Journal of English Language Teaching

Implementation of an ESP Curriculum for Developing Workplace English in Polytechnics

Jalson Jacob

Assistant Professor of English, Govt Polytechnic College, Vennikulam, Kerala

Keywords: ESP Curriculum, Workplace English, CLIL, Language–Focused ESP, Integrated ESP

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Abstract

A student seeking a diploma in engineering from a polytechnic college in Kerala is usually trained solely on the technical content, and his/her communication skills are largely ignored in the course of study. Studies point out that insufficient workplace communication skills stand as a major obstacle for engineers to reach desired levels in their career. A positive way to address this problem is to develop and offer an ESP (English for Specific Purposes) curriculum where enhancement of communication skills as well as professional skills required for the engineer are taken care of. This paper presents the need and scope of an ESP curriculum and the modality of its implementation. In the first year diploma course, traditional ESP (focus on the lexicon, syntax and functions of language needed at the workplace) is recommended. Traditional ESP will eventually progress to integrated ESP and then to CLIL (Content Language Integrated Learning) in the second and third years of diploma study. The features of Integrated ESP and CLIL have also been dealt with in the paper.

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