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7LANGUAGE TEACHING FOR SPECIAL PURPOSES: ESSENCE, METHODOLOGY, REFLECTION
Sadirova Dinara Sadikovna
Teacher of English and Researcher (PhD) Of Tashkent Financial Institute dinarasadikovna@096gmail.com https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.7600713
Abstract: This article discussed about the concepts of special purposes of teaching foreign language and its usage in the features of methodological programs. There is also conferred didactic and pedagogical aspects of teaching foreign language, illustration of actual issues in learning and teaching FL-(Foreign Language) and recommended some methodological manuals as a resolution of the relevant.
Аннотация: В данной статье речь идет о концепциях специальных целей обучения иностранному языку и их использовании в особенностях методических программ. Также представлены дидактические и педагогические аспекты обучения иностранному языку, иллюстрация актуальных вопросов изучения и преподавания иностранного языка и рекомендованы некоторые методические пособия в качестве решения соответствующих.
Annotatsiya: Ushbu maqolada chet tilini o'qitishning maxsus maqsadlari tushunchalari va uning uslubiy dasturlarning xususiyatlarida qo'llanilishi haqida so'z boradi. Shuningdek, chet tilini o'qitishning didaktik va pedagogik jihatlari, ChT-(Chet tili)ni o'rganish va o'qitishning dolzarb masalalari ko'rsatib o'tilgan va tegishli qaror sifatida bir qator uslubiy qo'llanmalar tavsiya etilgan.
Key words: Special, purposes, professional, methodological, essence, teaching, individual, process, educational, foreign and communication.
Ключевые слова: специальные, цели, профессиональные, методические, сущность, обучение, личность, процесс, воспитательный, зарубежный и коммуникативный.
Kalit so'zlar: Maxsus, maqsadlar, kasbiy, uslubiy, mohiyat, o'qitish, individual, jarayon, ta'lim, xorijiy va muloqot-kommunikatsiya.
Up-to-date teaching and learning process enhanced with help of fast pace of digital world and its boom process required some novelties in its own field, so there are given illustrations of methodological prospects.
Various aspects of teaching foreign language are considered from the point of view of the development language and professional competence of students focused on future specific activities. The issues of the importance of individual cognitive needs of
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students, the problems of professional readiness of teachers, the assessment of the quality of the educational course of English for special purposes are emphasized.
Definition of the concept and essence of teaching English for special purposes
Teaching English for special purposes is an organized process of implementing an educational course for specialists in order to form their foreign language communicative competence in the professional sphere.
English for special purposes is actually the English language for teaching:
a) For an academic degree (English for academic purposes);
b) In order to pursue a successful career in the chosen professional field (English for occupational purposes);
c) In the interests of solving individual life tasks (English for individual purposes).
Such an understanding of the essence of teaching English for special purposes
means that an educational English course can be oriented students to continue their education in a foreign language environment, mastering a profession and carrying out professional activities, achieving other personally significant prospects.
In such an educational course focused on achieving special goals:
- specific tasks that are significant for an individual are formulated;
- individual cognitive requests are taken into account;
- the professional context of the activity is modeled;
- special methodological techniques are being developed;
- the components of students' communicative competence are clarified;
- language acquisition is integrated with the acquisition of a profession;
- The requirements for a teacher in the field of language proficiency and teaching methods are supplemented by competencies in the field of future professional activity of students.
Didactic and pedagogical aspects of teaching English for special purposes
Didactic and pedagogical aspects of teaching English for special purposes are being developed because the task of implementing not only a language training program in an educational English course becomes more and more urgent, but also to take into account the needs of the individual in professional education, as well as the directions of the individual life trajectory of each student's development [1].
In pedagogical theory and practice, new phenomena are studied and new terms appear information processing ("language as information" is transformed into "information in language") content learning (the content of learning becomes not language, but professional material) context learning (language acquisition is carried out not in a general every day, but professional and cultural context) activity theory (language acquisition is carried out not as a mastery of speech activity, but as a mastery of professional activity);
Input — output specificity (if language and professional information is offered to students "at the entrance", then language and professional skills/competencies are expected at the exit).
Students who were objects of education and upbringing become subjects of teaching and at the same time customers of educational services due to the desire to successfully compete in the labor market, as well as to realize themselves as a person. Individual requests determine the content and form of language teaching for special purposes [2].
In teaching English for special purposes, it is taken into account that future specialists studying a foreign language are distinguished by awareness of goals and meanings, the desire and need to practically use the acquired language knowledge in their life context, understanding the importance of meeting the modern requirements of the profession and the desire to adapt to changing life circumstances. This means that in the process of teaching English for special purposes, the personal needs of students are more fully manifested and the learning process adapts to an individual order.
The state order for the education of young people determines the content and forms of education not directly and not directive "from top to bottom", but indirectly, through the needs of students formed under the influence of the economic situation and circumstances in the labor market.
The boundaries between traditional academic subjects are changing. If in mastering the "common English language" students identify a foreign language for themselves as a separate subject of the curriculum, then for future professionals, learning English acquires a pragmatic professionally oriented meaning, inseparable from mastering the profession as a whole. Their teaching is now aimed at mastering a foreign language "for purposes relevant to the specialty." At the same time, the formation of communicative competence in a foreign language is integrated with the formation of professional competence and changes under the influence of the professional context. The importance of some of the traditional topics of oral communication or grammar sections for the English language training program is changing. For example, for technical specialties, topics such as "Family life", "Traveling" or "Eating out" can be considered unclaimed, while these topics may turn out to be for future social educators, employees of travel agencies or the hotel business.
Depending on the content of professional activity, such forms of educational activity as technical translation for engineers begin to dominate such forms of educational activity as technical translation for engineers or annotation of a foreign language text of professional content for journalists, preparation of presentations on professionally important topics for managers or generalization of research results in articles or reports in a foreign language for graduate students, writing business letters
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for secretaries or conducting excursions for guides, conducting international correspondence institutions for referents or developing advertising brochures for PR specialists, providing medical services for home nurses or repair technical services for plumbers, performing the duties of a home nanny in an English-speaking family for future "au pairs", as well as carrying out other professional activities for which English is needed.
Methods and materials of teaching English for special purposes
The methodology of teaching English for special purposes is being developed because the spheres of professional activity increasingly urgently require solving the problem of forming such components of students' communicative competence that would be in demand when working in their specialty. Since students turn into customers of educational services in order to increase their competitiveness in the labor market, the process of teaching English for special purposes is marked by increased motivation of learning. In this regard, the professional needs of students naturally determine the content and form of professionally directed language training for future specialists of various professional profiles.
The development of appropriate methodological materials and manuals requires great efforts not only of methodologists, but also linguists, since the field of teaching English for special purposes is insufficiently developed, primarily in linguistic terms. Teachers were faced with the problem of selecting appropriate terms characteristic of narrow special areas, identifying grammar typical of professional spheres, lexical collocations (phrases), phrasal verbs and idioms, analyzing types of speech activity for special purposes, genres and registers of oral and written statements, professional jargon and slang. This problem is successfully solved in the series of tutorials "Career Paths"[3].
Teaching staff and methodological methods of teaching English for special purposes
Another problem was the professional training of English language teachers for teaching English for special purposes. The difficulty of solving it was that teachers of special educational courses require both proficiency in English and the methodology of its teaching, as well as knowledge of the specifics of the specialist's activities in the professional (non-linguistic and non-philological) field. This problem has not been solved so far, and the system of training English teachers for special purposes with both communicative competence and special competencies has not yet developed and is not functioning. As one of the ways to solve the problem, a "pedagogical tandem" of two teachers is used, one of whom is a specialist in the field of teaching English, and the other is a professional in a special field of knowledge. The lesson in such cases can be held in two languages — English and native (bilingual lesson).
One of the characteristic trends of teaching English for special purposes has become an organic combination of the type of professional activity of a specialist, the content of training and methodological techniques corresponding to professional activity. For example, if the professional activity of a specialist is related to business correspondence or the preparation of scientific articles, then the content and key technique of teaching foreign languages becomes teaching business writing and scientific discourse. If the content of professional activity involves working in a hotel or conducting excursions, then methods of teaching dialogic or monologue speech in the professional context of the "hospitality business" are put forward in the first place. If the content of the profession involves the organization and conduct of sports competitions, then it is important for future sports organizers to own the technology of sports events, know the rules of various games, be able to carry out sports refereeing, observe the rules for the safe conduct of mass events, etc. All these activities logically turn into the content and methods of teaching future professionals English and, at the same time, the performance of professional duties.
Individualization of English language teaching for special purposes In connection with the analysis of the use of English in professional fields, English language training for special purposes is carried out in the context of life cases related to the profession. This means that teaching English for special purposes goes through a series of specially selected professional "cases". The "special goals" of English language teaching are thus integrated in three areas, which are shown in the figure:
From the picture it becomes clear that in the center of teaching English for special purposes there is a person with her individual requests. An individual acts in a professional field where achieving meaningful goals is impossible without knowledge of English. Finally, language pedagogy takes into account that in addition to the typical spheres of personal activity, there may be a certain number of specific pedagogical cases when the content of training has to be developed "for a unique order".
Frequently encountered individual requests in learning English are the following appeals: "Teach me how to communicate with business partners from Asia," "Help me prepare for a scientific conference on the problems of new types of virus," "I need English to work as a sports referee at international competitions." This shows the autonomy of learners (learner autonomy) in the process of teaching English for special purposes.
Even more individualized "one-time" tasks can be called requests: "Help edit a scientific article", "I need help in developing a lecture for students", "I can't make instructions in English for a technical device myself". In solving such tasks, the English teacher for special purposes and the student become equal partners, each of whom has their own area of professional knowledge and confidence.
The little predictable, but possible individual wishes of students include: "I need to make an advertisement in English in verse", "I want to prepare English subtitles for a film about my university", "What is the right name in English for fashion models of the XIX century?". Such requests of students can also be conditionally attributed to "special orders", which are quite legitimate and likely in the process of mastering English for special purposes. The variety and abundance of such orders depends on the breadth and depth of immersion of future professionals in their special activities, as well as on the completeness of their personal self-realization and the level of claims in the profession.
The English language course for special purposes may be in demand by many students; individual requests may be of interest only to a specific student-customer. In this regard, an English teacher for special purposes inevitably solves the constant task of developing methodological materials adapted to the individual needs of students. Since the teaching of English for special purposes is based on the goals and objectives of the students themselves, the pedagogical essence of these courses is an approach "centered on learning".
Features of educational programs for teaching English for special purposes
In order to activate the teaching, teaching English for special purposes begins with the analysis of students' needs (needs analysis), and therefore the syllabus of language teaching for special purposes differs significantly from language teaching for "general" purposes (English for general purposes).
The English language training program for general purposes is based on: grammatical structures of general use (structural syllabus) speech functions of general communicative purpose, for example, "apologies", "acquaintances", "requests" (functional syllabus) universal problems, such as "natural disasters", "environmental disasters", "new infections", "growing crime" (notional syllabus); dorm topics, including "everyday life", "shopping", "school" (topical syllabus); common situations illustrating communication in everyday circumstances "at the doctor's", "asking the way", "meeting guests" (situational syllabus). In contrast to the "general goals", English language training programs for special purposes take into account the grammar of the genre chosen by the students, for example, a scientific article or an advertisement (genre syllabus); preferred types of speech activity, for example, oral communication or writing scientific articles, reading special literature or instructions for repairing plumbing devices (skills syllabus); special areas of application of the English language, for example, "physics", "computer science", "sociology", "law enforcement" (field syllabus); areas of personal interests, among which may be "poetry", "music", "photography" (interests syllabus); tasks of special communication and, among them, "conversation with the client", "preparation of presentations", "business correspondence", "communication by phone" (task syllabus).
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A comparative analysis of the programs shows that foreign language training programs for special purposes are always compiled taking into account the "order for an educational service" and specific skills in demand in a certain professional field.
The cultural component of the teaching content plays a special role in the development of English language training programs for special purposes. The cultural component is present in all areas of professional activity carried out with the help of English as a non-native means of communication. For example, the work of a lawyer educated in Muslim culture, brought up under the influence of Sharia law, will differ significantly from the work of a specialist in the field of modern European law, familiar with the traditions of classical Roman law, sharing the ideals of human rights and free personality, etc. Even the work of a plumber will significantly depend on the cultural characteristics of everyday life, including the device of appliances, a set of tools, repair technology, quality of work and payment methods.
Methodological manuals for teaching English for special purposes
One of the most important features of the manuals for teaching English for special purposes can be considered the authenticity of not only the language and texts, but also teaching techniques and trained speech / professional skills. In these conditions, the authenticity of the text is complemented by the methodological and professional authenticity of the training. Learning becomes more authentic the more the content and forms of learning correspond to reality. In these conditions, the importance of high-quality educational and methodological materials supporting the solution of the relevant tasks of integrated English language teaching and specialty in the language course increases. An example of a comprehensive solution to such a problem is a series of Career Paths manuals [3].
The analysis shows that in the manuals intended for teaching English for special purposes, the greatest attention is usually paid to the selection and teaching of special vocabulary and grammar that have the greatest frequency in the relevant professional fields. The materials of specialized manuals include information about various aspects of a specialist's activity in the profession (professional tasks of a police officer, the duties of a hotel employee, the specifics of the activities of bank employees, the technical device of modern household appliances and equipment, the work of a manager, in a commercial company, etc.). At the same time, in the curriculum, the language content of training is integrated with the professional, that is, students systematically master the language and activity side of their profession in inseparable unity. This integration is specific for teaching English for special purposes. For example, when teaching English to future journalists or researchers preparing for written communication in English, the formation of foreign language communicative competence and skills of written discourse occurs simultaneously.
Piloting methodological materials for teaching English for special purposes
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In the conditions of increasing interest in teaching English for special purposes, piloting of relevant methodological materials is of great interest, which makes it possible to significantly improve the level and quality of solving educational tasks.
In piloting textbooks for teaching English for special purposes, it seems necessary to analyze the process of mastering both the language and the special side of the profession. Moreover, in order to increase the objectivity of the assessment, it is desirable to receive a response to the piloted material from both teachers and students.
For this purpose, integrated schemes for piloting methodological materials are being developed.
We will show a variant of the pilot scheme of a textbook for teaching English for special purposes: The proposed piloting scheme makes it possible to comprehensively evaluate educational and methodological materials for language teaching for special purposes and draw a conclusion about their effectiveness, taking into account the opinions of teachers and students.
Prospects of teaching English for special purposes as a methodological direction
Traditionally, since the second half of the XX century, teaching English for special purposes has been on the periphery, while the central place in the methodology belonged to teaching "general English" (general English).
In the modern conditions of a pragmatically oriented world, English for special purposes (English for Special Purposes - ESP) is gradually turning into English for real purposes (English for Real Purposes — ERP), and this makes teaching English for special purposes the most promising direction of development not only of methodological science, but also of this segment in the educational services market.
Conclusion
In general, teaching English for special purposes is an urgent task of the entire international community. The answers to life's challenges to help prepare students for their career success are methodological materials that help students become in-demand successful and realized competitors in the modern labor market.
In solving this complex task, all participants in the educational process can be of great help, acting as critical partners and contributing to improving the quality of methodological materials and methods of teaching English to future specialists. At the same time, the main participant in the pedagogical process of teaching English for special purposes is a student with his individual professional needs.
References:
1. English Teaching Methodology = English Teaching Methodology: textbook / Radislav Petrovich Milrud.- M.: Bustard, 2007. - 253 p.
2. Hutchinson, TA. Waters. English for Specific Purposes. Cambridge -Cambridge University Press, 1987. — 183 p.
3. Virginia Evans, Jenny Dooley, Carlos Rosencrans PhD. Description: Career Paths: Express Publishing. 2011.-16-30p
