The design and integration of ESP content in an upper-intermediate online course

Abstract

Language instructors who adopt the role of materials writers in order to provide their students with more accurate tailor-made learning resources usually start by closely examining their learners' needs and demands, as well as the distinctive features of the teaching context or situation in which those materials are going to be implemented. This idea is especially relevant when the linguistic resources are developed to be used by future engineers who access them to practice and learn a language that will have a dominant presence in their future working environment. This is a fact that encouraged the authors to design an online upper-intermediate level English course which incorporates relevant language resources directly linked to the disciplines and content covered by their students' university undergraduate degrees. The course is known as the InGenio FCE Online Course & Tester (Universitat Politecnica de Valencia, 2011). The article illustrates how language instructors try to explore and find new ways, methods, typologies of exercises, and techniques which might help them create, promote, and implement learning systems capable of fostering an integral communicative competence and make the entire learning process more dynamic and attractive. A specific case study dealing with students who seek to make the most of combining Computer-Assisted Language Learning and English for Specific Purposes is described and analysed here. The reader is presented with a description of the steps that were taken to design innovative and engaging online courseware to cater for the learners' specific needs and the conclusions that have arisen from conducting a survey to analyse student perceptions and expectations prior to and after completing the said online course.