Dayle, Lourdes Ducusin, Jason Ray Taquiso, Joan Therese Tindugan, Cecille
A Critique of Lesson 4 and 5 in
“Teaching Module for ESP”
Teaching vocabulary for Specific Purposes (ESP) at the technical secondary
school of furniture industry is very crucial because some of the students have negative attitudes towards learning the language for, they think that learning the language is not necessary for their future career. They often argue that they will not need to use English language as cabinet makers or carpenters. Moreover, there is a lack of English textbooks for vocational schools. The materials should be adequate to their needs and ability to acquire the language. Those are the common problems why students tend to neglect the importance of learning the language. On the other hand, to avoid these factors it is necessary to choose the efficient teaching strategy for learners, taking into consideration various aspects resulting from their specific needs. One of the ways is incorporation of the special terminology, English for Specific Purposes (ESP), into the normal English lessons. It is an excellent way for reinforcing vocabulary in connection with practice of students at the school workshops, supporting the naturalness of learning English by enriching the conditions in which the students live, learn and work. This type of purposeful learning closely connected with the practical work can encourage their interest in English. “ESP must be seen as an approach not as a product. ESP, then, is an approach to language teaching in which all decisions as to content and method are based on the learner’s reason for learning” (Hutchinson and Waters 19). Basically, the most important factor that will encourage the student to learn the language is the word “motivation” because if the students are motivated then they will overcome the struggles of learning the language despite of the problems that they will encounter such as the lack of books that can be used for they will always find ways on how to get a book once they are motivated to learn. Then once the students are motivated, the teacher will now incorporate the approaches in teaching which she/he may think the best approach to teach the language. The strategies and method of teaching that suits best for a particular lesson, and most important is the use of the students learning in a practical way, teachers must let the students use their acquired knowledge in practice for it will be useless to learn without practice. Aside from that teachers must set a target period for the students on the acquisition of learnings and the practical usage of it. For lesson 5, the lesson plan was about Measuring Tools. Unlike the lesson plans that we have encountered this type of lesson plan is very unique as it is an international lesson plan. The thing we like about this was that, it was very specific in terms of its overall aims/objective that to present and study new technical vocabulary, to introduce vocabulary in connection with pictures and realia (tapes), to practice the pronunciation of the new words and abbreviations, to practice the new vocabulary in reading, writing and speaking activities, to develop both ESP vocabulary and knowledge of measuring tools even though it’s a Vocational Secondary School of Furniture Industry class. The stages and procedure also were so detailed that in every stage it has a goal. Though for us, the teacher in that class have to allocate a lot of time in terms preparing the lessons but also the materials needed as we noticed on the lesson plan teacher must be well prepared. Then we also noticed the time allotment, as we count the time is sums up 75 mins, if it is a 75 min it is very risky to have those activity as if the time needed in a particular activity is much more than in the lesson plan. Then if it is a 90 mins class then it is very okay to have some extra time. Lesson plans were making as an Education student in this Institution were bit different on this lesson plan in terms of is structure but both this and the lesson plan, we are making aims to motivate the learners to learn meaningfully. The content of this lesson plan is very good as it not just focuses on the interest of the learners which is furniture not just working with measuring tools and they should be able to speak about them as well as to understand the written or spoken texts. As it stated in this thesis the main aim of it is to find out the best way how to motivate mostly teenage students for learning wood/furniture vocabulary and how to teach them with the best effect. Learners who started learning English not only for pleasure but also for specific purposes. They indispensably needed to understand manuals, to purchase or distribute products, or to read specialized textbooks and journals. English has become a global language of various industrial and business branches. Overall, the lesson plan was well presented. The topics that were chosen were the most important for students specialized in the branch of wood or furniture industry. The activity was appropriate for them. Vocabulary expansion about furniture industry was highly given importance. They provided practical exercises to support the learning. To end this critique, our group thought that in providing activities, teachers must consider the time allotment for it. These lesson plan consist of many activities. We don’t think that they will finish all of those in just one meeting. Moreover, teachers must concentrate more on language context.