Over the centuries, first Latin and then French, German, and Russian have receded in perceived importance as languages of science. Other powerful languages with extensive internal scientific discourse, such as Japanese and Chinese, have always been largely excluded. The dominance of English has elevated the reputation of English-language…

China has become an exporter of material goods to the world, particularly to the United States. It is time for the exploration of a mutually beneficial relationship in a strikingly different realm, that of human capital in higher education and its contributions to the quality of university teaching. To faculty members and students at U.S.…

Attempts to outline the necessary design considerations for an English for Specific Purposes (ESP) course. A more adequate descriptive base for course design includes theoretical justification for including an ethnographic perspective, and a case example of the design of a communications skills course for computer practitioners in Oman. (Author/CB)

Reviews the political, economic, and educational situations in China to explain why the teaching of English as a foreign language (EFL) has revived and to forecast the development of EFL over the next two decades. Topics explored include language needs of students of science and technology, teaching methodologies, and teacher training. (CB)

Argues for an ethnographic reorientation to needs analysis and syllabus design in English for specific purposes in advanced postgraduate centers of science and technology. The seven-stage framework (specify learners, analyze needs, specify enabling objectives, select materials, identify teaching/learning activities, evaluate, and revise) used to…

While native and non-native English-speakers may approach scientific English differently, the same features cause difficulty for both groups. The difficulties generally occur more with grammar and the complex relationships between terms than with vocabularly, and may be classified in seven categories: interlocking definitions, technical…

Use of a seminar technique to improve the oral English communicative competence of Chinese postgraduate students in science and technology helped the students to learn foreign culture, science, and technology, as well as the foreign language, and helped them to lose their communication apprehension. (Author/CB)

Describes a student-centered reading comprehension course for advanced English-as-a-Foreign-Language students of science and technology. In the course, student interest in and knowledge of content-area subjects are used to create: (1) motivation to read; and (2) an authentic task to accomplish (the preparation and presentation of an oral report).…

Describes a theme-based language course for science students at a South African university. Suggests that acquisition of language for science and technology should be regarded as acquisition of a range of literacies of science rather than acquisition of skills or grammatical features. (Author/VWL)

An English scientific language course developed for the professional communications engineering program at the University of Technology of Papua New Guinea was designed to incorporate some of the principles of language across the curriculum and to accompany an introductory electronics course. The language and subject area courses are taught in…

The development of a program and curriculum for instruction in technical English for Saudi Arabian petrochemical plant operator trainees studying in the United States for two years was undertaken by the University of South Alabama's English Language Center. The program was designed to accommodate (1) the degree of skills and prior learning of the…

Outlines and illustrates an approach to the teaching of research English on a group basis which derives from four bodies of literature: (1) the sociology of science, (2) citation analysis, (3) technical writing, and (4) English for academic purposes. This approach gives the ESL instructor insight into the students' research writing processes and…

The faculty of chemistry at the Catholic University in Santiago, Chile, developed an English-for-specific-purposes syllabus for students after eliciting faculty members' opinions about teaching methods and instructional materials, subsequently balancing institutional and faculty members' needs and motivations for the program. (CB)

Provides a rationale for considering English for specific purposes in terms of "appropriate technology"; surveys the philosophical and intellectual underpinnings of the appropriate technology movement; defines key terms and clarifies them with language teaching examples; and briefly considers some objections to the notion of appropriate…

This paper discusses the dilemma of the non-specialist teacher of English for Specific Purposes (ESP) or English for Science and Technology when faced with technical content, and describes the response of De La Salle University (Philippines) that broadened the graduate curriculum to help develop future ESP teacher competencies. The personal…