Teaching ESP for the students of the faculty of geoecology and tourism

Introduction

Today, not only in our country but also in the countries of the world, consistent work is being done to ensure ecological stability, deurbanization, environmental protection, public health, rational use of natural resources, and improvement of sanitary and ecological conditions. The increasing impact of civilization on the environment is fast approaching a global ecological catastrophe. According to many scientists, this catastrophe could happen long before the crisis due to the lack of any fossil resources. All scientific progress is not capable of preventing ecological destruction, because artificial systems cannot replace the natural biological component of the environment and, therefore, cannot regulate the processes occurring in the biosphere [1, 2, 3].

In this article, it is important to teach the English language and use modern educational technologies in the formation of environmental culture, studying and analyzing the world experience for students studying in the field of environmental education at the university. In this case, the use of ESP technology is of great importance. ESP has been widely discussed by world linguists: it has methods as an object of study and as a subject. As researchers note: “English is now the wants, needs and remained subject to the requirements. People other than language teachers” [1-11]. Students have different language learning methods for teaching environmental concepts and building environmental knowledge because they are all unique and have different needs. However, teachers must decide how to teach and what to teach in the formation of environmental culture based on the needs of the students.

Indeed, all this emphasizes how important it is to take into account the different needs of students and the acquisition of environmental knowledge in education. Language teaching for an environmental education major should be tailored to the needs of the learners and the course should be adapted to the specific needs of the learners.

English for Specific Purpose (ESP) is a course that is designed to meet the needs of specific industries or professions. However, in non - native English countries, ESP is often taught in a similar way to how General English is taught, with a focus on language teaching methods. Many ESP teachers forget that ESP is different from General English and has unique characteristics. English for Specific Purposes (ESP) is a different way of teaching English that focuses on specific subjects or fields. It has its own unique way of teaching, materials, and methods, which involve combining it with other subjects. English for ecological purposes also encourages students to be actively involved in their learning.

Because ESP uses different ways, materials, and methods depending on what learners need, English teachers or experts have to figure out what those needs are, create a curriculum, make teaching materials, pick the right way to teach, and use it to meet the learners' needs that were identified. So, just knowing the language system and being able to teach it is not sufficient for an English language instructor teaching ecological concerns.

Materials and methods

There has been a long debate about what might be the most appropriate approach to teaching ESP. According to Hutchinson and Waters, “There is no specific methodology for ESP” because the teacher's goal is to teach language itself, not linguistic features [2].

Therefore, the content and methods, for example, in the example of ecology education, based on the student's motivation to learn a foreign language, ecological concepts, terminology, ecological situation and the factors that create it, ecological stability, and the causes of ecological disaster should be explained simply. However, it is possible to use the direct or widespread natural method developed as a response to the grammar-interpretation method. It is designed to attract the student to the target language field in the most natural way, with the aim of perfect teaching of a foreign language for the formation of the theory of ecological culture and ecological knowledge in the field of ecology.

Figure 1 below presents a schematic illustration of the ESP educational technology, which is the basis for the perfect mastery of a foreign language, which helps in the formation of ecological culture, learning, and mastering the world experience in the fields of environmental education.

Fig.

ESP students learn ecological English using terminology specific to their area of study or work. In order to have a clear understanding of the conventional teaching methods which have already been proven as ineffective the graph has been designed. According to the author, the most common mistake in ecological English classes is that the teacher focuses on grammatical and phonetical rules. Although it is true that making grammatical error free sentences is significant aspect of instructing any foreign language, there are some other issues to deal with during practical lessons. The content of the program should be designed based on the language needs of students in their future professions and the needs of employers. Instead of writing down the phonetical rules, learners can listen to an ecological dialogue and then retell it in other words. Virginia Evans, Jenny Dooley, Kenneth Rodgers`s “Career path: Environmental engineering” (Unit

6 Climate) is a good example of works done in ESP [3-44].

Student 1: I can’t believe the climate changed that much in just 50 years!

Student 2: I know. It’s really amazing, isn’t it?

Student 1: I’ll say! What were the precipitation differences again?

Student 2: Well, the last five years they’ve averaged about 16 inches of precipitation annually. But in the past, it was around 30 inches.

Student 1: That’s a significant drop.

Student 2: I know. And the average temperature dropped by five degrees.

Making up ecological dialogues and role playing are the better ways of improving communicative competence of a learner rather than copying and pasting grammar rules. In fact, contemporary English teachers claim that the very first difference between ESP is that the former intends to develop communicative skill. Besides, making use of ecological dialogues, that are consisted of authentic materials help to visualize job related environment and better understanding of professional matters. During the classes instructors speak in native language thinking to explain the rules in easier way which can be another barrier to have a fluent speech for students. Communicative competence works best if the learners are highly motivated to converse. According to Strevens, ESP should to meet learner`s specific needs by choosing content from certain disciplines and using activities, syntax, lexis and discourse appropriate to these activities, and he noted that ESP may not use any pre-planned instructional teaching [1].

Focusing on ecological text translation can be one of the frequent mistakes made by instructors. Teachers of non-specific faculties should replace long and boring texts to authentic materials with varied activities not only to engage the classroom into real-job situations but also to enrich specific vocabulary which can be actively applied in daily conversation by staff. In SEI “Khujand State University named after academician Bobojon Gafurov” students of the faculties (instead ELL classes) are taught with ESP textbooks which was prepared by teachers of all-university department of foreign languages [3].

Results and discussions

As a person who creates courses and provides materials, teachers need to make own materials or change the ones that are already used in job. Instructors can also use educational resources and teaching materials to help. The main aim of any English for ecology syllabus is to identify and address the specific language needs of students, both in terms of vocabulary and practical usage, in order to prepare them for specific situations in the language. They also need to increase knowledge about what they are teaching. As an evaluator, the ESP practitioner needs to consider the different phases of the assessment. Process is a series of actions or steps taken to achieve a desired outcome. For example, he needs to understand what the students require before creating the course. He needs to see how well the students are learning in the class. And he needs to check how well students learned after the course is over, but most importantly, he has to see if the needs of the students were taken care of properly.

Conclusions

Since English is an important tool for the formation of environmental knowledge, the spread of environmental culture among people on a global scale, and the entry into the global arena in terms of science and technology, it will flourish in the future in non-English-speaking countries. Serves as an important tool in forming a positive attitude to the environment and serves as a “green bridge” that stabilizes the ecological situation in every part of the world.