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109
ISSN 1991-9468 (Print), 2308-1058 (Online) http://edumag.mrsu.ru
УДК 37.016:811.111
DOI: 10.15507/1991-9468.094.023.201901.023-036
Language and Cultural Awareness of a Non-Native ESP Teacher
R. F. Forteza Fernandeza*, M. del C. Batista Gonzalezb
a Ural Federal University named after the First President of Russia B. N. Yeltsin, Ekaterinburg, Russia, * [email protected] bHigher Technical Institute of Havana - CUJAE, Havana, Cuba
Introduction. The relation between culture and language is a central issue in foreign language teaching and research where the need to give cultural content the same value as language content and language skills has been stressed. However, conceptualization of teacher language awareness, by focusing largely on formal aspects of language, largely neglects culture as a component of teacher cognition. This paper expands the category of ESP-teacher language awareness suggesting the inclusion of cultural awareness as a separate component of teacher cognition. This concept extension actualizes ESP teaching in the situation shaped by unprecedented mobility and intercultural contacts.
Materials and Methods. The historic-logical method was used to determine shortcomings of pedagogical experience and the need to teach culture in ESP. Grounded theory, as an inductive methodology, was utilized to generate conceptual expansion theoretically tied with research in medical and business communication as well as with data on population movement and international scientific cooperation. Results. We defined ESP-cultural knowledge as a system comprising the permanent (know-that) and temporary (know-of) cultural manifestations in a society as well as how they are manifested through language (know-how). That system practical representation is exemplified in medicine and business English discourse. The study expands the structure of ESP-TLA, claiming the focus on cultural awareness as part of ESP discourse which fosters cultural-response education.
Discussion and Conclusion. Such claim is pertinent to practitioners involved in the tourism industry, health care, economics, and academic activities such as research and development. This paper is relevant for teachers of English for Specific purposes in the fields mentioned above as well as for researchers engaged in analyzing the problems and methods of teaching a foreign language. However, because of the multiple manifestations and complexity of student motivation to get ESP course, the paper acknowledges the difficulties in addressing cultural content salient to all students in class, an aspect meriting further research.
Keywords: ESP, teacher language awareness, communicative language practices, knowledge of subject matter, culture
Acknowledgements: This research was financially supported by the Russian Foundation for Basic Research (Grant No. 17-29-09136/18 «Multilingualism in the era of post-literacy: Philosophical and cultural studies and methodological and pedagogical development of a multilingual education model»).
For citation: Forteza Fernandez R.F., Batista Gonzalez M. del C. Language and Cultural Awareness of a Non-Native ESP Teacher. Integratsiya obrazovaniya = Integration of Education. 2019; 23(1):23-36. DOI: 10.15507/1991-9468.094.023.201901.023-036
© Forteza Fernandez R. F., Batista Gonzalez M. del C., 2019
l/jji © I Контент доступен под лицензией Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License. Igs^k^H The content is available under Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.
Языковая и культурная осведомленность преподавателя английского языка для профессиональных целей
Р. Ф. Фортеса Фернандес1*, М. дэль К. Батиста Гонсалес2
1ФГАОУ ВО «Уральский федеральный университет имени Первого Президента России Б. Н. Ельцина», г. Екатеринбург, Россия, * rafaelforteza@gmail. com 2Высший технический институт г. Гаваны - КУХАЭ, г. Гавана, Куба
Введение. В статье рассматривается категория языковой осведомленности преподавателя английского языка для профессиональных целей через включение понятия культурной осведомленности как особого компонента познавательной способности педагога. Целью статьи является концептуальное расширение этого понятия, которое актуализирует преподавание английского для особых целей в условиях, возникающих в результате беспрецедентной мобильности человека и межкультурных контактов. Материалы и методы. С помощью историко-логического метода описываются недостатки педагогического опыта и обосновывается необходимость преподавания культуры в курсах английского языка для специальных целей. Фундаментальная теория как индуктивная методология используется для генерации концептуального расширения, которое связывает такой материал исследования, как коммуникации в сферах медицины и бизнеса, а также данные о миграции населения и научных взаимодействиях. Результаты исследования. Сформулировано определение культурного знания английского языка для специальных целей как системы, содержащей перманентные (know-that) и временные (know-of) проявления культурных факторов в обществе. Практическая репрезентация этой системы показана на примере дискурса английского языка в сферах медицины и бизнеса. Данное исследование расширило представление о концепции преподавания английского языка в профессиональных целях, утверждая, что культурное сознание занимает центральное место в ESP дискурсе, благоприятствуя образованию, учитывающему культурные особенности.
Обсуждение и заключение. Практическая значимость статьи заключается в обращении к опыту работы преподавателей английского для специальных целей, занятых в преподавании языка в области индустрии туризма, здравоохранения, экономики, а также академической деятельности, включающей научно-исследовательскую работу. Данная статья будет полезна практикам - преподавателям английского языка для специальных целей в различных областях, и исследователям, анализирующим проблемы и методики преподавания иностранного языка. В связи с многочисленными вариациями английского языка для особых целей, а также из-за сложности мотивации студентов, изучающих такого рода курсы, в статье обращается внимание и на затруднения, связанные с обращением к культурному содержанию, присущему всем учащимся. Этот аспект требует дальнейшего изучения.
Ключевые слова: английский для особых целей, языковая осведомленность учителя, коммуникативная языковая практика, отраслевые знания, культура
Благодарности: статья подготовлена при поддержке гранта РФФИ №№ 17-29-09136/18 «Полилингвизм в эпоху постграмотности: философско-культурологическое обоснование и методико-педагогическая разработка модели полилингвального образования».
Для цитирования: Фортеса Фернандес Р. Ф., Батиста Гонсалес М. дэль К. Языковая и культурная осведомленность преподавателя английского языка для профессиональных целей // Интеграция образования. 2019. Т. 23, № 1. С. 23-36. DOI: 10.15507/1991-9468.094.023.201901.023-036
Introduction
Upon the triumph of the Cuban revolution in 1959, a single university hospital and a medical school along with a dominant private sector and a rudimentary public health system existed in the island. Only a third of the Cuban doctors lived in the biggest cities and towns outside the capital, while none served in rural areas where death preventable diseases were rampant.
With the radicalization of the political and socio-economic process in the early 1960s, no less than 3 000 (around 50 %) left the country for the US, making the situation much more precarious. Twenty years later, the new Cuban Health Care System (CHCS) recognized health care as a human right as well as the state's responsibility in providing such care. In addition, international collaboration was instituted. Countries
such as Jamaica and Nicaragua in the Americas as well as Angola, Mozambique, and Congo in Africa were among the first to benefit from such principle. In 2013, Werlau reported that nearly 280 thousand Cubans had worked in 154 countries, a fact that, reflected in GDP terms, meant a 68 % rise ($ 9 660k) in service exports, most of which were in health care. In other words1, "[by 2012] Cuban medical staff had cared for more people [more than 70 million] and had saved more lives in the developing countries [1,5 million] than all the G-8 countries, the World Health Organization and Doctors Without Borders [original in French] put together"2. Furthermore, after almost a 50-year American embargo, or "blockade" as the Cubans call it, the island's health indicators in terms of infant mortality, low birth weight rate, sustained access to improved sources of drinking water, and doctor-patient ratio were already significantly superior in 2010 to those of the historical enemy and almost the same in life expectancy [1]. In other words, the Cuban public health feat has no parallels in human history and is, in part, the result of changes in medical education, and particularly, in foreign language teaching.
This revolution in English language teaching in medical sciences took place in Cuba in the mid 1980's and was aimed at offering health services to poor countries. As a result, the two-year reading courses were substituted by five-year communicative-language-teaching (CLT)-based programs so that the future medical professional could learn how to communicate accurately and fluently in the English language while working in other parts of the world. This change implied significant increases in the English department staff of all institutes and faculties as well as the reorganization of the teaching learning process, training of new faculty, and acquisition of bibliography.
Except for the history and organization of this language policy3, its evolution [2], the fact it was an unusual pre-graduate ESP program [3], and teacher-training abroad [4], little has been written about the very many challenges faced by the teachers participating in the new educational phenomenon. For all the change from the general educational environment to higher medical education undergoing a transformation process implied fast adaptation to doing things differently as well learning not only medical English and how to teach through a new approach, but also the new language of the workplace.
The next few years bore testimony of the teachers' gradual development towards today's ESP- teacher language awareness (TLA). This assertion is founded on a brief historical assessment based on the criteria experience in ESP teaching and knowledge of subject matter that allowed the identification of two periods in the development in ESP-TLA: (1) Learning and Adaptation to the new situation (1984-1986), and (2) Accommodation and Emergence of ESP-TLA (circa 1987-onwards).
During the Learning and Adaptation period, it was necessary to transform teaching practices such as the faithful implementation of textbooks, error correction, and little or no attention to the context of situation, participants in the exchange, and register which characterize professional exchanges. Beliefs such as communication is paramount, and grammar is no longer explicitly taught were quite often discussed at length.
The solution to those problems was found in intensive methodological work implemented since the very beginning of the 1984-1985 academic course including post-graduate courses, collaboration between medical faculties and universities all over the country; the local medical staff at the universities and hospitals provided
1 Werlau M.C. Cuba's Health Care Diplomacy: The Business of Humanitarianism. World Affairs. 2013. Available at: http://www.worldaffairsjoumal.org/article/cuba%E2%80%99s-health-care-diplomacy-business-humanitarianism (accessed 22.11.2018). (In Eng.)
2 Podmore W. The War Against the Working Class. Xlibris Corporation; 2015. P. 42. Available at: https:// www.amazon.com/War-Against-Working-Class/dp/1503531112 (accessed 11.01.2019).
3 Hunter A.A. Historical Study of the Development of a Communicative Approach to English Language Teaching in Post-Revolutionary Cuba. Doctoral Dissertation. University of Edinburgh; 1988. Available at: https://www.era.lib.ed.ac.uk/bitstream/1842/7212/1/329950_V0L1.pdf (accessed 22.11.2018). (In Eng.)
the necessary working knowledge to deal with the program contents and medical jargon that paved the way to understand the forms of communication within the profession. These group growth activities were also supplemented by autodidacticism and research.
As a result, three years after the implementation of the English as foreign language new curriculum, it could be said that the second period: Accommodation and Emergence of ESP-TLA was noticeable. The presence of English language teachers with their students under the supervision of an English language proficient medical doctor was common in ward rounds, case discussions and presentations in hospitals. Furthermore, students investigated under the direction of a medical doctor, a dentist, or since 1991, a registered nurse, and later presented their research in English under the auspices of an English teacher. Teachers, at the same time, began publishing their work, first in the form of glossaries for different medical specialties, and later, on the peculiarities of specialized communication forms such as interviews, the language of physical examinations, lab test readings, and the writing of case reports and nursing care plans as medical genres. Since the early 1990s, English teachers from higher medical institutions began working as interpreters and translators in cardiology, neurology, and natural and traditional medicine congresses as well as in humanitarian projects such as those developed by Orbis International in the country.
At least four features make the Cuban ESP experience higher medical education distinctive. First, the uniqueness of its objective - to give free health care to poor countries in the world - clearly defined the rest of the components of the teaching learning process such as the contents: common health problems in third world countries; the methods: CLT, still in its infancy, for oral communicative practice in the classroom and hospitals; teaching aids; and evaluation. A second distinctive feature was the EFL-ESP integral formation of the undergraduate which presupposed a first cycle of General English during the
first three years in medical education and a second of ESP in the last two. Each of these was followed by a compulsory proficiency exam. A third feature was the exchange of knowledge and skills between the staff of all health institutions as bodies of medical knowledge and practice and the university English staff. Finally, the possibility to evaluate the outcomes of the experience in the long term and correct the process through feedback. As thousands of young doctors, dentists and nurses went after graduation to work in Africa, the Arab world, or the Caribbean, their vacation period or work completion were fertile sources of information for the evaluation and improvement of the EFL-ESP teaching learning process at the university.
A comparison between the Cuban experience with all its achievements and failures with that of others in the international context is difficult because of the very essence of the country's educational system and idiosyncrasy. Nevertheless, it could be said that not all the Cuban undergraduates in medical universities welcomed the introduction of such a heavy emphasis in English, because it added to their already loaded curriculum, and thus unacknowledged the relevance of the ESP courses, an issue closely related to motivation. In the international context, ESP education is generally aimed at using disciplinary knowledge in the production of new knowledge during the future professional practice and takes the form of written or monologic communication. The Cuban experience emphasized oral communication with other professionals or the patients as well as reading for information in the classroom about which Forteza [5] pointed out the lack of preparation of health professionals to publish and participate in international academic exchanges. No scientific account has been found about long term feedback on the effectiveness of ESP courses and subsequent correction in other parts of the world.
In the early 1990s, when the first medical doctors and nurses returned to Cuba on vacation or after finishing their work abroad, some talked about their lives in
other countries and, anecdotically, mentioned instances of what is known today as cultural shock. The use of English in their work had posed no problems but, cultural differences had. For instance, after finishing nursing school in the early 1980s, while in a middle east country, A. Pavon Lopez, RN, MSc., recalls that Bedouins visiting the medical post usually wanted to give part of their medications to family members or friends accompanying them. Once a man presenting with a streptococcal endocarditis, because he had business to attend, pleaded to be injected in one day the 10-day antibiotic treatment prescribed. This nurse, quite young at the time, says it took the medical team hours to convince the man that this was utterly impossible. In the end, the Bedouin left the post to attend his business but was brought back in worse conditions a few days later (personal information).
Based on the teaching learning process results and other accomplishments after 1986-1987, it seems that English teachers in Cuban medical institutions had developed TLA in an ESP situation; however, by not approaching the ESP teaching learning process from a cultural perspective as well, the ESP teachers had not provided the students with all the necessary tools to do their jobs. That is, individual and institutional efforts, in a relatively short period of time, had transformed "the quality, extent and sophistication of [the] teacher's cognitions about subject matter [all of which were] perhaps the most significant of the professional factors influencing the operations of TLA in [their] pedagogical practice" [6, p. 70], but missed the language cultural component.
However, TLA is only concerned with ELF, ESL, and TEFL. TLA in its original conception is reflected in recent theorizing and research in ESP teachers' competences. In discussing the potential instructor, Feak [7, p. 44] argued that often non-native speakers of a language might in fact be more proficient than native speakers because of their knowledge of the language systems as well as familiarization with the discourse community genres and their communicative purposes. The ESP instructors might be EFL
teachers provided they received necessary preparation and subject specialist cooperation Khalifa Mohammed [8]. These claims are in line with everything done during and after the implementation of the Cuban ESP experience in medical schools after 1984 that quite early saw the need for specialization, rigorous selection processes, and general and specialized training for those potential [and in-service] instructors [9]. On the other hand, Gorska-Pore^ka's conceptualization, though a coherent commendable step forward in the theory and practice of ESP, could be further advanced by adding "cultural awareness" - as part of that special kind of knowledge needed to bridge the gap between ESP and the multi-culturally diverse social contexts in which the learners might employ it [10].
Based on the shortcomings of the Cuban experience and the necessary competencies on subject matter in ESP teaching [10], this paper argues in favor of the inclusion of cultural awareness as part of that special kind of knowledge ESP teachers need to enable learners to go beyond appropriacy in the context of situation to appropriacy in the context of culture.
Literature Review
This section offers a critical analysis of TLA and the inapplicability in its present conceptualization to ESP contexts. This analysis is partly based on Gorska-Pore^ka's operationalization of the internal structure of ESP teacher cognition, and the writers' experience as ESP teachers [10].
Arguably, TLA current definitions and specifications only address part of ESP teacher cognitions. Thornbury understood it as the teachers' knowledge of the language subsystems - phonetics and phonology, morphology and lexicology, syntax, discourse and semantics - that allow for effective teaching. Its major focus, it seems, is the teacher's explicit L2 cognitions and their role in language learning, teaching, and use4. Leech and Andrews, for instance, appear to constrain the concept to the identification of key grammatical issues and how to make them noticeable for learning [11-13]. For
4 Andrews S. Teacher Language Awareness. Cambridge: CUP; 2007.
Andrews, TLA comprises: Knowledge of grammatical terminology; Understanding of the concepts associated with terms; Awareness of meaning/language in communication; Ability to reflect on language and analyse language forms; Ability to select/grade language and break down grammar points for teaching purposes; Ability to analyse grammar from learners' perspective; Ability to anticipate learners' grammatical difficulties; Ability to deal confidently with spontaneous grammar questions; Ability to think on one's feet in dealing with grammar problems; Ability to explain grammar to students without complex metalanguage; Awareness of 'correctness' and ability to justify an opinion about what is acceptable usage and what is not; and Sensitivity to language/awareness of how language works [11, p. 75].
Seen from a critical literacy perspective, such conceptualizations are static because they portray language in isolation from use to build human relations. An individual's use of language is always realized within a concrete socio-cultural context and is to be perceived "not in terms of [a language's] abstract system components but as communicative repertoires - conventionalized constellations of semiotic resources for taking action - that are shaped by the particular practices in which individuals engage" [14]. Consequently, the TLA conceptions lack the necessary heuristic vigor in ESP teaching and research because of its focus on professional communication, teacher roles, the need to collaborate with professionals in the field, language variation, and the social role of language in professional practices within a culture in a multiculturally diverse world.
The fact that TLA covers five domains: "affective, social, power, cognitive, and performance" [15, p. 75] implies that ESP-TLA refers to explicit knowledge of language use in establishing power-mediated social relations within a context of culture, including display of affection and cognition - a characteristic of communication in professional settings. Effective up and down communication in the workplace is constrained by power relations within such a context, clearly limiting the fields, tenor,
and modes of discourse employed by the participants in any exchange. As a result, ESP teachers teach more than language: they teach culture to go beyond the mere limitations imposed by the curriculum and are supposed to embrace the subject matter from the cultural perspective and context where the profession will potentially be exercised. Consequently, the general knowledge system of an expert ESP teacher, or in other words [their] pedagogical content knowledge (PCK) must contain an extra knowledge base with cognitions related to the basic facts, concepts, values and practices of the discipline or profession [within a socio-cultural context] that a given type of ESP [course] serves" [10, p. 30]. The PCK is a type of cognition essential for the teaching process "that would not typically be held by nonteaching subject matter experts or by teachers who know little of that subject matter" [16].
The PCK differentiates the ESP teacher as a professional who knows the language of a specific discipline, but yet an outsider, and the teacher as an expert and member of the target profession discourse community. The ESP-TLA subject content knowledge base involves "knowledge of the basic concepts and tenets of the discipline to which ESP is related; awareness of the discipline culture, its basic values and typical practices (situations, activities, tasks); [and] familiarity with the discipline- or profession- specific discourse practices (typical speech acts and genres)" that in addition to pedagogical and L2 knowledge configurate the ESP teacher's professional competence and performance in the classroom [10, p. 31].
In medicine, for instance, ESP-TLA in the dimension subject content knowledge base allows teachers to focus on specialty-related language variations: "Open your mouth... wide, please", probably said by dentist to an adult patient, and "Now, I'd like to see inside your mouth. Will you open it for me?", said by the same dentist to a child or a pediatrician wanting to check a sore throat. This variation is also related to the patient's gender and area to be examined: "Please, would you strip to the waist?" (Physician to a male patient); "I'd
like to check your chest, if you allowed me to do so." (Physician to a female patient); or "According to what you tell me and your age, I think it would be convenient to check your back passage. Would you allow me to do so?" (Physician encouraging the patient to allow a prostate check-up). Furthermore, this type of ESP-teacher proficiency will also facilitate teaching the art of asking private, difficult-to-answer questions in case the patient is a presumed victim of alcoholism, drug addiction, sexual abuse, or battering.
However, in the above examples language use has only been approached in the context of situation. That is, the grammatical forms and patterns have been adjusted to a field of human activity (medicine), the relationships between the participants in the exchange (doctor-patient), and the circumstances in which this exchange has taken place (conversation in a doctor's office). These circumstances have dictated register, lexico-grammar, pronunciation, stress, and even pitch choices. But, any context of situation operates within a context of culture; that is, the culturally shared expectations and behaviors that allow for the interpretation of language and doings within a culture. It seems, therefore, that ESP-TLA with Cultural Awareness is a must for the practitioner.
Materials and Methods
The need to theoretically extend the ESP-TLA conceptualization by adding Cultural Awareness stemmed from the historical-logical analysis of the achievements and shortcomings of the Cuban ESP pedagogical experience. The new concept ESP-TLA as Cultural Awareness is the result of the application of Grounded Theory as a scientific method for the construction of knowledge in the social sciences [17-19] that allowed to synthesize a philosophical position derived from Critical Literacy postulates [20-24] and extend a concept based on Systemic Functional Linguistics [25], Critical Applied Linguistics [26], and Ethnolinguistics [27], with the aim to empower ESP teachers to offer learners a culturally-responsive education. Qualitative and multidisciplinary in nature, the
philosophical position led to the resulting conceptual extension, ESP-TLA plus culture that was theoretically triangulated with data obtained from ESP research and practice, research in medicine and business, and data obtained from an international organization.
Results
Derived from Latin, the term culture, in English and French; cultura, in Spanish; and kultur in German has no equivalent in many non-western languages. From a historical viewpoint, the concept has extended its original meaning by acquiring a polysemous nature. The original meaning of culture, 'cultivated land', has been kept, but also attached to specific forms of animal or plant production such as apiculture, floriculture, and mariculture. The second meaning encompasses knowledge, education, refinement of manners, and art production. It is within this second meaning that the term has been applied to what Riley decries as deterministic purposes such as social identity indexing, racism, and innate superiority in terms of, for instance, intelligence [27].
From an ethnolinguistic perspective, ESP-TLA as awareness of the culture's target language with its shared values and social meanings [10, p. 21] implies knowledge, respect, observance, and tolerance of the "ways of life, attitudes, language, practices, institutions, structures of power, traditions, sets of patterns of behavior, ideas, acts" [28, p. 105] which are created and produced, organized, stored, distributed, legitimized, and used [28, p. 31-32] by a particular culture, all of which allow individuals to utilize "socially-warranted criteria for the classification of situations, objects, genres, people, emotions, knowledge [and] whose organization and operation may be variously described as 'representations', 'beliefs', 'personal constructs', or 'prototypes' which form the eidos, the individual's image of society and the world" [ibid, p. 38]. In its relationship to language and its role in communicating within a culture, Riley's definition (ibid) encapsulates the most important aspects to take into consideration
as an essential aspect of ESP-TLA: Culture is the sum total of the information, beliefs, values and skills one needs to share and apply in the society and situations in which the individual lives: what I need to know in order to 'make sense' in and of those situations in the same ways as my fellows and to communicate and behave in ways they find appropriate. The communicative practices through which culture is transmitted are themselves part of culture [27, p. 40].
Hofstede, Hofstede and Minkov's [29] assertion that culture is like mental programming illustrate advances in cognitive psychology based on neuroscience. Escandell-Vidal [30] views communication as just the external manifestation of two interrelated phenomena: cultural behavior and language, because they are acquired in the same way and, at the same time. Consequently, both are to be conceived as inter-related "domain-specific" capacities which imply that the loss of one will not incapacitate the individual but affect the use of the other. As both are embedded in the individual, culture one may interfere in culture two, in the same way the mother tongue interferes in the foreign language. This means that an ESP teacher, highly aware of the English language manifestations within a professional sphere, must necessarily be aware of the culture surrounding professional practices and be able to explicitly highlight this aspect in class. However, this, it seems, is more easily said than done if the teacher as part of needs assessment discovers the learners' true motivations in enrolling an ESP course.
The reasons outlined above, because of their multifactorial nature, influence choice of cultural content in the ESP classroom communicative practices. In general, choice of content should, apparently, include the "know-that, know-of, and know-how" [27] of the target culture(s). Rather than knowledge about cultural institutions and landmarks about a target culture, the Know-that of cultural content in the ESP language classroom must include beliefs and values (political, religious, and philosophical), perceived place in history among others as well as customs such as praying,
hygiene habits, child care and raising, cuisine; the Know-of of cultural content encompasses updated information on the current happenings, people and their position in organizations such as government, companies, and competitors alongside officials in the potential study/employer institutions as well as news, sports, weather, political and economic achievements and/or failures, just to mention a few. Consequently, the Know-how results from the integrated mastery of the know-that and the know-of through informed reasoning and behavior allowing to communicate in appropriate ways a context of culture. These culturally- tuned ways of doing and saying things in the target culture also include, among others, greetings, addressing others, asking, denying, offering, mentioning others as well as physical contact and proximity.
Discussion and Conclusion
The learners' motivation in enrolling an ESP course whether integrated or instrumental, intrinsic or extrinsic derive from individually perceived needs and their related social, political and economic conditions. That is, in addition to socio-economic improvement facilitated by global workforce mobility, other reasons such as emigration and humanitarian work in the home country and abroad may be among the reasons compelling professionals, say, medical doctors, nurses, engineers, or even teachers to join the ESP classroom. In the case of professionals, the need for cultural awareness arises even in their own country and regardless of the language used because of ethnic minority populations and firstgeneration immigrants. In countries such as Russia and refugee receptors such as Germany, the UK, and France, for instance, while performing their job, a medical doctor or nurse must know and understand that Muslims (a fifth of the World population) believe illness and death should be met with patience, mediation and prayer, and that the patient's spiritual needs, modesty, and privacy are more important than anything else [31] when performing activities such as monitoring vital signs, giving injections, and collecting body fluids.
Furthermore, cultural awareness or the competence to use language appropriately in a different context of culture, for instance, is considered a core requirement, for instance, in maternal health care [32] and pediatrics [33]. Seibert, Strid-Igo, and Zimmerman identified communication method, language barriers, cultural identification, comprehension, trust, and beliefs related to religion and identity as critical factors to be taken into consideration in cross cultural health services [34]. These considerations can be extended to all transcultural communication, regardless of the professional field, because "language is part of and influenced by psychological, sociological, and cultural factors" [35, p. 57]. In other words, it is through culturally-mediated language that the ESP today's learner will engage others in communication.
An additional reason is that mass migration is very likely to facilitate contact with other cultures. The 2018 UN World Migration Report estimates that in 2015 international migrants were around 244m (3,3 % of the world population), with a tendency to fluctuate around the same number until 20505. Other phenomena related to human conflict such as civil wars and violent extremism such as ethnic cleansing displaced 40,3m people and produced 22,5m refugees, only, in 2016. Despite the upheavals mass migration may produce, integration or adaptation to the host country depends largely on the cultural perceptions, interpretation, and attitudes of both populations, the host and 'the guest'. The conflicts these can potentially generate, the authors contend, may be minimized by cultural awareness to promote understanding - in its three meanings: knowledge, sympathy, and agreement - as well as tolerance of the different other.
A third reason to fully integrate cultural knowledge in the ESP classroom has its origins in international scientific and technological collaboration, and education.
The UNESCO Science Report Towards 2030 (2016) estimates an increase in the number of international patents, scientific progress as well as joint research in the developing world where countries such as China and India have already taken the lead6. From 2009 to 2014, publications from international authors increased exactly 4 %. In countries from Africa and the Arab world, this trend accounted for 60,1 and 109 %, respectively. At the same time, digital educational platforms have given the opportunity for massive online courses, while grants - 86 % of which are given by European institutions - and scholarships could double, in less than ten years, today's more than 4,1m international students. In this never-heard of-before brain circulation phenomenon, universities compete to become part of the best in the QS World University Ranking.
From a practical perspective, for instance, if the future job is in Iran, a health professional's know-of will allow him to be aware of the limitations derived from the implementation of Sharia Law in medical institutions, where it is a patient's right to be visited and delivered health serviced by professionals of the same sex. On this legal consideration, Dargahi reported that female patients in general feel uncomfortable during medical examinations performed by male students and are opposed to services such as nursing care, housekeeping, being helped with personal activities, and urethral catheterizations when delivered by male staff as well as their presence during medical examinations and laboratory services, among others [36]. In this case, the "I'd like to check your chest" polite request from a male medical doctor or nurse addressed to a female patient, which is appropriate for the context of situation, may not be enough to be granted permission to do his job in this particular context of culture. The male doctor or nurse will also have to have the husband's, father's or elder brother's consent.
5 UN International Organization for Migration. World Migration Report 2018 [Electronic recource]. Available at: https://www.iom.int/wmr/world-migration-report-2018 (accessed 22.11.2018). (In Eng.)
6 UNESCO Science Report towards 2030. 2nd revised edition. 2016 [Electronic recource]. Available at: https://en.unesco.org/unesco_science_report (accessed 22.11.2018). (In Eng.)
From a cognitive perspective, some specialist terminology is also culturally situated [language] and, as a result, embodied in the individual's perceptions and actions [37]. According to google scholar, for instance, the term 'children's hospital' is much more common than pediatric hospital' in the academic literature in English, any of them suits the one written in Spanish, and the first is the preferred term in Russian. In this same language - Russian, the medical term 'angina' seems to be derived from German medicine and means severe pharyngitis, whereas in the US it is defined as chest pain related to myocardial ischemia.
In the same way that cross cultural health service workers need to be aware of culture, in business good knowledge of the English language is not enough unless it is accompanied with an understanding of the challenges coming from working in other cultures7. In business, the know-that of cultural patterns include attitude to time and the environment as well communication styles, identification, trust and beliefs. Together with the know-of of management policies, work coordination, and behavior towards the organization will allow the businessman's know-how of negotiations, agreements, management style, team work, socializing in the business environment in the new culture, and even marketing where programs are designed in such a way that they culturally reflect the target consumer groups "buying patterns"8.
In the world of business, everything is different wherever the negotiator goes. The notion of small talk, an aspect emphasized in all business English courses only gives the tip of the iceberg in real life. "It is not that Germans do not appreciate small talk, they do. But only about serious topics, even politics, [a topic off the table according to business courses]" stresses A. Karabazov, an entrepreneur at SML, a start-up in Yekaterinburg, Russia (personal communication, May 12, 2018), whereas his boss, G. Khvatov
(personal communication, May 12, 2018) underlines that in many countries in the ex-Soviet space small talk can take a week. Only individual research on the cultural context of each business negotiation can help deal with each case. In addition to small talk - an ubiquitous topic in business English textbooks, a culturally-aware ESP teacher will prepare learners to function in another cultural context and understand why, say, in African countries handshakes and eating are done with the left hand, because the right is dirty; or why people do not take off their coats or shoes when entering a business office [or a medical consultation], because they do not consider them dirty.
The world of business, at the same time, is rich in metaphoric expressions and analogies describing economic and financial situations which only knowledge and expertise of the matter talked about may help decode [38]. Among the uses of analogies in business language is, for instance, "It is only the 2nd inning of this (economic cycle, bull market, bear market)." In this specific case, only culturally aware ESP teachers with knowledge of baseball would be able to transmit their students that 'second inning' means just started. 'Bull' and 'bear market', on the other hand, would have to be decoded in the specific situation in which they are used because of their nonbusiness connotations.
In international commerce, greetings, small talk, communication styles, and negotiations along with knowledge of the culture, traditions, and proxemics may have considerable impact in the final results. For example, the perceptions on humorous language are not the same in the USA as in China. The Spaniards may gesticulate a great deal and, stand very close when talking to others, but not as close as Afghans who are, in comparison with their European peers, more likely to invite one to their house for a meal as a sign of hospitality. During business meetings, addressing Russians respectfully means using their given
7 Dignen B. Communicating Across Cultures. Cambridge: CUP; 2011.
8 Kerin R., Hartley S. Marketing: The Core. NY: McGraw Hill; 2016.
name and patronymic, whereas Germans would expect Herr or Frau and Americans Mister or Ms. The lack of an indicator for marital status in the form of address for these three nationalities is a cultural marker to be observed by the Spaniards and the French who do have one, but only for females. Therefore, questions about the marital status of potential Russian, German or American business partners may potentially be perceived as inappropriate, if not disrespectful. In writing, for instance, simple expressions such as Dear Sir/Madam or Dear Mr/Ms Johns followed by an exclamation mark, as is normal in Russian usage [39], sound as if the writer is shouting at the receiver of the business correspondence.
It seems, therefore, that cultural awareness as an additional component in ESP-TLA subject content knowledge base is justified from the theoretical and practical perspectives. Clearly for skeptics, cultural awareness may prove very difficult to teach because of its numerous manifestations in equally probable future social contexts the learner might encounter. However, a culturally aware ESP teacher, would probably have to encourage the learner to find how a given content may be reflected in their potential future work scenario so as to reduce cultural shock and prepare the learner for the future. In the case of medicine, this knowledge may help to save lives and reduce cultural tensions. In business, this may mean time and money. Furthermore, a culturally-focused ESP classroom would go beyond language functions, grammar, vocabulary, and pronunciation to become a cultural dis-
course community. In other words, language as discourse is culturally situated rather than appropriate lexico-grammar and pronunciation in a context of situation.
Because of its constraints to the formal aspects of the language, TLA as a category of English language teacher formation insufficiently characterizes what the ESP teacher's subject matter knowledge; this category renamed ESP-TLA to suit the needs of the ESP classroom and enhanced with cultural awareness is a step forward in the construction of knowledge and skills demanded in the of teacher formation and practice. Though theoretically argued from a critical literacy, linguistic, ethnolinguis-tic, cognitive psychology, and practical perspectives, the construct demands further analysis and elaboration especially in the methods and procedures derived from the practical applications resulting from the inclusion of cultural content in undergraduate and professional courses. The know-thats and know-ofs needed in a growing multicultural world are many, but they will enable the learners' know-hows to successfully adapt to and exercise their profession or trade in a particular culture. Cultural Awareness as a component of ESP-TLA is linguistically situated in the learners' future socio-professional milieu. All the above are to allow the ESP practitioners in content areas such as tourism and catering, nursing, dentistry, banking, financing, and accounting as well as those professions connected with research and technological development to enhance cultural awareness as a pre-requisite for successful communication within the professional spheres.
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Submitted 09.11.2018; revised 08.12.2018; published online 29.03.2019.
Поступила 09.11.2018; принята к публикации 08.12.2018; опубликована онлайн 29.03.2019.
About the authors:
Rafael F. Forteza Fernandez, Associate Professor of Chair of Foreign Languages and Translation, Ural Federal University named after the First President of Russia B. N. Yeltsin (19 Mira, Ekaterinburg 620002, Russia), Dr.Sci. (Pedagogy), ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5356-5337, Researcher ID: R-8717-2017, [email protected]
Maria del C. Batista Gonzalez, Professor of the Language Center at the Institute of Basic Sciences, Higher Technical Institute of Havana - CUJAE (11901 e/114 Ciclovia y Rotonda, La Havana, Marianao, Cuba), Dr.Sci. (Pedagogy), ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6137-8627, Researcher ID: A-8424-2019, [email protected]
Contribution of the authors:
Rafael F. Forteza Fernandez - scientific management; preparation of the initial version of the text; providing the necessary critical analysis and revision of the text; development of the methodology; typing, correction, and edition; formal data analysis.
Maria del C. Batista Gonzalez - exploring concepts; collecting data, and evidence.
All authors have read and approved the final manuscript.
Об авторах:
Фортеса Фернандес Рафаэль Филиберто, доцент кафедры иностранных языков и перевода ФГАОУ ВО «Уральский федеральный университет имени Первого Президента России Б. Н. Ельцина» (620002, Россия, г. Екатеринбург, пр. Мира, д. 19), доктор педагогических наук, ORCID: https://orcid. org/0000-0001-5356-5337, Researcher ID: R-8717-2017, [email protected]
Батиста Гонсалес Мария дель Кармен, профессор Лингвистического центра института основных наук Высшего технического института г. Гаваны - КУХАЭ (Куба, г Гавана, Марианао, ул. 114 Сикловия/ Ротонда, д. 11901), доктор педагогических наук, ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6137-8627, Researcher ID: A-8424-2019, [email protected]
Заявленный вклад авторов:
Фортеса Фернандес Рафаэль Филиберто - научное руководство; подготовка первоначального варианта текста; критический анализ и доработка текста; развитие методологии; компьютерная обработка; формализованный анализ данных;
Батиста Гонсалес Мария дель Кармен - изучение концепций; сбор данных и доказательств.
Все авторы прочитали и одобрили окончательный вариант рукописи.
