1.1 Module Presentation
1.1. Learning objectives:
This module provides an introduction to LSP. It attempts to provide a definition of LSP and offers an overview of LSP-related concepts such as CLIL and EMI. You will therefore become familiar with a variety of concepts and consider the benefits of learner needs analysis. The module also provides opportunities for you to design your very own needs analysis, thanks to different tools you will become familiar with, and to reflect on its usefulness in your teaching.
At the end of this module, you will
- be aware of what motivates adult learners (CCF 1.4 Knowledge about the affective domain in language learning)
- be aware of the fact LSP is not reduced to lexis (CCF 3.1 LSP discourse awareness)
- be able to carry out a learners’ needs analysis (CCF 3.4 Knowledge of classroom data collection)
- be able to evaluate a textbook with regard to learner needs (CCF 5.1 Know-how of coursebook evaluation).
1.2. Activities to complete in order to validate the module
There are three possible levels of engagement in the course, and therefore three different validation levels with specific requirements:
Level 1 – “Browser level”: you want to view and read the course materials to gain an insight into LSP pedagogy. Your objective is to go through the materials each week without doing the quizzes or more complex assignments. Although you are welcome to participate in this way, be aware that you will not be awarded any badge or certificate if you choose this option.- Level 2 – “Tester level”: you want to view and read the course materials, but also to take all the quizzes in the module and write a few posts to gain badges. You will need to score 50% or above to be awarded the badges associated to quizzes.
- Level 3 – “Creator level”: you want to view and read the course materials, to take all the quizzes in the module, to interact with other course participants (posts) and to complete the final assignment of this module to be awarded a Certificate.
Level 1 – “Browser level”: 
Level 3 – “Creator level”: you want to view and read the course materials, to take all the quizzes in the module, to interact with other course participants (posts) and to complete the final assignment of this module to be awarded a Certificate. 1.3. Introductory Activity: write your very first post (you should make a wish!) in the “Comment” box below to
- introduce yourself (country, what language you teach, your typical learners, your learners’ subject domains, your experience as a teacher…)
- express your expectations from this course (what you would like to improve, three priorities for this course…).
33 thoughts on “1.1 Module Presentation”
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Hi, I’m Richard, a Jamaican living and teaching in France. I am in the Polytech network this year and also into Business schools and the general public Uni in Angers. My typical learners are young adults and seasons professional as well as retirees in my town. I have experience creating lesson and syllabuses from A-Z so I am hoping this course will help inform my pedagogy MORE. As I prepare for the next school year!
Hello Richard, are you working on language for specialists in business?
btw I’ve been to Angers. My wife is a big fan of the textile artist Jean Lurçat.
Hi, I’m Richard, a Jamaican living and teaching in France. I’ve am in the Polytech network this year and also into Business schools and the general public Univ in Angers.
Hi everyone,
My pleasure to be one of the TAs this year.
I live in France in the western region not far from Brittany. I teach english as LSP at the university of Le Mans (law, insurance, economics, management). I am in charge of english classes in Master’s degrees, and professional Bacherlor’s courses. Before joining the university, I was a secondary teacher. I have designed online courses for students preparing the bar exam. I hope I will be of some help for the participants.
Hello, I’m Clarisse. I teach English for Tourism in France to first-year students.
I am taking this course to complete what I’ve learnt during my studies. Thank you so much for putting it in place.
Have a good day!
Hello Clarisse, welcome to the course! I teach English for Electronics and Electrical Engineering in a French IUT (Institute of Technology), and I am also a teaching assistant in this course. Teaching English for Tourism must be great, I am looking forward to reading about your learners’ needs 🌞🪴
Hello ! I’m Kossi. I am from France.
I teach English to technological students (Quality, logistics, electrical data engineering) and students in the field of Law at university. I have been a teacher for 10 years.
I would really like to share with other teachers, know what they do, have different perspectives and learn and adapt my teachings to the ICT tools.
Have a good day!
Hello Kossi,
that’s great that you have a variety of different classes. We also look forward to hearing about your approach during the course. Welcome aboard!
Hello everyone!
My name is Sampada, and i live in France. I grew up in India and have called France home for over a decade now. 🙂
I teach medical and pharmaceutical English to university students. My learners need English not only to understand research articles but also to communicate with patients. They are mostly between the ages of 20 to 24. Some learners are at ease in English while others are not, depending on their past learning experiences. My experience as an English teacher in France has taught me (so far) that French learners often have a satisfactory level of proficiency in the language, but are shy due to a fear of judgement.
I am curious about this curious and am looking forward to see what mistakes i might be making in my classes and how to make them more effective for my students. 🙂
Hello Sampada, welcome to the course!🌞 Fear of judgement is still a real issue in French education, I totally agree with you😳and I would say, including for teachers. One possibility is to build trust and assure learners that they will never be judged the language course, and that so called « mistakes » are just a natural part of the learning process, that linguists call « interlanguage », defined as «an idiolect developed by a learner of a second language (L2) which preserves some features of their first language (L1) and can overgeneralize some L2 writing and speaking rules. » (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Interlanguage) See also Selinker, L (1972). “Interlanguage”. International Review of Applied Linguistics. 10 (1–4): 209–241. doi:10.1515/iral.1972.10.1-4.209.
As such, I believe that Experience builds up in the same way, just as falling is necessary to a toddler trying to walk, So is teaching experience, I think😁. As teachers, we also need to build up our confidence, thanks to this course for example 😀, by collaborating and exchanging with our peers, and through our practical daily experience of teaching, which involves so many skills, simultaneously focusing on so many different aspects… We are always confronting an idealized lesson to a very practical and unique situation, which is often challenging and can be both engaging and frustrating. Interestingly, the older I get, the more I cherish how my students react and engage, sometimes challenging the course content or bringing in unexpected input or questions, thus forming a precious and unique moment of humanity and two-way transmission. (That seems to require cycling course design I think 🤔😂)
Oops I meant « One possibility is to build trust in the language course and assure learners that they will never be judged »
Hi everyone, my name’s Jen and I’m from the UK. I teach English in France for A2-C2 students.
I’m hoping this course will teach me new ways of engaging with students, we have so little time with them we need to be as efficient as possible in class. I’m also interested in student assessment, how to balance a real life activity versus AI overuse
Hello Jpeake!
I’m interested in your comment “how to balance a real life activity versus AI overuse.” I’m guessing that you mean the problem of encouraging students to access authentic language without asking “ai” to explain, translate or summarise it for them. Is that it? (and do you have any preferences for how to solve it?)
Hello,
My name is Sara and I live in France. I’m originally from Italy and I’m a native Italian and English speaker. I’ve been teaching English to STEM university students for 10 years now, but I feel like I’m still learning on the job. I’m always looking for training opportunities to improve my teaching skills, so I’m glad I found out about this course.
I’d like to know more about identifying students’ language needs, how to adapt ESP classes for lower levels and assess the effectiveness of my pedagogical approaches. I’m also curious about other teachers’ experience in this field and to learn from them 🙂
Hello Sara and welcome to the course!
It’s great that you have already developed your work with STEM students. I wonder, do you think of this as a useful collective term to refer to a special purpose in terms of language? Or does it make more sense to divide them into four different directions… science, technology, engineering, and mathematics?
Hello everyone! I’m John, one of the teaching assistants in this course.
**country**, I’m originally from the UK, but I’ve spent most of my life outside of Britain. I wouldn’t really say that my birthplace has a big role in my identity, although I’m a great admirer of some parts of English culture – especially the humour, and counter-cultural youth.
**what language you teach** – English (I speak Russian and Spanish as foreign languages, I also read a bit in French…especially the philosopher Bernard Steigler).
**your typical learners** – I have mostly taught university students, and to a lesser extent employees of large corporations. Presently, I’m discussing a new venture to create ESP courses for adults who want evening lessons for their own self development: both as professionals and just for people with intellectual interests.
**My learners’ subject domains**, have been quite varied. Specialisations can be quite narrow: for example, I designed a course for lighting designers. I was surprised to find out that people who design lighting for parks and buildings are totally different from specialists in theatre lighting!
I have about 30 years experience as a teacher if I include a some attempts before I had received any training. It’s 28 years since I got the initial training of the Cambridge CELTA certificate.
** Expectations for the course:** I hope that I can help participants in the course. Especially next week, which is the most challenging for a lot of people…(it’s about corpus linguistics – with some serious work required to do the assignment!)
Hi, everyone! I’m Marija and I come from Serbia.
I teach ESP and EAP courses to undergraduates and graduates at univeristy. Our students specialize in either Management or IT, so it’s a vast area we need to cover and be aware of.
I’ve been teaching for almost 15 years now but I’m a firm believer in lifelong learning, so I’m looking forward to expanding my knowledge through this course.
I’ve been enrolled in the course in one of the previous iterations but unfortunately due to private reasons wasn’t able to finish it, so hopefully I’ll have more success this time around!
Welcome back to the course, Marija… and well done for persevering! 👏 That’s the spirit!
Welcome back to the course, Marija…this year will be THE year.
Hello Marija!
Hi! I’m Arsen, from Albania, but I live in France.
I teach Albanian (to expats, those with Albanian partners, and those with Albanian origins but born and raised abroad) as well as English. I have been teaching for 5 years now. I started teaching English in March 2020 and Albanian in June 2020. For a while, I taught both simultaneously, then paused teaching English for some time and just resumed a few months ago.
I want to focus my English lessons on specific niches. Through this course, I aim to enhance my teaching skills for specific purposes.
Welcome to the course, Arsen.
Hi Arsen, welcome to the course!
Albanian must be a beautiful language. I like Albanian singer Elina Duni and I love listening to her lyrics in Albanian (even though I don’t speak the language). It will be great to learn from your experience too and exchange ideas about the course!
Hi!
My name is Sílvia Puig. I am from Spain and I am a teacher of General English and also ESP. Right now, I am only teaching at University. My students are usually first year Engineering students from different fields.
I have been teaching ESP for 6 years, and I have had wonderful colleagues who introduced me to this world, but I wanted to get some instruction on the topic.
I expect to learn about organisation, student engagement and new ways to make content more appealing.
Have a nice day!
Hi Silvia and welcome to the course ⭐
Hi Sylvia, welcome to the course!
I teach Engineering students in France. Colleagues who kindly teach us about their fields of expertise are a great help to better understand our students ´needs. As importantly, they make us – language teachers – feel part of a community, which lays the ground for collaboration. I hope you ll like the course and I am looking forward to your sharing your experience and ideas on teaching LSPs! 😊
Hello ! I’m Patricia and I’m from France.
I teach English to science students at university. I have been a teacher for 20 years. So I think we could say I am at this point when you ask yourself if what you do on a daily basis is right 🙂
That’s why I would really like to share with other teachers, know what they do, have different perspectives and learn 🙂
Have a good day!
Hi Patricia, and welcome to the course 😄
Hello Patricia! Welcome to the course 😊 It certainly will be great to learn from your experience too! Meeting with peers is always inspiring and allows us to step back on our own practice… And realize each of us does have good and original approaches or ideas 🌞
Hi ! I’m Maverick and I’m from France.
I am training to be a teacher so I don’t have any classes yet. My supervisor advised me to take this course to learn more about teaching. I’m taking every opportunity to learn !
I would expect to learn how to organise my courses, what content should I create for a specific class and how can I engage my students more effectively.
Have a great day !
Hi Maverick and welcome to the course!
Hi Maverick and welcome to the course! Your approach « I’m taking every opportunity to learn ! » sounds like a great starter to a course🌞, and a great motto for a teacher 😊 I m sure you already have lots of creative ideas to share! I hope you the course!
Oops I hope you enjoy the course😁