A Practical Approach to ESP Teaching: English for Chemistry

Abstract

Professional fields require different corresponding materials for ESP teaching and learning. Since specific textbooks tailored for certain professions mainly exist for business, finance, tourism, and medical professionals and technicians, natural science ESP instructors must turn to the Internet, science textbooks in English, or the most challenging and inspiring way: in house course material. Our English textbook for chemistry students has recently appeared in house. The collaboration between English language teachers and the teachers of specialized chemistry subjects is essential, as their suggestions and corrections while gathering material and preparing the textbook are invaluable. This article outlines the foundational concepts in the creation of the textbook, the chemical domains covered, a theoretical and practical analysis of the needs of future chemistry professionals and offers several helpful examples of exercises charting the learning path from declarative knowledge to automation. We focused on all language skills
reading, writing, listening, and speaking. Given the acceleration of all human activities, the emphasis is on visualization and pictorial memory, analogies, and description using words from a minimal list that includes terms and processes nouns, verbs, adjectives, and adverbs. Considerable importance is given to listening and comprehension using podcasts.