Internationalising Learning in Higher Education by Unknown

Author:Unknown
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9783030215873
Publisher: Springer International Publishing

2 Theoretical Framework

Dudley-Evans and St John (1998) defines English for Specific Purposes (ESP) as a discipline oriented towards meeting the needs of learners that focuses on activities of the specific discipline it serves and targets the language needed for these activities. Hutchinson and Waters (1987) further specify that ESP should be regarded as an approach to language learning and not as a particular methodology, distinguishing between what learners do with the language—their performance—and the range of knowledge and abilities that allows them to carry out such performance, that is, their competence. Within ESP, the literature identifies two main branches, English for Academic Purposes and English for Vocational or Professional Purposes, although it is also expanded to include other disciplines such as English for Medical Purposes, English for Business Purposes, English for Legal Purposes and English for Sociocultural Purposes (Belcher 2009).

In this chapter, we will focus on English for Occupational Purposes as an approach to language learning oriented towards helping people use the language to help them carry out their work (Cunningsworth 1998). However, and since the goal is to help design a learning programme, we will follow Koester (2013) in including within this approach the teaching of courses that aim to prepare learners to communicate in English in occupational settings. Since EOP branches out from ESP as a learner-centred approach to learning the language, it is in nature a pragmatic approach as it exists to satisfy a specific need. In this sense, it also has strong relationships with both the field of language assessment and communicative language teaching (Swales 2000). A comprehensive diagram of the factors involved in ESP course design can be found in Hutchinson and Waters (1987: 22) (see Fig. 6.1). This diagram is to serve as the basis for our theoretical framework in which language description corresponds to the way the language is broken down or described to inform the syllabus, learning theories addresses the methodology used to help students acquire the language and needs analysis relates to the particular context in which the course is going to be implemented.

Fig. 6.1Factors affecting ESP course design based on the Hutchinson and Waters proposal (1987)

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