From Needs Analysis to Course Design: Teaching Formats of Academic Presentations by Using Web-Based Techniques – Serbian and Libyian Experiences

Abstract

Teaching English for Specific Purposes presupposes two goals: enabling students to function successfully in the future professional surrounding, and preparing them for their possible further academic career. In that sense, an ESP course comprises English for Occupational/Vocational and English for Academic Purposes. For both directions, the authors of this text, both ESP lecturers and syllabus designers, conclude from their own teaching experience that teaching formats of academic presentations is a necessity if students are to perform well both in the professional and academic setting. Furthermore, the authors claim that those formats are crucial in all ESP profiles. Importantly, the authors claim that before starting teaching formats of academic presentations, it is crucial to offer a session of academic receptive skills in order to enhance the students’ comprehension ability and to enrich the academic input and exposure. This paper starts with theoretical elaborations on the rationale of teaching materials and a proposed teaching methodology for written and spoken formats of academic presentations as well as the role of receptive skills in the academic environment. The proof offered is the fact that the authors conduct such lecturing at two distinctly different faculties, namely, Faculty of Electronic Engineering, University of Niš, Serbia, and the Faculty of Arts and Sciences, University of Benghazi, Al Marj, Libya. The practical illustration of these is a web-based program designed in the very manner of the segment of the syllabus design proposed here.