Even first-language English speakers may be disadvantaged by their lack of mastery of the highly specialised language of the
law and the discourse conventions of legal proceedings. John Gibbons (1994: 197) speaks of those minority groups particularly
at risk of disadvantage in this context, including children, immigrants and rape victims,
the complex, power laden and adversarial language of the courtroom is archetypically male, middle class, adult and high
proficiency.
Although the interpreters themselves rated their English as good to excellent (30 interpreters filled in questionnaires for the
needs analysis), judges and magistrates perceived the need for them to improve their English language skills. (O-Level English
is the English language qualification required for entry to the profession.) The interpreters viewed their English language needs
within two categories:
• formal versus informal usage, and
• special Englishes (legal, medical, technical).
It was particularly problematic to interpret special or technical terms into the vernacular languages, which frequently had no
translation equivalents. Legal terms such as suspended sentence, mens rea, intent gave them particular problems.
The needs analysis stressed that although many of the court interpreters had a near first language competence in English 'they
are not speaking in the language they know best'.
One important conclusion made by the needs analysts was the necessity for both senior interpreters and magistrates to be
involved in any training programme posing extra problems related to training these professionals to train others.
My own observations of the interpreters at work in the courtsin the

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magistrates court and the High Courtwere made with the assistance of the Chief Interpreter, who accompanied me in the courts,
explaining and translating when I requested or he felt it necessary. As the needs analysis provided a sound basis using
systematic survey methods I sought further information through observation of the interpreters at work and formal and informal
conversations, spending time drinking tea and chatting to the interpreters in their workroom and becoming involved (if only as a
sympathetic listener) in their very sensible attempts to obtain maximum advantage from this spotlight on their activities in terms
of pursuing a better career structure and salary scale for the profession. The question of status was, I felt, a key issue for any
training programme. The interpreters considered that their work was undervalued because of the low status of the vernacular
languages (and hence those who interpreted them). They resented the higher rates of pay given to those occasional interpreters
called in for cases requiring a command of one of the European languages. They felt themselves undermined in the courts by
magistrates who corrected their interpretation (often wrongly) and, as I observed myself in the rural areas, being required to
perform functions inconsistent with the interpreter's role (acting as usher for example).
These excerpts from my field notes give, I hope, a picture of the interpreter's role.
Interpreters play a key role in the courts. In the magistrates courts interpreters work in the remand courts, the plea courts
and the Provincial and Regional courts (where trials are held). In all four courts the interpreter speaks more than any other
participant. The court interpreter will begin (in criminal cases) by asking the name of the accused and what language he
wishes to speak in. Almost all defendants choose to speak in their mother tongue and place great reliance on the
interpreter. The magistrate in some cases will try and discourage the use of English on the part of the accused; he will be
better able to defend himself in his mother tongue. Apart from issues relating to comprehension of the proceedings it is
much less intimidating for the accused to speak to the interpreter at his side in a normal speaking voice than to make
declarations to the Bench, separated by physical and social distance (this is done by the interpreter). The interpreter's job
is very demanding (even in the plea courts where only guilty pleas are heard). He or she must have good communication
skills, an authoritative presence and an understanding of the law. In order to translate legal concepts into the vernacular
s/he must understand the concepts in English (examples are injury, intent, the State). In the Regional Court (which has
certain similarities with the Scottish Sheriff

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Court) the accused must conduct his own defence (if he is unable to afford a lawyer as in the vast majority of cases) and
examine and cross-examine witnesses. Here the interpreter must be aware of the rules of evidence and have substantial
legal understanding to interpret effectively. The interpreter will also have to interpret for witnesses including expert
medical witnesses (usually from English into the vernacular for the benefit of the accused). The facts of the case may be
in a highly technical area (this is especially true in civil cases) and will always require the interpreter to express fine
distinctions (cf. the car veered, turned, swerved).
The relationship between interpreter and magistrate is vitalthere must be mutual respect. I observed a woman magistrate
working very effectively with a female interpreter in the Plea Court. It was clear that this was a joint endeavour and that
the administration of justice depended on the close cooperation of the two. The concept of impartiality is not adequate to
describe the interpreter's role. S/he must be both magistrate and accused.
Most training is done on the job. I found evidence of sound training practices and sensitive teaching skills given the
scarcity of resources and support. At one point in the plea court the magistrate asked for the Chief Interpreter to help them
out as they were trying to establish whether the accused had intended to harm (in a legal sense) the complainant. This has
no exact equivalent in Shona apparently. The Chief Interpreter quietly explained to his interpreter how to express this in
Shona and she made the interpretation herself. He explained to me that now she would remember; if he had taken over the
interpretation she would not. Experienced interpreters help train new interpreters. One High Court Interpreter explained
how he would get the trainee to observe court procedure and then ask him what he remembered, testing him orally.
Similarly, in teaching essential legal terms (remand, locus standi) he would explain the terms, and test).
The legal interpreters are under-resourced. They have access to one dictionary which is the property of one of their
number, who will remove the dictionary if he is offended! They are anxious to improve their vocabulary and read novels,
when they have access to them, and exchange new words and ways of overcoming interpreting problems.
Encounters with magistrates and Ministry of Justice personnel revealed a picture of concern for the court interpreters' situation
particularly with regard to possible miscarriages of justice and the position of juveniles in the courts (interpreting for juveniles
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particularly difficult) and were very happy about BC involvement in this area and ready to offer any assistance (other than
financial assistance).
During the first week of my visit I tried to get a picture of the situation from the viewpoint of the interpreters and allowed them
to introduce me to the magistrates they thought should be involved in the training programme. Negotiating entry into the
different courts was a useful experience, penetrating the layers of bureaucracy and finding out exactly who it was important to
clear what withexperience which could usefully be passed on to those running the eventual programme. It also made clear how
much time arranging a programme involving the magistrates would take. Telephone communication was unreliableit was always
essential to visit people personally and might take several visits to confirm an arrangement.
As a result of my investigations I concurred with all the recommendations made in the needs analysis (these included providing
the interpreters with books and dictionaries, funding the production of a phrasebook and the editing of the pre-Independence
Hoffman's Guide for Court Interpreters for Use in post-Independence Zimbabwe) but in response to their recommendations for
oral language improvement also felt that a short intensive course in language enhancement with an ESP focus could begin to
meet the training needs of newly appointed court interpreters. Involvement of the proposed training personnel in this course
would also be a useful opportunity for them to begin to recognise, develop and enhance their own training skills (my
observations and conversations suggested that these were not lacking).
There seemed to be several advantages in using EFL/ESP teachers for this programme. First, they would be less threatening than
legal personnel with whom it might be necessary to continue to cover up lack of knowledge, severely limiting the potential for
any training programme to be a real learning experience. Second, the EFL (and by extension ESP, see Hutchinson & Waters
1987) focus on methodology has a lot to offer training. In Zimbabwe, the usual educative process, I was informed, appeared to
be talk (without even the chalk in most cases) with the whole concern on content and little emphasis on the means of conveying
the content.
ESP Workshops
My first meeting with Speciss management had resulted in a request for a ready-made course which could then be given to the
teaching staff. However, I made some attempt to keep to my original brief and negotiated four afternoons for Speciss EFL staff
to attend workshops. They had heard

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nothing about my visit but this did not prove to be too much of a problem for themthey seemed accustomed to responding
quickly to totally new situations. It so happened that the first day coincided with a site move for the EFL department so I had
some difficulty locating the room where by some miracle of organisation or coincidence teachers had assembled for the
promised workshops. It occurred to me that rather than fitting into my allocated slot in the jigsaw (the grand scheme of Court
Interpreter Training) I was actually the fretsaw wielder.
I have already hinted at one of the most welcome characteristics of EFL teachersextreme flexibility. I found it here in cheerful
abundance and decided my best strategy was to arm them with as much information as possible and thus introduced them to the
background to the Court Interpreter Training project and the possibilities of a training programme in which they might be asked
to participate. I then set up activities aimed at eliciting as much information as possible about the participants' ESP experience
and background. The group were very mixedZimbabweans from different ethnic backgrounds and British expatriates. Some had
EFL qualifications obtained in the UK, some MAs, some other teaching qualifications and all had a variety of different teaching
experiences. They were quickly enthused by the prospect of involvement with the court interpreters, becoming quite confident
that as a group they had the resources to run the kind of language enhancement programme I had originally mooted.
Time was very short and I was faced with several dilemmas which really had to be resolved on the spot. The original idea had
been for any course to be developed locally and I felt it was important for those involved in the teaching to be involved with the
course design and materials preparation. However, there was also the possibility that the course might not take place and
certainly not all those attending the workshops would be involved in this course. So I opted to provide some generally useful
insights into ESP course design whilst making any exemplification and materials design specific to the court interpreters project.
The teachers expressed the desire to visit the courts themselves and meet the court interpreters. This would be as good
motivation as any I could devise and very useful teacher education. Most of the Zimbabweans admitted, somewhat
shamefacedly, to never having visited their country's courts but could provide the non-Zimbabweans with useful cultural
information. One told us of having to wait in the long lines of women queuing for maintenance payments every month at the
magistrates courts. I was in the interesting position, as a foreigner, of introducing them to their own court system and enlisted
the help of the court interpreters with the visit. Perhaps this is a merit of and one justification for using foreign 'experts'. I had
the blessing of the

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Zimbabwean Ministry of Justice and rights of access to the courts undreamt of here in Edinburgh!
Another, rather large, dilemma was how to introduce the complex issues inherent in beginning to teach English for Legal
Purposes. In the end I gave them copies of the lecture I had intended to deliver, mapping out some of the problematic areas in
teaching English for Legal Purposes and some photocopied articles on the subject for them to take away and read. As fortune
had it, one of the teachers (who later directed the course) had done some undergraduate law and was therefore well aware of the
pitfalls in this area. 2
The final programme for the workshops focused on needs analysis, course design and task design. (See Appendix.)
From the point of view of general teacher education, follow-up included the supply of several basic books about ESP for Speciss
teachers to read and BC Harare agreed to send two teachers on short courses in TESP.
Returning to the matter of the court interpreters course, the original concern to get the teachers to design and write the course
proved impracticable, given the time constraints. Some of the teachers had earlier expressed concern about being given courses
and told to teach them without having any real input themselves. This seems to me to be a very effective way of ensuring lack
of real motivation and hence negative teacher development although it may sometimes be a necessary response to the need for
income generation.
I asked for their opinions about a possible course for court interpreters and was told they would be happy to teach materials I
had written (could they have said anything else?) which would incorporate some of the suggestions we had come up with during
the workshops.
Professional English for Court Interpreters

In the event I designed and wrote the above-named course (a course for language enhancement with an emphasis on using
English for legal purposes) using Zimbabwean source material for the legal input and including a wide array of exercises to be
adapted for use in the Zimbabwean context. I emphasised the need to allow plenty of time for the course director and teachers
for preparation and organisation and sent it off. Gratifyingly, most of my requests were granted and instructions followed and, in
no time at all, Speciss had incorporated the Northcott3 materials into an exceptionally good value for money proposal for a
training programme. I was a little concerned that this now appeared to be the main part of the training programme rather than
the prelude but nonetheless all seemed set

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for three consecutive courses, each of three weeks duration. The first course was to be attended by the more senior court
interpreters who would help test and refine the materials to be used with junior interpreters and also work on the revision of
Hoffman's Guide for Court Interpreters and a phrasebook involving important work in developing both Shona and Ndebele,
aided by translation experts from the University of Zimbabwe (the Head of Speciss EFL had organised this part of the
programme and suggested the agenda for the sessions).
In May I was invited back to Zimbabwe to 'give support to the teachers running the course' the week before the course was due
to begin. The teachers concerned were doing a splendid job. There had turned out to be considerable difficulties in organising
the course owing to political events. In the wake of a decision by government ministers to award themselves a pay rise many
public-sector workers had protested and even the university students were on strike. I was informed by the Acting Principal
Interpreter that the court interpreters had decided not to act because of the training programme which they did not wish to
jeopardise (what a responsibility). In the event, communications became even more difficult than usual and hence guest
speakers difficult to arrange. Gratifyingly the few contacts I had made during my first visit (thanks primarily to the Court
Interpreters) had come up trumps and agreed to speak. (This aspect of the programme was of interest I feltone would assume
this could be more easily organised by the local 'partners' but proved not to be the case.) As a consequence of the political
disturbances affecting the university campus the joint workshop given by myself and the legal consultant which had been
proposed did not materialise. The college had included within their proposal the idea that he should give the teachers a
morning's training on the legal aspects of the materials. I had proposed a joint workshop, in order to introduce methodological
concernssuccessful exploitation of the materials depended on how they were usedissues which a law lecturer might not
appreciate. I felt this would have been a useful exercise but pragmatic constraints prevented it.
I was there for the beginning of the course and able to help with such essential matters as daily allowances (before the course
began!), reassuring BC's Director that the rest of the programme was on course, and passing on last minute tips to the teachers.
They turned up immaculately clad in business suits to welcome the men (yes, I'm afraid all men on the first course) some of
whom were old enough to be their grandfathers. I was pleased to be able to pick up some of the first day atmosphere. The
teachers were enthused by the positive response of the interpreters to the course (always wonderfully motivating for teachers). I
attended the first guest-

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speaker session, run by one of the senior magistrates who was able to give an up-to-the-minute account of changes to
Zimbabwean court structure and their relevance for court interpreters. He stayed on for the language review session in which the
interpreters chewed over the real meaning of some of the legal expressions used in the talk (collected and collated by the course
director). Suspended sentence caused animated discussion, revealing that very often interpretation problems stemmed from the
fact that technical terms and expressions were inadequately understood, rendering accurate translation impossible. The guest
speaker had grasped this as one of the aims of the course. The rest of the session was spent attempting to render the terms, once
understood, into the different vernacular languages. This involved the beginnings of an interesting partnership between ESP
teachers, magistrates and court interpreters.
Feedback from the court interpreters and the teachers was very positive. As an exercise in teacher development alone, I think it
was very fruitful. The materials had been provided on disc and these were subsequently modified by the course director in the
light of the court interpreters' contributions and the experience of teaching the course. The two teachers concerned enjoyed the
experience of team teaching (with each other and with the magistrates) afforded by the course. This observation is from the
course director's appraisal of the first course:
We found that the modules needed a lot of flexible teaching methods to work. Some benefited from large group
discussions, some required small group work with careful monitoring and some required two tutors working with just one
group
Therein, I feel, lies the tale of much worthwhile teacher development for ESP.
Conclusion
I have given an account of some aspects of a British Council project with which I was involved to illustrate the ways in which
the demands of a new teaching assignment can act as a stimulus for teacher education. (I am not here concerned with initial
teacher training.) Successful teacher education is not something which can or needs to be imposed. It is always sought by the
individuals concerned and results in and from empowerment. The level of development needed by the individual teacher to
continue to make the job motivating and exciting may, in fact, be perceived by managers of schools to be in excess of
requirements. However, as many business educators are intent on telling us, continuous improvement is essential for a business
to keep ahead of the competition as is the necessity for staff to be always willing to learn new things. This is also true for EFL
and

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opportunities for teacher education should always be encouraged. The challenging new course can always become a challenging
new opportunity for teacher development providing teachers are radically involved in all aspects of its instigation and not cut off
from the sources of information available whether stemming from the academic or the practical sphere.
Notes
1. 'Anecdotes about English teaching through different approaches with different resources in unrelated and possibly esoteric
contexts'; war stories and romances, tales of experience and the unexpected, echoes in the background of 'I did it my
way'(Bowyers, 1980: 71).
2. In many areas of ESP the teacher is fortunate in that she can rely, at least in part, on the participants' subject knowledge. In
the area of the law, however, there are major differences between the UK and most other legal systems, hence the difficulty in
translating legal concepts into other languages. The teacher of English for Legal Purposes cannot escape from the necessity of
acquiring some knowledge of the subject.
3. As referred to by Speciss management in their subsequent costing of the training programme to BC Harare.
Appendix: Overhead transparency used in ESP workshops

Learning goals
(1) Improvement of general English language skills.
(2) To be able to distinguish between formal and informal usage of the language and use both appropriately.
(3) To understand basic legal concepts in English.
(4) To be able to translate accurately.
(5) To be able to translate technical concepts into local languages.
(6) To explain legal and court procedures in local languages.
(7) To act impartially in the interpreter's role.
(8) To be able to deal with specialist language (law, medicine etc.).
(9) To interact appropriately with court officials and legal personnel.
(10) To be able to convey the essential meaning of statements without screening out information.
(11) Improving spoken English.
Task
The above have been extracted from the training needs analysis.
Which of these could an English for Law Course help with?
Can you formulate communicative objectives for such a course
using these learning goals?

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References
Bowyers, R. (1980) War stories and romances: Interchanging experiences in ELT. In E. Smyth (ed.) (1980) Projects in
Materials Design (pp.71-81). London: British Council.
Dubin, F. and Ohlstain, E. (1986) Course Design: Developing Programs and Materials for Language Learning. Cambridge:
Cambridge University Press.
Dubin, F. and Wong, R. (1990) An ethnographic approach to in-service preparation: The Hungary file. In J. Richards and D.
Nunan (eds) Second Language Teacher Education (pp. 282-92). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Gibbons, J. (1994) Language and the Law. London: Longman.
Hamblin, A. (1974) Evaluation and Control of Training. New York: McGraw Hill.
Johns, A and Dudley-Evans, T. (1991) English for Specific Purposes: International in scope, specific in purpose. TESOL
Quarterly 25(2), 297-314.
Phillipson, R. (1992) Linguistic Imperialism. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Richards, K. (1989) Pride and prejudice: The relationship between ESP and training. English for Specific Purposes 8 (3), 207-
21.

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Chapter 16
A Teacher Training Approach to a Degree in English Philology: Implementing TESP
JuanCarlos Palmer and Santiago Posteguillo
Introduction: Lack of Teacher Training
It seems to me that among this new generation of ESP practitioners there are also a significant number who are relatively
junior in terms of their years of experience and standing, and who sometimes even lack a significant level of training in
up-to-date, 'mainstream' ELT, let alone ESP. The classes they teach are relatively large, and the resources they have
access to are often inadequate. Their conditions of service generally leave much to be desired. (Waters, 1994: 4)
We believe that Alan Waters' definition of the new generation of ESP teachers is an accurate description of present-day ESP
teaching. We fully agree with him in that most new ESP practitioners get involved in ESP teaching situations without the
appropriate TESP training, nor even a substantial ELT input, at least in Spain.
Spanish English teachers in secondary and tertiary education have an English philology degree, which, as the word 'philology'
suggests, comprises literature studies, theoretical linguistics, other foreign languages besides English (usually French and/or
German), a regional language where spoken (Catalan, Basque or Galego; Catalan in our institution); and the study of one, or
even both classical languages (Latin and Greek). Indeed, some universities also include in their curricula applied linguistics, but
not necessarily; occasionally among all these subjects, one may find some time allocated for ELT. However, TESP, as a course
included in undergraduate studies, to the best of our knowledge is basically non-existent.

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The CAP Course (Secondary Education)
If we consider that the vast majority of English majors become either ELT teachers or ESP practitioners, one may see that this is
not a well balanced situation. Most English majors get into secondary or tertiary education. Only those who get into the
secondary education system are required to take what is known in Spain as the CAP course ('Curso de Adaptacion Pedagogica').
This is a course on methodological approaches to teaching applied to the particular area of studies which the prospective teacher
will have to deal with in the future. In relation to English, this course includes a general revision of what Waters labelled as
mainstream ELT.
This course, as it stands now is divided in two parts: the first half of the course (15-16 weeks) is based on a theoretical
approach, when tutors will guide their students and future colleagues towards a critical appraisal of theories and approaches in
language learning. This part includes four sections: methods and methodology, second-language acquisition, language skills, and
course design and evaluation. Meanwhile, the second half of the CAP course offers a practical approach, taking place in
secondary schools, where trainees will have to show how they will deal with groups of 35-40 students, developing the skills
enforced by their CAP tutor. TESP is totally neglected, but at least those who become involved in secondary education do get
ELT training.
Need to Implement Teacher Training courses (ELT and TESP) in the English Philology Degree
The situation is worse for those English teachers who go into university education. These teachers are not required to take the
CAP course and so they may find themselves in a university having to cope with ELT almost without any previous theoretical
input or practical experience. But what makes this situation intolerable is that, in most instances, ELT at university in Spain is,
in fact, ESP/EAP, for which these new teachers have had no training whatsoever.
The need for ESP/EAP is particularly acute in our new University. Universitat Jaume I at Castellon is right in the middle of a
very industrial, commercial and tourist area by the Mediterranean coast. Due to the great number of import/export companies
(especially in the ceramics and citrus fruit sectors), and tourist-related firms (travel agencies, hotels, restaurants etc.) there is a
high demand for teachers of English for Specific Purposes. We carried out a study among 59 companies in the area, in order to
find out how important it actually was to implement TESP courses for our

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students in the English degree, that is, the future ELT and/or ESP teachers in the region. Results showed a picture which left no
grounds for any further discussion on the compelling need to implement these TESP courses:
(1) companies in the ceramics sector exported 50% of their products to other countries, and citrics companies marketed up to
65% of their sales outside Spain
(2) out of the 59 companies that were asked about their use of foreign languages, 56 said they did use foreign languages in their
trade, and 54 of these used English
(3) English was the most frequently used foreign language (58.6%), followed by French (24.5%), Italian (10.2%) and German
(6.3%)
(4) in relation to English, 55.9% of employees in administration departments and 72.8% of employees in sales departments
admitted to using English in their daily work.
Besides this external social demand for ESP practitioners, there was also the internal pressure, within the university itself, for
developing a series of EAP courses to cater for the various needs of students enrolled in the different studies taught at the
Universitat Jaume I. The Philology Department was required to provide EAP courses for students in law, economics, business,
chemistry, computer science, psychology, humanities and other degrees.
There was, therefore, both a social external demand for ESP and an internal need to develop ESP courses within the university
system. Well prepared ESP practitioners had to be trained to cope with these requirements.
We accept the view that university institutions do not have to behave as private companies, reacting to the market as a car
manufacturer does, but at the same time it does not make much sense not to prepare our students (prospective teachers in this
case) to be able to cope with their future professional careers successfully.
A New Curriculum for the English Degree

We started by designing a new curriculum for the English degree at our University with a special emphasis on ELT
methodology and applied linguistics. The courses in literature, other foreign languages and theoretical linguistics remain as a
part of the optional courses in the degree, but this offer of optional courses which students can take to fulfil their necessary
amount of credits, has been expanded in the areas of classroom methodology for ELT, applied language studies and TESP.

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As time goes by, we look forward to slowly including some of these optional courses within the compulsory ones, so that the
stress on language teaching may become more and more relevant. This, of course, is a very delicate process in terms of
departmental politics which requires a lot of discussion and consensus to avoid conflicts with other areas of study within the
wide range of philology studies which the degree involves.
In our particular case, this shift towards a stronger emphasis on ELT and ESP teacher training within the English degree course
has been made possible by the introduction of a new degree in Translation Studies in the department. Most of the Catalan,
French, German, Spanish and Latin courses have been moved to the other degree programme, while remaining in English
Studies as optional courses, thus leaving more room for specific courses in Applied Linguistics, ELT Methodology, and TESP.
TESP Courses
In relation to ESP, two courses have been implemented so far: TESP I and TESP II. Both courses deal with needs analysis,
syllabus design, creating and adapting materials, evaluation and testing, and employing different methodological approaches
depending on learners' needs and teaching conditions.
TESP I focuses on Business English settings, making the distinction between the two main approaches:
(1) Business English (BE) for students at the university (for students in Business Management, Economics, and also Business
English for students in other areas such as Industrial Engineering, or Computer Science); and
(2) Business English for professionals, either at a teaching institution or in-company, this last teaching situation being fairly
common in the companies among which we carried out our ESP needs analysis.
TESP II focuses on EAP teaching, especially at university level. Thus, there is a particular interest in dealing with the high levels
of specialisation in scientific discourse, the role of the ESP/EAP teacher in relation to his/her students and also the relationship
with the subject teachers.
Both TESP I and TESP II would be defined as 'wide-angle' teacher-training courses, following McDonough's (1988)
terminology, since both are intended for pre-service trainees who do not yet know in which teaching setting they will be
working in their future careers.

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The TESP Programme: Getting Involved in Actual ESP Settings
Even with the two TESP courses, it was felt that our prospective ESP teachers would lack what we all lack when we get out of
the university: practical experience in real teaching, let alone teaching in ESP settings. The question was whether we were in a
position to somehow diminish this shortcoming in our aim to better equip prospective ESP teachers. To allocate more credits for
specific TESP courses was impossible; however we thought that we could actually do something which might really be quite
relevant in terms of gaining some practical experience in the world of ESP: we had created, throughout the last four years, an
ESP unit providing a large variety of ESP courses (BE and EAP) for the benefit of the students on campus. Could our own
students in the English degree programme also benefit from these courses?
It was decided that we could add an extra component to the two TESP courses which would help complement our students'
TESP training. This new element would be that students would be recommended to take one of the ESP courses (either in BE or
in EAP) offered on campus so that they could have direct experience of ESP teaching.
It was hoped that this involvement in a real ESP/EAP setting might also help trainees to become more confident when having to
design and teach ESP/EAP courses. Sheerin (1981) notes that the lack of confidence of the ESP teacher when having to confront
a set of highly specialised learners (i.e. doctors, lawyers, computer science engineers, and the like) is one of the main problems
these new teachers have.
This may well be linked to what Ewer (1983: 10) described as 'attitudinal difficulties', that is the very negative attitude some
English teachers have developed towards science, be it either dislike or even fear. Robinson (1991: 94), paraphrasing Ewer's
own suggestion as to how to overcome this negative attitude, says, 'A good way to do this [overcome this attitude] is to involve
the trainees in scientific activity in a small way, for example by having them observe and meet practising scientists.' Certainly,
an EAP course by itself is not really a scientific activity as such, but by reading the texts brought to class, observing what
questions the scientific and/or specialised students put to the ESP/EAP teacher, and by giving to the TESP trainee the
opportunity to actually meet students in scientific areas, the future ESP teacher may learn about ESP learners' views, needs and
interests in a way which is not possible to reproduce in the regular TESP course.
TESP students could then take this ESP course in two different ways:

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(1) for credit, meaning that the TESP student would be required to participate fully in the course, i.e. carry out the different
tasks in the classroom and take the required examinations 1; and
(2) as an observer. In this case the student attends the ESP course (e.g. English for Legal Purposes) and, instead of being
evaluated like the other students, he or she is required to write a paper describing their own views of the course itself. The
TESP student may thus write on the materials used in the course, propose and create alternative materials suitable for the aims
of the course; comment on the methodology, on the other students' feedback, or investigate any other issues which might be
relevant from a TESP perspective. This paper would then be submitted for assessment for the TESP course so that the student
could avoid an examination, which, we have found, is an encouragement for students to participate in these ESP courses.
What we are developing at Universitat Jaume I is not a single TESP course, but a TESP programme, as comprehensive as our
present teaching, administrative and economic context allows. Figure 1 below summarises the elements in our TESP
programme:
TESP I
Business English EAP course
• for credit
TESP II • as an observer
EAP/EST
Figure 1
TESP programme in the English Degree at Universitat Jaume I, Castelló, Spain
This is what we can now offer to our students. We realise that it is still limited since the types of courses taught at the university
(EAP mostly) do not reflect the variety of ESP settings a prospective teacher may encounter. Our ESP unit, however, is already
offering ESP courses for professionals in coordination with the University-Company Foundation. These courses may take place
either at the university or on the company's premises. We are now considering offering our TESP students the possibility of
auditing these additional courses. Not being courses included in the university curriculum they could not be taken for credit. On
the other hand, these other types of ESP settings would place TESP students in an ideal position to consider the differences
between EAP methodology, materials and so forth, and ESP teaching for professionals.

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Finally, with a view to expanding this educational framework in which we endeavour to have our TESP students involved in
real ESP settings, since some of our own staff in the department sometimes teach in an in-company ESP situation, this could
offer another perspective on TESP which some students may be interested in analysing. Figure 2 shows the framework in which
we hope to be able to adequately train prospective ESP teachers in the near future:
Theoretical input For credit/as an observer As an observer
TESP I ESP courses for
Business English professionals
EAP courses
TESP II at the University In-company
EAP/EST teaching
Figure 2
Extended TESP Program in the English Degree at Universitat Jaume I, Castelló, Spain
Thus, we look forward to complementing the TESP theoretical input gained in TESP I and II with practical experience of a
variety of ESP settings from which students may acquire insights highly beneficial for their future teaching careers.
Conclusion and Future Expectations

It is still a little too early to assess the results of this TESP programme. We have been very deeply absorbed in developing the
different EAP courses for the other departments and it has only been very recently that we have started to implement this,
probably very ambitious TESP programme. At the moment we can only underline the absolute need to place a special emphasis
on expanding as much as possible ELT, applied language studies and TESP in an English degree for students to equip them for
their future careers in the teaching of English either at secondary, or tertiary educational institutions or in other ESP settings.
We also hope that this approach to TESP, introducing the element of attending actual ESP courses, will not only benefit TESP
students, but also the other students at the University, since we believe that our own teaching will gain from the comments and
reflections of the TESP students auditing our own courses. After all, we do think that teaching is a constant

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interactive process in which not only students learn for their teachers, but also their teachers have a lot to learn from their
students.
Note
1. Spanish predilection for the picaresque, however, had emerged before among our students. We knew, from previous
experience of opening courses in other departments for credit to our own students, that some, for example, fourth-year advanced
English students, signed up for Basic English courses (i.e. remedial English courses for either absolute or false beginners), did
not attend classes, but of course, showed up for the final exam and got outstanding grades. We did not wish to repeat these
experiences, so only EAP courses for fairly advanced groups, or BE/EAP courses with a very high level of specialisation in the
language were opened to TESP students.
References
Ewer, J. R. (1983) Teacher training for ESP: Problems and methods. The ESP Journal 2 (1), 9-31.
McDonough, J. (1988) ESP: Teaching the teachers. Language Training 9 (3).
Robinson, P. (1991) ESP Today: A Practitioner's Guide. Hemel Hempstead, UK: Prentice-Hall.
Sheerin, S. (1981) Some difficulties, real and imagined, in conducting medical case conferences in the teaching of doctor/doctor
language. In Lexden Papers 2, Essays on Teaching English for Specific Purposes by the Staff of the Colchester and Bedford
English Study Centres (pp. 34-44). Oxford: Lexden Centre (Oxford) Ltd.
Waters, A. (1994) ESPthings falling apart? In R. Khoo (ed.) LSP: Problems and Prospects. Singapore: Sherson.

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Chapter 17
Languages for Special Purposes: Using Information Technology in a French for Business Course
Anthony Cheal Pugh
Why 'Business Language'?
Business language courses are popular for several reasons: pressure from government means that 'vocational' courses find favour
with managers, employers like the sound of courses that involve 'transferable skills', and a good proportion of today's students
are manifestly more interested in media and money than museum culture (see Bibliography for a list of reports on these issues).
Does this mean that the traditional literary core of the Modern Languages syllabus (texts dealing with class conflict and sexual
passion or the sources of our current philosophical anxieties) is now a dead letter? If students know the names Flaubert or
Proust, will it be because they saw Isabelle Huppert in Madame Bovary, or Jeremy Irons in Du Côté de chez Swann as part of a
film option? Will they only hear of Foucault because he figures in a gender studies course? While society decides what kind of
education system it wants, cherished ideas and values will doubtless be eroded, as change takes on a momentum of its own. On
the other hand, change also permits the introduction of new ideas and the re-introduction of older ones, suitably 're-packaged'.
The 'French for Business' course described here is a specialist language option that provides self-selected students with
technologically up-to-date ways of coming to grips with specialised language. It is also intended, however, to be a focus for
critical debate about a powerful ideology called 'Enterprise Culture' which, whether we like it or not, has changed the course of
history and radically altered both our expectations and those of our students.

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Learner Expectations
The fourth-year students for whom the 'French for Business' course has been designed have spent a year abroad and are thinking
hard about their work prospects. Some will become teachers of French, perhaps teachers of French for business. Several
students on the present course have signed up for PGCEs; others have applied for the new Maitrise FLE (Français Langue
Etrangère) and PGCE run by a consortium of British and French universities. Though some will have knowledge of the business
world, having worked during their year away, few members of the cohort will know anything of any substance about commerce,
finance or marketing. Many will come to the course with minimal computer skills, and even those who completed a computer
literacy course in year one or two will require upgrading. By December of any given year, some will have already been hired by
banks and other major enterprises, but others will be experiencing failure, as they go from one interview or assessment session
to another (the second term is frequently disrupted by absences due to this).
Students opt for the course, so positive intrinsic motives are taken for granted, but lack of experience had to be taken into
account when designing it, not just the learners' declared enthusiasm. For this reason, it is important to be able to relate
discussions of ideas, values and techniques current in the world of business to 'real-life' examples. This is easier than is
sometimes assumed, for although business topics are assumed to be inherently 'relevant'but only to something called the 'outside
world'and because the ideology of enterprise functions with the aid of simplistic oppositions and exclusions, it is useful to start
by reminding (informing) students that the 'Spirit of Enterprise' has been around in the world of education for nearly two
decades, that the course they have chosen was started using funds from the 'Enterprise in Higher Education' initiative, and that
much of the resources deployed have been paid for by a combination of 'outside earnings' and income from the 'internal market'.
The 'French for Business' course thus involves more than an introduction to a new lexicon. It is intended to put students in touch
with authentic materials and examples of business practice as well as just words. And since the 'context' of business is now what
informs and determines what happens inside universities (the course is taught from the Language Centre, for Modern
Languages), one of the first tasks is to reverse the artificial polarities that vitiate sensible debate over what is and what is not
'vocational' language teaching and deconstruct, where necessary, the rhetoric of enterprise and market forces. The 'internal
market' does after all

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only consist of other university departments wanting to provide language training for their students.
Languages for Special Purposes, or Discourse Studies?

The main difficulty for students who opt for 'French for Business' is one of linguistic focus: the referents of the type of written
language they are most used to (fictional discourse, poetic or dramatic) tend to be set in the past, whether historical or
imaginarytexts labelled 'contemporary' in the prospectus may have been written anything between 10 and 50 years ago. Now,
learners must view satellite TV, read newspapers regularly, and cope with intellectually challenging texts on strategic
management or the semiology of advertising. The economic, political and moral environments have changed; so too must the
learning environment. However, the fact that technical matters concerning money, employment, commercial law or marketing
are going to loom large in the course does not mean that we abandon critical debate. Indeed, in the face of unemployment and
associated evils, economic topics need to be historically grounded and business methods and concepts introduced for what they
are: not the absolutes of some world-conquering new creed, but historically relative and variable ideas and practices, as subject
to change as scientific theories or cultural fashions. If the student audience does not know the history of the phrase 'the division
of labour', they have to be told, whether or not Marx is still in fashionespecially when changes in employment law, debates over
the place of women in the labour market, and the future of social benefits and retirement pensions are such live issues, both in
France and elsewhere. In fact, it can be rapidly demonstrated to learners that debates 'outside' the classroom are being echoed
inside it, as they and their parents are made to pay more for their education and as the 'product' they are buying (all 'services' are
now 'products') is subjected to control processes such as Teaching Quality Assessments.
Since so much paperwork is now required by administrators and assessors, the discourse of quality control can easily be
incorporated into a business language class: 'Better computer networks and better software platforms promise smooth integration
of institutional missions and learner outcomes by more efficient use of physical resources. . . producing greater autonomy in
learners requires specific teaching strategies. . . ' Read any Vice-Chancellor's mission statement for further examples. Teachers
also know, however, that the resources required for the achievement of such grand aims often remain out of reach, or that when
they are finally in place there is no time to exploit them. Authoring CALL software, for example, is

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an extremely time-consuming business. And, like much course development work, it is given little or no credit when it comes to
promotion, where research production remains the principal criterion. Change is being forced on universities, but lecturers are
being placed in situations where radical changes to their teaching stylesuch as changes involving the use of information
technology (IT)can constitute academic suicide. Is it not therefore perfectly appropriate, in the context of a business language
course, to introduce debates on time management, stress and health and safety? After all, healthy teaching environments are
those where educational managers' main concern is the maintenance of good working conditions, fair workloads and sensitivity
to teachers' justifiable concerns over the potentially destructive effects of new technologies on job security.
Such issues are not always debated directly in the classroom, but the brighter students rapidly make connections between the
'real' business context (supposedly 'outside' the institution) and what they observe going on around them. They see, for example,
that the discourse of management and business is dominated by notions of success, failure and competitiveness, and that the
same words are now being used openly about their departments, their teachers and their courses. In a word, they come to realise
that teachers and learners are part of the same increasingly difficult economic equation. When students' own attitudes and
motivation are made the subject of questionnaires based on job evaluation and self-assessment documents used by lecturers'
employers, then the learners' psychological environment becomes a mirror image of the institutional one.
What is CALL and Why are We Using It?
In schools of modern languages academic ownership of language teaching has traditionally been the preserve of modern
languages lecturers whose approach to language teaching, in extreme cases, is limited to recreating what they experienced as
students. Though younger staff now receive some training in basic teaching methods, knowledge of research into language
pedagogy is sparse. In this context, computer assisted language learning (CALL) practitioners are sometimes seen as refugees
from the chalk-face or exponents of a discipline still in its infancy, and ignorant of its roots. As R. Sussex has recently
demonstrated, while attempting to define an epistemology for CALL (Exeter 'CALL and the Learning Environment' conference,
September 1995) this is largely true: dominated, only ten years ago, by isolated programmers using primitive and incompatible
technologies and despite enormous technological advances, CALL is a heterogeneous discipline still awaiting agreed design

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criteria, common technical standards and consistent pedagogies. It is, however, also true that nobody needs to be intimidated any
longer by specialists and their jargon, for an abundance of both very simple and highly sophisticated authoring systems are
available for materials development as well as a number of ready-made packages from the Teaching and Learning Technology
Programme. We describe in a moment how the 'French for Business' course has made use of readily available and simple-to-use
tools in order to enhance the learning experience of the students who have opted for it and to streamline the delivery of learning
materials, available 'at the click of a button'.
An Outline of the Course

Contact hours are limited by the options system, so the course is delivered by means of a weekly lecture backed up by weekly
seminars and individual tutorials once a term. Practicals in PC classrooms using the university NOVELL network provide basic
skills training where necessary, but the course requires that students do more than use word-processors. It is, for example,
necessary for them to access and retrieve information from anywhere in the university using the wide area UNIX network,
which lurks behind the more user-friendly NOVELL menus. The Language Centre's NOVELL network and audio-visual
resources then provide backup for browsing, learning, writing and revising in a more congenial, languages-dedicated
environment, where multimedia computers sit alongside TV/VCRs and audio decks, and show satellite TV and video in a re-
sizeable window.
The course therefore combines 'teacher-centred' and 'learner-centred' strategies in such a way as to make the teaching/learning
opposition more or less meaningless. So while lectures are still the main channel of communication, individual language
tutorials ensure that teacher and learners can engage in talk about assignments while providing a space for advising and
counselling. The weekly lecture introduces new concepts embedded in overlapping lexical fields (for example a series on
markets, marketing and merchandising, or information technology, internal communication in the enterprise, new media and
advertising). Practicals and seminars then seek to connect the new lexis to contexts and live issues. IT and CALL therefore
complement rather than replace more traditional teaching and learning methods.
Aims and Methods: Enhancing Language Skills

The main aim of the course has remained the same since its inception three years ago, despite rapid changes in the physical,
electronic and

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pedagogical environments. Enhancing linguistic and critical skills remain a priority, but all language activities and assignments
now arise out of course topics such as information processing in business, electronic transfer of data and money, or the role of
technology in creating and sustaining demand. A key element in this process is the recycling of the linguistic materials used in
exercises, which are cut from digitised documents used in lectures and classes and inserted into all manner of activities:
translations, commentaries, résumés, context exercises and vocabulary tests. In this way learning new vocabulary is made the
natural by-product of teaching strategies designed to both inform and motivate: discussions about social security, job prospects,
ethical standards in business or consumerism interest students deeply, and, obliged to discuss issues in French, the terms they
have heard, read and repeated in language exercises begin to emerge spontaneously.
Accuracy as well as fluency in the spoken language is encouraged, for there is no doubt that professionals in the French business
world, influenced by official policy, traditional educational practices and popular TV shows dealing with linguistic issues such
as 'La Dictée' (The Dictation Show), are highly sensitive to correct usage, good style and correct grammar, and however
confident students may feel in conversing, and however authentic their speech may sound, it often remains a species of talk that
has very little purchase on 'business language'. Business is invariably a matter of transaction, negotiation, persuasion and
argument, and apparently casual speech can be deceptive, for elaborately coded messages can be conveyed in the vernacular.
This can be exemplified using interviews with industrialists on such programmes as 'Les rendezvous de l'entreprise' (TF1). The
upshot, not surprisingly, is that the study of rhetoric also finds its place in the courseand nowhere more pertinently than in the
weeks devoted to communication, marketing and advertising.
Reinforcing Lexis Using IT

Because the French for Business course focuses constantly on varieties of written language, we start with reading. Texts
downloaded from the Le Monde CD database (on the university NOVELL network) are collected under various headings, such
as 'marchés' or 'chômage' or 'sécurité sociale AND déficit', and students unfamiliar with the software rapidly learn how to refine
their keyword searches (Darby, 1990). They are shown how to copy files, and make their own electronic vocabulary lists using
macros. They are informally tested on this vocabulary at the end of term, using e-mail, mainly in order to ensure that they have
mastered the technical side of the

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process. More formal tests come nearer the examination. The need for a rapid and systematic expansion of their lexical base is
thus emphasised, and they are made to realise that with resources such as Le Monde on CD available on-line to simultaneous
users (25 at any one time) they cannot make excuses about library books being unavailable. (The course in any case makes
minimal bibliographical demands, being based on a single course book and articles from the economic and business press). This
strategy is based upon a firm conviction that language learning much be 'situated' (Laurillard, 1993: 18-19), and that if the
learning process can involve some kind of related activity, such as keying in words or cutting and pasting phrases in a text
jumbler, there is a chance that new words or phrases will be 'hooked' onto physical memories as well as abstract ideas or
semantic fields.
Systems
As mentioned earlier, the course depends on an information system allowing the remote delivery and retrieval of learning
materials. The system also facilitates the use of electronic mail and other network services. It is called NOUVEAU FRENBUS,
and consists of a program written in C running on the main campus UNIX network. Students connect to it by means of a
'symbolic link' permitting access to readable files in a series of directories. Files sent to the system weekly from the course
leader's desktop, and transferred to individual UNIX accounts, can be copied to disk and printed. All the materials retrieved in
this way are then available for browsing and revision on screen or on paper (see Figures 1, 2 and 3).
The course also relies on a hypertext program, written using the GUIDE authoring system, which presents some of the same
materials, plus a great deal more, all in the form of interactive documents. This software, called HYPERBUS, runs on the
University Language Centre's dedicated multimedia languages network, LANGNET. This network is not currently accessible
from outside the languages building, both for technical reasons and because the cost of campus-wide software licences for the
authoring systems and other programs would be prohibitive. Users can however log on to the UNIX network and the main
campus NOVELL network from the open-access languages facility. In this way, students on the 'French for Business' option can
get information on lectures and seminars, read and copy lecture notes, download background files, or respond to e-mail
messages and then use the Language Centre's multilingual word-processors, laser printer and other resources to produce their
written work. The work can then be returned for correction using the UNIX system.

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Figure 1
Tasks
Electronic assignments based upon lectures and distributed text files are a regular feature of the course: lists of previously
encountered lexical items are sent to students in the FRENBUS mail group (a single message suffices), with a deadline for the
return of the file. Learners may have to perform a number of tasks, each of which corresponds to a different pedagogical
objective. To ensure that all distributed materials are (a) read and (b) understood, the first tasks consist of putting words and
phrases into context or re-arranging jumbled wordlists. These tasks are relatively simple, the aim being to create a sense of
familiarity with both the new lexical material, and the new mediumthe electronic mail editor. Students whose e-mail
communications tend otherwise to be rough and ready, improve their presentation and formatting skills rapidly, and soon return
documents with neat columns, and justified margins (Makin, 1994: 83-96).
Another simple skill that has to be mastered is the use of ASCII codes

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for the production of accented characters. Once these have been learned, they can be applied in almost any proprietary word-
processing software, or CALL packagemost of which still bear witness to the lack of standards in this area. A set of macros for
producing accents in WORD 2 and WORD 6 are also provided.
Consolidation of the new lexis comes with repeated use and multiple exposure: terms that are used in the weekly lecture are
highlighted in the lecture notes (available in digitised form before the actual event) and then shown on overhead transparencies.
The software for the course is demonstrated using a projector and panel in the lecture room, and again in the computer room.
Lectures that lend themselves to colourful presentations (such as those dealing with advertising) are illustrated using the video
presenter and Microsoft Powerpoint. All lectures involve dialogue and question and answer sessions, which provide a first,
informal method of gaining feedback and checking comprehension, which is then tested more comprehensively using a variety
of techniques, as detailed in the next section. Individual problems are either discussed by appointment, or dealt with using e-
mail.
Techniques
IT and authored courseware (as opposed to ready-made CALL programs) come into their own in a course of this kind because
they permit the collection, re-arrangement, distribution and retrieval of large amounts of linguistic data. Week by week, an
electronic corpus is built up and re-cycled into a wide variety of learning activities. The teacher can take any part of a structured
text (a lecture, a quotation from a chapter in a course manual, an acronym plus explanation, or an article downloaded from Le
Monde sur CD-ROM) and re-use it, and learners can do just the same. By writing macros that speed the cutting and pasting of
lexical items from one window into another students build up their own 'customised' lexicon, into which any lists sent to them
electronically can easily be incorporated, by inserting the file, and re-sorting it. A simple freeware DOS concordancer is
available for tasks requiring more refined ways of organising lexical materials.
A more recently conceived exercise consisted of downloading an article from Le Monde, and translating part of it using standard
tools (manual dictionaries). After a few days, a machine-translated version (using GLOBALINK PROFESSIONAL) was cut and
pasted into the source text and juxtaposed against a model translation. This was returned to the group by attached file. The
students' next task consisted of writing a short

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linguistic commentary on the different translations: theirs, the one produced by the machine translation software and a 'model' I
provided. The students' own translations and their commentary on the other translations were then discussed in their language
tutorials. The point was not to prove that human translators are redundant: on the contrary! In fact, this 'state of the art' software
cannot deal with ambiguity, non-standard or elliptical syntax and produces hilarious incidences of contextual mis-readings. The
exercise does, however, usefully relativise the sense of the power of IT that mere electronic transmission and reproduction can
confer on impressionable subjects. Far more important than the 'translation' itself are the mistakes: the transformations of lexical
items inserted by a machine into a totally alien context or an inappropriate syntagm are very informative about our language
competence, our use of stylistic effects, andof courseour love of rhetoric, which is something only the computer in Stanley
Kubrick's 2001, a Space Odyssey had any real grasp of. Students realise, after examining a machine-translated text, that in-
depth understanding does not just happen, but depends instead upon a sophisticated process of inferencing from contextual clues
as well as prior knowledge of lexis, grammar and syntax and the ability to set words in projected contextual backgrounds.
The first tasks undertaken by the learners thus provide them with an interlinked set of skills while broadening lexical, syntactic
and stylistic understanding. As it can take several class hours and a number of instruction sheets to perfect these techniques, and
because the avoidance of paper can appear unnecessarily time-consuming to learners unused to computers, it is important to
explain clearly to learners that the purpose of such exercises is not to make translation or commentary exercises easier, but to
make them both more computer literate and more aware of the way they apply contextual knowledge and make use of inductive
reasoning and intuition when faced by difficult texts.
All recorded materials used in lectures and seminars are copied and left in the open-access centre for revision purposes, together
with files of background texts, such as summaries and statistics from the current edition of L'Etat de la France (CREDOC, La
Découverte, Paris). Any student who cannot attend a lecture or seminar can find the materials, and is expected to complete the
tasks, which include a number of worksheets relating to the BBC series 'France Means Business'. These 30 minute films come
complete with transcripts, and though intended for self-access use by business executives, can be very effectively re-purposed
for advanced learners, especially if they have been contextualised using articles from Le Monde or the economic press, and are
used as illustrations of specific lecture

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topics, such as distribution, products or marketing. As with other exercises, the successful completion of tasks is dependent upon
thorough re-reading of all related materials. A student recently described this fairly elementary teaching technique as 'very
cunning', as he had no choice but to organise his files and read all the notes and support texts before being able to commence the
exercise. The moral seems to be that even fourth-year university students still need a lot of support, and structured learning
programmes, as well as 'do-it-yourself' packages.
Resource-based Learning
Mastering the new systems and coming to grips with the new learning environment takes most students the best part of the first
term. In the second term, it is assumed that the basic foundation has been created, and a basic lexicon is in place. Now, a
number of different tasks are introduced, such as résumé, translation (treated as an exercise in re-writing), and the analysis of
advertising messages, a task that allows the students to re-apply their literary skills to non-literary texts which, when subjected
to 'close reading', reveal a great deal and provoke much animated discussion. Once again, the method employed makes use of
the text-processing power of IT, for the students can study examples of work set for the previous year's cohort, now transformed
into interactive documents in the HYPERBUS system, such as the curiously 'retro' advertisement for the new Citroen MPV used
in the 1995 exam paper (the exam paper, complete with graphics, is available on NOUVEAU FRENBUS for downloading as a
WORD 6 file). Students taking the 1995 exam who had closely followed all the seminars and gone back to the videos and
worksheets were able to score well here, for they remembered the programme from the M6 (Monte Carlo) 'Culture Pub' series
that showed how Citroën, Peugeot and Fiat were 'repackaging' the same vehicle for different markets.
Consistent in the way it rewards enterprise (by students) the course actively encourages 'value-added' work, and those who can
assimilate new materials quickly as well as those who need to go over materials slowly in their own time benefit from the
availability factor that use of the networks has introduced: even if they lose their disks, or if files are attacked by virusesthese
are regular occurrencesthe basic core of learning materials remains in the UNIX system, on HYPERBUS or in the Language
Centre library. Those who wish to do more than the standard assignments can access the source texts of last year's exercises on
NOUVEAU FRENBUS, attempt the tasks, then compare their results with what has been provided, complete with hidden text,
pop-up notes, cross-references and links to

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Figure 2
other exercises, such as scored tests authored in QUESTION MARK PROFESSIONAL, or ready-made learning and testing
packages such as French for Finance and Business (Wayell, Dacre & Wisniewski, 1991), which provides gap-filling and
multiple choice questions based on a useful set of texts about commercial law, banking and stock markets.
Follow-up
The aim is thus to provide learners with many ways of accessing language learning materials, and to promote self-reliance,
while providing a solid basis of core IT skills (some will be doing the course partly because it gives them one last chance to get
to grips with computers, before applying for jobs). To this extent, the results are very encouraging (in an e-mail, a student
recently wrote 'Grâce à ce cours, j'ai conquis ma peur irrationnelle des ordinateurs...') but the real benefit lies in the way writing
skills can be enhanced: students are greatly encouraged when their work is returned to them after being read (on e-mail) and
corrected twice. The file is first sent to a native speaker language assistant, who 'proof-reads' the French and adds comments on
grammar and syntax, spontaneously employing the 'tu' form. The work is then forwarded to the course leader, who reverts to the
formal 'vous' style and adds remarks on content, plus more judgemental comments and a grade. Students can write back with
any queries, and, when they agree that it would be useful, they then send in what may by

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now be a virtually perfect piece of writing. The same process is taken a step further using 'attached files'. Instead of submitting
the assignment using the e-mail editor students send a word-processed document 'attached' to a message. The course leader
transfers it, corrects it, and sends it back, with interpolated comments and corrections highlighted in colour. A colour print of the
work is filed, with the student's permission, for discussion in the end of term language tutorial.
Communicative TeachingWith and Without Electronics

Happily, while there are certainly many efficiency gains involved in the delivery of a course by IT, the need for tutorials and
personal contact remains clear. Indeed, the more one relies on remote communications, the more necessary regular face-to-face
encounters become (Guillot, 1993: 16-19). This is one reason why there is still a weekly lecture, despite the fact that the whole
core course could theoretically be put 'on-line' and backed up by videos, in the manner of an Open University unit. Similarly, it
has become clear that giving students the means to take control of their own learning by putting materials at their disposal at all
points of a campus network does not mean less workjust different work, different problems, different opportunities.
A lot of information about how to access all this information has to be provided (and not just for Faculty Reviews and Teaching
Quality Assessments) for it is no good sending digitised files to a remote server if accessing them is too complex or if local
terminals and printers are not available. Again, because the nature of the contact with learners alters, teachers have to be ready
to deal with new kinds of problems, involving computer-shyness or 'technophobia'. Much care has therefore to be taken with
managing the kinds of communication involved: e-mail, voicemail and video links can enhance the learning process, but can
equally alienate certain individuals. However, 'asynchronous connectivity' (connecting with students as and when they address
you electronically) alters discourse styles in ways that can be turned to pedagogical advantage. Those who have studied the
writing styles of users of the Internet have for example frequently observed that there are big differences between e-mail
exchanges, where there is distance but not anonymity, and messages on bulletin boards, which can be little more than invitations
to graffiti artists.
Wanting to encourage free speech and honest comments on the course, the first title I gave to the bulletin board facility on an
earlier version of FRENBUS was indeed 'Espace graffiti'; subsequently, when revising the software, and realising that the
invitation was altogether too tempting for

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some, I changed the title to 'Espace Feedback'. As a result, students interpreted the invitation to comment on the course far more
responsibly. This illustrates the importance of constant revision of the new communicative conventions required by IT, as
teachers learn to harness its power in the interests of learners, and as learners explore the variety of registers and protocols the
new media offer them. It took the arrival of reception theory to remind some university teachers that all writing is fundamentally
communicative, none more so than an assignment, for whatever its other purposes (translation, etc.) it is a request for
information and advice. To be able to archive all the writing students do, and to be able then to analyse it, makes evaluation of
teaching techniques far easier than it ever was before. As a result, the revision and improvement of the course becomes part of a
constant cycleone that could even be called a 'quality control' process.
Conclusion
Applied pedagogy involves complex psychological, temporal and situational dynamics and relationships. In a world in which
value systems have become totally confused, compromising with unpleasant facts may seem to some to be a betrayal which only
perpetuates the confusion. In the meantime, however, we have certain moral responsibilities towards learners, as well as the duty
of helping them to maximise their intellectual and economic potential. The kind of learning environments engineered for
maximal learner input imagined by technocrats is pure fantasy, and we must avoid repeating, with IT, an earlier fiasco: rote
learning and structural drills in the most de-motivating environment of all, the language 'laboratory'. Better trained language
teachers and more books are, however, unlikely to be forthcoming, as there is a political consensus to the effect that what
monies are available should be spent on nursery education and primary and secondary education. And who could possibly
disagree? Meanwhile, where business languages at tertiary level are concerned, the choices are limited, for those who have
influence over the Modern Languages syllabus in British universities are presently more interested in cultural studies than
enterprise. If, therefore, it be shown that a combination of traditional teaching, CALL, IT and open-access learning can satisfy
the demands of both managers and learners, there may be lessons for other kinds of language options, and even courses on
culture and literature. Neither mechanical CALL exercises nor sophisticated hypertext programs can of themselves guarantee
improvements in outcomes: the key is a combination of teacher and learner motivation. If both parties in the educational
equation were more interested in rethinking the processes of language learning, half the battle would already be won.

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Figure 3
References
Darby, J. (ed.)(1990) Exploiting CD-ROM Technology. The CTISS File, No. 10. Oxford: CTISS, University of Oxford.
Guillot, M-N. (1993) Computer information systems and learner independencea word of caution. ReCall 8, 16-19.
Laurillard, D. (1993) Rethinking University Teaching. London: Routledge.
Makin, L. (1994) Learner tele-support: Language advising by e-mail. In E. Esch (ed.) Self-Access and the Adult Language
Learner (pp. 83-96). London: CILT.
Wayell, G., Dacre, T. and Wisniewski, M. (1991) French for Finance and Business. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
The following reports and other works were consulted as the course was developed and during the writing of this article:
Beyond Lectures, The Report of the Information Systems Committee Courseware Development Working Party. CTISS
publications, July 1992. Oxford: CTISS, University of Oxford.
Chryssides, G.D. and Kaler, J.H. (1993) An Introduction to Business Ethics. London: Chapman and Hall.
Coleman, J. (1995) Studying Languages: A Survey of British and European Students. London: CILT.
Darby, J. (ed.) (1992) Computers in University Teaching: Core Tools for Core Activities. CTISS, March 1992. Oxford: CTISS,
University of Oxford.
Esch, E. (ed.) (1994) Self-Access and the Adult Language Learner. London: CILT.
Rigby, G. and Burgess, R.G. (1991) Language Teaching in Higher Education. Employment Department, Brochure No. ED23.
Working Party of the Committee of Scottish University Principals (1992) Teaching and Learning in an Expanding Higher
Education System. Lasswade, Midlothian: Polton House Press.

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Chapter 18
Accelerated Language Learning in an Intensive LSP Teacher-Training Programme
MariekenSwart
Crisis in Education
In South Africa, centuries of racial segregation more than four decades of apartheid rule and a high population growth have
resulted in an educational crisis that demands drastic measures if the economic potential of its population is to be realised.
One source of grave concern in South Africa is the high percentage of people who have had no schooling at all, namely 18.02%
of the total population and 25.10% of the Black population. This means that more than 7 million Black South Africans have had
no schooling. In addition, it is estimated that more than 40% of the Black population is illiterate, or has had only four years of
schooling or less. In fact, the 1991 figures show that 79.5% of the Black population of 30 million have nine years of education
or less (National Education Policy Branch, 1993: 52).
The situation in South African schools is an additional cause for concern. With approximately 64% of the pupil population in
primary schools, the indications are that the education system is at present mainly providing basic education. The situation in
Black education is further exacerbated by the quality of education that is provided. This is illustrated by the fact that in 1987
'about 40 percent of the teachers in black schools had an educational level of 12 years of schooling or less' (Institute for Futures
Research, 1992: 3-153). Since then the situation has improved slightly. In 1992 about 44% of the teachers in Black education
had at least three years' appropriate training after matriculating (12 years' schooling). This is in sharp contrast with White
education where nearly all the teachers had at least this level of education in 1992. This problem is also reflected in the
matriculation results

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Table 1 Percentage matriculation passes according to
population groups in 1990
95.8%
Whites
95.0%
Asians
79.4%
Coloureds
36.7%
Blacks
Source: Institute for Futures Research (1992: 3-145)
(results of the final, 12th year of schooling). Whereas the percentage passes of White and Asian pupils in the matriculation
examination is high (Table 1), the corresponding figures for Black matriculants reflect the poor standard of education received in
these schools and also the low level of educational qualifications amongst Black teachers.
Thus rapidly increasing Black pupil numbers and inadequately qualified Black teachers make it difficult to keep up with the
provision of basic education services in South Africa, not to mention improving existing services. Since so many Black adults
and young people have received inadequate schooling, great importance is attached to training teachers to present language
programmes for specific purposes (LSP).
Background to the Teacher Training Programme

It was in response to these very obvious educational needs and specifically the backlog in adult education, that the programme
for Business English Through Accelerated Language Learning (BE-TALL), an LSP programme, was first developed in 1989. Its
main aim was to teach unemployed, largely uneducated, black South Africans the English language skills and thinking skills
that would enable them to function effectively in the informal business sector. The popularity of the course, the excellent results
achieved by the teaching methodology and the general need for specialised language teachers in industry, business organisations
and education prompted the development of a teacher training course in Accelerated Language Learning (ALL).
Currently the programme in ALL trains a variety of LSP language practitioners: language training officers from various
educational and commercial organisations, teachers specialising in academic development programmes at tertiary institutions,
ordinary teachers wishing to improve their teaching skills and lecturers from teacher training colleges and universities. The
training programme is adapted to suit the specific needs

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of LSP trainees or, if the group happens to consist of trainees from a variety of the previously-mentioned fields, guidelines are
provided as to how the methodology can be used for different purposes. It does not provide LSP teachers with teaching content,
but seeks rather to provide the trainees with the skills needed to develop an LSP course.
As a methodology, ALL has a firm academic base at the University of Stellenbosch since it is being used most successfully by
lecturers in various language departments. It has been used to teach literature (Shakespeare's Merchant of Venice and Hamlet)
and to teach first-year students Xhosa. Currently it is also being employed as a teaching method in the German department and
the English Academic Development Programme of the University. The aim of the latter is to increase the English language
proficiency of first-year students from educationally disadvantaged communities. In addition to numerous ALL research projects
like BE-TALL, Stellenbosch lecturers have used ALL in extra-curricular LSP language courses such as teaching Afrikaans to
parliamentarians and German to airline personnel.
Teacher Training in Accelerated Language Learning

The intensive teacher-training course in ALL has been presented twice a year since 1991 by the lecturers who have developed
expertise in the method. It lasts for five days, from 08h00 until 17h30 each day, and involves the completion of specific tasks in
the evenings. The training course is loosely based on the principles of Suggestopedia, a language methodology first developed in
Bulgaria by Georgi Lozanov and currently applied extensively in South Africa and the rest of the world.
The ALL training course design comprises three main components, namely the Demonstration Phase, the Theoretical Phase and
the Practical Phase. Each of these will be described in turn.
The Demonstration Phase

The Demonstration Phase is based on the fact that experience is the best teacher and preacher. The participants are immersed in
a fresh experience that is designed to break through all preconceived ideas about teaching practice. For this purpose they are
exposed to two three-hour demonstrations. The first demonstration is presented to them in a foreign language, the choice of
which depends on the language composition of the group. Normally this would be either German, French or an African language
like

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Xhosa or Sotho. The second demonstration is in the target language, namely English.
Since teachers tend to have fixed ideas about teaching methodologies and are generally loath to change their teaching style from
the familiar to the unfamiliar or from the conventional to the innovative, the Demonstration Phase has been specifically designed
to jolt them out of their methodological complacency. It puts the trainees at the receiving end of a language lesson unlike
anything they have experienced before. Right from the start, the foreign-language demonstration is conducted only in the target
language (French, German or Xhosa). This instills a greater awareness of what it is like to learn a new language, of the
difficulties and emotions experienced by the foreign-language learner. Yet, at the same time, the demonstration provides clear
proof of just how quickly a new language can be learned as the trainees are able to participate in basic communicative role-play
situations at the end of the three-hour session. It thus enables the trainees to experience the method firsthand. It also makes it
easier for them to make an objective assessment of their reactions to the various techniques used. The second demonstration in
English extends and reiterates the impression and experience of the German demonstration. It also illustrates how easily the
teaching method can be adapted to both foreign and second language teaching.
The Theoretical Phase

During the Theoretical Phase of the training, the participants are asked to extrapolate the didactic principles that form the basis
of the demonstrations. After this follows the formal theoretical input which consists of the neurological and didactic principles
that support the methodology. In other words, the trainees are given lectures on the way in which the brain functions and on
teaching techniques that ensure optimal cognitive activity. Each phase of the two demonstrations they have experienced is
analysed and explained. They are therefore introduced to the basic principles of ALL.
The warm, relaxed and friendly atmosphere created by the presenters during the demonstrations, makes it easy for the trainees to
extrapolate two of the fundamental principles of ALL, namely that the learning process should be a joyful, tension-free
experience. They have also been made aware of the importance of positive suggestion. The latter principle has been amply
illustrated during the demonstrations by the positive, supportive attitude of the presenters and by the fact that the learners
themselves are prompted to help, support and encourage their fellows. The traditional role of the

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teacher has thus been changed to that of a presenter, facilitator and mediator who encourages interdependent learning amongst
peers. The atmosphere in the venue differs greatly from the traditional classroom since it is warmed by flowers, music, colourful
posters illustrating the target language of the particular lesson, and by an informal arrangement of furniture. It transmits a
positive, non-verbal message that learning is fun, that it is easy and that the learners have the potential to succeed. Once this
belief has been inculcated, accelerated learning is achieved more easily.
The principles of joy, relaxation and positive suggestion are specially important to LSP teaching when the learners are students
or adults who have little confidence in their own ability to reach the required level of proficiency, or to learn a new language,
particularly at an advanced age. The principles are even more essential when the learners come from disadvantaged
communities, as they so frequently do in South Africa.
The third principle of the methodology, namely the utilisation of the paraconscious (or subconscious mind) has also been
illustrated by the demonstrations, although the trainees might be less aware of this. According to Georgi Lozanov (1978: 74) the
term paraconscious covers
unconscious automated elements in the field of conscious mental activity; subsensory (subliminal) stimuli; peripheral
(marginal) perceptions and most of the emotional stimuli.
The paraconscious is activated in various ways so that it becomes a partner in the learning process. Through the defocused
learning that takes place when a variety of well-structured games and role-play exercises are used, the unconscious mind
automatically absorbs the target language while the conscious mind is concentrating on the game itself. The element of
competition engenders some tension, but because the emotions of the learners are positively engaged in the game, the learning
process itself is moved to the periphery and the learners experience no stress regarding the target language. Longstanding
affective, cognitive and emotional barriers to learning are thus more easily breached. The paraconscious is also utilised in the
learning process through the colourful posters on the walls that emphasise the language skills targeted in the particular lesson.
The trainees are reminded that the receptive fields of human sense organs and the brain are much wider than conscious
perception and that peripheral perception and positive emotive stimuli play an important role in utilising long-term memory
(Botha, 1990: 24).
The principle of multisensory input is also stressed. Teacher trainees know, or should know, that learning which relies primarily
on verbal communication is nearly context-free and will be consigned to the

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short-term memory where it is subject to considerable decay if not used often. Multisensory input, on the other hand, is encoded
in multiple areas of the brain and is more easily recorded in the long-term memory (Hand, 1986). The ease with which the
trainees have been able to recall the auditory, visual and kinaesthetic stimuli used in the demonstrations convinces them more
forcibly that learners remember
10% of what they hear
15% of what they see
20% of what they hear and see
70% of what they hear, see and respond to, and
90% of what they hear, see, respond to and process. (Maree, 1987)
The training course places heavy emphasis on the principle of integrated, massive input which has also been demonstrated in the
first phase of the course. In ALL a specially chosen or written text forms the hub of the teaching and acts as a springboard for
all exercises and activities. All teaching is thus done within a meaningful, integrated context.
For the BE-TALL Programme (Business English Through Accelerated Language Learning) the text was specially written to
address the needs of unemployed, potential traders who wish to start their own small business in the informal sector. It tells the
story of a young Xhosa man, Vuzi, who moves to the city to learn the shopkeeping business from an uncle. The story is divided
into 10 chapters and contains most of the vocabulary and language structures identified during an analysis of the language needs
of the traders. As the characters in the story have been created to reflect the interests and experiences of the target group, the
traders find it easy to identify with them. It would destroy much of the impact and value of the story if the characters and setting
were foreign to the culture and experience of the traders. Everything that is taught is thus relevant to the needs of the target
group. As one of the perceptive traders comments, 'That Vuzi isn't Vuzi; he's the business'.
In contrast, the texts used in Academic Development Programmes at Stellenbosch are taken from academic textbooks or articles
as the aim is to familiarise the students with the style and vocabularly of academic writing. In a literature course, the text would
be a short story, poems, or extracts from a prescribed novel or play. For LSP courses, practitioners would probably have to write
texts that answer to the needs of the learners.
During the ALL training course, the text requirements are discussed in detail. The trainees from different disciplines discuss the
kind of text most suited to their educational goal in small groups and then report their findings to the whole group. Trainees
involved in teaching French as a

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foreign language to executives would, for example, require a text vastly different to those involved in training court interpreters.
The trainees are gradually made aware that the teaching cycle of the methodology consists of the following:
(1) The Prelude or Decodingpreparatory phase
(2) The First Reading of the textmain input
(3) The Second Reading of the textsecondary input
(4) The Activationsinculcation through exercises.
The importance of the prelude or decoding that precedes the reading of the text is emphasised in the ALL training programme.
Called the prelude or advance organiser, decoding entails a focused preview of the material presented in the specially selected
text. It prepares the learners mentally and focuses their attention on the main objective of the lesson, which could be to teach
new vocabulary and language structures, a grammatical principle like the correct use of tenses or verb concord, or specific
stylistic techniques.
The actual reading of the text to the accompaniment of classical music plays a pivotal role in the teaching method. The research
done on the influence of music on the learning process and the didactic principles that underlie its use, are far too extensive and
complex to be dealt with in the context of this paper. Suffice it to say that the benefits of using concertos by the Viennese
composers (Mozart, Beethoven) during a first reading of the text and Baroque music (Vivaldi) as background to the second
reading have been thoroughly researched.
It may be difficult to believe that Western classical music can be used effectively to enhance the language learning of, for
example, poorly educated Black learners, yet this was certainly found to be the case in the language course presented to Black
traders in South Africa during the BE-TALL programme. In spite of the fact that Western classical music is not part of the
African culture, and that one trader said she initially found that 'The music pinched my mind away from the words', all the
Black students who have been taught by means of the method have responded extremely positively to the use of classical music
and have undoubtedly benefited from the cross-cultural exposure.
The activation phase follows the two readings of the text and is guided by the principle of defocused learning. The trainees have
already been exposed to a variety of activations during the two demonstrations and are now given guidelines on how to attain
defocused learning in their teaching. Conventional language exercises are of course used during the activations, but the
importance of interactive, learner-centred activities based on or

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flowing out of the text is stressed. It is pointed out to the trainees that most of the language activities used during the
demonstrations like the Bingo, Snap and ball games, or the activities involving dramatisation, mime, songs, information gap
exercises and role play, are all a form of defocused learning. The conscious attention of the learners is on the game rather than
on the target language, with the result that they are not aware that they are learning.
It quickly becomes clear to the trainees that frequent repetition, albeit in different forms like the prelude, text readings or
activations based on the text, lies at the heart of ALL. Like the preacher asked to comment on the secret of his success, the ALL
teacher can say: 'First I tell them what I'm going to tell them, next I tell them and then I tell them what I've told them.' The
important difference is, however, that the 'telling' is so well masked that the learners experience it as discovery of self-learning
rather than 'telling' or teaching.
The Practical Phase

The Practical Phase of the training is presented in tandem with the Theoretical Phase. Teacher trainees are given ample
opportunity to apply and practise the basic principles and techniques. Breakaway specialist groups are formed to practise the
techniques used, such as those employed in the design and reading of a text or activities particularly suited to the teaching
objectives. Each group also has to prepare a mini- demonstration in which the members illustrate the various stages of the
teaching cycle used in Accelerated Language Learning. Each demonstration is then discussed and evaluated by the course
participants.
Although the teacher training course in ALL may not take the place of conventional training completely, it provides new teacher
trainees with a fresh perspective on teaching principles and practice. In addition, it stimulates experienced teachers to escape
from stultifying methodological teaching ruts and experiment with creative and innovative techniques. One of the greatest
advantages of the training course has been its flexibility since the methodology can be used to train language teachers ranging
from primary school to tertiary level. It is also eminently suitable for training LSP teachers specialising in foreign and second
language teaching.
References
Botha, H. L. (1990) Suggestopedia in theory and practice. Per Linguam, 24.
Hand, J. D. (1986) The brain and accelerated learning. Per Linguam 2, 2-6

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Institute for Futures Research (1992) Business Futures 1992. Stellenbosch: University of Stellenbosch.
Lozanov, G. (1978) Suggestology and Outlines of Suggestopedy (trans. Hall-Pozharlieva, M. and Pashmakova, K.) New York:
Gordon and Breach.
Maree, A. (1987) Using video effectively in a group learning situation. Informedia 34,2.
National Education Policy Branch (1993) Education Realities in South Africa 1993. Pretoria: Department of National Education.
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title: Teacher Education for Languages for Specific Purposes

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Teacher Education for LSP

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Teacher Education for Languages for Specific Purposes

MULTILINGUAL MATTERS LTD

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The Context for Foreign Language Teaching in Scottish Schools

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Special Educational Needs

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Developing Specific Competences in the Initial Education of Teachers

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ESP in the USA

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Principal Approaches Used in ESP Instruction

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What ESP Practitions Need

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The Current State of ESP Teacher Education in the USA

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