Exploring How to Improve Language Skills in a Language for Specific Purposes Course more

Fri, Apr 29, 09:00-Tue, May 31, 23:55 Asia/Seoul

The importance of courses on languages for specific purposes has gained more attention in foreign language departments. On the one hand, these classes have been shown to provide students with benefits that go beyond learning a foreign language, such as increasing students’ motivation and critical thinking. On the other hand, not only students, but the community as a whole benefit from these classes, as students are better prepared for their work they will have to do later on in a foreign language (for a review, Brown & Lee, 2015). For example, a doctor who has learned English for Medical Professionals can attend both English- and other language-speaking patients. However, not many departments are able to include such classes into their curriculums. Either they lack professionals versed into teaching such courses, they do not have enough time to implement them in an already full curriculum, or they do not have the monetary resources to hire the appropriate instructors (Macedo, 2019). This study explores the possibility of offering the same benefits as those gained through courses on languages for specific purposes when teaching a traditional foreign language class. Specifically, this study explains how a Spanish advanced debate class (proposed to help students reach an advance knowledge of speaking in Spanish) included materials traditionally found in a Spanish for the Science class (e.g., vocabulary activity or texts). Students gained in vocabulary, grammatical structures associated with the field of science and were ready to deliver a very coherent and solid debate on a difficult topic for them. Not only the benefits were found in how they delivered a speech on a topic related to sciences, but also the benefits transferred to their writing skills, when they were asked to write an argumentative text on this same topic. This presentation will also propose ways on how the techniques and materials traditionally found in a language for specific purposes course can be implemented into any foreign language classroom, specifically English as a foreign language. REFERENCES Brown, H. D., & Lee, H. (2015). Teaching principles. P. Ed Australia. Macedo, D. (2019). Decolonizing foreign language education. The Misteaching of English and Other Colonial Languages. NY: Routledge.