Creating esp discourse portfolio

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Creating esp discourse portfolio

Baybakova I.M.,

Summary

The article deals with language/academic portfolio in the framework of ESP discourse which allows to focus on the English language in general and ESP learning in particular. It enables to combine sociocultural aspects with the psycholinguistic cognitive peculiarities of the students increasing their motivation, autonomy and learning abilities aimed at professional discourse mastering reflected in their portfolios. One of the effective ways of ESP portfolio paradigm implementation is creating electronic portfolio.

Key words: language/academic portfolio, ESP discourse, electronic portfolio, cognitive process, professional development.

Байбакова І. М., Гасько О. Л. Створення портфоліо в рамках вивчення дискурсу англійської мови фахового спрямування

Анотація. Стаття присвячена мовному/академічно- му портфоліо, створеному в рамках дискурсу англійської мови професійного спрямування, що дозволяє зосередити увагу на англійській мові загалом та на вивченні фахової англійської мови зокрема. Це, у свою чергу, дає можливість поєднати соціокультурні аспекти із психо-лінгвістичними когнітивними особливостями студентів, підвищуючи їх мотивацію, автономію та навчальні здібності, спрямовані на опанування фахового дискурсу, що відображено в порт- фоліо. Одним із ефективних засобів використанням парадигми професійного портфоліо є створення електронного портфоліо.

Ключові слова: мовне/академічне портфоліо, дискурс англійської мови фахового спрямування, електронне порт- фоліо, когнітивний процес, професійний розвиток.

Байбакова И. М., Гасько А. Л. Создание портфолио в рамках изучения дискурса английского языка профессиональной ориентации

Аннотация

Статья посвящена языковому/академи- ческому портфолио в рамках дискурса английского языка профессиональной ориентации, что позволяет сосредоточить внимание на английском языке в целом и на изучении профессионального английского языка в частности. Это, в свою очередь, делает возможным сочетание социокультурных аспектов с психолингвистическими когнитивными особенностями студентов, повышая их мотивацию, автономию и учебные способности, направленные на изучение профессионального дискурса, что отображено в портфолио. Одним из эффективных средств использования парадигмы профессионального портфолио является создание электронного портфолио.

Ключевые слова: языковое/академическое портфолио, дискурс английского языка профессиональной ориентации, электронное портфолио, когнитивный процесс, профессиональное развитие.

The problem and its connection with important scientific and practical tasks. Creating ESP portfolio is one of the effective means of professional discourse analysis and mastering. The research of the issue under consideration proves that it is also a tool for improving one's job-related language skills as well as enhancing professional growth and achievements.

Analysis of the recent publications on the issue being under consideration. Portfolio reflecting one's core competence and job-related skills is treated as an organised documentation of learning, research and professional interaction giving “a concise portrayal of one's professional growth” [1]. Some practical aspects as well as specific guidelines for academic portfolio are paid attention to at the University of Helsinki [2]. As far as discourse based syllabus is concerned, M. Apostolovski argues that it must combine content, process, product and the context in which the learning takes place, where the syllabus is going to be implemented [3]. According to A. Johns ESP portfolio should be created within the curriculum, meeting studying requirements and taking into account students' needs, goals and management decisions [4].

The aim of the paper. Creating language/academic portfolio in general and its electronic version in particular prove to be quite effective means of ESP discourse mastering. Hence, the paper is aimed at analysing the corresponding benefits for the students to take advantage of in the process of their professional development.

The body of the paper. The history of European Language Portfolios has started as far as the mid 1990s piloting different ELP models in the forthcoming ten years, issuing much literature with a lot of illustrating examples. Many course books today include language portfolios elements such as passport activities and learner checklists, dossiers and many classrooms have learner portfolios collections at their disposal.

Let's try to define the Language Portfolios: they are collections of individual pieces of different students' activities filed together. The students are free to update them by adding to, replacing and taking away certain parts of the portfolio. Language portfolios usually consist of three parts: 1) the passport that contains the actual language information about the language learner, 2) the language biography that incorporates a personal history of the language learner knowledge, 3) the dossier which is the body of homework tasks and other different project work activities [5].

The advantages of using Language Portfolios lie in the plane of pedagogical circle model which embraces enhancing learners' motivation, reflective learning abilities, active learning abilities, students' autonomy and collaborative learning strategies.

During the last fifteen years the pedagogical theory has shifted in the direction of the increasing use of student-centered communicative approaches in the classroom and by focus on language function and meaning and the processes of English language learning in general and learner-focused ESP learning in particular.

There are many different ways of creating ESP curricula and syllabi involving ESP portfolio paradigm. One of them is Literacy Portfolios which equilibrate the socio-cultural demands of context with the psycholinguistic-cognitive needs of the learners.

Johns pointing out that portfolios are not just folders of all students' work completed during a certain period of time, states that they consist of selected entries compiled in accordance with class goals. According to the author portfolios illustrate a variety of student work produced during a certain period of time. “The entries are designed to demonstrate students' literacy growth and change as realized and measured in different ways. Also central to the purposes of literacy portfolios are the reflections or commentaries on the entries. Through these reflections, students can develop metacognitive awareness of texts and situations (the socio-cultural) and of their processes and strategies when approaching various texts or tasks (the psycho-linguistic/ cognitive). Students may also be encouraged to judge their own work in their reflections and to compare several of their attempts to perform literacy tasks” [4, p. 46].

While planning and designing an ESP portfolio curriculum ESP practitioners should take into consideration such design elements as determining portfolio roles within the curriculum, making student assessment decisions, studying requirements of the target situation, determining student needs, clarifying class goals, making entry and portfolio management decisions [4].

We can also consider the premise of discourse-oriented approach to ESP course and syllabus design and discourse portfolio. Let's first define what discourse and discourse analysis mean. There are many definitions of discourse by different scholars such as Celce-Murcia & Olshtain (2000) who define discourse as “the language forms that are produced and interpreted as people communicate with each other” [6, p. 2]; according to Cook, “what counts for discourse is not the length but the fact that it communicates a message that is recognized by the receivers” [7, p. 6]. A coherent definition of discourse is presented by Teun A. Van Dijk. He considers discourse as “text in social environment” [8, p. 12].

The term “discourse analysis” was first introduced by Zellig Harris, a linguist who was looking for the instruments to explain how sentences were connected within a text. Discourse analysis is defined as “the study of language in use that extends beyond sentence boundaries” [6, p. 4]; “the examination of how stretches of language, considered in their full textual, social, and psychological context, become meaningful and unified for their users” [7, ix]. Johnstone [9] points out that discourse analysis can supply answers to all language related questions and treat some issues above the language. She points out that discourse is actually “examining aspects of the structure and function of language in use” [9, p. 4] and “looking at actual stretches of connected text or transcript or talk and providing descriptions of the structure of paragraphs, stories, and conversations” [9, p. 6].

Analyzing the main features of discourse oriented syllabus Marjanovic Apostolovski points out that discourse based syllabus should “combine content - what is to be included in the course,process - how learning and teaching are to be implemented, and product - what should be achieved, with the context in which the learning takes place - where the syllabus is going to be implemented” [3, p. 45].

As part of the content domain, she focuses on such characteristics as contextualization, authenticity and integrity; within the process aspect, metacognitive orientation, feedback-focused approach and linguistic feedback are being emphasized; the product area coherently underlines the expected positive effects of a course design, whereas the context dimension provides the analysis and recommendations for the learning situation in question [3].

For creating comprehensive ESP discourse portfolio P. Escrib- ano [10] proposes three categories of descriptors which actually suit literary portfolios for all types of University students. Descriptor domain for category one, spoken production and interaction, includes overall oral production, sustained monologue, public announcements, spoken interaction, addressing audiences. Category two, written production, descriptors embrace overall written production, creative writing, reports and essays, descriptions of processes, student applications, abstract and research papers, written interaction. Category three, reading strategies, descriptors focus on: overall reading comprehension, reading correspondence, reading for orientation, reading for information, reading reports and articles.

Robert Godwin-Jones from Virginia Commonwealth University in his article “Emerging Technologies. Web-Writing 2.0: Enabling, Documenting, and Assessing Writing” treats students' Internet world as a learning opportunity for language self-development and means to link informal/recreational writing with formal/ academic one [11]. Special attention is paid to electronic portfolios providing “a mechanism for bringing together samples of learners” written work, thereby encouraging more global self-assessment of students' language skills' as well as collecting “student writing in a more structured environment” [11, p. 7]. The indicated resource list includes the following electronic portfolios: Electronic Portfolios Collection of e-portfolios in different formats; European Language Portfolio (ELP); Open Source Portfolio Part of the Sakai project; Global Language Portfolios Project from Virginia Commonwealth University; ePet European e-portfolio project etc. Having different options for e-portfolios students mostly create them for personal, professional and academic use. It should be mentioned that in contradistinction to hard copy versions an e-portfolio is shar- able having at the same time access control system which may be either global or adjusted to specific groups / parts of the document for privacy issues. Speaking about the advantages of online writings portfolios the author also mentions a simple process of presentations or multimedia files incorporation and the ease of their content sharing. Electronic portfolios may be created by students within Virtual Learning Environment platform used at their own educational establishment, though the closed system causes its use limits. To avoid such limitations certain open source projects ensure interoperability for optional integration. For example, Moodle users may take advantage of having access to Moofolio created for the open source learning management system.

IMS ePortfolio Specification introduced by the IMS Global Consortium enables different kinds of portfolios such as learning, presentation, personal development, assessment etc. and their combination to be exported and imported into compatible systems.

In addition to obvious advantages for language learning illustrating ESP language ability reflected in different professional discourse writing samples, presentations and video materials, electronic portfolios can “establish a mechanism for life-long documentation of learning and achievement <...> rather than simply an academic exercise” [11, p. 9]. ESP portfolios make it possible for the students to master their professional discourse by meeting the standards and requirements of a formal assessment process and consequently finding the most effective way of presenting their documents and the corresponding activities they major in. Besides professionally-oriented discourse learning benefits, the use of electronic portfolios increases students' personal responsibility combined with assessing their language abilities.

The portfolios contents influenced by the purpose they are created for may reflect academic work aspects such as learning, research, professional interaction etc. Recording one's core competence the portfolio is aimed at creating `an organised documentation of one's professional skills and strengths and to give a concise portrayal of one's professional growth' [1].

The specific guidelines for academic portfolio, for example, at the University of Helsinki [1, p. 2] concerning the structure, extent and requisite enclosures contain four items: (1) basic information i.e. personal and contact information, education, degrees and other necessary background information; (2) research and scientific activities reflecting experience in research and other scientific activities in terms of primary field of research, most significant publications, awards and visions or personal development plans;

(3) teaching and supervision with other job-related qualifications and (4) management duties and other activities. The recommended length for an academic portfolio is supposed to be 4-7 pages plus the enclosures.

Student's ESP portfolio may include: (1) an English language CV; (2) an application letter; (3) an English language report on the applicant's previous research activities; (4) a report of experience, merits and other relevant skills; (5) a numbered English language list of publications and other works with which the applicant wishes to demonstrate his/her competence; (6) a brief plan on how the applicant intends to develop his/her research in the future;

(7) a grant proposal etc. The initial steps of creating ESP discourse portfolio may be taken in the form of professionally-oriented e-mails, corresponding letters, projects and presentations which are easy to be prepared by first year students. In the process of learning the latter may be encouraged to use their creativity and imagination as well as some elements of a role play concerning the vision of their professional future, plans and expectations. Since they are working only on a draft of a document they are to follow a certain model but at the same time they are welcome to create quite a new personality

i. e. a specialist they would like to become in a decade or two. It brings a lot of fun to the ESP classroom, reduces tension and, consequently, improves the outcomes of professional discourse mastering.

Conclusions. Thus, language/academic portfolio, which may be defined as a collection of one's professional achievements presented in the structured format within ESP discourse, allows to focus both on the English language in general and ESP learning in particular. In this way sociocultural aspects are combined with the psycholinguistic cognitive peculiarities of the students increasing their motivation, autonomy and learning abilities aimed at professional discourse mastering reflected in their portfolios. Creating electronic portfolio is one of the effective ways of ESP portfolio paradigm implementation.

References

1. Academic portfolio. URL : http://www.helsinki.fi/academic-portfolio

2. [Electronic Resource]. URL : http://www.helsinki.fi/bio/faculty/ materials/portfolio-ohjeet_eng.pdf

3. Marjanovic Apostolovski M. Discourse perspective in English for specific purposes course design. Language, literature, discourse. University of Nis, 2014. P. 649-658.

4. Johns A. An Excellent Match: Literacy Portfolio and ESP. San Diego State University, 2015. URL : file:///C:/Users/Admin/Downloads/An_ Excellent_Match_Literacy_Portfolios_and_ESP.pdf

5. Utarain Malisa. Portfolios in ELT. British Council YL Centre, Barcelona, 2007. 4 p.

6. Celce-Murcia M., Olshtain E. Discourse and Content in Language Teaching, A Guide for Language Teachers. Cambridge : Cambridge University Press, 2000. 279 p.

7. Cook G. Discourse. Oxford University Press, 1989. 168 p.

8. Dijk A. Van Teun Handbook of discourse analysis. Volume 1. Disciplines of discourse. University of Amsterdam, 1985. 105 p.

9. Johnstone B. Discourse Analysis. Singapore : Blackwell Publishing, 2008. 336 p.

10. Escribano P. D. A Literacy Portfolio for University Students: Academic and Professional Discourse Development within the European Framework of Reference for Languages. University of Madrid, 2007. P 182-198.

11. Godwin-Jones R. Emerging Technologies. Web-Writing 2.0: Enabling, Documenting, and Assessing Writing Online. Language Learning and Technology. June 2008. Vol. 12. Number 2. P. 7-13.

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