In an academic or work environment, the ability to communicate on study- or work-related matters is vital. This requires specific-purpose language ability which combines content knowledge and language ability. Teasing out language ability from content knowledge is a delicate and sometimes impossible task in English for Specific Purposes (ESP) assessment and teaching. The key questions which arise are: • What effect does content knowledge have on linguistic performance? • What roles do content knowledge and language ability play in an ESP test? • How much does an ESP teacher need to know about the subject content? Many studies reveal that content knowledge has a facilitating effect on reading, listening, speaking and writing performance in a foreign language (L2). However, this effect may not always be consistent - test takers with a certain academic background may not always do better on a text/task from their field than test takers from a different discipline. The effect of content knowledge on linguistic performance varies with language proficiency which makes it important to see how content knowledge and language ability interact. How specific an ESP test is will determine the roles of content knowledge and language ability, and how much content knowledge is necessary to pass. All this will be discussed through a critical examination of Cambridge English ESP tests. The presentation will also address some of the key challenges in ESP teaching – overcoming the teacher’s lack of content knowledge and bridging the gap between English language ability and specific-purpose language ability – when the ESP teacher is ‘just’ an ELT professional.

1. Language ability and content
knowledge in an ESP
classroom:
Two sides of the coin?
Ivana Vidaković
BEASIG and TEASIG,
IATEFL Manchester 2015

2. Overview
• Insights from English for Specific Purposes (ESP)
assessment
– Key features of ESP tests
– The effect of content knowledge on linguistic performance
– Roles of content knowledge and language ability in
Cambridge English ESP tests
• Insights from ESP classrooms
– Teachers’ voices: how much does a teacher need to know?

3. 3 key features of ESP tests
Authenticity
Content
knowledge
Specificity

4. Authenticity has two faces
Situational
authenticity
Interactional
authenticity
The real life
quality of
tasks:
content,
language,
context, etc.
Test takers
interact
with the
task as in
real life

5. Does authenticity matter?
• Any language test should have both kinds of authenticity
• Authenticity allows one to generalise from test
performance to performance in real life
• Full authenticity cannot be achieved
– Practicality constraints
– Finding a right balance

6. 3 key features of ESP tests
Authenticity
Content
knowledge
Specificity

7. What makes a test specific?
• What goes into a task and what comes out
• Relevant and accessible texts, tasks and topics
• Lexis: (semi-)specialised; quantity; explained or not?
• Topic and the treatment of the topic
• Text structure
• Problem-solution; structure of a legal letter of advice
• Task purpose and audience
• E.g. Provide recommendations to the patient …
• Channel of communication
• Visual – graphs, pictures; audio; verbal
• Source of the text
• E.g. A business journal

8. Adapted from O’Sullivan (2006:178)
Generalisability
Increase in content knowledge required
Degree of specificity
Very specificNon-specific
∞ ∞
A General
English Test
e.g. PET
A test of English for
Air Traffic
Controllers
Specificity varies on a continuum

9. 3 key features of ESP tests
Authenticity
Content
knowledge
Specificity

10. Content knowledge in language tests
• Important not to test this in general English tests
• Content knowledge is integral to ESP tests
• ESP tests could assess:
– Content knowledge and language ability (e.g. PLAB)
– Only language ability in a specific context

11. Teasing out language ability from content
knowledge is a delicate task
Language ability
Content knowledge
(business, legal)
Specific purpose
language ability

12. Overview
• Insights from ESP assessment
– Key features of ESP tests
– The effect of content knowledge on linguistic performance
– Roles of content knowledge and language ability in
Cambridge English ESP tests
• Insights from ESP classrooms
– Teachers’ voices: how much does a teacher need to know?

13. Content knowledge has a facilitating effect on
ESP test performance
• Test-takers with the relevant content knowledge score
higher on discipline-specific tests of:
– Reading (Alderson & Urquhart 1985, Krekeler 2006)
– Listening (Jensen & Hansen 1995)
– Speaking (Papajohn 1999)
– Writing (Tedick 1990)

14. The influence of content knowledge is not
always consistent
• Test-takers from a specific discipline do not always do
better on a text/task from their discipline than test-takers
from a different discipline
• The influence varies with:
– Text/test specificity
– Language proficiency

15. Language proficiency and content knowledge
interact
• Test-takers with …
… intermediate language proficiency: strong effect of content
knowledge
… basic language proficiency: no effect of content knowledge
… advanced language proficiency: enough linguistic proficiency
to compensate for the lack of content knowledge – mixed
findings

16. Overview
• Insights from ESP assessment
– Key features of ESP tests
– The effect of content knowledge on linguistic performance
– Roles of content knowledge and language ability in
Cambridge English ESP tests
• Insights from ESP classrooms
– Teachers’ voices: how much does a teacher need to know?

17. Degree of specificity (impression-based)
Very specificNon-specific
∞ ∞
CE ESP tests on the specificity continuum
Increase in content knowledge required
More specialised content knowledge
KET,
PET
CAE
IELTS
Academic
BULATS,
BEC
ILEC,
ICFE
OET

18. Variations in specificity: Speaking tasks
BEC
What is important when
selling a new product?
• Price/Quality/Advertising
What is important when
choosing a training
course?
• Size of group, cost, times
of course
ILEC
Negotiable instruments
• The meaning of…
• The importance of a
promissory note
• How a bill of exchange
works
The Internet.
• The effect email has had
on the practice of law,
how people in the legal
profession make use of
the internet, etc.
Test More specific Less specific

19. Variations in specificity: Writing tasks
0
1
2
3
4
5
Purpose
topic
subject
knowledge
lexis
grammarfunctional
dicourse mode
channel
writer-reader
relationship
BULATS (Task A)
0
1
2
3
4
5
Purpose
topic
subject
knowledge
lexis
grammarfunctional
dicourse
mode
channel
writer-reader
relationship
IELTS (Task C)
0
1
2
3
4
5
Purpose
topic
subject
knowledge
lexis
grammarfunctional
dicourse
mode
channel
writer-reader
relationship
Skills for Life (Task B)
0
1
2
3
4
5
Purpose
topic
subject
knowledge
lexis
grammarfunctional
dicourse mode
channel
writer-reader
relationship
ILEC (Task D)

20. The role of content knowledge:
Views from ILEC test takers
• Familiarity with legal text structure, terminology and
concepts helped in the ILEC Reading test
‘I found that I was familiar with phrases and concepts which helped
me to answer the questions. I was also familiar with some of the
cases.’
‘Familiarity with the phrases makes it much easier to answer the
questions … those unfamiliar with this terminology may struggle.’
• ILEC Reading test can be accessed by those with no legal
knowledge
‘Lawyers have the advantage of being familiar with the terminology
but it’s not a necessary attribute. You don’t have to know every
single word to answer the questions.’

21. The role of content knowledge in CE ESP tests
Content knowledge
assessed?
Content knowledge
accessed?
Basis for answering
comprehension
questions
No
In some R, L, S and W
tasks to process text
faster, to enrich meaning
Yes
Basis for assessing
S and W performance
No
To produce language in
S and W tasks
Yes

22. Test understanding through language rather
than fine points of technical expertise
Ground questions in the text
Avoid very specialised texts
Reading/
Listening
comprehension
Create linguistic assessment criteria:
Coherence, cohesion, relevance
Intelligibility
Range (grammar, vocabulary)
Appropriateness, etc.
How to separate language ability from content
knowledge?
Speaking/
Writing
ability

23. Insights from ESP assessment:
How specific should an ESP test be?
• Too specific:
– Suitable for a select few test-takers
– Inadequate performance due to deficiencies in language
ability or content knowledge?
– Difficult for language professionals to identify suitable texts
and write questions
– Difficult for language professionals to assess Speaking and
Writing
• Decision to be guided by:
– Characteristics of the test takers: content knowledge,
specialism, language ability
– Test purpose and the intended test uses
– Practicality issues
– Fit to the ESP course (teacher-designed tests)

24. Insights from ESP assessment:
Research and collaborate
• Needs analysis (OET, ILEC, ICFE)
– Challenges: Resources
• Collaboration with content specialists throughout the test
development and production cycle (ILEC, ICFE)
Challenges:
– Accessible and affordable content specialists
– Content specialists with a sense for language
– Different perspectives and priorities

25. Overview
• Insights from ESP assessment
– Key features of ESP tests
– The effect of content knowledge on linguistic performance
– Roles of content knowledge and language ability in
Cambridge English ESP tests
• Insights from ESP classrooms
– Teachers’ voices: how much does a teacher need to know?

26. Participating teachers
• N=9 (7 female) teachers responded to an online survey
• L1: English (n=7) and German (n=2)
• Location:
– Germany (8/9) and Switzerland (1/9)
– 5 cities in Germany, 8 different employers
• Degree: 8/9 with a postgraduate degree
• Teaching qualifications: 5/9 have them

27. Teachers’ ESP/ESAP background
• Experienced teachers of ESP/ESAP: 4-15 years
• Taught a wide range of ESP/ESAP areas:
Business
Legal
Medical
Engineering (mechanical, architecture, civil)
Financial
IT
Tax
Chemical
HR
Project Management
Psychology
Human biology
Caregivers for special needs
Telecommunications
Museum professionals
Geography
Optometry

28. Teachers’ content knowledge
n=5n=4
No qualification nor work experience in the
discipline/profession of own students
With qualification and/or work experience in the
discipline/profession of own students

29. Challenges for ESP/ESAP teachers
• The teacher’s insufficient knowledge of profession-
specific…
… subject matter
… terminology
… communicative tasks
… speaking and writing conventions & practices
• Catering for non-homogenous groups of learners in an ESP
or ESAP course

30. How teachers address the challenges
• Own research
– The most frequent resource for addressing all the
challenges (7/9 teachers)
• Input from students
– Students teach the teacher content and terminology
(4/9 teachers)
• Input from experts
– More frequently sought for communicative tasks,
conventions and practices (4/9 teachers)

31. Own research
• Read basic course books, refresher material, discipline-
specific (research and professional) journals
• Use the Internet:
– Websites (e.g. webmd, nhs)
– YouTube videos of authentic tasks, lectures, discussions
– Online simulations
– Company reports
• Attend discipline-specific conferences
• Attend seminars and lectures to learn more about the subject
‘I research…as far as I can.’

32. Input from students
• Students teach the teacher by:
– Explaining content and discipline-specific issues
– Explaining terms and expressions to the teacher and the class
– Identifying discipline-specific tasks they have to do
– Identifying challenges with such tasks
– Supply the teacher with material (emails, letters, reports)
• Teacher uses framework material, students supply the
content
‘I make the students the experts who have to teach me about the
subject matter…’
‘...You can get deeper insights into the subject matter if you swap
roles with your students and let them explain their professional
knowledge in English. This is a win-win situation.’

33. Input from experts
The surveyed ESP/ESAP teachers …
• Interact with professionals
– Interview them to identify the key tasks and their features
– Volunteer for research experiments
– Draw on personal experiences as clients or patients
• Observe professionals
– Record conferences, lectures, discussions
– Ask professionals to record conversations and other
communications
– Observe professionals at work (meetings, phone calls)
• Collaborate with subject teachers
‘The best way is to collaborate with a subject teacher. I have done
this and designed a class together with the subject expert.’

34. Challenge-specific insights
• Terminology
– Build a terminology database
– Exercise terminology with your students
– Do not teach very specialised terminology
– Focus on skills; students learn terminology mostly on their own
(for homework)
• Content knowledge and terminology
– Know your limits: do not pretend to be an expert in the subject
‘I try to be honest about how far I can go with specialised
terminology.’
‘I teach tax professionals English but don't try to teach tax in English
to tax students.’

35. Other challenges: Lack of resources
‘Being thrown in the deep end as an inexperienced teacher
on low hourly rates without suitable material and being
expected to write ESP courses. I just struggled through and
focused on more general language skills.’
‘A continuous challenge has been finding appropriate
material to use for 1st/2nd semester students. Sometimes I
actually know more than my students and they have
criticised that I am asking too much of them.’
‘I work as a free-lance teacher, never knowing from one
semester to the next just what my course combination will
be. This has been most unsatisfying, never having enough
time to delve into a new subject area.’

36. Other challenges: Non-homogenous groups
Different specialisms and levels of content knowledge
• Agree on focus to suit everyone
• Mix students: those with more content knowledge helping
those with less
• Pair work: students explain their specialisms to each other
• Different materials and homework tasks
• Individual feedback

37. Should ESP/ESAP teachers have specific subject-
matter knowledge?
4
0
3
Yes No Depends

38. How much subject-matter knowledge should an
ESP/ESAP teacher have?
43
1
The more the better Enough to… Basic

39. How much subject-matter knowledge should a
teacher have?
The more the better:
‘As much as possible to deliver a meaningful course in context
which is both exam preparation and professional life preparation.’
‘A substantial amount, otherwise communication will break down.’
‘It certainly adds to their authority when they can claim experience
and can comfortably use the specific vocabulary.’
‘A teacher does not have to be an expert, but should have some
solid knowledge.’

40. How much subject-matter knowledge should a
teacher have?
• Enough to…
‘…accomplish the learning task(s) required by the group.’
‘… judge accuracy of vocabulary use and text style.’
‘… follow what students are saying and ask intelligent questions.’

41. Key insights from ESP classrooms
• Do own research
• Seek input from students
• Seek input from content specialists

42. More insights from ESP classrooms
• Be open
‘Explain you are a language teacher, not a biologist.’
‘Be very open and flexible and prepared to accept students’ advice
and opinions.’
• Exploit your lack of knowledge
‘By challenging the students to help [you] gain a greater
understanding, they [will be] required to use and expand their
repertoire of language and their communication skills.’
• Be willing to learn
‘The teacher has to be at least interested in the subject and be
willing to learn from the students.’
‘It is most important that a teacher is willing to learn continuously
in the subject matter area.’

43. Overlap between ESP teaching and
assessment issues
Your thoughts

44. Thank you!
Vidakovic.I@cambridgeenglish.org