Stephen van Vlack

Sookmyung Women`s University

Graduate School of TESOL

English for Specific Purposes (ESP)

Spring 2006

Week 9 - ESP Chapter 13 & Grabe and Stoller. (1997), pp. 5-21 - Answers

1. What is the deal with authentic texts and what is the main point behind the statements of Hutchinson and Waters? Is there any inherent value in authentic texts? (ESP 13)

Certainly there is inherent value in authentic texts, especially if we can match the context in which they were written. The comments they make about taking an authentic text out of context and how this basically degenerates the text are certainly noted but like animals in the zoo or artifacts in good museums we can recreate authenticity by creating an authentic context even in the classroom. Still, I advocate the use of authentic texts because they are examples of texts which are the natural products of a neural system proficient in the production of the language. This means that a person does not need to be a native speaker t create authentic texts but they need to be proficient in the language. It also means that not all authentic texts are useful for us. Some of them are anomalies. They are strange. Just because a text is authentic doesn`t mean that it is a good example of language usage. As language teachers we need to find authentic texts which are also good examples of language usage. This will obviously be much easier in CBI than in ESP because in CBI we can simply try to find content-based material in the TL which should be authentic and fitting as regards the content.

      As mentioned above if we find good authentic materials (and with the Internet this might be easier than you might have first thought) we have to make sure that we create a content for their use which in some way matches the original intension or context. This may not present a huge problem when we are using a task-based model. We simply recreate the original context of the text in the task when we can. In this way we can build our lessons around authentic texts. This does mean that we rely exclusively on authentic texts. For more pedagogical activities we may sometimes need to use some contrived materials, maybe. I would still avoid doing so. Authentic materials are a very important aspect of language teaching and especially in the areas of ESP, so don`t let Hutchinson and Waters convince you that they are impossible to use. This simply isn`t true.

2. What is it that an ESP needs to know about the subject area in which they are teaching? (ESP13)

The thing that ESP teachers really need to know about the subject matter they are teaching is really how to teach it. ESP or CBI teachers dealing with science or business do not need to be experts in the field, although this might help. The ESP teacher needs to know some of the basics about the field for the most part so that s/he can select and develop effective materials. Remember the goal of ESP or CBI is not really or just to learn the content but to learn language so the ESP/CBI teacher still needs to devote most of her/his energy in designing tasks that will get the students to learn the language through content, not content through language. As Hutchinson and Waters mention having a positive attitude toward the content is essential. Teachers need to models for students. This relates not only to language use but to learning. Teachers need to acknowledge that they are also constantly learning and need to present themselves as a model learner not just user to their students. Teachers need to believe in the materials they create based on their knowledge as well as the students to get learning to commence.

3. Based on the last section of the chapter, is there any real validity in doing ESP? (ESP 13)

Of there needs to be some validity in doing ESP otherwise people would not be doing it. In this last chapter and in this section in particular Hutchinson and Waters seem to be reminding us that despite the best efforts and training teaching is still very much a negotiation. Few teachers are teaching in what they would describe in any way an optimal situation. This is not just the situation of ESP. General English or TENOR will face the same problems especially when we get into Hagwon teaching which is all pretty much ESP-type teaching in a general sense. All teaching, all work, all life is a series of compromises. While we understand this because we live it every day, it seems, however, that Hutchinson and Waters have overdone this pessimism a bit. Compromise is a necessity of life but it seems here that they have refuted an awful lot of what they previously stated in the book in this chapter and in doing so introduce us to a new and wholly generalized view of ESP. Luckily for us, this generalized view of ESP is further from our original idea of ESP or EVP and closer to EAP or CBI. The main point they are trying to make is that we are better appealing to learning features when choosing content or practice and that way we can mix and match content and practice for learning rather than approaching them individually. To do so this might mean using more generalized content and generalized texts. While I am in full agreement with using learning to join content and practice, I am not so certain about the generalizing of texts. In response to this we can fall back on our old idea in relation to authentic texts. The harder the text the less we expect students to do with it and the simpler the text the more we want the students to be able to do with it.

4. How has SLA research affected CBI? (GS)

One of the most interesting areas of research reported here in relation to CBI is that of the Canadian immersion programs. This is interesting to us because it tells us that immersion alone is not enough. Second language learners obviously need lots of input, extensive input both in spoken and written form, but this input, even if it is meaningful and necessary, will not be enough to guarantee effective output. Learners need to practice as well. Thus CBI is different than immersion in that most immersion programs take it for granted that students are getting some sort of practice outside the classroom. In CBI this may or not be the case so a good deal of practice needs to be built into the lesson and since there is only so much time this is done at the expense of the amount of content the students are expected to deal with. Different fro immersion programs where the focus is on the content and making the content comprehensible, the focus in CBI is making the content work in raising the linguistic level of the learners in the TL. A balance between input and output must be achieved in CBI. Based on this ideas like sociocultural models and Cummin`s Cognitive Academic Language Proficiency (CALP) spell out important ways of achieving this balance.

5. How have training studies aided in the development of CBI? (GS)

Training studies have shown three basic techniques or foci which have a positive effect on learning and are particularly applicable to CBI. They are cooperative learning, strategies instruction and extensive reading. Moving in reverse order we can see how each of these affects the other and together make a comprehensive model for successful learning in CBI. Extensive reading provides students with the vocabulary and structure input they need to be able to encode and strengthen connections to specific forms in the target language. This is true especially in that or even despite the fact that extensive reading is meaning focused and not form focused. The text itself and the meaning in the text provides a context, semantic and otherwise, for effectively storing the new forms encountered repeatedly in the longer texts. Strategies instruction, particularly in relation to reading strategies, ensures that students are able to read efficiently. Reading efficiently ensures that students have the processing skills to focus their attention on the meaning of what they read. Thus, extensive reading will only work as away of teaching language forms if students have strategies which allow them to deal with extensive texts. Finally, cooperative learning provides opportunities for students to practice with the new content/forms they have learned through the reading. Because class time is golden it should be clear that teachers do not have the time to spend lots of time taking to students. Class time needs to be to have the learners taking to/practicing with each other. This simple observation underscores the importance of extensive reading within a CBI format which clearly requires output in the form of cooperative learning.

6. How do models of cognitive psychology and education support the use of CBI? (GS)

A lot of the cognitive and educational models we see explained here are models we have already read about in relation to CBI and ESP. Certainly CALLA and depth of processing research is nothing new to us. The things Grabe and Stoller mention related to motivation and attitudes is related to what we did on the task-based approach as linked to ESP. Discourse comprehension Processing is really related to reading strategies instruction. New to us is the idea of expertise training. This seems like a good idea because it may very well work to raise the students` overall motivation, however, the developing of expertise might focus too much attention on the content itself. Students who are not yet linguistically ready might feel frustrated. So it is important to wait until some of the language skills are there before making the shift from a language skills focus using content to a content focus using language. This might be the natural progression that we ultimately want our students to go through but we might not be there to see it through. As I mentioned in class, and this is an important point that we often forget, teachers are initiators, ut rarely if ever do we get to follow our students all te way to the end. This is a clear rationale for student-centered teaching and is equally a rationale for teachers being idealistic. Expertise training is one of these idealistic types of goals that teachers need to have. They fuel what we do in the present to get our students down the path, but we, sadly, do not get to follow them along the way. They have to move on without us their initiators but at least they can take our aspirations and ideals with them as they move along that path. We have armed them with more than just mere knowledge.

7. Where has CBI been taught and when is it the most successful? (GS)

Reading this article we can see that there many different types of CBI courses out there at many different levels and age groups in both EFL and ESL contexts. While Grabe and Stoller include this they offer little evaluation or comment on the efficacy of such programs. As we mentioned last week, there seems to definitely be a paucity of research on CBI programs. Even the article from Straight which we also read for this week makes no comment on the actual efficacy of the LcX program. We have no idea how these programs benefit the students or what aspects of the programs seem to work best. So all we really have at the end of this is a vague idea of how CBI programs might be set up accompanied by the assertion that they have positive effects without any real empirical evidence of these effects.

8. What are some of the proposed advantages of CBI? (GS)

Grabe and Stoller finish their article with a list of some of the supposed advantages of CBI. Of the seven `advantages` they mention we have already heard about several of them and some of them would seem to overlap a bit. One of the most useful advantages mentioned here is the idea that it is easier to lesson plan or course plan in a student-centered way using CBI because it is very easy to expand on certain topics which the students have problems with or are interested in. A CBI teacher can always go parallel or deeper into certain content area. In this way it is easier to be flexible in a CBI type class. That is quite useful to know.