Name : Agung Julian Pradana

NIM : 200210401086

ESP Program Development

ESP and Listening

In this chapter, the authors draw on theoretical insights into general ESL listening to explore
purpose-specific listening constructs and review research conducted into English for specific
purposes (ESP) . This chapter presents a synthesis of some of the key findings on ESP listening
research and discussion, drawing on information from the EAP research and findings from
studies on workplace listening. Listening to ESP as a construct has a lot in common with
listening to ESL. It involves the same cognitive processes that draw from the same number of
sources of knowledge to process verbal input, and requires the use of the same core skills that
enable effective attention to information in accordance with listening purposes.

Exploring the Construct of ESP Listening

The goal of second language listening instruction is to develop active listeners and this is also the
goal of the more defined area of ESP listening.

To listen actively, language learners need to:

 Have an available source of relevant knowledge to support cognitive processing;

 Use listening skills to facilitate comprehension and interaction;
 Engage in metacognitive processes to enhance and regulate their own comprehension and
listening development. (Goh 2005 ; Vandergrift and Goh 2012).

Cognitive processes and knowledge sources

To recognize the sounds they hear, and construct meaning from the spoken text, all second
language listeners need three types of knowledge: knowledge about the language knowledge
about language use and knowledge about context, facts and experiences Successful listening
comprehension is the result of the interplay of two types of processing that draw on these
knowledge types: bottom – up processing and top - down (schema - driven) processing (Brown
1990 ; Field 1998; Vandergrift and Goh 2012 ).

In addition to drawing on their knowledge of language forms and vocabulary, second language
listeners as a whole need to rely on knowledge of discourse. They need to understand how the
speech that they are listening to can unfold in predictable ways according to what the speaking
event might be. Second language learners use their knowledge of the structure of a genre to
facilitate listening comprehension and recall (Wolff 1989 ) while those who are involved in two -
way or interactional listening can also predict the development of a conversation if they have
some prior knowledge of how the discourse in that context is typically structured.

Listening skills and metacognitive processes

For greater clarity on listening comprehension processes it is more helpful to consider the core
comprehension skills that effective listeners use either singly or in combination in order to
achieve their desired comprehension goals (Vandergrift and Goh 2012 ):

 Listen for details understand and identify specific information

 Listen for main ideas understand and summarize key points in a text
 Listen for global understanding understand the gist of the message
 Listen and infer fill in the gaps in one ’ s understanding by using knowledge about the
language forms and use, and relevant prior knowledge
 Listen and predict anticipate what one will hear
 Listen selectively pay attention to specific parts of the message by ignoring other parts.

Researching ESP Listening

Research and scholarly discussions in academic listening have provided the field of ESP with
valuable information on listening processes, instructors and materials. Researchers have been
particularly interested in the perceptions of students and lecturers, the challenges they have each
faced and the strategies they have reported using. Students from a variety of discipline
backgrounds have been consulted, including engineering, nursing, culinary arts, English,
business, medical, arts and humanities and the sciences.

Developing academic listening skills

ESP listeners can be supported through textbooks and classroom activities, but as Flowerdew and
Miller (1997) noted, many of the EAP textbooks they examined did not address the need to
develop learners ’ strategic competence. They identified several ways in which EAP students
could be supported through more effective material preparation, instruction and lecture delivery:

• help learners attend to features of spoken language: micro - structuring; false starts,
redundancies and repetitions; body language;
• integrate audio input with other media: use of visual aids; integration with pre - and post -
reading and tutorial discussion.

Future directions for ESP listening research

the challenge in ESP listening is not just about finding ways of feeding research findings into
course development, it is also about driving more research into the diverse workplace contexts
where listening plays a critical role. As research into academic listening continues to develop, it
would be useful for researchers to find ways of strengthening the interface between general
ESL/EFL listening and ESP listening. One possible area is in the study of ESP learners ’
metacognition in relation to listening (Goh 2008 ). Research into learners ’ metacognitive
awareness and metacognitive instruction in ESL has shown its relevance and contribution to
listening development

Recommendations for Teaching Needs assessment

content - based teaching methods, and content - area informed instructors are generally accepted
as integral to specifi c - purpose teaching, though the defi nition of these concepts and how they
are realized are still being debated (Belcher 2006 ). Many teachers would agree that a key
purpose of their teaching would be to demystify the academic or institutional discourse that
learners face (Dudley - Evans and St John 1998 ). The methodology of respective disciplines and
professions should therefore be refl ected in ESP teaching (Dudley - Evans and St John 1998 ).
More specifi cally, ESP listening instructors and material developers could benefi t from what
various ESP researchers have highlighted in their discussions of ESP and listening