ESP Practitioner Professionalization through Apprenticeship of Practice: the Case of Two Iranian ESP Practitioners

Abstract

<p>English for specific purposes (ESP), the popular catchphrase of presently English language teaching programs, has been investigated from different perspectives. However, there have been occasional forays in to the role of ESP practitioner as one of the most distinctive features in the literature. In addition to fulfilling the usual role of a language teacher, ESP practitioner may be required to deal with administrative, personnel, cross-cultural, interdisciplinary, curricular, and pedagogical issues that may be unfamiliar to general English teachers (Hutchinson &amp; Waters 1990; Koh 1988; Robinson 1991; Waters 1994). Consequently, those practitioners who have passed the thorny way of professionalization would be great assets for the teachers who are new to the ESP programs. Moreover, lack of an independent disciplinary status for ESP worsens the issue. Drawing on the interview data and observational evidence, present study investigates the route of professionalization of two Iranian ESP teachers in the particular context of Petroleum University of Technology (PUT) in Ahwaz. What they say are critically analyzed in the context and emerging guidelines are categorized accordingly. It is hoped that findings grounded minimally in this particular ESP context will act as broad guidelines that bestow a more academic image to the general English teacher-ESP teacher change in the present ‘no man land’ of Iranian ESP teaching programs.</p

Esp Practitioners’ Role and Their Ethnography: A Case Study of Esp Practitioners at the Indonesian Tertiary Level

“…In this study, only the last two of Luka's (2004) ideas, professional activity competence and intercultural competence, are examined among ESP practitioners. Many research articles have discussed the role of ESP practitioners and professionalization through apprenticeship of practice (Sierocka, 2008;Ghanbari and Eslami, 2012;and Saadia, 2012). However, since ESP is specific, ESP practitioners have their own points of view regarding ESP teaching.…”

Towards Improving ESP Teaching/Learning in Vietnam’s Higher Education Institutions: Integrating Project-Based Learning into ESP Courses

“…This problem is more serious for novice teachers who have no first-hand experience with ESP pedagogy and struggle to find the path in such a "thorny way of professionalization" [14]. Authors such as Labassi [15], Ghanbari and Rasekh [14] identify the lack of independent disciplinary status of ESP as a cause of excessive workload for ESP teachers.…”

“…This problem is more serious for novice teachers who have no first-hand experience with ESP pedagogy and struggle to find the path in such a "thorny way of professionalization" [14]. Authors such as Labassi [15], Ghanbari and Rasekh [14] identify the lack of independent disciplinary status of ESP as a cause of excessive workload for ESP teachers. Despite its increasingly recognized importance in Vietnam, ESP has been treated merely as a composition of English language curriculum; hence, ESP teachers are also in charge of other General English courses (in case of EFL teachers teaching ESP) and subject courses (in case of subject teachers teaching ESP) which require time and effort to conduct.…”

“…Tabatabaei blames this problem for limited time allocated for ESP course and enormous amount of content (both language and subject) to be taught [13]. Also, inadequate attention paid to ESP teacher education which leads to English as a Foreign Language (EFL) teachers' struggling and having to learn about ESP pedagogy through their practice is another explanation for this confusion [14].…”

Managing the complexities of English language teaching in engineering

“…This complex process was investigated in a study conducted by Ghanbari and Rasekh (2012). These researchers examined the lived experience of two EL educators who had taught ESP for more than 25 years at a petroleum university in Iran where English was a foreign language.…”