English for Special Purposes Program Design - Assignment Example

English for Special purposes program design A brief of your and their special needs and your expectation on their learning outcomes (eg. skills, knowledge, etc) Current program is designed for scientific and technological occupational purposes. People that are targeted to follow whit program are students studying information technology at the University level. These students are defined as learners of English as a second language with specific needs. The needs of this particular group of students are related to a certain level of English that hey require (average) and unique vocabulary that they need to know as per their specialization request. The group targeted for this program is a standard university group consisting of 25-30 students. In terms of learning the language it is a big group. Specific teaching strategies should be applied to the students of such a quantity in order to make the learning effective. The average age of students is 20 years. The students can therefore be described as adults and methods of learning and teaching are to be accordingly applied. Specialization of the group that the present program is designed for is Information Technologies, particularly Informatics and Programming. The level of English is Low to Intermediate. The students are supposed to have basic language proficiency prior to the study of English for Science and Technology (EST). A student should also be trained into handling skills, abilities and proficiency that clearly belong to the domain of general English. (2) selected resources such as textbooks, tapes or reference materials The only source of grammar that this program is designed to use is "English Grammar In Use with Answers and CD ROM: A Self-study Reference and Practice Book for Intermediate Students of English (Grammar in Use) (Paperback)", a book by Raymond Murphy. This book provides very comprehensive and basic grammar for students of the level that is required for our program. Another course book that will be used during the program of EST is "Technical English" by Comfort, Hick and Savage. This book is aimed to assist students in learning English for use in technical areas. The students will use this book after completing and passing the test on Murphy, the previous text book. The reason to use the books one by one is due to the fact that "Technical English" is meant to be used with previous knowledge of the language. However this book requires understanding basic English, it is designed specifically for EST purposes and that is why even in case the students will not pass the grammatical test, it will not hinder the learning of the technical English. Besides, special vocabulary is designed for students with Information Technology specialization so that they would be proficient in their field. The targeted students need to know specific vocabulary and that is the reason that a list of thousand words has been developed to introduce students to the subject. English for Science and Technology (EST) requires specific teaching strategies and learning activities to deliver the knowledge to students. Practically, EST eliminates teaching informal language and does not encompass the whole range of language requirements that a regular learner of ESL has. For purposes of current program, a student should be able to read literature pertaining to his subject, to discuss it with his colleagues, to give lectures and write his own articles in English. However the level of English would be basic, that would let the student to reflect his or her ideas without applying rich vocabulary, but with a knowledge of scientific words. Here are a few of specific terms that the vocabulary will include: total quality management, total quality control; total productive maintenance; design to cost, life cycle cost; concurrent engineering ; project management; productivity improvements; modeling; how enterprises adjust to environmental issues; expert systems; multi-technology systems etc. (3) a number of teaching strategies and learning activities A cloze test consists of a text from which every nth word has been deleted. The task is to replace the deleted words. The term 'cloze' is derived from Gestalt psychology, and relates to the apparent ability of individuals to complete a pattern, indeed to perceive this pattern as in fact complete, once they have grasped the structure of the pattern. Like dictations, cloze tests test the ability to process strings of aural or visual phenomena in linguistic terms such that their potential signification is remembered and used to process further strings as they are perceived. Cloze tests are usually presented through the written medium and responded to in that medium too, but there seems no reason why oral cloze should not be possible, and indeed there have been attempts to devise such tests. Cloze tests too are global in nature demanding perceptive and productive skills and an integrating knowledge of the various linguistic systems, grammatical and lexical since some of the words left out will be grammatical and others will be lexical. There is a good deal of discussion still going on about the technicalities of constructing cloze tests but useful pragmatic solutions to many of the problems have been found and it would seem that cloze offers a potentially very valuable way of measuring language proficiency. Multiple choice tests are one of the most common ways of testing for grammatical knowledge. Easy to grade and easy to cover quickly, the most common type of multiple choice grammatical item is one in which the test maker gives the testee a sentence with a blank and four or five choices of a word or phrase with which to complete the sentence. A way of testing short answers and responses is to give the testees an utterance, and have them decide which of four or five utterances is an appropriate response. This can be a test of comprehension or of grammar. One final way to test grammatical knowledge using multiple choice items is to give testees a sentence and ask them to choose which of four or five alternatives has the same meaning. The test maker must find a balance between giving too much context and not giving enough. One way to give more context and make the language more natural is to give the items in the form of a short reading passage, though the content of the passage can restrict the grammatical points. Error correction items are useful for testing grammar. The sentence is given and it includes an error. Four words or phrases are marked with letters, and the testee needs to decide which of the words or phrases has the error. For example, (a) Most of time, (b) I want to (c) be working (d) instead of playing. Item a contains the obvious error. Errors from students's actual writing are a good source of ideas. Few other ways to test grammar are as follows: Completion items: the words to be filled in should be function words, such as articles or prepositions. This tests production as well, not just recognition. (O'Malley and Pierce, 1996); Transformation Items: testees are given a sentence and told to rearrange it without changing the original meaning of the sentence. For example, "It is difficult to study" could be changed to "Studying is difficult." (O'Malley and Pierce); Word changing items: testees are given a sentence and a word which they need to fit into the sentence by changing the form of the word. For example, "I have never ___ to Australia. (be) (O'Malley and Pierce); Sentence combining exercises can play a part in testing grammar as well. (4) some ideas of the type of assessment in order to be able to ascertain whether students would be able to cope comfortably with their specific Purpose environment. Assessment for EST purpose will be made through different kinds of tests. Test is another way to assessing student's knowledge. The procedure can be carried in at least three distinct meanings. One of them refers to a carefully prepared measuring instrument, which has been tried out on a sample of people like those who will be assessed by it, which has been corrected and made as efficient and accurate as possible using the whole panoply of statistical techniques appropriate to educational measurement. The preparation of such tests is time-consuming, expensive and requires expertise in statistical techniques as well as in devising suitable tasks for the linguistic assessment to be based on. The second way in which tests can be carried is within a short, quick teacher-devised activity given out in the classroom, and used by the teacher as the basis of an on-going assessment. It may be more or less formal, more or less carefully prepared, ranging from a carefully devised multiplechoice test of reading comprehension which has been used several times with pupils at about the same stage and of the same ability, so that it has been possible to revise the test, eliminate poor distractors and build up norms which might almost be accepted as statistically valid, to a quick check of whether pupils have grasped the basic concept behind a new linguistic item, by using a scatter of oral questions round the class. It is because of the wide range of interpretation that is put on this second meaning of test that confusions and controversy often arise. The important question to ask is always 'What kind of test do you mean' and it is for this reason that there is perhaps some advantage in talking about assessment rather than testing. The third way is sometimes given to test is that of an item within a larger test, part of a test battery, or even sometimes what is often called a question in an examination. Sometimes when one paper in an examination series is devised to be marked objectively it is called a test, and once again it is important to be careful in interpreting just what is meant. Computerized testing for needs analysis can be used for both general purposes and specific purposes, depending on the test design. One reason the computerized test can be effective in testing EST is found in the example of the second language (L2) computer-adaptive testing (CAT). Questions are adapted to imitate automatically what a discerning instructor would do, that is to pose harder or easier questions based on whether or not the previous answer was correct. If we ask questions that are too difficult of too easy, we learn little about the examinee's ability. We learn more about ability when we ask questions at the current level of the examinee's abilityl. A more precise evaluation is attainable by this method and the test has the advantage of being time efficient and allowing the test taker to work at his/her own pace. The examiner must be sure that the CAT is able to adequately measure the examinee's true proficiency level. Assessment for the broad range of ability in the examinee group must be represented. Computer-adaptive testing is appropriate for testing English for Specific Purposes, especially for licensing and certification purposes. However, users need to realize completely what a CAT is and how it functions. Understanding of the underlying psychometric model is imperative to assessing its appropriate use for a particular examinee. Bibliography: 1. Comfort, J. & Hick, S. & Savage, A. (1990) Basic technical English. England: Oxford University Press 2. Murphy, R. (2004). English Grammar In Use with Answers and CD ROM: A Self-study Reference and Practice Book for Intermediate Students of English (Grammar in Use) (Paperback). Cambridge University Press, Paperback, 379 p. 3. O'Malley, J.M., & Valdez Pierce, L. Authentic assessment for English language learners: Practical approaches for teachers. New York: Addison-Wesley, 1996. 4. Ong, W. J. Orality and Literacy: The Technologizing of the Word. London: Methuan, 1982. Read More