Teacher Education for Languages for Specific Purposes

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Teacher Education for Languages for Specific Purposes Howard, Ron Multilingual Matters 1853593648 9781853593642 9780585149776 English English language--Study and teaching--Foreign speakers, English teachers--Training of. 1997 PE1128.A2T36 1997eb 428/.007 English language--Study and teaching--Foreign speakers, English teachers--Training of.

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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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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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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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Contents Contributors

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A Note on Abbreviations

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Introduction Ron Howard And Gillian Brown

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Part 1: The Context 1 LSP Teacher Education (Foreign Languages): Common and Specific Elements Richard Johnstone

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2 ESP Teacher Education in the USA Peter Master

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3 LSP in the UK Ron Howard

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Part 2: Syllabus Issues 4 Five Questions for LSP Teacher Training Tony Dudley-Evans

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5 Needs Analysis: State of the Art Richard West

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6 Teacher Education and LSP: The Role of Specialised Knowledge Gibson Ferguson

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7 LSP or Language Education? Ian Tudor

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8 LSP Teacher Training in the use of Technology: Overcoming Technofear Philippe Delcloque

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9 Teachers for Specific Purposes Keith Richards

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Page vi Part 3: Case Studies 10 TESP and Technophobes: Can Textbooks Teach Teachers? Eric Glendinning

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11 Discourse Analysis and Training Teachers of LSP: The Example of French for Scientists Robin Adamson

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12 The ESP Coursebook: Effects on an In-service Training Programme in Slovakia 148 Serena Yeo 13 Professional Participation: A Technique for LSP Teacher Education Joan Maclean

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14 The LSP Teacher and Independent Learning Strategies Marina Mozzon-Mcpherson with Marijke Van Der Wolf

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15 EFL Teacher Involvement in a Training Programme for Court Interpreters in Zimbabwe Jill Northcott

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16 A Teacher Training Approach to a Degree in English Philology: Implementing TESP Juan Carlos Palmer and Santiago Posteguillo

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17 Languages for Special Purposes: Using Information Technology in a French for Business Course Anthony Cheal Pugh

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18 Accelerated Language Learning in an Intensive LSP Teacher Training Programme 225 Marieken Swart

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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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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 1618 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), DudleyEvans 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, studentinitiated 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 specialists to take up language teaching, full-time or

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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 learnercentredness, 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

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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

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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. 2331). 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

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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 sixyear 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?

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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

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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

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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

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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

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with FE colleges in Denmark, France, Germany, Portugal and other countries and acquiring some of their much-needed selfhelp 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

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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

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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.

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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-

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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.

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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,

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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 occupationspecific 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. Occupationspecific VESL is designed to prepare

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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

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two views is resolved if CBI is seen as an approach or syllabus (i.e. in contrast to a grammatical, notional/functional, or taskbased 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 themebased 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 themebased 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

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also used in English for Medical Purposes (Kirschner, 1993) and can potentially be used in any form of ESP. Miniethnographies 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 (instructorcompiled 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:

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(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

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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 ESPtrack 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 selftraining 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.

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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.

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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-topractice experience, mentoring, and

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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. References Andrews, D. (1990) ESL instruction in the workplace. The CATESOL Journal 3 (1), 37-47. Auerbach, E. (1992) Making Meaning, Making Change: Participatory Curriculum Development for Adult ESL Literacy. Washington, DC & McHenry, IL: Center for Applied Linguistics/Delta. Axelson, E. and Madden, C. (1990) Videotaped materials for communicative ITA training. IDEAL 5, 1-11. Baltra, A. (1987) Can ESP really be applied in the United States? CATESOL News 19(4), 7. Barnard, R. (1995) Distance inservice training for language teachers: A suggested approach. English Teaching Forum 33 (2), 20-5. Berman, P. and McLaughlin, M. (1978) Federal programmes supporting educational change. Vol. VIII: Implementing and Sustaining Innovations. Santa Monica, CA: Rand Corporation. Boswood, T. and Mariott, A. (1994) Ethnography for specific purposes: Teaching and training in parallel. English for Specific Purposes 13 (1), 3-21. Brinton, D. (1993) Content-based instruction and ESP: Same, or different? TESOL Matters 3 (4), 9. Brinton, D., Snow, A. and Wesche, M. (1989) Content-Based Instruction. Boston, MA: Heinle & Heinle. Crandall, J. (1983) The teacher's role in school improvement. Educational Leadership 41(3), 6-9. (1993) Professionalism and professionalization of adult ESL literacy. TESOL Quarterly 27(3), 497-515.

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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: Prentice Hall Regents. McChesney, B. (1994) The functional language of the US TA during office hours. In C. Madden and C. Myers (eds) Discourse and Performance of International Teaching Assistants (pp. 134-52). Alexandria, VA: TESOL. Micheau, C., Linnell, J., Nabei, T., Shiojima, Y., and Takami, T. (1996) Future teachers learning teaching through EAP. 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. Orr, T. (1995) Studying the professions we serve. ESP News 4 (2), 11. Palmer, J. (1983) What makes a language teacher a professional? The ESP Journal 2 (1), 64-5.

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Preece, R. (1996) Content teachers and CBI/ESP courses: Problems and implications. TESOL Matters 5 (6), 9 Rivers, W. (1983) Designing teacher training to meet local needs. The ESP Journal 2 (1), 66-7. Robinson, P. (1991) ESP Today: A Practitioner's Guide. Hemel Hempstead, UK: Prentice Hall. Shaw, P. (1994) Discourse competence in a framework for ITA training. In C. Madden and C. Myers (eds) Discourse and Performance of International Teaching Assistants (pp. 27-51). Stevens, S. (1989) Improving the International Teaching Assistant Experience: An evaluative study of a training programme. Unpublished doctoral dissertation, University of Deleware, Newark. Stoller, F. and Grabe, B. (to appear) A six-T's approach to content-based instruction. In M. Snow and D. Brinton (eds) The Content-based Classroom: Perspectives on Integrating Language and Content. White Plains, NY: Addison Wesley Longman. Swales, J. (1985) Episodes in ESP. Oxford, UK: Pergamon Press. Swales, J. and L'Estrange, H. (1983) ESP administration and ESP teacher training. The ESP Journal 2 (1), 87-99. Tarone, E. (1983) Teacher training at the University of Minnesota compared to the Ewer model. The ESP Journal 2 (1), 68-70. Terdal, M. (1995) Professionalizing EOP: Developing workplace courses in MATESOL programmes. Presentation given at TESOL 95, Long Beach, CA, 28 March - 1 April. Terdy, D. (1993) Profiles of adult ESL teacher education programmes: Flexible approaches to staff development. TESOL Quarterly 27 (3), 537-41. Tillyer, A. and McGowan-Gilhooly, A. (1995) An on-line professional development seminar! TESL-L, 3 October. Tribble, C. and Jones, G. (1990) Concordances in the Classroom. Harlow, UK: Longman. Troike, R. (1993/94) The case for subject-matter training in ESP. TESOL Matters 3 (6), 7. Uber Grosse, C. (1988) The case study approach to teaching Business English. English for Specific Purposes 7 (2), 131-36. Uber Grosse, C. and Wagner, J. (1994) Training content area teachers through distance learning. College ESL 4 (2), 43-58. van Naerssen, M., Eastwood, S., Berry, K., and Darian, S. (1995) Introduction to the language and culture of scientific literature. Presentation given at the TESOL Convention, Long Beach, CA, 28 March - 1 April. West, L. (1984) Needs assessment in occupation-specific VESL or how to decide what I teach. English for Specific Purposes 3 (2), 143-52. Wong, K. (1992) What do VESL and Content-Based Instruction have in common? The CATESOL Journal 5 (1), 97-101. 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

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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

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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,

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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

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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

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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.

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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,

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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

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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

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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

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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

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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 semitechnical 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 & DudleyEvans, 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. References Abbott, G. (1983) Training teachers of EST: Avoiding orthodoxy. The ESP Journal 2(1), 33-6. Adams-Smith, D. (1983) ESP Teacher-training needs in the Middle East. The ESP Journal 2 (1), 37-8. Allen, J.P.B. and Widdowson, H.G. (1974) The Focus Series. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Barber, C.L. (1962) Some measurable characteristics of modern scientific prose. In Swales (ed.) (1988), pp. 1-16. Bates, M. and Dudley-Evans, A. (1976) The Nucleus Series. Harlow: Longman. Also included in Swales (ed.) (1988) (pp. 93-9). Becher, A. (1989) Academic Tribes and Territories. Milton Keynes: The Society for Research into Higher Education. Bhatia, V.J. (1993) Analysing Genre. Harlow: Longman. Biber, D., Conrad, S. and Reppen, R. (1994) Corpus-based approaches to issues in applied linguistics. Applied Linguistics 15 (2), 169-89. Blue, G. (1988) Individualising academic writing tuition. In P. Robinson (ed.) (1988) Academic Writing: Process and Product (ELT Documents 129) (pp. 95-9). London: Modern English Publications in association with the British Council. Bowyers, R. (1980) War stories and romances: Interchanging experiences in ELT. In Projects in Materials Design (ELT Documents Special) (pp. 71-82). London: The British Council. Brinton, D., Snow, M.A. and Wesche, M.B. (1989) Content-based Second Language Instruction. New York: Newbury House/Harper & Row. Charles, M. (1995) Layered negotiation in business: Interdependence between discourse and the business relationship. Unpublished PhD thesis, The University of Birmingham. Ewer, J.R. (1983) Teacher training for EST: Problems and methods. The ESP Journal 2(1), 9-32. Garcez, P. (1993) Point-making styles in cross-cultural business negotiation: a microethnographic study. English for Specific Purposes 12(2), 103-20. Giddens, A. (1979) Central Problems in Social Theory: Action, Structure and Contradiction in Social Analysis. London: Macmillan. (1984) The Constitution of Society: Outline of the Theory of Structuration. Berkeley: University of California Press. Higgins, J. (1983) Hard facts (notes on teaching English to science students). In Swales (ed.) (1988) (pp. 30-4). Hoey, M. (1983) On the Surface of Discourse. London: George Allen & Unwin.

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Hutchinson, T. and Waters, A. (1983) ESP at the crossroads. In Swales (ed.) (1988) (pp. 174-87). Hutchinson, T. and Waters, A. (1987) English for Specific Purposes. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Johns, A.M. and Dudley-Evans, T. (1991) English for Specific Purposes: International in scope, specific in purpose. TESOL Quarterly 25(2), 297-314. Johns, T.F. (1989) Whence and whither classroom concordancing? In T. Bongaerts, P. de Haan, S. Lobbe and H. Wekker (eds) (1989) Computer Applications in Language Learning. Dordrecht, Netherlands: Foris. Johns, T.F. and Dudley-Evans, A. (1980) An experiment in team-teaching of overseas postgraduate students of Transportation and Plant Biology. In Team Teaching in ESP (ELT Documents 106) (pp. 6-23). London: The British Council. Also included in Swales (ed.) (1988) (pp. 137-55). Limaye, M.R. and Victor, D.A. (1991) Cross-cultural business communication research: state of the art and hypotheses for the 1990s. Journal of Business Communications 28, 277-99. Maier, P. (1992) Politeness strategies in business letters by native and non-native English speakers. English for Specific Purposes 11(3), 189-205. Mauranen, A. (1993) Contrastive ESP rhetoric: Metatext in Finnish-English Economics texts. English for Specific Purposes 12(1), 3-22. Moore, J. (1980) Reading and Thinking in English. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Nickerson, C. (1993) A comparative study of business letters written by native speakers and non-native speakers. Unpublished MA dissertation, The University of Birmingham. Oster, S. (1981) The use of tenses in 'reporting past literature' in EST. In L. Selinker, E. Tarone and V. Hanzeli (eds) English for Academic and Technical Purposes: Studies in Honor of Louis Trimble (pp. 76-90). Rowley, MA: Newbury House. Reid, I. (n.d.) The Place of Genre in Learning: Current Debates. Melbourne: Deakin University Press. Robinson, P. (1991) ESP Today. Hemel Hempstead: Prentice Hall. Shaw, P. (1992) Reasons for the correlation of voice, tense and sentence function in reporting verbs. Applied Linguistics 13(3), 302-19. Sinclair, J.M. and Coulthard, M. (1975) Towards an Analysis of Discourse. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Stevens, V. (1991) Classroom concordancing: Vocabulary materials derived from relevant, authentic text. Englishfor Specific Purposes 10(1), 35-46. Strevens, P. (1988) ESP after twenty years: A re-appraisal. In M. Tickoo (ed.) ESP State of the Art (pp. 1-13). Singapore: 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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Page 69 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) Conversation with 1 person Informal meetings Use of the telephone Reading reports/ correspondence etc., etc.

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Secretaries 2

Sales 3

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3

4 = high priority; 1 = low priority;= not needed

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Table 3 Evolution of needs analysis StagePeriodFocus Scope of analysis 1 Early EOP Target situation 1970s analysis ESP 2

Later 1970s

EAP

Target situation

Examples Richterich, 1971, 1975/1980 ELTDU, 1970 Stuart & Lee, 1972/ 1985 Jordan & Mackay, 1973

analysis 3

4

1980s ESP and general Target situation language teaching analysis Deficiency analysis Strategy analysis

Early ESP 1990s

Means analysis Language audits Integrated/ computer-based analyses

Mackay, 1978 Tarone & Yule, 1989 Allwright & Allwright, 1977 Allwright, 1982 Holliday & Cooke, 1982 Pilbeam, 1979 Jones, 1991 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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Page 77 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 No Easy Troublesome Difficult difficulty Nursing textbooks 3x0=0 21x1=21 5x2=10 0x3=0 Medical textbooks Nursing notes Medical notes Etc.

5 Very difficult 0x4=4

Total = Need 21 + 10 = 31

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. 2431). 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. Hutchinson, T. and Waters, A. (1987) English for Specific Purposes. Cambridge: Cambridge University 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, 126. 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 LSPLGP 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 languageteaching 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. Munby, J. (1978) Communicative Syllabus Design. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. 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 userfriendly 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 paperbased 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 statistical evidence of screen saturation in

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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. Munby, J. (1978) Communicative Syllabus Design. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. 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 'contentbased'. 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 subjectdriven 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, xrays, 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 Table 1 (Teacher) Input 1 General 2 General 3 Specialist

categories in Table 1. (Learners) Output General 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 oversimplified, 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 nonspecialist 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 languageteaching 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 inservice 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 Englishspeaking 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 inservice 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 inservice 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 courses are not practical enough.

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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, problemsolving 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 days 10 English for Medical Congresses course and days sessions with the teachers 1 dayFollow-up session with the teachers

9.304.00 8.301.00 2.004.00 8.301.00

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 (preselected). 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 The LSP Teacher and Independent Learning Strategies 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 selfassessment, 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. The LSP Teacher and Independent Learning Strategies 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 within the group and

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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. Hutchinson, T. and Waters, A. (1987) English for Specific Purposes. 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. Munby, J. (1978) Communicative Syllabus Design. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. 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 was an area the interpreters found

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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. Hutchinson, T. and Waters, A. (1987) English for Specific Purposes. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. 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), 20721.

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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 • as an observer TESP II 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 resizeable 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 wordprocessing 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 email. 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 indepth 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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