FACTORS AFFECTING ESP COURSE DESIGN: LANGUAGE DESCRIPTION
INTRO: Designing a course is fundamentally a matter of asking question in order to provide a
reasoned basis for the subsequent process of syllabus design, material writings, classroom
teaching n evaluation.
COURSE DESIGN:
- According to Hutchinson and Waters, course design is the process by which the raw data
about a learning need is interpreted in order to produce an integrated series of teaching-
learning experience, whose ultimate aim is to lead the learners to a particular sate of
knowledge.
- Course design is the process and methodology of creating quality learning environments and
experiences for students. Through deliberate and structured expose to instructional materials,
learning activities, and interaction, students are able to access information, obtain skills, and
practice higher levels of thinking.
LANGUAGE DESCRIPTION - The language description is the way in which the language
system is broken down and described for the purpose of learning. They refer to ways of
analyzing and describing language.
LEARNING THEORY - ESP methodology is based on the fundamental principle that we can
identify a set of core language needs of target learners and adopt teaching materials and
practices that will facilitate learners to meet those needs.
NEDD ANALYSIS - needs analysis, carried out to establish the “what” and the “how” of a
course, is the first stage in ESP course development, followed by curriculum design, materials
selection, methodology, assessment, and evaluation. However, these stages should not be
seen as separate, proceeding in a linear fashion.
1. CLASSICAL OR TRADITIONAL GRAMMAR
CLASSICAL GRAMMAR - The term traditional grammar refers to the collection of prescriptive
rules and concepts about the structure of language that is commonly taught in schools.
Traditional English grammar, also referred to as school grammar, is largely based on the
principles of Latin grammar, not on modern linguistic research in English.
Traditional grammar defines what is and is not correct in the English language, not accounting
for culture or modernizing in favor of maintaining tradition. Because it is fairly rigid and rooted in
the ways of the past, traditional grammar is often considered outdated and regularly criticized by
experts. Even so, many children learn this proper, historical form of grammar today.
Descriptions of English and other languages were based on the grammars of classical
languages, Greek and Latin. These descriptions were based on analysis of the role played by
each word in the sentence. Languages were described in this way because classical language
was case-based languages where grammatical function of each word in the sentence was made
apparent by the use of appropriate inflection. Thus the form of a word would change according
to whether it was a subject, object, indirect object and so on.
2. STRUCTURAL LINGUISTICS
- Structural linguistics is defined as a study of language based on the theory that language
is a structured system of formal units such as sentences and syntax. An example of
structural linguistics is phonetics.
Language is described in terms of syntagmatic structures which carry the fundamental
proposition (statement, interrogative, negative, imperative, etc).and notions (time, number,
gender, etc).Structural linguistics was applied in the structural syllabus.
An example of ESP syllabus based on structural precepts is that used by Ewer & Latorre( 1969)
1. simple present active
2.simple present passive
3. simple present active n passive
4. –ing forms
5. present perfect; present continuous
6. infinitives
Structural syllabus provides the learner with a systematic description of the generative core of
the language.For this reason, structural syllabus continues to be widely used in spite of critism
from advocates of functional, notional or use-based descriptions of English.
