IS THE IMPLEMENTATION OF THE ESP APPROACH FEASIBLE IN MY CURRENT TEACHING SITUATION?

By Oriana Schmalbach Zabaleta Before beginning the whole task related to Session 1 the possibility of implementing ESP in my teaching situation was out of reach given that my initial awareness of this approach connected it mainly with superior levels of education. The first question that came to my mind was: How could I apply it at elementary levels? As it was very difficult, I already had my answer and vague arguments to begin this essay with. Then after having more insights about what ESP is and the features it involves my previous stance has passed through several stages. The intention of this essay is to establish what my current perspective is regarding the implementation of the ESP approach in my teaching practice. To begin with it is necessary to provide some information about my teaching context. I work at Camilo Torres Tenorio District School and I teach children from Preschool through fifth grade. My students have a low-level socioeconomic and educational background and I dear to say that more than 70% of them like English. I do not have any other colleague to work with in these levels and I have my own English classroom, it means I am autonomous in my teaching planning. In my current teaching situation, ESP has a range of advantages that can be profitable. The most important, it gives me the facility to establish what kind ot content could be more suitable to my students needs, playing both my students and me an active role in the planning of the syllabus, taking into consideration what Hutchinson and Waters (1987) suggest as students necessities, lacks and wants. According to Dudley-Evans and St. John (1998), one of the variable characteristics of ESP is that the lowest level it could be used in is secondary. However, I think I could use it broadly with the highest levels of primary I work with, and although young learners in the lowest levels do not express their wants as accurately (since they give too vague or too specific information when asked about what they would like to learn), I have reached the conclusion that it is also feasible to apply an ESP approach in these grades. In reflecting upon my experience with very young learners in preschool levels, I believe that I am already applying ESP because in the English class I try to help children develop skills and activities important for their current cognitive and developmental stage. Besides, I present topics that are related to their previous knowledge and what they have had the opportunity to work in other subjects because I have got used to asking their main class teachers about it. Perhaps there is a lacking of formality in what I have done so far because I had neither the theoretical background concerning ESP not the written accounts about this in my syllabus. So this is one of the unfinished (or not yet started) chapters for my next years English class curriculum improvement. Coming back to the elementary level, I think that there is still an extensive amount of features that should be worked out in order to move my current teaching situation towards a more ESP type English program. In these grades I have not managed to plan the English content according to my students needs, although it has been within my plans for years to come. I have been thinking about the need to plan a syllabus that considers the mission and vision of my school in which values are an outstanding

aspect. Perhaps working on a different value every two months in each grade. I would also like to work using content based instruction principles due to the importance content has within the ESP approach. For this, I must be aware of the methodology, skills, strategies, discourse and other featured used in any specific subject the content is going to be related to so I can use this approach appropriately (Dudley-Evans and St. John, 1998; Holmes, 1981; Kennedy & Bolitho, 1990). I am considering to work in collaboration with the subjects main teachers through the distribution of a few questionnaires among them periodically and consult other subjects sillabuses as well so I can obtain reliable information for the implementation of ESP. In addition, I would conduct some interviews among my students in order to know which classes and what kind of activities they liked the most during the period or week so next English classes/program could be organized following these suggestions. In the end, I will organize the material to be learnt according to my students needs, but also taking into consideration some general aspects (funtional, grammatical, notional, situational, etc) of ELT. For this reason, I think it is reasonable to include not only ESP but also EGP at a lesser level in my future programs. EGP can be used to prepare students for future tests (Hutchinson and Waters, 1987), and add an extra help (primarily provided by ESP) in the the formal use of the language. Of all branches of ESP I believe that EOP (English for Occupational Purposes) more exactly the EVP (Eng. for Vocational Purp.) is more likely to develop in my teaching practice. According to Dudley-Evans and St John (1998) one of the fundamental concerns of ESP is . . . preparing learners to communicate effectively in the tasks prescribed by their study or work situation. (p.1). I believe that EOP is suitable principally because the occupation of the learner in the school, which is the social context where they are going to use English in the beginning stages, is the one of a student. I should focus mainly on the functions they perform as students and develop the learning process around the skills that as learners they would need to succeed. I would include their role as family members, members of society, etc. eventually, as their perspective on life and the relevance of using English out of the school context extends. After this reflection I only have to confirm once more that the answer to the question that entitled this essay is a hundred percent positive. Of course it is plausible to take ESP into consideration in my teaching situation and be confident about prospective remarkable outcomes that might be obtained by implementing it in my English classes.