Professor : Patricia Su

Presenter : Ming-Jen Tsai (Pink)

Number : 10022614
Date : April 12th, 2012
8.1 Aims
 Discussing the steps and the criteria for an integrated
approach to course design.
8.2 Parameters of course design
 8.2.1 Intensive or extensive
 8.2.2 Assessed or non-assessed
 8.2.3 Immediate or delayed needs
 8.2.4 Teacher as provider or as facilitator/consultant
 8.2.5 Broad or narrow focus
 8.2.6 Pre-experience or in parallel with experience
 8.2.7 Common-core or specific material
 8.2.8 Homogeneous or heterogeneous groups and
motivation
 8.2.9 Fixed course design or flexible negotiated course
design
8.2.1 Intensive or extensive
 ESP courses, both EOP(Occupational) and
EAP(Academic), are frequently intensive . Companies
send their managers, secretaries or technicians on
short intensive courses in the expectation that an
exclusive concentration on certain skill or language for
the period of the course will greatly enhance their
performance in activities that require English.
 With extensive courses, however, they may be possible
to incorporate some intensive elements into essentially
extensive courses.
Advantage of intensive courses
 The students are totally focused on their purpose for
learning English and, if the course is residential, they
can be immersed in an English-language environment,
even outside the actual class session.
 This total focus on the ESP course and the absence of
other distractions can mean that the intensive and
residential course makes the most effective use of time
available for English and study/communication skills.
Disadvantages of intensive courses
 With longer courses the total concentration on English
and the absence of academic or professional activity
may become increasingly artificial.
 Students’ motivation seemed to decline, in some cases
quite dramatically.
Advantages of extensive courses
 The course can run in parallel with the subject course
or the professional activity.
 The learners’ experience or needs remain flexible.
 In EAP situations, the profile of ESP as a subject is
raised, thereby increasing motivation.
Disadvantage of extensive courses
 The potential lake of continuity between classes,
particularly if the classes are infrequent(Robinson,
1991).
 Each class and the material for it may have to be self-
contained, it does not allow for carry-over between
classes.
8.2.2 Assessed or non-assessed
Assessed courses in EAP
Assessed
(a)It raises the status of the
subject.
(b)It is taken seriously by both
students and the
department.
(c)It brings responsibilities.
non-assessed
(a)Different groups are taught
by different teachers but take
the same test.
(b) Teachers lost their freedom
in the choice of topics and
material used on the course.
(c) Teachers coordinate to
ensure that the testing is
valid and fair.
8.2.2 Assessed or non-assessed
 Assessed courses in EOP:
 Testing learners’ proficiency(X).
 → Various standardized tests:
(a) proficiency in business
(b)proficiency in business and professional
communication
→Passing examinations enhances learners’ career
prospects.
8.2.3 Immediate or delayed needs
 Any pre-experience course, whether EAP or EOP , is by
definition a course that deals with delayed needs.
 Many EAP courses fall on the continuum between
these two points:
(a)English course runs parallel with subject courses
in the first or second years of students’ subject
course.
(b)But the students’ actual needs for English become
more pressing in later years of the course, or once
they have graduated.
8.2.4 Teacher as provider or as
facilitator/consultant
 Teacher as provider of input:
Teacher expects, or is expected, to control the class, to
provide information about skills and language, to
control the activities, possibly moving into pair or
group work for part of the class, but always at the
suggestion of the teacher.
8.2.4 Teacher as provider or as
facilitator/consultant
 Teacher as facilitator or consultant:
(a)The ESP teacher manages rather than controls.
(b)S/he may not make decisions but will negotiate
with the learners.
 Development:
(a) Teacher knows relatively little about the content.
(b) Proceeds by pulling together and organizing the
information.
8.2.5 Broad or narrow focus
 Broad focus:
Concentrate on a range of target events, such as study
or professional skill, or a variety of genres. It allows us
to deal with a number of skills even if the actual need
is one skill. This may be especially useful if motivation
is a problem.
8.2.5 Broad or narrow focus
 Narrow focus: By a narrow focus we mean that we
concentrate on a few target event, for example just the
listening skill, or just one or two genres. A narrow
focus does not necessarily mean that we only use
specific carrier content for teaching material. A narrow
focus is appropriate where the needs are limited and
the learners are convinced of the importance of
concentrating just on those needs.
8.2.6 Pre-experience or in parallel
with experience
 By pre-experience we mean that learners do not have
experience of the target situation at the time of the
ESP course.
 By parallel with experience we mean that the English
course runs concurrently with the study course or
professional activity.
8.2.7 Common-core or specific
material
 By common-core material we mean material that uses
carrier content which is either of a general academic
nature or of a general professional nature.
 By specific material we mean that the material uses
carrier content that is drawn directly from the learners’
academic or professional area.
8.2.8 Homogeneous or heterogeneous
groups and motivation
 Homogeneous: The main question here is that of the
motivation of learners.
 Heterogeneous: It is more appropriate to look for
topics and activities that are common to the various
interests in the group.
 The homogeneous/ heterogeneous question is the
language level of the students.
8.2.9 Fixed course design or
flexible negotiated course design
 A fixed course design is laid down in advance of the
course and is rarely deviated from.
 A flexible and negotiated course design allows room
for change based on feedback from learners.
(Nunan , 1988)
8.3 Balancing the parameters
 In planning a course, ESP teachers should first be
aware of the options and of the limitations arising
from institutional and learner expectations.
 Initial revisions may be major, but therefore the details
may only need fine-tuning.
8.4 Case Studies
 A case: An extensive, repeated, assessed EAP
course for students at the Jordanian University of
Science and Technology(JUST), Irbid, Jordan
Background
 Arabic is the main language in Jordan; English is a
foreign language.
 At JUST (Jordanian University of Science and
Technology), English is the official medium of course.
 There is a compulsory undergraduate course in English
which all students must pass.
 The purpose is to raise their level of English language
and to try and ensure that no student fails their subject
studies.
Needs analysis procedure
 An initial Target Situation Analysis (TSA) was
conducted using questionnaires with students and
staff, plus structured interviews with subject lecturers.
 Formative evaluation during the next years refined the
needs and provided valuable feedback on materials
and method.
 Lesson record sheets, focus groups with students, staff
discussions, questionnaires, test results and
observation were all used for evaluation.
Broad results of Needs analysis
procedure
 All faculties have prescribed reading and there are
often handouts or laboratory instructions in English .
 Students did not read widely enough.
 The major area of difficulty was considered to be at the
macro-level, understanding the conventions,
rhetorical awareness and organization of ideas.
 Students have to listen to lectures, demonstrations and
instruction and comprehension was generally
considered acceptable.
Course framework
 Two courses are offered each semester:
 Course 1:
-Compulsory for all new undergraduates.
-Duration 12 weeks, total length 36 hours.
- Units 1~5 Strategies for reading: topic sentences,
paragraph organization, paragraph development,
dealing with unknown words, finding information
quickly.
-Units 6~7 Writing laboratory reports.
-Units 8~12 Explorations in reading, listening and
writing.
Course framework
 Course 2:
-Compulsory before graduating.
- Duration 12 weeks, total length 36 hours.
-The first units: cover skills for gathering information.
-The second block: deals with organization, language
and
skills for the written version.
-The third group of units: looks at editing for meaning,
coherence and accuracy.
-While the last three units cover oral presentations.
8.5 Develop a course outline
 With the range of ESP courses that have been taught
around the world and the materials published, even
for a new course, we should not have to start from
scratch – to invent a wheel.
 As with needs analysis, an important part of the
process is to learn from what else we and others have
done.
 Evolution rather than revolution or invention may be
the route for innovation.
8.5.1 Ordering: criteria for
prioritizing
 (a) Beginning with target events and rhetorical
awareness:
- Our starting point is the macro-level- the target events
in which the learners want to operate successfully and
the necessary rhetorical awareness.
-One criterion is according to when the target events
are needed by the learners.
-A second key criterion is that using or learning certain
language or skill is dependent on others.
8.5.1 Ordering: criteria for
prioritizing
 (b) From target events and rhetorical awareness to skill
areas to:
-At the course design stage these skill areas also have to
be ordered and the same criteria apply: what is needed
first, what is a building block, what increases
confidence?
8.5.2 The role of materials
 We stressed in the chapter on needs analysis the
process of discovering, through reading, analyzing
texts, observing interactions, and asking questions of
experts.
 Looking at existing materials, we can learn about skill
areas and associated language from materials.
 The final choice of some features to be taught and the
order they are taught in will come from the materials
we select.
8.5.3 Timetabling
 In some circumstances – courses with few hours or
little time for course design – this may be part of the
initial juggling.
 Much discussion and information exchange went on in
order to establish the course content because this was
the first course of its kind (dual purpose / team-
taught).
 When the course content was outlined, we began to
think about how to teach it and how long different
activities would require.
8.5.3 Timetabling
 The final order (the timetable) was also influenced by
practical learning issues such as:
(a) varying the kind of activities throughout the day
(b) not having heavy input sessions at the end of the
day
(c) having interactive rather than “passive”
immediately after lunch.
8.5.4 The role of assessment and
evaluation
 Grading is achieved not through the course order /
outline but through the materials and methodology.
 When the language learning will be difficult, the
carrier content needs to be easy (but interesting and
not trivial).
 The more difficult an area of language, the more
guidance and support a learner needs in exercises and
tasks as well as more practice.
Thank you for your
attention.