The ESP Materials Design Partnership Project for 2015-2016 is a joint effort of the National Research Center for Innovations in Teaching Foreign Languages under the Uzbek State University of World Languages and the U.S. English Language Programs. The project, based in Tashkent, Uzbekistan, offers intensive training in materials design for English language learning with a focus on English for Special Purposes (ESP). All interested educators are welcome to participate.
There are a number of different approaches to ESP across the field of English language teaching. For this project, the approach to ESP is as an effort to raise the English language proficiency of students to a level that will allow them to access materials and lessons that are published or delivered in English in their chosen fields of study.
Uzbekistan’s educators will bring their experience and knowledge to the project to customize the training and developed materials to suit Uzbekistan’s teaching conditions and needs. English Language Specialist, Dee Broughton, will offer foundational training in materials design to all interested teachers, textbook writers, materials designers, as well as to pre-service English language teachers in BA and MA programs at the University of World Languages. After the initial training, the specialist will continue to support designers as they begin to write their own ESP textbooks using what they have learned and the tools they have developed during training.
This project is divided into three stages:
1. Foundational training in materials design with input regarding conditions and cultural constraints from Uzbekistan’s educators.
2. Intensive workshops with stage 1 trained designers to culminate in a working draft of an ESP textbook that will serve as a template for independent designers.
3. Support for independent designers in using the template to produce ESP textbooks in their own fields.
Trainings will include, at a minimum, the following topics:
Meeting Requirements for Second Language Acquisition with Comprehensible Input
- How to choose, modify, write texts to provide the comprehensible input required for SLA,
- How to use frequency-based vocabulary to advantage in materials design,
- How to relate materials designs to CEFR,
- How to avoid copyright violation and plagiarism to preserve standards of academic integrity in materials design.
Meeting Requirements for Second Language Acquisition with Meaningful Use
- How to identify linguistic features in texts to use in design,
- How to design effective language tasks to provide the meaningful use required for SLA,
- How to design tasks that stimulate critical thinking and language production.
Lesson and Curriculum Design
- How to plan effective learning objectives,
- How to design materials consistent with current teaching conditions, constraints, and culture,
- How to write clear instructions for students and teachers,
- How to design assessment tools consistent with both standards and effective SLA.
The goal of the project is for the trained designers to produce textbooks that work to effectively raise the English language proficiency of entering university students to a level that allows them to access books, lectures, and journal articles that are already offered in English in their chosen fields and to begin to engage in academic and professional discourse in these areas.
All interested educators are invited to participate. Educators are not required to commit to the entire project in order to attend training sessions. Anyone may attend any training. We also welcome input and ideas from anyone. However, educators who wish to work on the materials we will be developing do need to attend the training. If you would like to attend trainings, please sign up to receive information on scheduled trainings and workshops.
If you would like to contribute ideas for developing ESP materials for Uzbekistan, we welcome your input. Please email ideas, concerns, questions, and comments to input@kitoblog.com. All ideas and experiences are welcome and needed to ensure that the project meets the needs of Uzbekistan’s educators and students.