How to Design an ESP Curriculum

As English continues to be spoken internationally as the common language of business, more globally-minded employers seek out employees with English proficiency. The large increase in demand for English language education programs for these global-thinking businessmen has exposed the limitations of traditional English language pedagogy. Unlike traditional students of English as a foreign language, many of these businessmen students desire proficiency only for the special purposes that they will encounter in the workplace. Designing a curriculum focused on the demands of English for Special Purpose students will help your students gain more from your classes.

Instructions

    • 1

      Evaluate the needs of your students for the course. Organize the curriculum around a common special purpose, such as engineering or medicine. Consider typical daily communications such as memos or articles that the students will need to understand and produce.

    • 2

      Write out key objectives by which to measure a student's facility with English in their given need. Organize the objectives according to the order in which the students need to achieve each objective before proceeding to the next.

    • 3

      Develop an instructional plan of readings, assignments and activities designed to build the students' competencies in each key objective. For example, engineering students may read and re-write short procedural documents. Decide approximate time frames for each objective.

    • 4

      Formulate a plan for evaluating student progress. Keep the needs of the students in mind. Require students to demonstrate their facility in using English for their specific purposes. Write examinations or practicums that ask students to read, comprehend and reproduce communications that they will likely encounter.

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