Pressestimmen
"We picked up this volume in the hope that at last here was a collection of papers that would address the needs of EAP and ESP teachers in developing and emerging countries - after all, that's what it says on the tin. But closer examination reveals an edited collection of papers from a conference, some of which address the theme only tangentially. That said there are some gems hidden within its pages. The book has chapters by authors working in a range of countries: seven chapters from Africa, but only one from a country where English has no official status; three from south Asia; five from south east Asia; two from Brazil; three from the Middle East. The choice of papers seems arbitrary, the unifying factor being that most were presented at the IATEFL 2006 ESP SIG pre-conference event. Nine chapters - almost half - present a historical view of English language teaching and learning (in the case of Ghana, beginning in the 1550s). In some cases this will be helpful to the reader interested in language education policy but in other cases, for example chapter four on ESP in Brazil, the detail may be excessive. Other chapters present descriptive overviews or case studies of recent projects; for example chapter one describes a project to teach technical English in Angola; chapter five recounts a business English in Burma; chapter 15 describes a project to teach English to Filipina care-workers in Japan; and chapter 18 describes a pre-sessional course at Nelson Mandela University, RSA. These chapters would have benefited from stronger editorial guidance to make the discussion section more useful to readers who work in other contexts. India (population 1.2 billion) merits only seven content pages whereas Kenya (population 38 million) is the longest article in the book at 21 content pages. The content of the two chapters on Brazil overlaps. Mack's somewhat emotional Angolan case study is actually about ESP (training car mechanics) while Rahman's fascinating account of language policy in Bangladesh barely mentions EAP/ESP until the final sentence of it concluding paragraph. Chapter 13 - 'Teaching "the other English" for communication in Nigeria' describes arguments for and practice in teaching Nigerian English at school level; neither EAP nor ESP is mentioned. Where then are the gems? Some contributors offer genuinely interesting insights which deserve our attention. In her chapter on ESP in Brazil, Rsinda Ramos clarifies the reasons why so much academic ESP gets bogged down in reading. Ehya Amalsaleh and Hojatollah Yamini (Iran) report on an interesting study of methodology for teaching EAP writing, although the results are somewhat inconclusive. In chapter 21, 'Burying the ghost of English in Zambia', Bernard Nchindila reviews the process of language policy change in Zambia, a process he feels was not grounded in solid research. He goes on to challenge 'applied linguists to protect the sanctity of research validity and reliability if language research has to serve the purpose of transforming society'. Donors such as the UK's Department for International Development as well as applied linguists should take note. This volume could be of use for people planning to work in one of the countries represented in its pages as the historical reviews provide useful background information. If you search, there is interesting comment on language policy developments in some countries." George and Geraldine Kershaw for the EL Gazette, November 2009 This collection of papers illustrates the diverse problems facing countries in the developing world as they struggle with English for Specific Purposes (ESP) and English for Academic Purposes (EAP). The 21 papers are a mixture of background information concerning significant factors in the disciplines previously mentioned as well as best conventions in performing specific tasks and functions. The 18 countries range from African countries such as Angola, Ghana and South Africa to countries from Asia, such as Cambodia, the Philippines and Thailand. There are also countires from the Middle East and South America. Due to space, not all the papers can be reviewed; however, this review concentrates on the four main regions: Africa, Asia, the Middle East and South America. Middle East The three papers covered in this section are from Iran, Palestine and Yemen. "The effects of social and textual modelling writing: Effects of instruction on Iranian learners' writing ability" by Ehya Amalsaleh from the Paramedical School of Shiraz University of Medical Sciences and Hojatollah Yamini of the Islamci Azad University of Marvdasht was the first paper to be reviewed. It focuses on two methods of teaching writing: textual and social modelling. The aim of the project was to assess the students writing skills by splitting them into two groups and giving them a pre-test. Each group would undergo different methodology (textual and social modelling) to see which group would best acquire the intended writing skills. The results showed that the textual model provided the best results although there was a good class interaction in the social modelling group. This is a more academic paper compared to the others in the book; however, it was written in as easy style so that the process was easy to understand and it would not be too difficult to carry out a similar experiment in your own classroom. The second paper came from Insaf Saleh of the Al-Quds Open University in the Palestinian Territories. "Teaching English for general and specific purposes in Palestine" give a more general description of English language teaching in that area although it does later go on to explain about more specialised teaching. English is now taught from the first grade based on a curriculum and a series of twelve books specifically designed for the region called English for Palestine. Importantly, the curriculum is graded to enable better understanding and success during the later stages of learning. The University of Palestine ensures that all students that study there take a minimum of two courses of English (6-9 credit hours) at the beginning of their university education. These courses are specific for the majors that they have been designed for leading to EST, EOP and EAP courses for medical, science and engineering students to name but a few. There is also a section describing the in-service teacher training that is available offered by the Ministry of Education and outside organisations. This paper is very comprehensive in its description of what English language courses are available in the territories, giving the reader a good picture of what can be achieved under difficult conditions. It illustrates areas that can be reflected upon concerning one's own education system by making basic English language learning more specific for an individual country's learners. The last paper in this region is "Evaluating the ESP and EAP situation in a Yemeni EFL context" by Nagm-Addin M.A. Saif from the Technical Industrial Institute, Taiz, Yemen. The author details how ESP and EAP fit into the education system in Yemen, detailing present strategy before moving on to a proposed new strategy, based on a series of recommendations focusing on a national strategy taking into account students' needs and wants together with materials that are more relevant to the teaching situation. From this, the reader can once again reflect on their own country's efforts in these fields and decide whether there is a similar need for a rethink in ESP/EAP strategy locally. Africa With the African Cup of Nations having just taken place and the football World Cup in South Africa in 2010, it is only fitting to look at Angola, Ghana, Nigeria and South Africa in this region. "The ups and downs of an experiment in teaching technical English in Angola" by Leonardo Makiesse Ntemo Mack is a brief article concerning the teaching of technical English in a large camp in Malongo, Angola administered by a large petro-chemical company Chevron. He details the preparation for the course by conducting a SWOT analysis and then trying to overcome the problems encountered. After the needs analysis was conducted the course was designed and then an account of the "ups and downs" experienced during the course were detailed. The end of course results are discussed with a section on conclusions and recommendations for the future. As mentioned previously, this is a small study; however, it has been used by the company to prepare future ESP courses that are going to be taught as part of the programme. There is nothing to stop individual teachers conducting the same type of action research to find ways of improving existing courses by instigating some kind of intervention to benefit the stakeholder as well as the students concerned in their own country. The second paper is "Domains of English in Ghana and its use for specific purposes" by Jemima Asabea Anderson, Gladys Nyarko Ansah and Patience Afrakoma hMensa from the Department of English, University of Ghana, Legon, the University of Brighton and the Open University, Milton Keynes respectively. This article explains how English is used in Ghana, which is a multi-lingual country due to its history and the mobility of its workforce. English is used in education from nursery school up to university level; however, Ghanaian is used as the medium of instruction at lower primary level and then it reverts to English for the remaining stages of education. Government policy is that the use of Ghanaian languages be used to promote national unity in the media, although in truth this is not the case as the use of local languages is marginal and this would exclude the majority of the population from having an input. English is the major language of politics as well as the language of law. It is also the language of government; used as the official language in all formal and official settings. This article gives a good overview of the use of English in Ghana, even though there are 83 indigenous languages available; or maybe it is because there are 83 indigenous languages that English is used in everyday life? "Teaching 'the other English' for communication in Nigeria" by Sunday I. Duruo...
Kurzbeschreibung
Current Developments in English for Academic and Specific Purposes in Developing, Emerging and Least-Developed Countries Current Developments in English for Academic and Specific Purposes in Developing, Emerging and Least-Developed Countries is a collection of papers which reflect the unique diversity of ESP and EAP in the developing world. While some of the papers present a historical overview of ESP and EAP in particular countries, the other papers are a representative sample of ongoing good practice in a specific context. The papers in the book are contributions of the members of the ESP SIG at IATEFL, and most of them were presented at the Pre-Conference Event in Harrogate (2006). The IATEFL ESP SIG hopes that this book proves a unique and timely publication for ELT and Applied Linguistics practitioners who wish to gain a better understanding of the specifics of EAP and ESP in developing, emerging and least-developed countries. The ESP Special Interest Group (SIG) is one of the fourteen SIGs at IATEFL, and its main focus is English for Specific Purposes, English for Academic Purposes and English for Occupational/Professional Purposes. The main objective of the SIG is to disseminate good practice in ESP (as well as in EAP and EO/PP) through its membership and to promote models of excellence in ESP to ELT professionals internationally through workshops, seminars and conferences and through publishing the output in our Journal and in leading international ELT journals and periodicals. More information on the ESP SIG can be found on http://espsigiatefl.org For other ESP SIG titles published by Garnet Education, please visit the Journals and Academic Papers section.
