New Ways in English for Specific Purposes

Peter Master and Donna Brinton, Eds. (1998)

Alexandria, VA: Teachers of Enlish to !"ea#ers of $ther %an&aes
(TE!$%)
P". xxii ' (()
*!B+ ,-9(9)91-.9-8 ("a"er)
/! 019.92 (3e34ers 01..92)
New Ways in English for Specific Purposes is the second volume that Peter
Master and Donna Brinton have edited in TESOL's New Ways series, the other
being New Ways in Content-Based Instruction(Brinton & Master, !!"#$ %&ter
the birth o& English &or s'eci&ic 'ur'oses (ESP# in the !()s, this disci'line
has become *uite +ell ,no+n, es'eciall- because English has ac*uired the
status o& an internationallingua franca in almost an- &ield o& stud-, and
linguists have moved to+ard a conte.tuali/ed notion o& language$ 0& on the
one hand the success o& the English language has turned it into a vehicle &or
international communication, on the other hand the orientation o& linguistic
studies to+ard language as communication in social conte.ts has largel-
contributed to enhance the dignit- o& ESP studies$ The &irst studies on s'ecial
languages +ere in &act those on register, +hich develo'ed in a 1irthian
environment$ 1ollo+ing strictl- in 2allida-'s &ootste's (2allida-, !"3#,
British linguists identi&ied s'ecial registers on the basis o& le.ical as'ects,
+hich the- considered su&&icient in themselves to distinguish them &rom
common language$ 1or e.am'le, the 'resence o& a le.ical item such
as tablespoonful +as enough to 'resume that the register +as that o& reci'es or
'rescri'tions (2allida-, Mc0ntosh & Strevens, !(45 Strevens, !""#$
2o+ever, as recent a''roaches to s'ecial languages have 'ointed out,
di&&erences do not a''l- to the le.ical level onl-, but also concern
mor'hos-ntactic choices and te.tual and 'ragmatic organi/ation (S+ales,
!!)5 6otti, !!5 Bhatia, !!7#$ The social conte.t (and there&ore the aim# o&
each o& the subdivisions o& ESP e.erts a strong in&luence on the linguistic
strategies +hich are to be ado'ted$ There&ore situational and &unctional
re*uirements direct linguistic choices such as le.ical densit-, the com'le.it-
and the length o& clause structure, the degree o& &ormalit- and the management
o& in&ormation, to name but a &e+$ 899:
The current +or, starts +ith a theoretical 'remise in +hich the authors &i. the
boundar- bet+een ESP and ;B0 (content9based instruction#$ The latter is in
&act a t-'e o& s-llabus, +hereas the &ormer is one o& the t+o subcom'onents
(together +ith E6P, English &or general 'ur'oses# o& ELT (English language
teaching#$ 0t is there&ore clear that ESP ma- use ;B0 as +ell as other t-'es o&
activities dra+n &rom other s-llabi$
The contributions in this volume are arranged in sections according to s'eci&ic
subdivisions o& ESP< 6eneral English &or S'eci&ic Pur'oses, English &or
%cademic Pur'oses, English &or %rt and Design, English &or Business and
Economics, English &or Legal Pur'oses, English &or Science and Technolog-,
and English &or =ocational Pur'oses$ %ll activities have the same la-out< each
o& them 'rovides the reader +ith in&ormation concerning the level o& the
students &or +hom it is designed, the aims in terms o& the linguistic and social
s,ills it is meant to develo', the estimated time o& 're'aration &or the teacher
and the time needed &or classroom 'er&ormance, and the resources re*uired$
This t-'e o& in&ormation is 'laced in the le&t margin$ The central 'art o& the
'age is occu'ied b- a summar- o& the activit- that is in turn &ollo+ed b- a
detailed, ste'9b-9ste' descri'tion o& the 'rocedures$ E.tra suggestions are
'laced in the ;aveats and O'tions sections, +hich are &ollo+ed b-
bibliogra'hic re&erences and suggestions &or &urther reading$ The activit- ma-
sometimes have one or more a''endi.es, +here classroom material is
included$ %t the end there is a short biogra'hic s,etch o& the author(s#$
Three distinct tables o& contents o&&er the user three +a-s to access the
activities$ The &irst one divides activities according to sub>ect, arranged in the
seven ESP subdivisions listed above$ The second classi&ies activities
according to &orms o& communication (academic te.t, advertisement,
catalogue, intervie+, meeting, research re'ort, and so &orth#$ The third rests on
the criterion o& &ocus (conversational gambits, culture and values, game, note9
ta,ing, and so on#$
The activities in the 6eneral English &or S'eci&ic Pur'oses section are
designed to &avor 'ractice and learning o& general s,ills that might be used in
a variet- o& conte.ts$ %mong man- di&&erent abilities, s'ecial attention has
been 'aid to rhetorical strategies in both +ritten and s'o,en interactions (e$g$,
give instructions, +rite de&initions, develo' a+areness o& various
argumentative strategies#, and to instructions on ho+ to use e9mail e.changes
and other 0nternet resources$
Part 00 deals +ith English &or %cademic Pur'oses (E%P#, +hich has been
thoroughl- investigated b- S+ales (!!)#$ The activities that are 'ut &or+ard
in this section aim mainl- to achieve a certain 'ro&icienc- in academic reading
and +riting, and there&ore concentrate es'eciall- on graduate thesis and
dissertation +riting$ %s S+ales has advocated, E%P can largel- bene&it &rom a
genre9based a''roach, +hich can be used as a cons'icuous learning tool in
both reading and anal-/ing te.ts, and in +riting ne+ ones$ Man- o& the
activities &ocus on the develo'ment o& a balanced argumentation b- +a- o&
evaluating alternative vie+'oints and antici'ating 'ossible ob>ections$ Once
the basic rules &or +riting academic te.ts have been established, sub>ect9
s'eci&ic te.ts ma- be a''roached, de'ending on students' interests and
re*uirements$ %mong man- interesting activities, ?2o+'s @our 6enre
%+arenessA? is one o& the most theoreticall- grounded$ 0t 'ro'oses close te.t
investigation in 89B9: order to identi&- the generic &eatures o& a certain te.t
t-'e and di&&erentiate bet+een it and other common genres on the basis o&
some relevant 'arameters, such as communicative 'ur'ose, audience, register,
structure and stage ('$ "!#$ %nother stimulating 'ro'osal is 'resented in
?;reating Li&etime 6enre 1iles,? +here students are as,ed to collect sam'les
o& di&&erent genres and to create 'ro&ile &iles &or each o& the genres, +hich can
be regularl- u'dated, in order to ?build a use&ul re&erence &or &uture +riting
needs? ('$ 33#$ Since much ESP +riting involves re'orting other 'eo'le's
+ords, some sections are also devoted to teaching ho+ to *uote, 'ara'hrase,
or summari/e$
Part 000 deals +ith English &or %rt and Design, +hich is taught in art schools or
de'artments$ 0ts 'rimar- concerns are art histor- and the language o& the
studio$ Once again genre theor- is the &rame o& re&erence &or activities in this
area$ %&ter closel- anal-/ing 'romotional art catalogues and studio 'ro>ects,
students are stimulated to develo' and de&end their o+n artistic 'ro>ects$ %rt
activities ma- also include visiting art e.hibitions and sho+s, +hich can o&&er
material &or later classroom discussion$
Part 0= is devoted to English &or Business and Economics (EBE#, b- and large
the most 'o'ular &orm o& ESP$ %s the editors 'oint out, EBE is taught in both
'rivate settings and o&&icial institutions$ 0t undeniabl- encom'asses a range o&
actions that are essential in ever-da- interactions< negotiation and
communication in di&&erent environments, letter +riting, +or,'lace >argon,
and business culture$ The common aim o& all activities is &irst o& all to learn
something about the cultural institutions that are o&ten re&erred to in business
'rograms, and then to concentrate on 'ro'osal +riting, so that students might
attain 'ro&icient communicative s,ills$ Some o& the lessons center on the
e.'ansion o& s'eciali/ed vocabular-, +hereas those designed &or more s,illed
learners tr- to activate higher level com'etence, e$g$, decision ma,ing s,ills,
'ersuasive strategies, and also general conversational com'etence (c&$ ?;harm
@our Ca- to Success?#$ % common &eature to the tas,s in this section is the
&act that the- use authentic material$
English &or Legal Pur'oses is the theme o& section =$ %ctivities are varied, -et
the- all ho'e to broaden ,no+ledge o& di&&erent legal s-stems, and to teach
learners to behave 'ro&essionall-, &or in this area the client9la+-er relationshi'
strongl- in&luences the strategies that are ado'ted$
%ctivities +ith English &or Science and Technolog- concentrate chie&l- on the
language used in engineering de'artments or similar technical settings and
see, to im'rove technical communication (e$g$, re'ort readingD+riting, oral
discourse#$ Some tas,s are designed to e.'and and conte.tuali/e le.is
(?Techno Eargon?#, but 8979: the ma>orit- are concerned +ith the identi&ication
o& the discourse &eatures o& a s'eci&ic te.t t-'e, e$g$, the research article$ 0n
some cha'ters, es'eciall- in those that are indicated &or u''er9intermediate or
advanced learners, s'eci&ic &orms o& te.tual organi/ation are discussed, &or
e.am'le, the use o& inanimate sub>ects +ith active verbs (?Let @our Sub>ect
Do the Cor,?#$
The volume ends +ith a section on English &or =ocational Pur'oses, +hich
encom'asses settings +here English is used &or &inding or ,ee'ing a >ob, or,
more generall-, an- activit- that is related to +or,$ The tas,s aim to create a
set o& 'ractical abilities, consisting &irst o& all o& >ob9related vocabular-, and
then o& e&&icient sel&9'resentations and d-namic interactions in >ob intervie+s$
These latter aims obviousl- entail a+areness o& a +hole series o& verbal and
nonverbal signs, related to linguistic, social, and cultural values$
On the +hole the volume o&&ers a +ide range o& activities, +hich are easil-
accessible than,s to the three di&&erent tables o& contents$ The tas,s are
devised &or learners +ith di&&erent 'ro&iles, but almost all o& them can be
easil- ada'ted to &it other settings and re*uirements$ 0n &act, although the-
'resent structured material, the- o&ten suggest ho+ to ada't the &ormat to suit
'ersonal needs$ The ma>orit- o& them seem to be suitable &or an audience o&
high school students and undergraduates, +ith onl- a &e+ activities being
s'eci&icall- addressed to adult learners$ Fot all the activities 'ro'osed are in
&act suitable ever-+here, in an- ,ind o& class or cultural bac,ground$ The
boo, claims onl- to 'resent some +or,ing material and encourages readers to
e.'eriment and e.'lore in other directions in order to &ind their o+n +a- to
teach their learners$ 0t is nevertheless ver- care&ul in tr-ing to satis&- the needs
o& students$ 1urthermore, one o& the volume's strengths is that it 'resents
activities that need minimal 're'aration and e*ui'ment$ Chat stri,es one most
is that des'ite being ver- s'eci&ic, all the activities tend to strengthen general
linguistic s,ills and interactional com'etence$ %s Sutherland (!!G# claims,
?to succeed, an ESP teacher must master more than a s'eciali/ed vocabular-$
Thin,ing st-les, 'roblem solving methods, and communication strategies
+ithin 'ro&essional grou's di&&er as +ell? ('$ (#$ 8949:
5eferences
Bhatia, =$ H$ (!!7#$ Analyzing genre !anguage use in professional
settings" London< Longman$
Brinton, D$ M$, & Master, P$ (Eds$#$ (!!"#$ New ways in content-based
instruction" %le.andria, =%< Teachers o& English to S'ea,ers o& Other
Languages (TESOL#$
6otti, M$ (!!#$ I linguaggi specialistici" 1iren/e< La Fuova 0talia$
2allida-, M$ %$ H$, Mc0ntosh, %$, & Strevens, P$ (!(4#$ #he linguistic
sciences and language teaching" London< Longman$
2allida-, M$ %$ H$ (!"3#$ !anguage as social se$iotic" London< Ed+ard
%rnold$
Strevens, P$ (!""#$ New orientations in the teaching of English" O.&ord<
O.&ord Iniversit- Press$
Sutherland, E$ (!!G#$ Thoughts on the need to (re#claim, e.'lain, de&ine
ESLDE1LDESP$ #ES!-E% &(4#, 19$
S+ales, E$ M$ (!!)#$ 'enre analysis English for acade$ic and research
settings" ;ambridge< ;ambridge Iniversit- Press$
Silvia Bruti
Iniversit- o& Pisa
JbrutisKital+a-$itL