Communicative Language Teaching in ESP Contexts

Swales, John M.

doi:10.1017/s026719050000101x

Cited by 3 publications

(1 citation statement)

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“…In order to understand the concerns of the approach presented here, it may be useful to briefly summarize the features of other ESP projects and views of ESP that are relevant to the present study. (See Hutchinson & Waters, 1987;Lynch and Hudson, 1991;Swales, 1985Swales, , 1988, for more exhaustive discussions of the alternate views taken of ESP.) As noted by Hutchinson and Waters (1987), previous work on ESP can be classified generally into three approaches.…”

Section: Views Of Espmentioning

confidence: 99%

A Content Comprehension Approach to Reading English for Science and Technology

Hudson

1991

TESOL Quarterly

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English for special purposes (ESP) reading programs often take specific grammar, vocabulary, and isolated reading skills as the organizing principle for syllabus design and fail to acknowledge how the act of comprehending text can affect reading ability. The present study reports on an ESP reading project which emphasizes the role of content comprehension. The context of the study is the Reading English for Science and Technology Project in the Chemical Engineering Department of the Universidad de Guadalajara. The materials for the 2‐year course were developed around thematic units which correspond to undergraduate course content. Instruction presented grammar and vocabulary only as they were necessary for comprehension of the text. The study examines whether the emphasis on reading for content improved reading comprehension as well as knowledge of reading grammar and general reading ability. Students were administered three reading tests: reading grammar, comprehension, and cloze. Significant differences were found for instructional status and subtest and for each subtest by instructional level. The results of this study suggest that the content comprehension approach can improve reading comprehension as well as knowledge of reading grammar and general reading ability.

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Section: Views Of Espmentioning

confidence: 99%