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B USINESS E NGLISH professional                                
Specialised
vocabulary
Celia Bell rejects a one-size-fits-all approach.
S
ome English for Specific
Purposes (ESP) teachers point
out that most of the research in
their field is carried out in the
United States or in Britain, where
students already have contact with the
target language. Thus, teachers outside
these countries face a variety of
difficulties in implementing the findings
of these studies in the context of their
own countries. One of these difficulties
has to do with the teaching of
specialised words. A great deal of
literature in the field of ESP vocabulary
focuses either on native speakers or on
foreign students attending scientific and
technical classes taught through the
medium of English. There are few
studies focusing on non-native speakers
taking their subject matter courses
(engineering, biology, etc) in their L1.
However, I believe that learners in these
three distinct settings cannot be taken
as one. The variables of the different
learner groups must be considered, and
each group should receive treatment
tailored to its needs. In this article I will
compare and contrast three distinct
contexts in which students learn ESP in
an attempt to demonstrate that the
method by which specialised vocabulary
should be taught is dependent upon the
situation involved.
Different contexts
The table on the right displays three
distinct situations in which
undergraduates learn ESP. These
situations differ basically in terms of the
official language of the country where
the students are taking their specialist
www.etprofessional.com ENGLISH TEACHING professional Issue 42 January 2006
The official language would be English,
giving these students daily contact with
the target language. They would already
be at an advanced or, at least, upper-
intermediate level of language
proficiency, since this is a precondition
for entering any British university. The
language spoken by the teachers and
fellow students on their engineering
course would be English. As a result,
they would have contact with scientific
and technical texts and constant
exposure to the specialised English
needed to pursue their studies. Finally,
their motivation would be very high as
they would find practical and
immediate use for the target language.
Context 2
To illustrate Context 2, let us take
The variables of the German undergraduates studying
different learner groups engineering in Germany. The official
language would be German, rather than
must be considered, English, so use of English would be
and each group should limited. They would be likely to be at
least at an intermediate level of English
receive treatment language proficiency as it is well-known
tailored to its needs in Europe that having a good level of
English is an advantage when pursuing
a successful professional career. The
subject classes, their level of language language employed in their engineering
proficiency, the language in which their course would be German, but they
specialist subject is taught, and their would still be highly motivated to learn
motivation to learn English. I will English. This is firstly because they
exemplify each setting for better would have many opportunities to
comparison. You may find that one of interact with native speakers of English
these contexts corresponds to your own or to use English as a means of
teaching situation. communicating with their European
neighbours, and secondly because
Context 1 English is not just seen as a plus in a
Let us take as an example of Context 1 CV but is almost a requirement for
overseas undergraduates studying securing a job in their homeland and
engineering at a university in the UK. elsewhere in Europe.
Context 1 Context 2 Context 3
Official language English Students L1 Students L1
Students level Advanced or Advanced or Basic level
of language upper-intermediate intermediate
proficiency level level
Language used to teach English Students L1 Students L1
the students specialist
subject courses
(eg engineering,
maths, biology, etc)
Students motivation High High Moderate

35
 B USINESS E NGLISH professional                                 
Specialised
vocabulary
 Context 3
A good example of Context 3 would be
Brazilian undergraduates studying
engineering in Brazil. Portuguese would
be the official language and
opportunities to use English would be
very limited. The students command of
the English language might be quite
basic as undergraduates in Brazil usually
attend college first and then learn foreign
languages according to their professional
needs. (South America encompasses 13
countries, including French Guyana, out
of which nine are Spanish-speaking. If
we add up the populations of these
countries and analyse them in terms of
language use, we see that 49.1 per cent
are Portuguese speakers, 50.5 per cent
Spanish speakers and only 0.4 per cent
speakers of other languages, such as
French and English. Looking at these
figures, we can understand why in this
context undergraduates are not very
motivated to learn foreign languages
especially if we take into consideration
that native speakers of Portuguese are
able to understand Spanish very well.)
The language used in their
engineering course would be Portuguese.
Their enthusiasm for learning English
would be only moderate, firstly because
they would rarely encounter native
speakers of English, and secondly
because, unlike students in the second
context, English is still seen as a plus in
a CV and not as a requisite qualification.
Key differences
Looking closely at Contexts 2 and 3 we
can see that the main differences between
them lie in two aspects: the students
motivation to learn and their command
of the target language. However, as
English language teachers, we know that
these two factors alone play an important
role in language learning.
Motivation
Whereas students in Context 2 will find
practical and immediate opportunities
to use the English they have learnt,
36 Issue 42 January 2006 ENGLISH TEACHING professional www.etprofessional.com
students in Context 3 may still wonder
whether or not English will be of either
practical or immediate use in their
professional lives. When considering the
importance of ESP in contexts such as
the third one, where students have so
few opportunities to use English in daily
life, one question which might
reasonably be asked is whether or not
ESP should still be taught. In answer to
this question, I would say that it should.
Preventing these undergraduates from
having any contact at all with the
English language in their chosen fields
would have the result of enlarging the
vacuum between developing and
developed countries since English is the
language most often used for business
and communication worldwide.
Written contexts
usually supply limited
information about
the meaning of
unfamiliar words,
and are sometimes
even misleading
Proficiency
The second factor affecting language
learning has to do with proficiency. On
the one hand, ESP teachers in Context
2 would be able to use English with
their students as they would be able to
read scientific and technical texts in
English and infer the meaning of
unknown words from the text. On the
other, teachers in Context 3 would find
it difficult to use English as a medium
of language learning.
Contradictions and
considerations
Despite the fact that there are different
contexts in which ESP is taught, as
exemplified by the three that we have
identified here, in my experience, ESP
courses usually all follow the same
teaching methodology. They concentrate
heavily on the development of reading
and writing skills in general but pay less
attention to the explicit teaching of the
technical and scientific vocabulary which
is the core of ESP. When they come up
against this specialised vocabulary,
learners are instructed to infer the
meaning of any new words from the
surrounding text. This approach works
relatively well for groups at high levels
of language proficiency, but it is not so
effective for groups at lower levels.
There is a considerable body of
research suggesting that written contexts
usually supply limited information about
the meaning of unfamiliar words, and are
sometimes even misleading. For instance,
Carmine, Kameenui and Coyles
investigation of deliberate vocabulary
learning from context (cited by Beck and
McKeown) found that only 40 per cent of
word meanings could be inferred. Pressley
et al reinforce this view and claim that
inferring meaning from context is less
effective than more intensive or explicit
forms of vocabulary instruction.

Based on the above, I would suggest that
ESP teachers adapt their teaching to suit
the context in which their students are
studying and approach the teaching of
specialised vocabulary accordingly.
Moreover, I believe that research
focusing on Contexts 2 and 3 should be
promoted so that teachers in these
settings can receive theoretical support
and guidance for their everyday practice.
As a final word I will quote Beck
and McKeown, who point out that all
instructional methods produce better
word learning than no instruction. ETp
Beck, I and McKeown, M Conditions of
vocabulary acquisition In Barr, R, Kamil,
M L, Mosenthal, P and Pearson, P D
(Eds) Handbook of Reading Research
Longman 1991
Pressley, M, Levin, J R and Miller, G E
The keyword method compared to
alternative vocabulary learning
strategies Contemporary Educational
Psychology (7) 1982
Celia Bell has a BA in
English Language and
Literature. From 2002 to
2003 she did her MA in
English Language at
UFSC, Brazil. Since 1997
she has been working
as an ESP teacher in
several textile
companies in Brazil.
celia.bell@bol.com.br