DISCOURSE ANALYSIS IN ESAP MATERIALS DESIGN

Abstract

Since discourse analysis activities are rare in ESP coursebooks the teacher decides to what extent to expose learners to such tailor-made tasks. Moreover, the EAP textbooks do not meet students` requirements in terms of suitable professional content. Therefore lecturers have to develop their own materials making reasonable compromises in relation to topic, length, difficulty, terminological density, suitability for discourse analysis or oral presentation tasks, etc. The author shares her experience in ESAP materials design focusing on some practical considerations of the design process. What makes an optimal lesson plan? Can a topical authentic ESP text offer the variety of EAP features required for developing discourse analysis tasks? How to select and prioritize among all the possible exercises the text may be exploited with?  How to ensure logical continuation between separate tasks along with gradual building toward the learning outcomes? How durable are the successful tailor-made materials? A lesson plan based on an authentic academic professional text is suggested. It demonstrates the integration between the four skills in the ESAP context at the Technical University of Varna. The tasks are aimed at raising students` awareness of discourse features and preparing them to use those features in their own language output.