Folia linguistica et litteraria 211

Designing Material for Teaching English for

Political Science and Diplomacy
Or How to Be Up-To-Date With Potentially
Outdated Material
Jelena Pralas, Faculty of Philology, University of Donja Gorica, Montenegro,
jelena.pralas@udg.edu.me

Dragica Žugić, Faculty of Philology, University of Donja Gorica, Montenegro,

dragica.zugic@udg.edu.me

Original research paper

DOI: 10.31902/fll.42.2022.14
UDK 811.111’232:[378:32

Abstract: Language for Specific Purposes materials have to be designed in such a way
as to meet particular occupational or academic needs of learners (Anthony 10-11) and
comply with certain general principles of material design, inter alia to provide a stimulus
to learning since “good materials do not teach: they encourage learners to learn.”, and to
represent models of correct and appropriate language use (Hutchinson and Waters 107-
108). As the authors of this paper learned in the process of designing materials for teach-
ing English for Political Science and Diplomacy within the ReFLAME project, these
materials have to meet another important requirement – they should be up-to-date. The
reason for that is the fact that political science students and professionals are immersed
in current affairs, since the problems they study are always linked to the latest local,
national or global developments. Therefore, an important challenge in the process of
designing material for teaching Language for Political Science and Diplomacy is how to
ensure that the materials are up-to-date, since they can be linked to current affairs at the
time of designing the materials, but these issues might not necessarily remain relevant in
the future. This paper presents the techniques and approaches the authors used in their
efforts to ensure that, although not necessarily up-to-date, the materials encourage learn-
ers to learn and make links to the current affairs of the present time.

Keywords: LSP, vocabulary, political science, diplomacy, current affairs, material de-
sign

Introduction
The demanding task of designing language teaching materials becomes even
more demanding in the world of Language (English) for Specific Purposes,
mostly because every discipline functions as a small universe with its own es-
tablished set of terms and rules of their use. Language teachers and language
212 Journal of Language and Literary Studies

teaching material designers cannot always be experts in the field they should
teach/develop teaching materials and that makes the task additionally com-
plicated. However, serious consideration of the theory of L(E)SP and teaching
material design, combined with a pragmatic approach to every step of materials
development can lead to a satisfactory result i.e., L(E)SP teaching material that
is motivating, interesting, and useful for achieving the pre-defined teaching/
learning outcomes.
This paper describes one segment of the process of developing ESP teach-
ing material for students of political science and diplomacy conducted by the
team of the University Donja Gorica within the REFLAME project aimed at re-
forming foreign languages in academia in Montenegro. After a brief presenta-
tion of the theoretical background concerning L(E)SP, the importance of vocab-
ulary in ESP, and materials development in ESP, it describes in detail the process
of selection of texts that serve as the basis for reading comprehension, vocabu-
lary building, and speaking exercises in each Unit of the pre-defined curriculum.
The five steps of the process are based on key selection criteria, corpus-based
analysis, and special filters that are aimed at ensuring that the selected texts do
not become outdated too quickly, which is a particular challenge inherent to the
process of development of language teaching material for the field of political
science and diplomacy. The whole process is based on the vocabulary that ac-
cording to many scholars and practitioners is the focal point in the ESP teaching
and learning process.

Language (English) for Specific Purposes

English for Specific Purposes (ESP) is considered a subdivision of a wider
field, Language for Specific Purposes (LSP), which is defined as the area of in-
quiry and practice in the development of language programs for people who
need a language to meet a predictable range of communicative needs (Swales
300). English for Specific Purposes (ESP) has become increasingly important
over the past decades due to an increase in vocational training and learning
throughout the world as well as more and more people use English as a lingua
franca in a growing number of occupational contexts. In addition to this, stu-
dents now start learning general English at a younger age and move on to ESP
earlier.
In this sense, Coxhead (117) concludes that specialization should begin
early for it would be “easier to conceptualize and operationalize in learning con-
texts where all students are moving through the same educational system at
the same age with a shared first language and language goals.”
In describing ESP and its distinction from General English, Dudley-Evans
(131) points out that ESP is designed to meet the specific needs of the
learners, makes use of the underlying methodology and activities of the
 Folia linguistica et litteraria 213

specialism it serves, and focuses not only on the language (grammar, lexis,
register), but also the skills, discourses, and genres appropriate to those
activities.

As vocabulary represents an essential part of ESP, it is very important for

learners and for their future careers to build a consistent body of terms and
phrases that are specific to and occur frequently in their field of study. ESP vo-
cabulary acquisition is now regarded by many theorists and practitioners of ESP
as a focal point within the language teaching process.

Importance of Vocabulary Acquisition in ESP

Many theorists (Mohan and van Naerssen 22; Woodward–Kron 235 etc.)
find vocabulary acquisition in ESP central and the specialist language of a dis-
cipline as intrinsic to students’ learning of disciplinary knowledge whereas
Coxhead (116), explaining why ESP vocabulary acquisition is of crucial impor-
tance, says that teachers/learners need to know that precious classroom time
is directly related to their language needs and they should be using material
which contains key ideas and the language of their field. In the same way, Zah-
ran (8656) summarizes the main features of ESP vocabulary. Firstly, as less fre-
quently used in everyday situations, ESP vocabulary is learned for specific uses
related to technical or academic needs in a particular topic, field, or discipline.
Secondly, ESP vocabulary involves a great many abstract words. Thirdly, ESP vo-
cabulary is designed around students’ needs based on their field of study.
A very detailed perspective on what constitutes ESP vocabulary is offered
by Coxhead (115) who states that ESP, which is referred to in the literature
as special purpose, specialized, technical, sub-technical, and semi-techni-
cal vocabulary, comprises the vocabulary of a particular area of study or
professional use.

Types of ESP Vocabulary

When it comes to ESP vocabulary, their types, and the question of how
much is required, Kennedy and Bolitho (57-58) distinguish technical and sub-
technical vocabulary1, namely specialty-specific words and words that are not
specific to a particular subject area but that can be encountered regularly in
scientific or technical texts. Similarly, Dudley-Evans and St John (5) suggest two
distinct categories of ESP vocabulary, i.e., semi-technical vocabulary used in
general language but has a higher frequency of occurrence in specific and tech-
nical descriptions and discussions and technical vocabulary with specialized and
restricted meanings in certain disciplines and which may vary in meaning across
disciplines.
1
Apart from these, Kennedy, and Bolitho (57-58) also introduce technical abbreviations,
symbols, and formulae as a word category for teaching technical vocabulary.
214 Journal of Language and Literary Studies

Regardless of the categories, Newton & Nation (239) specify that technical
terminologies, due to their high frequency and wide occurrence in a specialist
domain, need to be taught and practiced in the classroom with deliberately
prepared activities.
In describing vocabulary types, according to McCarthy (49), there are core
and non-core words. As the meaning “core” suggests, core words occur fre-
quently and are more central to the language than other words. Core words
have core meaning-potential, they are easy to find an antonym for and can be
used to paraphrase or give definitions of other words. Moreover, core words
are neutral in formality and usable in a wide variety of situations. In terms of
ESP teaching, we also come across subject-specific vocabulary, which is consid-
ered non-core because of its lack of neutrality and association with a specialized
topic (Carter&McCarthy 172).
Furthermore, there are two other categories of vocabulary defined as
technical and semi-technical which are essential in studying ESP and EAP.
Dudley-Evans and St John (83) suggest resolving overlapping categories
(Baker 91) into two broader groupings:
a) vocabulary that is used in general language but has a higher frequency
of occurrence in specific and technical descriptions and discussions.
b) vocabulary that has specialized and restricted meanings in certain disci-
plines and which may vary in meaning across disciplines.

Regardless of the types of vocabulary, effective ESP vocabulary teaching

plays a crucial role in successfully implementing ESP programs. Vocabulary se-
lection and vocabulary learning strategies are imperative for ESP vocabulary
acquisitions (Wu 178-179), and therefore vocabulary is intensively used as the
basis for developing ESP teaching material.

Designing ESP Teaching Material

With regard to ESP materials development, Anthony (10-11) claims that
Language for Specific Purposes materials must be designed in such a way as to
meet particular occupational or academic needs of learners (Anthony 10-11).
In addition, Tomlinson (5-22) states that materials should be coherent and
principled applications of theories of language acquisition and development,
principles of teaching, our current knowledge of how the target language is
used, and the results of systematic observation and evaluation of materials in
use.
Accordingly, Tomlinson (8-23) proposes fifteen principles for materials de-
velopment which derive from second language acquisition research and
experience: (1) materials should achieve impact; (2) materials should help
learners to feel at ease; (3) materials should help learners to develop confi-
 Folia linguistica et litteraria 215

dence (4) what is being taught should be perceived by learners as relevant

and useful; (5) materials should require and facilitate learner self-invest-
ment; (6) learners must be ready to acquire the points being taught; (7)
materials should expose the learners to language in authentic use; (8) the
learners’ attention should be drawn to linguistic features of the input; (9)
materials should provide the learners with opportunities to use the target
language to achieve communicative purposes; (10)materials should take
into account that the positive effects of instruction are usually delayed;
(11) materials should take into account that learners differ in learning styles
and affective attitudes; (12) materials should permit a silent period at the
beginning of instruction; (13) materials should maximise learning potential
by encouraging intellectual, aesthetic, and emotional involvement which
stimulates both right- and left-brain activities; (14) materials should not
rely too much on controlled practice; (15) materials should provide oppor-
tunities for outcome feedback.

Several of these principles we considered of key importance for the pro-

cess we describe here and therefore they will be elaborated on in more detail
below.

Developing ESP Teaching Materials for Political Science and Diplomacy

Given all the characteristics of ESP and the complexities of developing ESP
teaching materials described above, it is not difficult to conclude that it is rather
demanding to develop teaching materials for ESP in the field of political science
and diplomacy.
The main reasons for this lie in the specificities of the field, one of them
being that it is inherently about communication. The field deals either with sen-
sitive relations between countries and/or international entities or with analysis
of very subtle relations within societies. In addition to this, very often, particu-
larly in diplomacy, it is equally important what is said and how it is said. Another
reason is that research in this field, often dealing with at least two countries,
almost inevitably requires the use of foreign sources, and therefore students
can hardly be successful without highly developed language skills. This means
that ESP materials in this field must be demanding, and exercises designed in
such a way that students can study very complex structures and subtleties of
vocabulary, including ambiguities and different connotations of expressions, to
be able to fully understand and send messages that are to be sent within the
jobs they are to do.
Another important specificity of the entire field of political science and di-
plomacy is that the focus is most of the time on current affairs, current relations
between countries, and topical issues. Teaching materials should therefore deal
216 Journal of Language and Literary Studies

with topical issues too and ideally should be connected to current affairs, be-
cause as such they potentially raise more interest among the learners who are
expectedly interested in current affairs, providing thus a better motivation for
learning. This is a challenge, however, because the material that is based on cur-
rent affairs and topical issues tends to become outdated in a very short period.
Faced with this challenge, material developers have two options. One is
to prepare only materials for teachers, containing instructions for what should
be done and describing types of materials the teachers will have to prepare
by themselves to include issues topical at the time at which they implement
the course. Although theoretically possible, this is not a very useful approach
due to several reasons: not every teacher is at the same time a good material
developer; there is a risk of getting different approaches, different choices, and
therefore possibly different outcomes of the teaching-learning process, etc., to
name just a few.
Another option, that seems to be more plausible, is to prepare material
that will function as “timeless” and combine it with certain exercises that will
prompt students to make connections to the current affairs and topical issues of
the time when they are taking the course. This is the option that the team of the
University of Donja Gorica opted for within the REFLAME Project.
This paper describes how we implemented that approach in practice, but
it focuses only on the selection of texts that served as the basis for developing
reading comprehension, vocabulary building, and speaking exercises aimed at
improving students’ reading and speaking skills. We will not be dealing here
with curriculum development, choice of themes for each unit, or choice of au-
dio and video materials used for the development of listening skills because
they deserve to be tackled separately.

Selection of texts for reading comprehension, vocabulary building, and

speaking exercises
The material development process started after the process of curriculum
development was finished, i.e., after we defined outcomes, themes, and gram-
mar units to be covered. Each unit is dedicated to a theme (e.g., elections, sys-
tems of government, political science in general, a career in political science, di-
plomacy, multilateralism, etc.), and the materials for developing different skills
in each unit are all aimed at achieving the same unit outcomes.
At the very outset of the material development process, we agreed that
we needed a text for each unit that would serve as the basis for reading com-
prehension, vocabulary building, and speaking exercises. While finding and se-
lecting the appropriate texts, we relied on six key selection criteria as the most
relevant ones.
 Folia linguistica et litteraria 217

Key Selection Criteria

The first criterion is that (1) the materials were to be on levels B2 to C1.
In terms of reading skills that means the students should have reading skills
between being able to
“understand the main ideas of complex text on both concrete and abstract
topics, including technical discussions in his/her specialisation“ (B2) and
being able to „understand a wide range of demanding longer texts, and
recognise implicit meaning“ (C1) (CEFR).

The second criterion is that (2) the texts have to expose learners to lan-
guage in authentic use, which is recommended in the key principles for develop-
ing ESP materials by Tomlinson (principle 7) (Tomlinson 8-23) and other authors
(e.g. Harding 22), as explained above.
Given the importance of vocabulary in ESP, the third criterion is that (3)
the texts should contain „non-core“ vocabulary as defined by Carter&McCarthy
(172) and explained in this paper, meaning in this particular case, the vocabu-
lary specific for the field of political science and diplomacy, i.e., for different
themes chosen for our units.
The fourth criterion, as defined by Tomlinson (principle 4), reads that (4)
materials are to be “perceived by learners as relevant and useful” (Tomlinson
8-23), which we think is ensured by the texts being in the field of learners’ inter-
ests – political science and diplomacy.
The fifth criterion we relied on in selecting our texts is that the (5) materi-
als for ESP should “achieve impact…. Have a noticeable effect on learners, that
is when the learners’ curiosity, interest and attention are attracted” (principle
1) (Tomlinson 8-23), which we think should be ensured by selecting interesting
materials in the field that provoke interest and lead to discussions.
The sixth criterion, based on another Tomlinson’s principle (principle 2), is
that (6) the materials for ESP should “help learners to feel at ease” (Tomlinson
8-23). For criterion 6, we think it will be met if the text contains a dose of hu-
mour.
Criteria 4 and 5 are directly linked to the key challenge we referred to above.
The best way to be relevant and useful for learners and to achieve impact, i.e.,
to attract the attention, curiosity, and interest of the learners in the field of
political science and diplomacy, is to ensure that selected texts are related to
current affairs and are up to date. However, as noted above, this leads us to the
situation that the texts can become outdated in a very short period and our ESP
materials rather useless. To avoid this, we needed to use texts that would be
interesting, provocative, and relevant, but not strictly connected to the topical
issues and current affairs of the time when the materials were prepared. The
process that we implemented to achieve our goal is described in detail below.
218 Journal of Language and Literary Studies

Text Types
Before explaining the steps that we undertook in the selection of texts, let
us make a slight digression here just to explain the terminology we will use for
describing the texts we worked with. We want to underline that the terminol-
ogy we use here is for easier reference only, without any pretence to launch
new terminology or introduce new types or categories of texts.
Working on material development, we randomly searched for various texts
on levels B2 to C1 about the themes we defined. Very soon, we realized we
needed to group the texts we collected, and it helped us to deal with the chal-
lenge of our materials becoming outdated in a short period.

General vs Specific Texts

We namely noticed a clear difference between “general” and “specific”
texts related to the themes we defined in the curriculum. The texts we describe
here as “general” deal with the theme on a general level, define key concepts
related to the theme, are informative, and are usually found in sources like en-
cyclopaedias or textbooks e.g., the definition of elections in Encyclopaedia Bri-
tannica, or election systems defined in a textbook about elections., etc. On the
other side, the texts we describe here as “specific” deal with a specific aspect
of a theme, or a specific topic within the theme. In the field of elections, for ex-
ample, these texts deal with news about elections, analysis of specific elections,
stories about campaigns, stories about election results, or comparisons of dif-
ferent elections. These are found in articles in different magazines, daily papers,
research journals, websites, blogs, etc.

Timeless vs Topical Texts

On the other side, we also noticed a clear difference between the texts
that are related to the current moment i.e., present time, and those that can
easily function at any time, becoming outdated quite slowly. On that basis we
can describe texts as “timeless” – those that can be used as valid and up to date
regardless of the time they are written; and “topical” - those that are linked to
current affairs and get outdated more quickly.
In practice, as we observed, general texts tend to be timeless, while spe-
cific texts tend to be topical.

Text Selection Process

The challenge we needed to meet was to find specific ESP teaching mate-
rials to be interesting and relevant, but not get outdated quickly - i.e., to find
“specific” and “timeless” texts.
This sounds easier said than done, but applying several well-designed
steps described below, we achieved satisfactory results. In the text that follows
 Folia linguistica et litteraria 219

we provide a brief description of each of the steps we undertook and illustrate

each with examples related to the unit about elections.

Step 1: Searching for general texts related to the theme

The process of text selection started with a search for general texts related
to the theme of each unit. The sources for such texts, as mentioned above, were
encyclopaedias, textbooks, and monographs. The texts we looked for were to
be on levels B2 to C1, and they were to be authentic. In other words, they were
to meet the above-defined criteria 1 and 2.
Related to the topic of elections we found 5 general texts that met criteria
1 and 2: a text in the Encyclopaedia Britannica about elections2; Chapter 10 from
the textbook Comparative Politics3, Handbook: Electoral System Design: The
New International IDEA Handbook4; Textbook: International Electoral Standards
Guidelines for reviewing the legal framework of elections5 (IDEA: 2002); How
the World Votes: A Compendium of Voting Methods in Democracies6 (Election
Commission of India: 2017).

Step 2: Corpus analysis of general texts

Using the corpus analysis tool #LancsBox7 (Brezina et al. 2015, 2018, 2020)
we analysed the general texts related to the theme to identify non-core vocabu-
lary that appears in these texts, particularly the vocabulary that appears in all of
them. We did not expect to find all the non-core vocabulary among the top ten
most frequent words in these texts, because the top ten most frequent words
tend to be core words (articles, prepositions, conjunctions, auxiliary verbs, etc.),
but we expected to find them in the extended lists.
In the case of general texts about elections listed above, we established
the following non-core words appearing in the top ten most frequent words:
political, electoral, ballot, voting, and voter. As for the extended lists of words,
we identified the following non-core words: election (elections), party (parties),
commission, candidate (candidates), government, offices, vote (votes), to vote,
rolls, representation, seats, lists, elected, polling, unicameral, bicameral, cam-
paign, and observers.

2
https://www.britannica.com/topic/election-political-science. Accessed 27 Jan. 2022.
3
http://ide.rgu.ac.in/docs/UG_polIII.pdf. Accesses 25 Jan. 2022.
4
https://www.idea.int/publications/catalogue/electoral-system-design-new-internation-
al-idea-handbook. Accessed 26 Jan. 2022.
5
https://www.idea.int/sites/default/files/publications/international-electoral-standards-
guidelines-for-reviewing-the-legal-framework-of-elections.pdf. Accessed 27 Jan. 2022.
6
https://eci.gov.in/statistical-report/pocket-book-2017/. Accessed 26 Jan. 2022.
7
http://cass.lancs.ac.uk/. Accessed 12 Feb. 2022.
220 Journal of Language and Literary Studies

Fig.1. A frequency list of the top ten words in the text How the World Votes: A
Compendium of Voting Methods in Democracies
(Election Commission of India: 2017).

So, the corpus analysis provided us with the list of most frequent non-core
words used in general (and timeless) texts about elections, which we will here
name key vocabulary for the sake of easier reference. Key vocabulary comprises
the most frequent non-core words used in general (and timeless) texts about
the theme. This vocabulary should be contained in the specific and timeless
texts we plan to use for material development.

Step 3: Search for “specific” texts based on the identified key vocabulary
Using the identified key vocabulary as prompts for search, we started
our search for texts that are specific to the theme – dealing with news about
elections, analysis of specific elections, stories about campaigns, stories about
election results, or comparisons of different elections. The texts were to meet
criteria 1, 2, and 3, i.e., they had to be on the level B2-C1, they had to be au-
thentic, and they had to contain non-core vocabulary. We searched for those in
daily newspapers, magazines (The Guardian, The Economist, New York Times,
Washington Post), research journals (academic platforms like Academia.edu or
ResearchGate), websites of various organizations, as well as blogs if the quality
of language was satisfactory. The idea was to find the texts that are relevant
(criterion 4) and can achieve impact (criterion 5).
On the theme of elections, we identified a dozen of texts that met these
criteria. (For example Russia targeted Trump allies to hurt Biden in 2020 elec-
 Folia linguistica et litteraria 221

tions, US officials say8 from The Guardian, Trump, Biden and the presidential
elections 9from The Economist, Elections Without Democracy: The Rise of Com-
petitive Authoritarianism10 (Levitsky and Way, Journal of Democracy: 2002), It’s
time to dump Trump, America’s only hope is Joe Biden11 from The Guardian,
The Most Ridiculous Rigged Elections In History12 from Bustle; The presidential
election: America changes course while remaining very much the same - A famil-
iar election story unfolds13 from The Economist; Trump’s own officials say 2020
was America’s most secure election in history14 from Vox; Confessions of a voter
fraud: I was a master at fixing mail-in ballots 15from New York Post, etc.

Step 4: Analysing identified specific texts to avoid that they are too topical
To avoid that the selected text is of such a nature that it is “too topical”,
meaning that it can become outdated very soon, we ran the texts through sev-
eral filters. First, we checked if there are many mentions of persons strictly re-
lated to the current affairs of the time when the text was written. Then we
checked if the text referred to a very concrete event or set of circumstances.
Another filter was the question of whether to understand the text the audience
needed to have specific background knowledge and whether the text would
lose relevance if taken out of the context of the affairs current at the time it was
written.
Using these filters, we realized that the texts about presidential elections in
the US were “too topical” and decided not to use them in our materials. Most of
the texts were related to this particular topic because it was topical at the time
of material development.

8
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2021/mar/16/russia-interfere-2020-us-presi-
dential-election-trump-biden. Accessed 29 Jan. 2022.
9
https://www.economist.com/news/2020/11/02/trump-biden-and-the-presidential-
election. Accessed 29 Jan. 2022.
10
https://journalofdemocracy.org/articles/elections-without-democracy-the-rise-of-com-
petitive-authoritarianism/. Accessed 30 Jan. 2022.
11
https://www.realclearpolitics.com/2020/10/28/its_time_to_dump_trump_americas_
only_hope_is_joe_biden_527713.html#! Accessed 30 Jan. 2022.
12
https://www.bustle.com/articles/190167-the-most-ridiculous-rigged-elections-in-his-
tory. Accessed 30 Jan. 2022.
13
https://www.economist.com/united-states/2020/11/07/america-changes-course-
while-remaining-very-much-the-same. Accessed 31 Jan. 2022.
14
https://www.vox.com/2020/11/13/21563825/2020-elections-most-secure-dhs-cisa-
krebs. Accessed 31 Jan. 2022.
15
https://nypost.com/2020/08/29/political-insider-explains-voter-fraud-with-mail-in-
ballots/. Accessed 31 Jan. 2022.
222 Journal of Language and Literary Studies

This left us with two texts that met the criteria i.e., texts that are “specific”
and “timeless” at the same time:
1. Elections Without Democracy: The Rise of Competitive Authoritarianism
(Levitsky and Way, Journal of Democracy: 2002),
2. The Most Ridiculous Rigged Elections in History from Bustle.

Step 5 Analysing identified “specific” and “timeless” texts to check if they

would help learners to feel at ease (criterion 6)
As explained above, Tomlinson (8-23) introduced the criterion that ESP
materials should help the learners to feel at ease and it is our opinion that if
a text contains a dose of humour, if it is not too technical and philosophical, it
will contribute to a relaxed atmosphere in the classroom and help learners feel
at ease. Analysing the two texts that met the criteria 1-5 we realized that the
text Elections without Democracy was a scientific study, very serious in tone, in-
troducing rather complex concepts and requiring significant concentration. The
text The Most Ridiculous Rigged Elections in History from Bustle was written in
a humorous tone, referring to certain specific issues (election frauds) but on a
global level and over a very long period.
Thus, being “specific” and “timeless” at the same time, and also humorous
and capable of helping learners to feel at ease, the text The Most Ridiculous
Rigged Elections in History from Bustle was selected to be the basis for our
reading comprehension, vocabulary building and speaking exercises in Unit 6 –
Elections of the ESP material we developed for the field of Political Science and
Diplomacy. Two extracts from that particular text are given below as an illustra-
tion of the result of our selection process.

Extract 1

How do you corrupt an election? The “rigging” mechanisms are many: leaders
can issue ballots with only one name on them, or stuff ballot boxes beyond
the realms of possibility. They can use voter intimidation, faulty voting equip-
ment, have single voters cast multiple votes, and utilize a thousand other
tricks to get things to swing their way. Robert Mugabe in Zimbabwe is an ex-
pert, as are the farcical elections in North Korea that only have one option on
their ballots. Compared to some of the other episodes of rigged elections in
history, though, those people look slightly amateurish. Everybody from tinpot
dictators to Julius Caesar has gone into the game.
 Folia linguistica et litteraria 223

Extract 2

It takes a spectacular kind of election to win the Guinness World Record for the
most corrupt in history, but the general election in Liberia in 1927 did just that,
making the  1982 edition of the record book. The man behind the fraud was
Charles D B King, who was seeking a third term as President against an oppo-
nent named Faulkner, and he didn’t leave a stone unturned to make sure the out-
come lay in his favor. He won around 234,000 votes compared to his opponent’s
9,000,  which would have been a landslide victory — had there not been only
15,000 registered voters in the country at the time. A prominent Liberian lawyer
referenced the past chaos this year, warning that King had “betrayed the prom-
ise of upholding the law and morally governing our country” and that the up-
coming Liberian elections, held in 2017, had to do better. (King was a charmer all
around: he was forced to resign as President in 1930 after Faulkner accused him
and his political party of recruiting contract labor and selling them as slaves.)

Conclusion
As this paper attempted to show, the already demanding process of devel-
oping ESP teaching material is additionally complicated in the field of political
science and diplomacy. The reasons, as explained above lie in two facts. On one
side, the field is inherently focused on current affairs and topical issues, which
means that, to motivate learners, materials should focus on that. On the other
side, if materials are focused on current affairs, they get outdated very quickly,
which leads to lower learners` motivation and interest. Overcoming this chal-
lenge seems to be a mission impossible. This paper shows how the team of the
University of Donja Gorica attempted to deal with it. It does not provide instruc-
tion or a recipe, not even a recommendation of what should be done. It just
describes a vocabulary-based five-step process of selection of texts that serves
as the basis for developing reading comprehension, vocabulary building, and
speaking exercises. This is just one way this challenge can be successfully met by
and presenting it here we hope to help other material designers in dealing with
similar challenges. The key thing to underline is that the whole process is based
on vocabulary whose importance in ESP cannot be stressed enough.
224 Journal of Language and Literary Studies

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 Folia linguistica et litteraria 225

IZRADA MATERIJALA ZA NASTAVU ENGLESKOG JEZIKA U OBLASTI POLITIČKIH NAUKA

I DIPLOMATIJE
ILI
KAKO BITI AKTUELAN SA POTENCIJALNO ZASTARJELIM MATERIJALIMA

Materijali za nastavu jezika struke moraju biti osmišljeni na takav način da ispune aka-
demske ili profesionalne potrebe učenika (Anthony 10-11) i da budu u skladu s opštim
principima izrade materijala, tj. da, između ostalog, predstavljaju model tačne i priklad-
ne upotrebe jezika i podstiču na učenje, jer “dobri materijali ne podučavaju: oni podsti-
ču učenike da uče” (Hutchinson and Waters 107-108). Kako su autori ovog članka iskusili
u procesu izrade materijala za nastavu engleskog jezika struke za oblast političkih nauka
i diplomatije u okviru projekta ReFLAME, povrh navedenog, materijali u ovoj oblasti
moraju ispuniti još jedan važan uslov – moraju biti aktuelni. Razlog za to je činjenica da
su studenti i djelatnici u oblasti političkih nauka zaokupljeni aktuelnim dešavanjima, jer
su pitanja kojima se oni bave uvijek povezana s aktuelnim dešavanjima. Stoga je važan
izazov u procesu kreiranja materijala za nastavu jezika struke za oblast političkih nauka
i diplomatije kako obezbijediti da materijali budu aktuelni. Ti se materijali, naime, lako
mogu povezati s aktuelnim dešavanjima u vrijeme izrade, ali ne nužno i nakon protoka
vremena. Ovaj rad donosi pregled tehnika i pristupa koje su autori koristili u nastojanji-
ma da obezbijede da materijali, iako nisu nužno vezani za aktuelna dešavanja vremena
u kome se koriste, i dalje podstiču učenike da uče i da uspostavljaju veze s aktuelnim
dešavanjima trenutka u kome žive.

Ključne riječi: jezik struke, vokabular, političke nauke, diplomatija, tekući događaji, izra-
da nastavnih materijala