19 March 2012: Glasgow 10 am – 5.30 pm 

Cutting-edge developments in teacher education, materials design, and assessment and testing in ESP and EAP

The purpose of this Pre-Conference Event is to provide a topical overview of cutting-edge developments in the above-mentioned three areas of ESP and EAP across the continents.  

Teacher education is an important part of ESP/EAP given that traditional teacher training qualifications at a certificate and diploma level normally focus on General English – how to bridge these lacunae is one of the questions to answer. Despite the recent increase in commercially produced ESP/EAP materials among ELT publishers, materials design remains an integral part of a job description of any EAP/ESP professional since no single ESP/EAP book can normally cater for diverse needs and wants of various ESP/EAP groups of learners. ESP/EAP professionals need training in and awareness-raising of materials design, redesign, adoption and adaptation. Assessment and testing continue to pose challenges for the profession. In addition to commercially produced ESP/EAP tests and examinations, there is a need to design unique and sophisticated assessment frameworks, especially for rare, non-traditional or less popular subject areas. We hope that the coverage of cutting-edge ESP/EAP developments with a focus on these three themes will be welcome by both existing ESP SIG members as well as the colleagues for whom this PCE will be a new experience.

English for Specific Purposes and English for Academic Purposes remain a vibrant and constantly-evolving part of ELT. The focus of the event will be brought to prominence by a very diverse range of expert keynote speakers representing all the continents. Traditionally we have been supported by publishers, examination boards and fellow teaching organisations, and this again will be the case in Brighton. Every effort will be made to further disseminate the findings from the key papers via a post-conference publication.

The event will feature the keynote talks delivered, inter alia, by:

■ Helen Basturkmen (University of Auckland, New Zealand): ‘Processes in Developing Specific Purposes Courses and Materials’;

■ Tania Pattison (Trent University, Canada):  ‘Supplementary Activities for an ESAP course in Business Studies’; 

■ Elena Yastrebova (MGIMO University, Russia): ‘ESP identity: course and materials design for students of international relations’; 

■ Saltanat Meiramova (L.N. Gumilyov Eurasian National University, Kazakhstan, University of Glasgow, UK): ‘New Strategies in EAP/ESP Teaching in Kazakhstan: Task-based Approach Application’; 

■ Junia Ngoepe (University of Limpopo, RSA): ‘To what extent do ESP learning materials fit the purpose for which they have been devised?

■ Larisa Zelenskaya (MGIMO University, Russia): ‘Teaching ESP: The Need for Bilingual ESP Coursebooks’; 

■ Debra Lee (Georgetown University & TESOL ESP-IS Community Leader): ‘Current trends in materials design and teacher training in ESP in the US’; 

■ Prithvi Shrestha (The Open University, UK): ‘Approaches to teaching ESP and EAP in open and distance learning’

■ Faiza Haddam–Bouabdallah (Abou Beker Belkaid University, Algeria): ‘A Framework for Developing a New ESP Course’ 

■ Elena Velikaya (State University-Higher School of Economics, Moscow):  ‘Assessment of Extended Essays in an ESP Classroom’

■ Semih Irfaner (Bilkent University, Turkey): ‘Designing EAP materials to increase students’ involvement and participation’

■ Rosinda de Castro Guerra Ramos (Pontifical Catholic University of São Paulo, Brazil): EAP learning materials: bios in an online undergraduate English course

Every effort will be made to further disseminate the findings from the key papers via a post-conference publication.

Mark Krzanowski

IATEFL ESP SIG Coordinator

The ESP SIG Pre-Conference Event is supported by Garnet Education, Cambridge ESOL, OUP, EDI/LCCI, the British Council, and Target English.

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