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2.1.2.4 Designing ESP
What distinguishes designing ESP materials from General English materials is not the existence of a need as such, but rather an awareness of the
need. That awareness will have an influence on what will be acceptable as reasonable content in the language course.
According to Hutchinson and Waters 1987: 107-108, there are several principles in designing the materials. Materials provide a stimulus to learning, so
they can help the designer to organize teaching learning process. The materials include the learning tasks that can broaden the basis of teacher training by
introducing the teacher to new techniques. Besides, the materials provide models and appropriate language use since learning language is not learning the form
but the use of it. The designing model consists of four elements: input, content focus,
language focus and task. According to Hutchinson and Waters 1987: 109, input can be a text, dialogue, video recording, diagram or any piece of
comunication data. Input provides a number of things: stimulus material for activity, new
language items, correct models of language use, a topic for communication, and opportunities for learners to use their information processing skill and
opportunities for learners to use their existing knowledge both of language and of subject matter.
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Content focus consists of non-linguistic content that should be exploited to generate meaningful communication and language is not an end in
itself, but a means of conveying information and feeling about something. Language focus is presented with the aim of enabling learners to use
language. In language focus, good materials should involve both opportunities for analysis and synthesis. The learners have the opportunity to learn language
in the more specific form of linguistics. The task is the heart of the teaching learning rnaterials since in this part
the learners use the content and language knowledge. The tasks should be designed to lead towards communication in which the learners use the content
and the language knowledge they have built up through the unit. The four elements are combined in the model as follows:
INPUT CONTENT
TASK LANGUAGE
Figure 2.3: A Material Design Model Hutchinson and Waters, 1987:109
Designing a course is fundamentally a matter of asking questions in order to provide a reasoned basis for the subsequent processes of syllabus design, materials
writing, classroom teaching and evaluation Hutchinson and Waters, 1987: 21. This part gives a view of the preparation of organizing ESP course. It will help the
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writer to understand better of something that should do while starting to design the materials.
Hutchinson and Waters’ 1987: 22 investigate these basic factors affecting ESP course design questions more thoroughly, by considering them under three
main headings, language descriptions, theories of learning, and needs analysis in designing materials.
The language description is the way in which the language system is broken down and described, for the purpose of learning. Terms such as ‘structural’,
‘notional’, ‘functional’, belong to this area and they refer to ways of analysing and describing language.
The learning theory provides the theoretical basis of methodology, not only by helping to understand how people learn language, but by referring equally to the
learning of any kind of knowledge. In this area, the relevant terms that can be considered are ‘behaviourist’, ‘cognitive’ and ‘affective’.
The needs’ analysis is carried out to specify what exactly the learners have to do in learning English. It emphasizes the target of ESP. According to
Hutchinsom and Waters 1987: 55-58, the target needs consist of terms of necessities, lacks and wants that the learner needs to do in the target situation.
We can call ‘necessities’ the type of need determined by the demands of the target situation; that is, what the learner has to know in order to function effectively
in the target situation. To identify necessities alone, however, is not enough, since the concern in ESP is with the needs of particular learners. We also need to know
the learner knows already, so that we can then decide which of the necessities of the
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learner lack. The target proficiency in other words, needs to be matched against the existing proficiency of the learners. The gap between the two can be referred to as
the learner’s lacks. Hutchinson, Waters and Breen, 1979:59. Wants are the awareness of need that characterises the ESP situation.
ESP
course
WHAT? Language
descriptions HOW?
Learning theories
WHO? WHY? WHERE? WHEN?
Need analysis
syllabus methodology
Nature of particular target
and learning situation
Figure 2.4: Factors affecting ESP course design Hutchinson and Waters’ book 1987: 22
There are a number of ways in which information can be gathered about needs, the most frequently used are: questionnaires; interviews; observation; data
collection e.g. gathering texts; informal consultations with sponsors, learners and other. The simple framework below outlines the kind of information that the course
designer needs to gather from an analysis of target needs are why is the language needed?, how will the language be used?, what will the content areas be?, who will
the learner use the language with?, where will the language be used? and when will
the language be used?
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2.1.2.5 Classification of ESP