A couple of years ago, I accepted a job teaching English in a field I knew little about. As surprising as this sounds, it is typical of most professionals in ESP. In fact, a survey I conducted earlier this year on EST-L (an electronic forum for those interested in English for Science and Technology) revealed only 5% of the language teachers who responded had university degrees or employment experience in the field they currently serve. What did the other 95% do to develop their competence? They studied!
When I joined the faculty at the University of Aizu, I was asked to develop English writing support for roughly 1,000 Japanese undergraduates and 100 international computer scientists from almost 20 nations. The university was new, boldly ambitious, and radically experimental in its educational policies and organization. I would work in the university's Center for Language Research, where we prepare students for their studies (half of which are taught in English) and assist faculty members with their professional activities in computer science, an English-medium discipline populated primarily by nonnative speakers. My previous experience in EFL made me sure I could do a good job; however, I also knew such confidence would prove foolish without an enormous amount of preparation. Like most professionals in ESP, I had to orient myself to the field I was hired to support.
When I began my studies, I dived into whatever was available without much forethought. As I continued, however, I got smart! I learned where to get the information I needed in the shortest possible time. I also discovered that the information I required was exactly the kind of information my students needed! After reflecting upon my efforts, I created the following simple heuristic to streamline the process.
To Obtain General Knowledge of a Discipline
1. What statements define or describe the discipline? What are the goals that guide the profession's activities? (Best Source: new member information and constitutions published by the field's main professional organizations)
2. What events, discoveries, and people distinguish the field's history? (Best Source: encyclopedias and freshman textbooks)
3. What areas of specialization subdivide the field? What are their primary concerns? (Best Source: list of the profession's SIG groups and primary journal titles)
4. What constitutes membership in the field? What are the career options? How are these positions obtained? (Best Source: department/university career guidance counselor and professional job ads)
5. How do members of the field normally meet and/or exchange professional information? (Best Source: Ulrich's International Periodicals Directory and dialog with professionals)
6. What are the unique features of the local professional subculture? Which of these are worth knowing about? (Best Source: dialog with local professionals and compare the information with that obtained from professionals in other locations)
To Obtain Knowledge of English Usage within a Discipline
Guiding Question: What characterizes the English that is normally spoken and heard, written and read, within the discipline?
1. What are the intended purposes?
2. Who are the speakers/listeners?
3. Who are the writers/readers?
4. What are the language restrictions?
5. What is the range of creative tolerance?
6. What is the most frequently used vocabulary?
7. What are the most frequent grammatical constructions?
8. What are the verbal scripts or written genres?
9. What standards and procedures govern exchanges?
10. What practices distinguish the expert from the amateur?
To answer questions 1-10, you must enter the environments where discipline-specific English takes place: attending conferences, observing courses, browsing in department libraries, talking with practitioners, and examining texts.
If other researchers have already done this, your work is easier. You simply need to frequent a good library. Unfortunately, the field of ESP has yet to provide adequate answers to most of these questions for most of the professions we support. Ultimately, all professionals in ESP must carry out their own field orientation before they can understand the field and determine what material is appropriate for instruction.
I still seek answers to these questions. I read computer literature, browse computer Web pages, lurk on computer lists, conduct surveys and case studies, study computer documents, consult jargon dictionaries, and spend a lot of time conversing with my colleagues in the hardware and software departments. Since computer science is constantly changing, I must continually study to keep up and make myself useful to students.
This characterizes the work of most in ESP; we continually investigate the professions we support. As educators committed to excellence, we require of ourselves what we require of our students: STUDY!
Reprinted from Orr, T. (1995). TESOL ESP News, 4(2), 11-12.