Language and content in ESP

Moya Brennan and Margaret van

Naerssen

In higher-education settings where English is a medium of instruction, it is

very important for lecturers in English for Specific Purposes (ESP) to estab-
lish channels of communication with content lecturers. Content lecturers
have the responsibility for introducing students to and training them in a
particular discipline/profession. Therefore, ESP lecturers need to hear the
content lecturers concerns about the students ability to communicate
effectively in English in their academic and professional work, and they
need to be open to their suggestions. By focusing on the particular needs
for communication skills, rather than on ESP at a more general level, the
ESP lecturer is able to provide the necessary and appropriate support to the
content lecturers for the education of the students in specific disciplines.
Coordination with content lecturers can be done at various levels of
formality and involvement; it need not always be highly time-consuming
and formalized coordination. In this article several practical coordination
approaches are suggested and illustrated by a range of concrete examples
which could be adapted to various institutions and student populations.1

Introduction One of the many questions of the ESP lecturer new to the field asks is: How
can I make sure that what I am doing in my English class is relevant and
appropriate for my students in their content area? Students in higher
education are learning not only the particular concepts and vocabulary/
rhetoric of their field of study, but are also being gradually initiated into
what being a professional in their own field involves. In settings where
English is a medium of instruction, they will be doing this in English. The
content lecturers job is to educate the student in the content and culture of
the discipline/profession. The ESP lecturer needs to be able to support this
training process. The ESP lecturer realizes the student may ultimately need
an English proficiency level high enough to be able to interact with fellow
professionals and to be sensitive to how language is used in that profession.
But is it realistic to expect the ESP lecturer to be able to do this?
The ESP lecturer generally has a good knowledge and command of how
language is used in different situations, and may well have experience in
various academic/professional fields, but is not an expert in the students
fields in the way the content lecturers are. Therefore, as the ESP lecturer
defines his or her role, care must be taken not to move into areas of expertise
and responsibility that rightfully belong to the content lecturer. This would
not be fair to any of the three people involved in the educational experience:
the student, the content lecturer, or the ESP lecturer. At the same time, the
more coordination there is among these three parties, the better the experi-
ence will be.

196 ELT Joumal Volume 43/3July 1989 Oxford University Press 1989

articles welcome
 The ideal teaching situation is one in which time and resources are
available for a needs analysis (Waters 1982), and one in which the English
course would, on a regular basis, be closely coordinated with a content
course. But the most common situation is one in which the ESP lecturer is
faced with a new class and with little or no time for a needs assessment. This
difficult situation can be made manageable if the ESP lecturer is aware of
coordination techniques which use the students as a source of information,
and the collective strength of the group in sharing and evaluating the work
done in the language class. If a degree of cooperation and understanding
between the content lecturer and the ESP lecturer can be achieved,
obviously this provides a more satisfactory educational experience.
This article suggests realistic ways in which the ESP lecturer can estab-
lish and maintain contact with the content lecturer; it also gives examples of
such cooperative efforts. We draw on our experiences in China, Hong
Kong, Singapore, and the United States working with polytechnic stu-
dents, and undergraduate and graduate ESL and EFL students who were
about to take, or were already taking content courses through the medium
of English. Our students have been grouped classes in the same discipline,
as well as across disciplines. Some of the techniques suggested also result
from ideas and efforts of our colleagues and students.

Establishing formal Contact can be established formally by the ESP lecturer by seeking the
contact with content support of the head of the content department and/or by surveying lec-
departments turers. In an introductory meeting the feasibility of developing various
communication channels could be discussed. Such channels might include
appointing a liaison person, observing classes, team teaching, attending
departmental meetings, and participating in student selection interviews.
A questionnaire, distributed at this time to content lecturers, could ask for
their views on the particular strengths and weaknesses of the students, and
ways in which the English lecturer might be able to help. However, because
of conflicts with time schedules and teaching commitments -and some-
times the unwillingness of departments -it may be difficult for the ESP
lecturer to pursue these more formal contacts. But, if any of these channels
of communication can be opened up, the ESP lecturer will be able to gain
important information about the standards and status of English within the
particular departments.
One frustrating issue the ESP lecturer may face through formal channels
is the allocation of hours and the scheduling of the English language classes.
Attempts at coordination are frequently not successful as departmental
priorities take precedence over the logic of scheduling English classes to
coincide with immediate needs. So, perhaps one of the hardest tasks of the
ESP lecturer is dealing with a lack of formal schedule coordination. For
example, frequently the language courses are slotted in at an early point in
the students training, whereas there is often a greater need to develop new
communication skills for language work towards the end of their profes-
sional/academic training. The ESP lecturer may try to continue working
through the department to implement changes in the scheduling, but in the
meantime, he or she will have to point out repeatedly to the students the
relevance of the language activities for study and work in subsequent years.2
In one case, the first-year English syllabus, in anticipation of second-year
needs, included group discussion interactions, interview techniques, and
report writing. It also included references to the standards required and
typical failings mentioned by second-year lecturers, along with models of

Language and content in ESP 197

articles welcome
 reports completed by current second-year students which first-year stu-
dents could examine. But even through such activities were relevant to
future needs, students were not yet able to perceive these as relating to those
needs.
Some institutions actually assign an ESP lecturer to the staff of each of
the various departments. We believe that such instructors are in the best
position to being about formal coordination of ESP courses with the
communication needs of students in a particular department. In one
example the ESP lecturer produced a video for an engineering school which
would orient students to the fourth-term programme, covering both con-
tent and English training. The video has helped the students and ESP
instructors to have an idea of how the programme fits together. Video
orientations could also be used by the ESP instructor with students to
identify potential areas and types of English communication situations in
their future training.

Establishing informal In practice, the ESP lecturer may often have to establish contact informally
contact with content in order to gain important information on the attitudes and perceptions of
lecturers the content lecturers concerning the role of English in their teaching and
work. In our experience sometimes departments have responded to infor-
mal contacts with very clearly stated requests which have resulted in joint
efforts. In other cases, it has been necessary for the ESP lecturer to explore
further with content lecturers what such general comments as their gram-
mar is weak really mean. For example, one needs to know when weak
grammar affects the students comprehensibility the most. If the responses
indicate immediate needs, which arise from the difficulties of coping with
on-going content work in English, it is easier to deal with such needs when
the language classes and relevant content classes are offered concurrently.
However, content lecturers also frequently mention communication needs
that occur later in the students training -at a point when the support of the
language class is no longer available.
Content lecturers can help informally in setting priorities in an English
syllabus by indicating what it is that most bothers them about their
students English. This relieves the ESP lecturer of much of the worry that
the English class might not be appropriate for the students needs. The
priorities, after all, should be based on what affects the most frequent
consumer of the students English. The ESP lecturers job then is to
translate these priorities into appropriate communication objectives and
activities. Some examples of what happens when content lecturers have
been asked What bothers you the most about your students English? are
given below.

Case 1: Using a In one situation the English lecturer sent a set of course materials and a
lecturers memo course outline to the content lecturer. In response, the lab lecturer sent a
memo about intelligibility problems in lab reports. The concerns in the
memo became ESP course priorities and were turned into objectives. Below
is the memo:

Dear Margaret,
I am glad you are going to brush up on the MLS students English for
report writing. May I take this opportunity to express some of my views.

1 Most students waste much time copying exactly what is given on the
instruction sheets -such as apparatus, procedures, etc. I do not mean to

198 Moya Brennan and Margaret van Naerssen

articles welcome
 say that they need not write down these procedures. To me, a good
report should give sufficient information to stand alone. References are
only for those who want to know more about it. Materials included
should be relevant to set objectives. If the aim is to evaluate a method,
then every detail of the technique should be recorded. If the method is
just a tool to obtain a set of data, then a brief outline or just a mention of
the technique is sufficient.

2 Another difficulty they come across is the use of the proper format for
sentences. Present tenses are often used to record what they did in the
experiment. Personal pronouns like I and you are used too freely.

3 They often write down what precautions they should take by copying
directly from textbooks. Advise them to convert the sentences to sound
like they had taken such precautions, or they should have taken such
precautions but failed due to inexperience or otherwise.

4 The heading Discussion is often used to discuss the choice of techniques

in their experiment, or to explain a theory. I think they should present
such facts to the reader under an Introduction heading and save Discussion
for what they are going to say about their results or observations.

5 Conclusions should be brief and concise, but often I found a lengthy

discussion again under this heading.

The memo was also used for instructional purposes: it was incorporated
into the language course as a cloze exercise with key words deleted. The
informal nature of the memo in the lecturers own handwriting stimulated
the students interest. They worked in pairs to complete the exercise, and
then checked comments by their own lecturers on their own lab reports
with those by the lecturer who wrote the memo. In the discussions that
followed, the students became aware of two factors: (1) lecturers usually
did have clear criteria for evaluating an assignment; and (2) different
lecturers had different criteria for similar assignments. The class ended
with the realization that the students themselves had a responsibility to
obtain clarification on assessment criteria from their various lecturers.
Students also requested from the ESP lecturer suggestions on how to
approach lecturers with such a request in English.

Case 2: Sensitizing Although content lecturers are often glad of questions in or after class, they
students to irritating sometimes express irritation at what they deem irrelevant or lazy ques-
interactions tions or rudeness. Sensitization to appropriateness of language and
behaviour is often helpful in reducing such irritating interactions.
In one English course students were first sensitized to cross-cultural
difference in appropriate language and behaviour by discussing the aca-
demic beliefs of different countries. They were then given a situation card,
which described an experience as recounted by a lecturer. Three sample
situations are given below:

1 The lecturer gave an assignment in the previous class. You were

present, but somehow you didnt realize this was an assignment. What
do you say/do?

2 You are due to hand in your assignment tomorrow, but youve not
finished. You see your lecturer in the corridor. What do you say/do?

Language and content in ESP 199

articles welcome
 3 You made an appointment to see your lecturer. When you go to the
office, there is no one there. What do you do?

The students role-played the situations and then discussed how each felt
during the interaction, and compared this with the comments from a
student who had acted as an observer of the interaction. As a result they
became aware of how such things as word choice or stress patterns can
influence the hearers understanding, and what is appropriate, when and
where and how to write a polite message to the lecturer.

Using model lectures In informal discussions, some content lecturers mentioned that students
and lecture-notes were not able to take good notes in lectures. Students also expressed
concern about distinguishing the main points from examples, and about
keeping up with the lecturer. They also indicated that their unfamiliarity
with the lecturers style of lecturing (accent, pace, volume, gestures, jokes,
handwriting) caused them considerable confusion. Usually lecturers
expect student to adapt to their styles.

Case 1: Using a video- One approach to dealing with some of these difficulties was to arrange for
taped content lecture the video-taping of a content lecture in a required course so it could be used
in the ESP class. The video-taped lecture covered key, but difficult, con-
cepts. The native English-speaking lecturer hoped that later on the stu-
dents would, as a result, feel motivated to concentrate on the replay of the
lecture in the ESP class. As the content lecturer was also interested in how
he presented his materials, he later took notes as he viewed his own
performance. He was a little surprised at how hard he had to work at the
note-taking!3
The ESP lecturer now had a lecture for the students that was of
immediate relevance. Materials were produced to help the students utilize
verbal and non-verbal cues to recognize main and supporting ideas, signals
of topic shifts, lecturer idiosyncracies, etc.
During the live lecture the students had taken notes. Then in the lan-
guage class students again took notes during the video viewing, and com-
pared these notes with their notes of the live lecture. Then they also
compared their different styles of note-taking with each other and with
those of the content lecturer and the ESP lecturer. Overhead transparency
copies were made and examples of notes in sentences or phrases, and the
use of abbreviations and symbols, numbering and capitalization were
examined. Rather than enforce one style of note-taking, the ESP lecturer
encouraged the students to develop their own styles. But she also encour-
aged students to keep an open mind and to adapt various methods that they
had seen others using (and that they felt comfortable with) to improve their
own speed and efficiency. Students appreciated being able to compare
different lecturers approaches and to discuss coping strategies in lecture
comprehension.

Case 2: Comparing A content lecturer or other professional is often willing to provide a model
students work with a answer or a reformulation for students. This technique was applied to the
model end product of a class activity that occurred rather spontaneously one day
when students of medicine and health care arrived at an ESP class: all they
could talk about was their participation in an up-coming charity singing
marathon, but the ESP lecturers agenda had been to work on the writing of
process descriptions. The lecturer decided to take a chance. Could she tap

200 Moya Brennan and Margaret van Naerssen

articles welcome
 their energy? At first the students were not sure if the instructor was serious
when she suggested that they write a physiological description of what
happens when singing the note doh. But they brainstormed as a class. Then
in groups of four they prepared a joint description. Following the technique
of native-speaker reformulation (Cohen 1983), this exercise was later com-
pared with the model produced by the native-speaker medical expert, given
below, for both content and language use. He had been asked to write a
short description, taking about ten minutes.

The physical process of singing the note Doh

The idea to sing doh forms somewhere in the brain (really unknown
where) and becomes focused at the speech area of the left parietal
cortex. The impulse is conducted to the medulla of the spinal cord
where a complex set of coordinated muscular movements are initi-
ated. The diaphragm and intracostal muscles are activated and
breath is taken in. The vocal cord muscles are contracted to tighten
the cord membranes to the pitch of C. The epiglottis is relaxed; the
glottis (tongue) is positioned with the tip on the roof of the mouth
(specifically the alveolar ridge), and the lips are rounded. The expira-
tion is initiated by allowing the diaphragm and intracostal muscles to
relax partially, and allowing air to escape through the larynx. The air
vibrates across the vocal cords. The sound is shaped by the con-
traction of the pharyngeal muscles, and the tongue is released from
the roof of the mouth. The ear hears this pitch through the bones of
the head and through the eardrums and adjusts the contraction of the
laryngeal muscles to meet the note C as air continues to pass the
vocal cord, prolonging the note doh.

Working together to We give below four examples of co-operation between content lecturers and
solveproblems ESP lecturers to solve problem identified by the content lecturers.

Case 7: Developing A content lecturer in a basic science course expressed his concern that first-
report-writing skills year students were being presented with clumps of knowledge but were
not required to synthesize this knowledge. The lecturers developed a joint
assignment. The content lecturer provided ten titles for projects which
would require students to integrate their learning in the content course,
The language teacher integrated it with the report-writing unit of the
English syllabus, helping the students with the organization and language
of a report. The students received a grade from each of the lecturers, one for
language/organization and one for content.

Case 2: Preparing for A sociology lecturer was concerned that the limited linguistic ability of the
interviews non-native students in her class might influence the data they would be able
to obtain through a questionnaire, and their ability to record the replies of
their native-speaker respondents.
Before the survey, the ESP lecturers met with the content lecturer and
her students. The group discussed various aspects of the task: culture,
dialect, non-verbal behaviour, spoken versus written English, etc. (Briggs
forthcoming). As a result of this extra session not only did the students
approach the task with more confidence, succeed in getting past the
doorstep and obtain the interview, but, in the content teachers estimation,
they also produced a more perceptive report of the experience than did the

Language and content in ESP 201

articles welcome
 native-speaker students. They exhibited the degree of academic and profes-
sional maturity that was hoped for as a result of the assignment.

Case 3: communication As a result of the ESP lecturer sharing and discussing the communication
case studies theory section of the English syllabus with the content lecturer on a course
for medical and health care students, the content lecturer suggested typical
problems in communication that the students might encounter in clinical
training; for example, communication problems between physiotherapists
and patients, between one physiotherapist and another, or between phys-
iotherapist and doctor. These were written up by the ESP lecturer as a case
study with two activities. Both lecturers worked on the Teachers Notes
which gave the appropriate language and professional behaviour expected.

Communication case studies

Students notes
Mr Lam receives a new patient. The previous physiotherapist has
written in the notes: Fractured femur -up walking -strengthening
exercises. Mr Lam, a recent Polytechnic graduate, feels annoyed. He
knows he could have been better prepared for the new patient if the notes
had been better written.

1 What communication problems arise from badly written notes?

2 Rewrite the notes as you think they should have been written.

Teachers notes
The written material is very unprofessional -only short notes, a subjec-
tive assessment rather than accurate details. In this case it is assumed
that the fellow-physiotherapist knows all about the case. What is needed
is more information, for example, what type of fracture, where, how,
current state of mobility, and ability to carry out activities of daily living
(washing, etc.) A detailed exercise programme should be given. In this
example the lack of information may be partly protective -the phys-
iotherapist may not be sure if the treatment is right and so gives the least
possible information.

By using such case studies the ESP lecturer was involved in sensitizing
students to the interaction of language and professionalism in their work
situations, in an assignment that promoted learning and thinking.
This activity is an example of something undertaken in the language
class which might be considered partly the responsibility of the content
lecturers. However, in this case there was no provision for communication
training as part of their regular programme, even though the content
lecturers recognized a need for it. Thus, the appropriate responses seemed
to be cooperation, compromise, and support for the content lecturers who
wished to make policy changes but could not.

Case 4: Learning about Students are expected to recognize the role of professional journals in the
professional journals professional culture they are entering, and to know how to extract infor-
mation from them. However, for non-native speaker students this task is
especially difficult as it requires solid reading skills to gain access to the
specific information and to the professional culture. For the ESP lecturer,
journals can be a valuable source of authentic reading materials for
developing such skills as taking notes, using tables of content, skimming,
scanning, using context to guess meaning etc. -though initially the ESP
lecturer may balk at using such technical material. But with some sugges-

202 Moya Brennan and Margaret van Naerssen

articles welcome
 tions from content lecturers (and by restricting the language activities to
those which the non-specialist ESP lecturer can handle), this task can
become manageable.
In one programme a four-step approach (Adams-Smith 1979) was used
to familiarize students with the format and content of various journals in
the students field, thus introducing them to one aspect of the professional
culture. A content lecturer supplied a list of top journals in the students
field that were available in the library, and a current article related to their
studies. The librarian supplied a work area and multiple copies of back
issues of the journals suggested. With guidance from the ESP lecturer,
students first learned to determine whether a journal was focused more on
news or on research. Second, they learned about the various features
commonly found in a journal, beginning with the table of contents. Third,
they sampled actual features, taking notes on and making summaries of
several features of their choice. And, fourth, they answered simple ques-
tions related to the location of various pieces of information in the recom-
mended article as an introduction to one type of research format in that
profession.

Using simulations to When the content lecturer approaches the ESP lecturer with a specific
identify language request it is usually relatively easy to deal with, even if the content lecturer
problems is not able to pinpoint exactly what the problem is. However, sometimes the
weaknesses cannot even be formulated as a request. The content lecturer
only knows that their language isnt good and then everything else starts
falling apart. These types of comments are commonly mentioned in the
context of oral interactions, for example demonstrations, oral presen-
tations, interviews, and office appointments/corridor encounters with
students.
When time permits, the ESP lecturer can press the content lecturer for
more background on such comments in order to pinpoint more precisely
the problems, but frequently there is not enough time. In such cases the
ESP lecturer may have to have students simulate certain situations, and
then try to identify what the content lecturer might mean.

Case 7: Learning The anatomy examination for the first-year medical students was a viva or
communication demonstration. In response to comments that students language fell
strategies for apart during such sessions, the ESP lecturer got students to role-play their
demonstrations upcoming viva in groups of three (patient, students, examiner). It became
obvious that the major communication problem lay in the students
inability to interact appropriately with the examiner/patient when they felt
unsure or nervous. Students were encouraged to stop avoiding eye-contact,
and to eliminate awkward silences. They practised requesting a clarifica-
tion or indicating that they were thinking of the answer, while speaking
clearly and with confidence, and maintaining respectful eye-contact with
the examiner. Now they only had to deal with the nervousness problem!4

Case 2: Learning public In preparation for oral presentations required in a content course, an ESP
speaking techniques teacher worked with one group of students to define the characteristics of
good/bad presentations in their fields, and practised techniques such as
using outlines/visuals, handling questions, controlling audience interest,
etc. These would help them organize and deliver their information with
confidence. The ESP lecturer was then invited to the classes in which the
students were to give their oral presentations. On this particular occasion,

Language and content in ESP 203

articles welcome
 since only half of the students had received training in how to give a good
presentation, their superior use of language and control of techniques
produced a very positive overall impression. It was clear to the content
lecturers that the ESP class was achieving desirable results.

Conclusions The ESP lecturer needs to get in touch and work with what the content
lecturers (the primary consumers of the students language) see as the
students difficulties in communicating in English in specific academic and
professional situations. Formal channels may not work. Detailed needs
assessments and tight coordination generally are not practical. But if ESP
and content lecturers focus on concrete communication situations, it is
possible to keep in touch. But in doing so, the ESP lecturer needs to
remember that the students primary concern is success in their chosen
specialty areas, and that the ESP lecturer is an intermediary to facilitate
learning. When this works well, the ESP lecturers role is clearly no less
important than that of the content lecturer, and from everyones point of
view, the ESP lecturer becomes less of a vaguely defined service person, and
more of an equal partner in the learning/teaching process.
So as the role of the ESP lecturer expands in response to increased
responsibilities on a formal basis, he or she should also be formally recog-
nized in terms of time-tabling and in departmental and institutional docu-
ments. Too often expanded responsibilities for activities such as those
described here are not a part of the ESP instructors scheduled contact
hours. It is too often assumed that they will be squeezed in during the ESP
lecturers free time, in addition to preparation, grading, course develop-
ment, and coordination responsibilities.
Finally, we hope that by taking this approach in ESP -moving from the
conventional field of English for Specific Purposes to Communication for
Specific Purposes in English -we can take the focus off the language form
as an end in itself, and begin emphasizing the broader academic/profes-
sional communication needs, with language as one of the tools of communi-
cation.
Received April 1988

Notes a video-tape presentation, which was incorporated

1 We wish to thank Sarah Briggs, Janice Grow, Bob into the course materials the following year.
Jenkins, Deborah Miller, Siew Choo Ng, and Cheryl
Pavlik for their comments on earlier drafts of this References
article. Adams-Smith, D. 1979. Reading Journals.
2 After two years of negotiations with committees, a Unpublished teaching materials, University of
more rational approach to scheduling was achieved. Kuwait.
3 In fact, feedback to the lecturers on students com- Brennan, M. and M. van Naerssen. 1987. ESP:
mon problems can be very useful. In a recent presen- Supporting Students In Their Content Courses.
tation by one of the authors (van Naerssen 1987) on Paper presented at the 1987 TESOL Convention,
redefining the role of the ESP instructor, several sug- Miami, Florida.
gestions were made for appropriate staff members Briggs, S. (forthcoming), Addressing specific com-
(perhaps the ESP instructor or a staff development munication needs of graduate students. Papers in
specialist) on holding workshops and orientation ses- Applied Linguistics. Ann Arbor, MI: University of
sions so that the content lecturers could become more Michigan.
aware of their own lecturing styles and of the students Cohen, A. 1983. Reformulating ESL compositions: a
common problems in lectures. Some of these problems potential source of feedback. TESOL A Newsletter
could be easily remedied by a few adjustments in their 17/1:4-5.
teaching techniques. van Naerssen, M. 1987. Lets Stop Feeling Guilty If
4 They performed a good and bad anatomy viva for We Cant Do Everything. Paper presented at the

204 Moya Brennan and Margaret van Naerssen

articles welcome
 International Seminar on Languages in Education has taught in China, England, Hong Kong, Spain and
in a Bilingual or Multilingual Setting. Hong Kong: Uganda.
Institute of Language in Education,1987. -
Margaret van Naerssen works in teacher training
Waters, A. (ed.). 1982. Issues in ESP. Lancaster Practi-
and programme development in Singapore. She has
cal Papers in English Language Education. Oxford: Per-
had twenty years ESL/EFL experience in China,
gamon Press.
Hong Kong, Singapore, and the United States (plus
The authors consultant work in the Philippines and Thailand), and
Moya Brennan is a visiting lecturer at the English was the US Director of the UCLA/Chinese Academy
Language Institute, University of Michigan, and of Sciences EST Center in Beijing, 1980-82.

Language and content in ESP 205

articles welcome