English for Specific Purposes

Campos M., Fernndez V., Villegas F.

Professors: Romo, Alejandra & Muoz, Rubn

ESP course for EFL Electrical Automation Engineers to develop

communicative skills
Target students: EFL Electrical Automation Engineers.
Setting: Professional meetings office at the Titanium Building at Las Condes, RM.
Context: This course unit was developed to meet a group of electrical automation
engineers needs in terms of developing communicative skills for professional meetings,
specifically in videoconferences with their boss abroad.
The target group has a basic level of English due to a previous approach with the target
language during their first two years of college. Nonetheless, the courses they received
were focused on English for General Purposes (EGP) instead of an ESP approach to the
specific needs of their professions requirements. The problem identified as a need arises
here as, despite the learners are able to understand written English from handbooks, high
levels of anxiety when facing communicative situations interfere with their performance in
the target language.
The field of Electrical Automation Engineer deals with the replacement of human resources
with machines or new technology at lower cost and higher effectiveness.
Needs analysis: Based on a focus group and a semi-structured interview with the target
students and the project manager, the identified needs are the following:

The target students need to acquire an efficient level of communicative skills to be

able to effectively interact with the project manager.
The end of the interaction is to set in motion a project which instructions are
provided in the target language by the boss through video conferences. As his
presence is unavailable, this type of interaction must be clear and effective;
therefore, the instructions of the project can interfere with the success of the project.
It has been observed the difficulty the group faces when effectively understanding
these instructions and providing appropriate feedback to the interaction.
This group understands the productive process of an industry and the functioning of
different machines, circuits, measurements, among other topics related to their field;
nevertheless, high levels of anxiety make it difficult to succeed in the delivery of the
message as they look for what Stephen Krashen calls their monitor (1982).
1

ESP course for EFL Electrical Automation Engineers to develop communicative skills

As the skills this group needs to develop are based on communication, listening and
speaking are the most prevalent skills to be covered during the development of this
course. According to Riemer (2007), A course in English for Specific Purposes
(ESP) will enhance English language training and an engineer students
communication skills (p. 91) moreover considering the circumstances where the
genre develops in.

In that sense, the genre of this communicative situation was identified as video
conferences to coordinate instructions.
The analysis of the language levels of this course is phonological because the target group
needs to practice the sound of the words to pronounce them appropriately. Syntactic is
another important level to be covered due to they require to understand the meaning of
words in combination with others to form phrases or sentences. Pragmatic because this
course aims to use the language oriented to specific situations such as in a video conference
for that reason, it is important to know the meaning of words in context. Finally, semantic
refers to the conceptual meaning, which means the literal use of a word, in this case they
need to recognize the meaning of problem that interfere in the set in motion of the project.
The perception of the project manager, in relation to the level of English of his workers,
was that it was difficult for him to check whether they understood the instructions of the
project or not, which may endanger the results and effectiveness of the project.
Regarding the perceptions of the target group concerning the language needs, they stated
their expectations by the end of the course were high in terms of the use of the target
language when communicating problems, solutions and suggestions. They expect to be able
to naturally report in the target language industry problems, actions to solve them and
suggestions for the situations do not happen in the near future.
According to the needs analysis, it has been suggested a two-lessons unit called Daily
problems at the work place. Each lesson lasts 60 minutes.

Unit 1. Lesson 1.
Warming up activity Guess What!
Learning outcome(s)

The students will be able to:

-Identify characteristics of an industrial machine in front of

the class in the target language.
-Report characteristics of an industrial machine in front of
the class in the target language.
Timing

10
2

ESP course for EFL Electrical Automation Engineers to develop communicative skills

Directions

Every student receives a flash card with a picture of an

industrial machine -which they can easily recognize due to
its everydayness-. Each picture can only be seen by one
student who will be standing up in front of the audience
trying to give clues in the target language for the rest of the
students can guess what kind of machine it is. They are
applying language functions as reporting, naming, and
describing characteristics. Nevertheless, this is a formative
activity.

Materials

Flash cards with very common industrial machines that can

be easily identified by providing technical characteristics.

Activity No. 1 What do we do now?

Target students

Electrical Automation Engineers (EE)

Unit 1. Lesson 2

Daily problems at the work place

Level of English

Intermediate

Learning outcome(s)

The students will be able to:

Skills

Speaking and Listening; Reading and Writing,

Materials

Pieces of paper with daily industrial situations EE are used to

fix/check at their workplace. For instance, The bottling
machine No. 3 has stopped working. Report 3 logical reasons
of its malfunction.

Timing

50

Teacher directions

The teacher organizes the students in couples and explains the

activity to be performed. He/she delivers a piece of paper with a
daily problem at the industry written on it to each group (see
appendix A). The students have to identify the cause of the
problem. Every couple receives a different situation and is
informed about presenting their outcomes to the rest of the group.
The teacher asks the students to organize their ideas by preparing
a short script in which they report the possible problems they had
identified as very likely to happen due to the given situation. The
teacher monitors their progress and performance before and
during the presentation of ideas while the rest of the students are
encouraged to provide more reasonable possible problems at the

-Recognize common problems at the industry associated

with their specialty in the target language.
-Relate common problems at the industry associated with
their specialty in the target language with their possible
cause(s).

ESP course for EFL Electrical Automation Engineers to develop communicative skills
industry at loud. He/she provides feedback based on performance
at the end of the activity.

Students directions

In couples, the students receive a piece of paper with a daily

problem they may face at the industry written on it. They prepare
a short script in which they report the possible causes for the
problem they had identified. They present their situation and its
cause(s). The rest of the students are allowed to provide more
reasonable possible problems at loud.

Unit 1. Lesson 2.
Warming up activity What was the problem?
Learning outcome(s)

The students will be able to:

-Recall problems at the industry associated with their

specialty in the target language.
Timing

Directions

The students recall at loud the problem at the workplace they

previously identified last lesson. They share ideas using the
target language based on possible solutions to the problems
they hear.

Materials

List of situations at the workplace from lesson 1.

Activity No. 1 I strongly suggest...

Learning outcome(s)

The students will be able to:

-Explain the possible origins of common problems at the
industry associated with their specialty in the target
language.
-Propose solutions to problems at the industry in the target
language for they do not happen again.

Skills

Writing, Speaking and Listening.

Materials

Check list for oral performance

Timing

50

ESP course for EFL Electrical Automation Engineers to develop communicative skills

Teacher directions

The teacher encourages the students to analyze what kind of

flaw occurred by fostering them to apply technical
vocabulary they remember from the same machines
handbooks in the target language. He/she asks the students
to provide solutions to avoid to repetition of this flaw as if
he/she were the project manager and they (the students)
were reporting the details of the motion in a video
conference with formal register.
The teacher walks around monitoring the progress, checking
pronunciation and fostering the students to overcome anxiety
barriers when facing these kinds of communicative
situations.

Students directions

The students prepare a guideline of their speech. Recall

vocabulary from the handbooks they are familiar with and
report problems, causes and solutions at loud emulating a
real meeting in the videoconference room from their seats.

REFERENCES
Riemer M. J. (2007). Communication Skills for the 21st Century Engineer. UNESCO
International Center for Engineering Education (UICEE). Global J. of Engng. Educ., Vol.
11, No. 1. Faculty of Engineering, Monash University, Clayton, Melbourne, VIC 3800,
Australia.