Archive for the ‘English for Academic Purposes (EAP)’ Category

Having found out from the book “English for Specific Purposes” by Keith Harding that ESP has spawned a whole raft of lovely acronyms such as EAP, EBP, EMP, EOP, EPP, EST, EVP* and also the disparaging one for General English of ENOP (English for No Obvious Purpose), I thought it was time to brush the dust off the Alternative ELT Jargon Dictionary and set off in defence of General English.

Although I have a fair number of ENOP students in both my Business and General English classes, lots of my non-Business students have very specific purposes indeed. Here are a few acronyms to make those purposes look a bit more important and so get them the respect they deserve:

EKTRP- English for Killing Time after Retirement Purposes

EACRP- English for Avoiding Cultural Restrictions Purposes- like Japanese women who can only debate in English because the feminine forms of their own language are so weak it is impossible to compete with men

ESAP- English for Smart Arse Purposes- such as showing off the latest useless idiom they have learnt

EEP -English for Extramarital Purposes

EGSP- English for Gaijin Stalking Purposes/English for Giri Stalking Purposes- this one works for women whose list of needs in a relationship are topped by “blond hair” in both Spain and Japan

ENP- English for Nationalistic Purposes- such as explaining to foreigners why they should never criticise your country

EBP- English for Babysitting Purposes

ETP- English for Therapeutic Purposes- because your GABA teacher is the only person who will listen to your problems

ECP- English for Chaperone Purposes- for Turkish university students who are only allowed to stay out past the curfew of their halls and meet people of the other sex by signing on for English classes

And a couple which give a more realistic idea of what Business English and ESP classes turn out to be:

EAWP- English for Avoiding Work Purposes- coming to class might be the only chance they have for a one hour lunch break

EBP- English for Budgetary Purposes- for companies where the only way to give staff training on the cheap is to choose English lessons rather than the IT training they really need (more…)

“We didn’t have active discussion, active uses of English. … We inertly listened to her [the professor] during the class,”

 You’re thinking it’s from a 3rd world country, maybe one with a non-democratic regime, right?

Think again.

 ”Several students said they felt that the classes were poorly organized, and the wide range of student abilities made learning more difficult.”

Sounds like Japan, all shiny and Western looking on the outside but Confucian chaos on the inside. But no…

So, must be one of those European countries with teacher-led grammar-obsessed English classes like Spain we always forget when contrasting Asia with “the West”. Well, let’s have a look through the round window*…
(more…)

Sorry there hasn’t been a lot going on the blog page of my blog. It’s all going on elsewhere though: (more…)

Have put some new worksheets up for teaching ESP for artists and art students:

http://www.tefl.net/alexcase/worksheet-art-discussion-questions/

http://www.tefl.net/alexcase/worksheet-art-gallery-post-visit-discussion-adjectives/

http://www.tefl.net/alexcase/worksheet-artspeak-guessing-game/

Anyone got any other ideas or resources?

According to this Daily Yomiuri article, 40% of new Japanese university students surveyed only reached the English level expected of 15 year olds! There is hope, though, and it comes from the fact that the university mentioned realises they have a crisis on their hands and has been forced to employ someone who can teach rather than just someone with a string of letters after their name. And she really does seem to know her public, because low level Japanese adult learners do love miming. They really can’t get enough of it, which is why I have a miming worksheets bonanza tried and tested in Japan over the years for you here:

 http://www.tefl.net/alexcase/worksheet-air-travel-mimes-collocations/

http://www.tefl.net/alexcase/worksheet-body-idioms-mimes-pictionary/

http://www.tefl.net/alexcase/worksheet-food-and-drink-mimes-present-continuous-culture/

http://www.tefl.net/alexcase/worksheet-medical-english-mimes/

http://www.tefl.net/alexcase/worksheet-noises-mimes-linking-words/

http://www.tefl.net/alexcase/worksheet-technical-english-mimes/

http://www.tefl.net/alexcase/worksheet-travel-english-mimes-past-continuous/

http://www.tefl.net/alexcase/worksheets-business-english-sounds-and-mimes-present-continuous-present-simple/

So many uses for TPR, so little time…

This editorial from the Asahi Shimbun gives a perfect illustration of the difficulties of teaching English and American academic writing and debating style to Japanese and other Asian students. First of all it does that great Asian almost zen-like trick of giving two diametrically opposed points of view and never coming down on one side or the other.

The other argument they use that would never make it further than the letter pages of a British or US newspaper is that the reason why Defense Minister Fumio Kyuma was wrong to say he accepted that the Hiroshima bomb was historically inevitable was because it could upset people. If he was right or wrong is seen as almost irrelevant, only the results of his words matter. And I’m not saying that this Japanese use of language is wrong, but seeing words only as an emotional thing not as a way of grappling intellectually and bringing the other person’s argument down like the average British man’s conversation in a pub is a huge leap for me. Not that some Japanese men don’t spend all their time using facts and logic to argue with their friends too. They certainly exist, and they are called ‘otaku‘.

Not that anyone is asking me, but I say as it is impossible to say what would have happened if the A bombs weren’t dropped it is impossible to say one way or another whether they saved or caused more death and suffering.