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Showing posts from April, 2019

Specificity in ESP

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How is specificity related to ESP? What is its role in the teaching-learning process? According to Oxford dictionary, specificity can be taken as t he quality of belonging or relating uniquely to a particular subject . Having this definition, it can be said that specificity is related to ESP (English for Specific Purposes) because it involves having or focusing on specific topics according to the field of expertise. Now, what is its role in the teaching and learning process? Cheng (2011) presents the following figure to highlight the interaction that exists among the basic considerations in ESP teaching and learning. These factors were established, in order to organize the different aspects that happen and correlate during the process. These specific considerations remind us of what goes on in the classroom. For some people may be obvious to some extend because those thoughts are all the elements that are faced every day in the teaching lives. Yet, for some reason they have bec

Blended Learning

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Today's world asks for better and innovative ways of teaching in order to fulfill everyone’s needs and accommodate to such hectic schedules. As, it has been discussed before ESP (English for Specific Purposes) has become one of those new paths in order to answer to a globalized world. Since ESP has allowed people to concentrate on a specific field is it only natural to establish or even come up with newer strategies to tackle previous problems that where faced by learners and teachers, or maybe just improve what already exists. This is the reason why ESP takes research as one of the most important issues to consider because through investigation and hard work learning becomes a more individual and personalized process. One of those solutions discovered is BLENDED LEARNING, which helps stakeholders have a broader idea of combined strategies and methods to construct learning or improve the existing learning process. This new term, for me, sets the bar really high for the future

The Future...

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Have you ever pondered upon the future? Have you ever thought about what you are actually doing for the future? During this week, I was wondering where language teaching is going and what the future may bring in that specific area; and I must say that I was shocked to think that I didn’t have many ideas in terms of what I could do to improve what already exists. Yet, during one of those shocking moments I had an eye-opening instant, I realized that ESP has a long way to go, at least here in Costa Rica, so maybe there is hope because by going down this road we can become pioneers in the field to enlighten the ones that come after us and prepare many others to accomplish their goals in a different way. ESP allows the language teaching environment to take a new path in increasing the learning process because, as it has been said before, it focuses on the learners’ needs and takes them into account in the course preparation. Gollin-Kies, Hall, and Moore (2015) established three mayor tre