Week 2
Learn How to Learn about Your ESP Field
January, 24 - 30
- How much do you need to know to teach ESP in a given area?
- Becoming familiar
with the field:
- how to develop enough expertise in a specific area to become an honorary "member of the discourse community."
- Discussion of the extent to which this is possible or desirable, how to make contacts, and how to do research.
- Objective for this week: Learn how to learn about your ESP field
- Guest lecturer: Debra S. Lee (Click HERE to go to Week 2 questions and comments from our week 2 guest lecturer).
- Participants: Please post your responses in a file. How have you learned about your students' field(s) or academic majors? How have you made contacts with experts, faculty, or professionals working in those areas? How do you do research to become familiar with written or oral genres or styles used in the field? What level of expertise or familiarity with the field do you think is desirable to teach ESP?
- Optional activity:
(If you're just starting out)
- Interview students or professionals in the field and find out what journals, textbooks or other materials they read to keep current or learn.
- Ask for suggestions: what should you subscribe to or read that would give you some background understanding of the field? (Ex. Science and technology: general background- subscribe to Science News and read weekly updates about science and technology in a variety of fields).
- Threads of Week 2 (Click HERE to see what have participants added to Debby's list of ESP-Specific & Genreal Skills)