Paper 1
Developing ESP Curriculum and Implementing Project-based ESP Instruction for Postgraduates in Chongqing University
Yan Li Chongqing University
The primary purpose of ESP is to prepare learners to use English in a specific context. Therefore ESP Curriculum should be developed and designed based on the needs analysis which involvesconsidering where learners come from and where they are heading for. Different from the traditional curriculum, ESP Curriculum addresses the target needs concerning “Necessity, Lacks and Wants” (Hutchinson and Waters, 1987) from different perspectives including the learners,
instructors, administrators and would-be employers in the specific industries. Strictly followed the needs analysis theory and principle, Chongqing University has been conducting ESP Curriculum development over six years with the purpose of cultivating the discursive competences (Bhatia,
1999) and multi-communication ability of the postgraduates for their current academic study and
2000) future professional practice. A series of ESP postgraduate courses have been designed and an overall framework of ESP Curriculum has been established aimed at different disciplines and majors for different levels or categories of postgraduates. In the meantime, based on “learning centred approach” (Hutchinson & Waters, 1987), the varieties of ESP courses are implemented through Project- based instruction according to the specific course objectives and syllabuses. With the consistent effort and practice of our ESP teachers’ team, the postgraduates’ discursive competences including textual, generic, social competence with their discipline knowledge and professional practice have been remarkably promoted and improved.
This presentation will mainly introduce how ESP Curriculum for postgraduates in CQU has been developed and how Project-based ESP instruction has been conducted over the past few years. Firstly, the rationale of ESP curriculum design would be briefed; and then the overall framework of ESP curriculum would be detailed, with the focus on the two major ESP courses, namely EAC (English for Academic Communication) and EPC (English for Professional Communication). Finally, the Project-based ESP instruction would be highlighted and presented by using examples.
Key words: ESP curriculum, needs analysis, discursive competences, learning-centred approach,
project-based instruction,
Bio of the presenter:
Yan Li is a senior lecturer, and the dean of graduates English Section in the School of Foreign Languages and Cultures. She is interested in ESP instruction and research and has been engaged in the postgraduate English ESP program development. Her major lecturing courses include EAC (English for Academic Communication and EPC(English for Professional Communication) for master degree candidates in recent 5 years.
Paper 2
Achieving Efficient ESP Teaching to Medical Majors: Curriculum Design and Textbook Series Creation
Rongxia Liao
Army Medical University, Chongqing, China
English for medical purpose (EMP) is an important subdiscipline of English for Specific Purposes (ESP). The value of EMP teaching lies in the fact that it is in essence a practical educational activity addressing specific needs for health and medical practitioners. So far, curriculum design is still a challenge for EMP teachers in China, because most of them are English majors and not equipped with sufficient medical knowledge—the target situation. Furthermore, lack of quality textbook series remains to be a big problem for efficient EMP teaching. Our multi-disciplinary team developed an optimum curriculum according to needs analysis theory. By combining target situation needs with learning needs, we designed an EMP curriculum for medical majors at all levels from undergraduates to doctoral candidates. The curriculum consists of 4 compulsory courses and a variety of selective courses, targeting most common EMP needs of medical majors. In addition, we created a textbook series for the curriculum, after evaluating and reorganizing first-hand teaching materials from target situations. Based on content-based-instruction strategy, this textbook series aims to provide well-organized teaching materials for students with different learning needs (such as integrated English course book for undergraduates, academic reading course book for postgraduates, academic writing course book for doctoral candidates, and academic communication course book for all-level students). To facilitate individual teaching and learning, we have explored a web-based curriculum center, a learning management system, where users can register to access digital course books and online learning activities.
Keywords: EMP, ESP, Curriculum Design, Textbook Series Creation, Needs Analysis
Bio of the presenter:
Rongxia LIAO is a Professor in Army Medical University, teaching EMP to medical students (including undergraduates and graduates) for academic and occupational purposes. She received her Bachelor’s degree in English language and literature in 1993, and obtained her doctor’s degree in Medicine, in 2007. Her research interests include curriculum and text book design in EMP, and digital medicine. She is the writer of the first EMP textbook series based on needs analysis in China. She is currently a committee member of ESP China, and the executive director of the International Society of Digital Medicine.
Paper 3
Project-based ESP Teacher Development in Pedagogical Reform
Cuiying Li Chongqing Jiaotong University
This paper explores ESP teacher development in the context of pedagogical reform under the framework of project-based learning. Project-based learning is usually regarded as an effective way of students’ learning but rarely employed by our college English teacher learning community as a way to promote college English teacher development. This study reveals the following findings: 1) the case study ESP teachers are clearer about their goal of development and have stronger motivation;2) the case study ESP teachers value the study of related theory more than before; 3) the theoretical study greatly helps with their problem-solving in real teaching and work on projects, thus highly increases their sense of accomplishment; 4) the work on projects helps with the quality communication within their community and enhances their professional identity.
Keywords: project-based learning; ESP teachers; case study
Bio of the presenter:
Cuiying Li is a Professor in Chongqing Jiaotong University, teaching academic reading and writing (including undergraduates and graduates). Her research interests include systemic functional linguistics, English education and teacher development. Cuiying Li completed her Ph.D. in linguistics in 2011. She has become interested in disciplinary literacy since then and is now working on the application of genre-pedagogy in disciplinary learning.
Paper 4
The Discursive Construction of ICT in Virtual Public Sphere
Wang Jing
Chongqing University of Posts and Telecommunications
With the rapid development of new media, the virtual public sphere provides a totally new field for ICT science communication. This paper builds a corpus by data-mining articles popularizing ICT on the web, uses T-LAB software to facilitate the diachronic discourse analyses, reveals the ICT science communication status and presents a mechanism of science communication discourse in virtual public sphere.
Bio of the presenter:
Wang Jing is a Senior lecturer at Chongqing University of Posts and Telecommunications, teaching graduate and undergraduate students in English for academic purposes and ESP. She completed her Ph.D. in Sun Yat-Sen University and she is currently the Executive Council Member of International Association for Hallidayan Linguistics. Her recent interests in research include discourse analysis, cultural studies and ESP for science and engineering.