ESP Materials Development Task: Report and Bibliography

September 4^th, 2012

esp

materials development

task

 Report and Bibliography

Argüello Pitt, Matías

Tisera, Melisa

REPORT

The field of study which our materials development task is based upon is Industrial Design for a reading comprehension course for students in fourth and fifth year of their course of studies, whose level of English is basic. Before searching for texts and designing the activities, we did some research on the field. First, we looked up a definition of “Industrial Design.” Among many that we found, a useful and thorough one was the following, from Encyclopaedia Britannica Online:

industrial design, the design of mass-produced consumer products. Industrial designers, often trained as architects or other visual arts professionals, are usually part of a larger creative team. Their primary responsibility is to help produce manufactured items that not only work well but please the eye and, therefore, have a competitive advantage over similar products. The work of an industrial designer often relates to or includes graphic design, such as advertising and packaging, corporate imagery and branding, and interior design (also called interior architecture or environmental design), the arrangement of man-made spaces.

Perceiving the broad focus of this field of study, we proceeded to investigate the course of study for any student majoring in Industrial Design. We consulted the websites of different higher education institutions such as Facultad de Arquitectura, Urbanismo y Diseño (Universidad Nacional de Córdoba), Facultad de Arquitectura, Diseño y Urbanismo (Universidad de Buenos Aires), and Colegio Universitario IES Siglo XXI.[1]  We also consulted some students in the study program of UNC and a few industrial designers. We observed that in fourth year students have to take the subject Legislación. This brought us back to the definitions and characteristics of Industrial Design because we had ran into an article about Industrial Design Rights, in which the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) was named and given importance for the protection of industrial designs. Because this organization accounts for all types of industrial designs, we decided to further investigate it and after the research we concluded that WIPO was very useful and interesting for students.

Now let us refer to other steps in the text selection process. As for the approaches to ESP course design, we worked within the framework of a skills-centered approach. As Hutchinson and Waters (1987) state, the skills-centered course design has two objectives, a general one by which “students will be able to catalogue books written in English,” (69) and a specific one by which “students will be able to extract the gist of a text by skimming through it and to extract relevant information from the main parts of a book” (69). This approach helps students develop and enhance some skills that can be further used and exploited after the ESP course has ended. The text used as a basis of the tasks was designed according to John and Davies' 1983 Text As a Vehicle for Information  approach (henceforth "TAVI"), as characterized in Dudley Evans & St. Johns (1998). To select an appropriate text, we searched for one that would be of value in relation to students' needs and interests. "WIPO," "Intellectual Property," and "Industrial Design" indeed comply with this requirement, as the contents of the text are directly concerned with both the students' field of study and, more specifically, to one of their subjects (Legislación) in the last years of the program. The information presented in the texts is also of importance to the students as future professionals who already work in the field and have to deal with the legal aspects of their job such as Rights Protection.

The TAVI framework also suggests that the texts be authentic. Even though this is not the case (the texts are elaborated, as explained below), the texts were, nonetheless, extracted from an original source,[2] not created from scratch, and not simplified (in the sense used in Long [2007]). In addition, the focus – again in accordance with the TAVI principles – is on "information and what is known" rather than on "language and what is unknown" (Dudley Evans et al, 97). In consonance with this, the tasks designed center on applying techniques more than on language exercises.

More specifically, the criteria used for selecting texts according to TAVI are related to crucial features of both carrier and real content. As for the carrier content in our texts, it is novel and of interest and relevance to the students' study program and career and the concepts presented are neither too easy nor too difficult. Regarding the real content, on the other hand, the actual input to which students should be exposed (as stated by the objectives of the materials development task) involves the practice of the reading micro-skill "identification of main and secondary ideas," the presence of verbs in the Present Simple tense for their presentation and practice (only in terms of recognition, though), and two connectors as passive grammatical/vocabulary items to be acquired. We chose to focus on exemplification. The texts selected are significant and exploitable, in terms of the aforementioned aspects; in addition to being accessible. Overall, in conclusion, the texts chosen are in compliance with the TAVI principles of text selection.

On a different note, to select the texts motivation was taken into account, as well, since "In deciding what to do, an ESP teacher [must] balance needs and motivational factors" (Dudley Evans et al, 98). From our own experience, we find that motivation is very highly linked to engagement and achievement; hence its importance. One aspect that makes a text and its related tasks motivating is its relevance to the students' lives and, though they may appear contradictory, the text's novelty and familiarity: novelty, because it arouses curiosity and invites the reader to engage in it; familiarity, because it contributes to clearly establishing the relevance to students' lives and because it aids comprehensibility (which leads to a sense of satisfaction). The text selected is, we believe, quite relevant to (prospective) Industrial Designers, familiar to them (because it touches upon their area of study and profession) and at the same time "novel", since WIPO, for example, is something probably not that known by them at this stage.

            Finally, we should mention that we not only analyzed the material, but also evaluated it.[3] We believe the two processes are inextricably linked when dealing with materials development, and we carried both somewhat unconsciously. During the analysis stage, we learned that the texts included complex vocabulary, various structures, and cases of subordination, as well as detailed information as to specific aspects of the topics (WIPO, Intellectual Property, etc). When evaluating it – that is, when seeing whether the texts were suitable for our goals and prospective students – we decided that they were too difficult and had to be modified. We chose, then, to elaborate them.

The texts were elaborated from original texts retrieved from www.wipo.int. The authentic (or "genuine") versions of the texts would have been highly inappropriate for the students' level of English (beginners). Simplified versions would have been quite understandable for the students, but this kind of texts "result in stilted-basal-reader-type input (...) lacking in implicitness, open-endedness, and inter-textuality, among other features of natural discourse" (Long, 2007: 9). This type of text hinders the learning process, since it does not provide exposure to that which students will actually face in real life. For these reasons, we decided to design elaborated texts, which are midway between genuine and simplified ones.[4] With that view in mind, our texts incorporate redundancy (in the form of repetitions, paraphrase and synonyms), regularity (achieved through parallel structures and use of general word order Subject + Verb + Object / Adverbials / Complements), and explicit/transparent logical relations between the different parts of the text.

            For example, in the following sentences (which in the text are in sequence), regularity has been achieved through parallel structures and the use of general word order:

The World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) is a United Nations agency à Subject + Verb + Complement

 It concentrates on the use of intellectual property (...) to stimulate innovation and creativity. à Subject + Verb + Object Adverbial

 It promotes the protection of intellectual property through cooperation among states and in collaboration with other international organizations. à Subject + Verb + Object + Adverbial

Tasks

            The reading tasks included in our task sheet are designed for the purposes of, according to Grabe and Stoller (2002), “reading to search,” (13) which involves skimming the text for general understanding and guessing where the important information is in the text. Besides, the purpose of “reading to learn” (13) was also taken into consideration as students are supposed to identify and remember main and secondary ideas in the texts and to recognise the “rhetorical frames” (13) in which information is organized in the texts. Moreover, students are required to establish links between the text and their prior knowledge of the subject. Regarding the models of reading proposed by Grabe and Stoller, our texts are suitable for the interactive model, which involves bottom-up and top-down models so that students can “take useful ideas from a bottom-up perspective and combine them with key ideas from a top-down view” (33). In this way, word recognition and background knowledge converge so as to understand the texts.

     

We decided to include in our task sheet pre-, during-/while- and post-reading tasks, as advocated by Grabe and Stoller. Our pre-reading task consists in predicting the possible content on the text by reacting to three symbols and drawing on the students’ background knowledge of the world. The end of this is to both facilitate comprehension of the text (by setting the readers' mind within a particular realm of knowledge) and to arouse interest.

            While-reading tasks aim at making students aware of how to recognize main from secondary ideas, what they should understand when they read verbs in the Simple Present tense, and recognition of connectors for exemplification. The instructions of the tasks aim at students' purposeful and strategic reading (Cf. Grabe and Stoller, 191). As for the closing task, we took into account the TAVI approach (Hutchinson and Waters, 1987) once more, and we designed the questions in a way that students can use the information in the texts for “transfer, application or extension” (97). In our case, by answering the questions students can reflect upon the importance and usefulness of the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO).

            As for instructions, we decided to use a more personal voice (the more informal second person in Spanish) after reading Tomlinson's chapter on Materials Evaluation, in which he establishes that "Materials which address the learner in an informal, personal voice are more likely to facilitate learning than those which use a distant, formal voice" (Beck et al and Tomlinson in Tomlinson, 19). The choice for the plural over the singular finds justification in the fact that students of this study program are used to working together and sharing the same desks. A last factor in the choice of the personal subject, was, simply, that the average student in the last years of the program is about 23 years old, and therefore will not consider the way the instructions address them to be a lack of respect (as could happen with adults over 35 or who in more professional environments).

Appendix

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Excerpt from the Curriculum in UNC.

►Asignaturas del Cuarto Nivel
Diseño Industrial III / Legislación / Tecnología III / Teoría / Electiva.

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Excerpt from the Curriculum in UBA.

nivel 4 / materias cuatrimestrales		promoción		cursado		hs. / sem		carga hs.
DI4. Diseño Industrial IV		D		C: 1 cuat.		8		120
DI5. Diseño Industrial V		D		C: 2 cuat.		8		120
L. Legislación y Práctica Profesional		E		C: 1 y 2 cuat.		4		60
MET. Metodología		D		C: 1 y 2 cuat.		4		60
SAD. Sociología aplicada al Diseño		E		C: 1 y 2 cuat.		4		60
Optativa II								8 créditos

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Excerpt from the Curriculum in Universidad Empresarial Siglo XXI.

4to. AÑO

Séptimo Semestre

DISEÑO ASISTIDO POR COMPUTADORA V

DISEÑO INDUSTRIAL V

EMPRENDIMIENTOS UNIVERSITARIOS

PRÁCTICA PROFESIONAL DE DISEÑO INDUSTRIAL

TECNOLOGÍA Y SUS APLICACIONES IV

Octavo Semestre

GESTION EMPRESARIAL

GESTIÓN AMBIENTAL

LEGISLACIÓN

SEMINARIO FINAL DE DISEÑO INDUSTRIAL

TECNOLOGÍA Y SUS APLICACIONES V

Bibliography

DUDLEY-EVANS, T. And M. J. St John. "The Role of Materials" In Developments in English for Specific Purposes. UK: Cambridge University Press, 1998.

GRABE, W. and STOLLER, F. “Chapter 1. The Nature of Reading Abilities”. In Teaching and Researching Reading. UK: Pearson Education, 2002.

HUTCHINSON, T. and WATERS, A. “Chapter 7. Approaches to Course Design” In English for Specific Purposes. UK: Cambridge University Press, 1987.

TOMLINSON, Brian. "Chapter 1. Materials Evaluation." In Developing Materials for Language Teaching. Great Britain: Cromwell Press, 2003.

Online Resources:

Encyclopaedia Britannica. "Industrial Design". Retrieved August 1^st, 2012. http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/286993/industrial-design

Website of  FADU – UBA. Retrieved August 4th, 2012. http://www.fadu.uba.ar/academica/mat_di_index.html?

Website of FAUDI – UNC. Retrieved August 4th, 2012. http://www.faudi.unc.edu.ar/diseno-industrial/plan-de-estudios

Website of Universidad Siglo XXI. Retrieved August 4^th, 2012. http://www.21.edu.ar/carreras/licenciatura-en-diseno-industrial/plan-estudio.html

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[1] See Appendix.

[2] To achieve a sense of the authenticity of the texts we framed them within copies of sections of the website.

[3] The difference between "analysis" and "evaluation" is explained in Tomlinson (2003: 16). The former refers to what the materials are like: what type of structures, vocabulary, genres, text types, formats, etc, present; the latter focuses on how or whether the materials are suitable for the students according to the objectives established.

[4] In addition, we believe that elaborated texts are "challenging yet achievable", which, according to Dudley-Evan & St John (1998) is necessary "to stimulate and motivate" (172).

Materials Development for the ESP context: Post-presentation and feedback reflection

Materials Development for the ESP context: Post-presentation and feedback reflection

With respect to team-planning, I will once again say I liked working with Melisa. We make a good team in the sense that we both do as much as we both can “independently” of the other, given the responsibilities and duties we each have. What I mean is that we both took the liberty to move forward with the tasks by ourselves in a particular week, for example, and not do so and let the other work in another week and then, when we could, we got together and discussed what we had done so far. In this way, instead of waiting for that moment when our schedules finally allowed us to meet and thus waste time by not doing anything until we could get together, each of us simply built on the other person’s work and then we both commented on and made decisions about our work.

As regards the presentation itself, I believe the feedback is almost the same I might have given myself. I agree that some of the slides contained too much information, for example. 

Once again, I, too, noticed that during my presentation I got somewhat muddled when I talked about elaboration and I had to move forwards and backwards in the PowerPoint presentation. In our report, elaboration is dealt with after considering many other aspects of text selection, and the slides were designed according to the presentation. When I was rehearsing the oral delivery, nonetheless, I decided to move the explanation on elaboration forward but did not even think about the order in which the slides were organized (in my mind, the presentation – even when I had seen it many times – was just fine and coincided with the order in which I wanted to present things). I guess I simply assumed that I remembered how the slides where laid out, instead of rehearsing my oral presentations together with the slides. This is something I now realize I should not take for granted next time.

I realized, as well, that our presentation seemed to drag on for ages, probably because we focused too much on presenting the details of the theoretical background. After seeing the first presentations (by other classmates), I remember thinking that a good idea was to make the rationale for the tasks interact with the reading comprehension tasks in themselves; i.e., to go back and forth between one and the other so that the theory could be appreciated in the actual tasks we designed. Nonetheless, I think we did not achieve this. My feeling, during and after Melisa’s and my presentation, was that we took eighty per cent of the time to speak about theory and then, in just a few minutes, we showed the tasks. I believe this is what made our presentation somewhat long and maybe a bit boring.

In response to another of the evaluator’s comments, I should say that I had not become aware that my use of discourse markers was ineffective. I think I unconsciously go to a more practical way of introducing things, rather than trying to focus on following a specific structure and signalling each stage every time. I think this is my way of dealing with topics in general, because I believe the new generations (the ones I will have to teach) work in this way – I actually once heard a remarkable anthropologist and sociologist, Josefina Dartelongue, saying this. Maybe these are the reasons why I forget to pay attention to the use of discourse markers, but I will keep the comments in mind for the future.

Finally, I had not thought about the fact that it might be better to exclude the conclusion from the outline. I think we just simply assumed that, because we were advised to outline our presentation – and because the concluding remarks were part of the presentation –, we had to name this last section in our outline.

On a different note, I am glad you liked our “ludic” idea of giving the presentation a congress-like atmosphere. We are actually happy that we are allowed to take those sorts of liberties in the teaching-training program, because it is the kind of thing that lets us “have fun” with academic work and brings joy to the rest of the class as well.

ESP Observation 1 - School of Medicine

May 17^th, 2012

Information on the observed class:

Course: Lectocomprensión - Medicina

Teacher: Julia Mariano

Date: Wed 25 April. 8.00 to 10.00

            The class started with homework checking. Students had been assigned the translation of a text, and the teacher checked it by calling on different students to read different parts of the translated text aloud, and, when necessary, the teacher corrected bad translations: agente extranjero instead of agente extraño for foreign agent.

            Then, the students worked on a text about the endocrine system. First, they had to pay attention to the metatextual elements (titles, subtitles, and drawings), read the text for general information and identify transparent words; then, different students orally translated different parts of the text. Whenever a bad translation cropped up, the teacher explained the meaning of the English word and helped students to work out the Spanish equivalent. When the students finished reading the text on their own, the teacher asked one to explain to her what it was about. Students then had to complete a table and re-read the text with that purpose in mind.

Meanwhile, the teacher copied a sentence with contrast clauses and later on, after checking the reading activity, the teacher explained the meanings and different uses of contrast connectors, which was done by paraphrasing the original sentence over and over again (what changed was the way the ideas were organized according to the connector used: although, though, however, despite, whereas, among others).

Before finishing, the teacher worked in an activity with the dictionary. She told the students that words in English might have many different meanings, so logic must be used to pin down the correct option. Students were told to translate various noun phrases, and finally, before assigning homework, the teacher made students read an English text and then they had to tell her in what line different noun phrases were (the teacher provided the Spanish correspondences. Homework was assigned.

Reflection

The students were made part of the learning process, probably for learning to be more memorable, by, for example, being forced to deduce meanings on their own and being encouraged to use different tools individually (the dictionary, glossaries). The teacher probably advocates for an "active" construction of knowledge on the part of the learners. Moving on, the fact that Spanish is used as a medium of instruction is probably due to the students' different levels of the English language; the use of the mother tongue allows for all students to understand easily. The activities, on the other hand, were very much goal-directed. Each task aimed at developing a particular strategy, and therefore the teacher made sure to tell the students what the expected outcome was so that they could work towards that. Thus, students paid attention to meta- and paratextual elements as aids to understand the meaning of texts, read texts for general and for specific information, translated noun phrases so as to fully grasp how they are formed in English and what their Spanish equivalents are (to see the differences in structures and, from there, facilitate comprehension), and looked out for false friends. To continue, for the presentation of the new topic (contrast connectors) the teacher used an inductive approach: she started from an example and made students deduce the meaning of what was said. She resorted to the students' "logic" for their deduction of the particular meanings of different connectors. A few more things I should mention is that before working with a text, the teacher drew on the students' knowledge of the subject area (schemata activation), and that scaffolding was (on a minor scale) provided: with each task, the teacher first helped the students solve the first exercise before making them do it on their own.

As regards my learning outcome, I should first say that I was surprised to learn that Spanish was used all throughout. I understand why that is, and I believe it is the best option, but I had simply assumed that English would be used. I also realized that ESP course was tailored to the specific need – reading comprehension – exclusively. Again, this seems like a silly discovery, but I used to think that the teaching of grammar would play a big role, when, in fact, providing students with strategies (at least in this case) is the main goal. I was surprised (and pleased), too, that a knowledge of Spanish on the part of the teacher seems to be as important as a knowledge of English. Finally, I became aware of how important it is for an ESP teacher to constantly pay attention to "subtleties" such us endings. If the ESP instructor does not, for example, teach students that the –es ending marks plurality in, for example, "syntheses," comprehension will be very difficult to the inexperienced English reader. I point this out, because I have seen many General English teachers neglect this fact.

ESP Observation 2 - School of Business

May 31^st, 2012

Information on the observed class:

Course: Lectocomprensión - Business

Teacher: Julia Mariano

Date: Wed 25 April. 11.00 to 13.00

            Brief narrative of the class

            The class started with a revision of specific vocabulary. For about thirty five minutes, the teacher went through the handout and read different noun phrases and expressions aloud for different students to translate into Spanish. During this revision, the teacher reminded students to pay attention to endings that would indicate, for example, whether a word was plural.

            Next, the teacher checked homework. She read the assigned English sentences aloud and different students translated them into Spanish orally. The teacher took the opportunity (whenever the chance arose) to help students revise vocabulary other than the one contained in the homework. For example, a sentence that referred to "prices going up" came up, and the teacher capitalized on this to help students go over different verbs that indicate increase and decrease.

            Then, a reading-for-specific-information task was carried out and the teacher also revised linking words and expressions (such as "like", "furthermore", and "that is"). A vocabulary activity came next and two more reading comprehension activities followed. In one of these the students had to identify whether some texts referred to the Wall Street Crash or not; the other one required answers to questions about a text.

            The last activity was related to reference. The teacher made students highlight reference words and she helped them find the referent for the first of them. The rest of the reference words were assigned as homework.

            Reflection

            This time, I can claim the rationale to be “reading comprehension” itself, for I realize now that the enhancement of reading skills underlies all types of activities and methods. This seems obvious, but in my previous report I had found other aspects which - only now I can see - stem from the “bigger” rational of reading-skills enhancement. This is how much the target competence governs course design, including materials and method.

            On the other hand, I should mention in this report too that advocacy for an active learner who constructs knowledge and the use of Spanish to “level the playing field” for students could be observed.

            As for my learning outcomes, I should mention the following. First, that because of the course objective, even though some subtleties are observed, what matters is for students to understand the overall meaning of what they read. That is, the teacher is not picky; s/he is simply attentive to details that may help or hinder comprehension. This is what is expected of students, as well: it does not matter whether they translate a particular noun phrase into the correct equivalent, as long as the translation carried out in their minds is good enough for them to understand what they are reading. Second, it struck me how much translation is used; it really seems to be the essential technique to teach reading comprehension. Of course, many different tasks are carried out during the ESP class, but translation permeates almost all of them. I was surprised, too, at how much the students could understand English texts, having only been in the course for less than three months.

            Moving on, I got to know a few more aspects of the English language that are taught in reading-comprehension courses. In the first class, I could become aware of the importance of teaching connectors and how to read an English noun phrase. With this class, I could notice that the importance given to reference words is also a feature of ESP.

            Finally, in this class I could really see how knowing about the subject area is useful for the teacher. There was a part of the class in which the teacher asked students what they would invest some assets in. When one student answered something (I did not get what), the teacher understood what he was saying and therefore could guide him to the expected type of answer by asking him what he would invest in now. If the teacher new nothing about economy, she probably would not have been able to do so.