November 2006 Volume 2
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Foreword
John Adamson, Senior Associate Editor

The November edition of Asian ESP Journal presents five articles which very much reflect the diversity in ESP research and teaching methodology. All of them have clear, practical applications in the ESP classroom and are founded upon critical views of current theories. Congratulations to the authors whose papers have been accepted for this end of the year edition.

The first paper by Dr. Anil Pathak and Dr. Francesco Cavallaro from  Nanyang Technological University, Singapore, entitled “Teaching Conflict Resolution: A Study of Two Interactive Methods”, compares the effectiveness of Role Play with an educational computer-based game (ECBG) as part of a business communication course with Singaporean university computer engineering students. The authors’ investigation into conflict resolution  looks into how Role Play and computer games are seen in terms of their effectiveness among the students. Results show that students  who “wish to transfer their skill to real-life situations” tend to prefer Role Play. This study has potential far-reaching implications for the use of role play and ECBG in the classroom.

The second article by Francoise Nunn and Dr. Roger Nunn at the Petroleum Institute, Abu Dhabi in the United Arab Emirates, “Teaching Language and Research Skills through an International Media Project”, puts forward “a framework for teaching research skills using a case-study approach to international news.” In this project-based approach extensively utilizing the internet, a three-step approach illustrates how both language and research skills can be enhanced among tertiary-level students. Of great interest is the teacher modeling of the process involved, which does not have the objective of encouraging students to make a “carbon copy” of that finished product, but aims to “develop a fully independent approach” towards their studies.

The third article comes from Renata Suzuki at Sophia University in Japan in the Economics faculty. Her study, “Corpora Applications to Economics Presentations: A Case Study”, argues that “student needs strongly dictate course curriculum”, and that current textbooks lack authenticity. Suzuki illustrates how teachers can make use of corpora to “tailor presentation curriculum and provide information which facilitates student learning at their zones of proximal development.” The study considers presentation relevance objectives according to a framework of strategies and then the selection of “the most relevant corpus to the presentation mode.” For this purpose, frequency and collocation are taken as corpus data and related to student needs. This approach to teaching presentations is of potential benefit to teachers wishing to explore how to reduce error anxiety and enhance the students’ ability to choose appropriate language.
 
The next paper by David Dalton, Senior Communications Lecturer at the Petroleum Institute in Abu Dhabi, “Using descriptive assessment rubrics as teaching and learning tools”, looks at the concept of ‘learning outcomes’ and assessment. Dalton considers four areas of concern: the teacher learning curve; effective rubrics; the increase in assessment load and feedback time; and student ‘buy in’. He warns against the universal applicability of ‘outcomes’ and advises that they are “context-determined.” The clear context of the Communications Program at the Petroleum Institute is argued as being effective in addressing the four concerns outlined. Drawing upon examples from his own working context, Dalton insightfully refers to the value of assessment as “learning” and as a “teaching and repair tool”, as well as “issues of transparency” and “learner buy-in.”

The final paper comes from Dr. Ahmad Sabouri Kashani, Dr. Soraya Soheili and Dr. Zinat Nadia Hatmi at Tehran University of Medical Sciences in Iran. The authors in this study compare the English language achievement levels of a small group of students exposed over five semesters to student-centred teaching with those of the majority of students on an established syllabus. Test results of the two groups are correlated, revealing that students taking the established course of study actually performed better. Among the implications of this result is that “students at different learning levels might benefit more from different level-specific evaluation systems.” The researchers’ thorough analysis serves as a useful resource for other ESP practitioners wishing to contrast the effectiveness of different approaches to teaching at the university level.

We hope you enjoy reading the papers in this edition and look forward to your own contributions.

John Adamson, Ed.D.
Senior Associate Editor
Asian ESP Journal

November 2006
Volume 2. Issue 2
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Foreword: Dr. John Adamson

1. Dr. Anil Pathak and Dr. Francesco Cavallaro Teaching Conflict Resolution: A Study of Two Interactive Methods
2. Françoise and Roger Nunn. Teaching Language and Research Skills through an International Media Project 
3. Renata Suzuki Corpora Applications to Economics Presentations: A Case Study
4. David F. Dalton. Using descriptive assessment rubrics as teaching and learning tools
5. Dr. Ahmad Sabouri Kashani, Dr. Soraya Soheili, & Dr. Zinat Nadia Hatmi. Teaching English to Students of Medicine: A Student-Centered Approach