ACQUIRING ESP EXPERIENTIALLY: A CASE FOR TEACHING ENGLISH FOR PROFESSIONAL PURPOSES TO TERTIARY STUDENTS MAJORING IN TOURISM AND HOSPITALITY
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Дата
2018-10
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Анотація
The article analyzes the essence of experiential method that makes the most important part of the constructivist approach to teaching English for specific/professional purposes (ESP) to tertiary students majoring in Tourism and Hospitality at Ukrainian universities. It is demonstrated that the experiential method is based not on conscious learning but on subconscious acquisition by students of communicative target language skills – the effect that is achieved through gamification of learning activities. The cooperative / collaborative nature of acquisition / learning activities belonging to the experiential method is also emphasized. Blended (off-line / on-line) learning is discussed as an important constituent of experiential teaching / learning process. A number of experiential acquisition / learning activities are analyzed in the article. Those activities include: role plays and simulations, brainstorming, case-studies, and discussions, students’ target language presentations, writing assignments (writing essays, reports, summaries, abstracts, even articles in the target language), project work, and the Internet search with the aim of finding information required for doing creative experiential tasks. A part of the article is devoted to giving examples of such activities as represented in the experiential coursebook “Tourism and Hospitality Industry Matters” developed by the authors. All through the article the orientation of language studies at students’ future profession is emphasized. The paper is concluded with stressing the positive effect that the suggested experiential method, used as a practical way of implementing the constructivist approach in ESL studies, produces both on the target language learning outcomes and on the development of students’ ESL learning motivation.
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Ключові слова
constructivism, experiential method, ESP, cooperation / collaboration for better target language acquisition, blended learning