Defining the Term and Structure the Implementation of Language for Specific Purposes (LSP)
- Pedagogy
- Assessment
Viktor Englund
Language and Communication, KTH Royal Institute of Technology, Sweden
Challenge and goal
When developing the course offering in language and communication with the specific needs of students and employees at a technical university like KTH in mind, it is difficult to know what those needs actually are. The goal of this user case is to make the teaching staff at the department agree on a definition of the term "language for specific purposes" and to find out what those needs actually are for the target group.
Topic of the user case
Defining the term and structure the implementation of Language for specific purposes (LSP)
Local context (specific)
The courses in language and communication at KTH are developed with the specific needs and interests of the students and employees at a technical university in focus. Our Swedish courses are called "Swedish for Enginners" and the goal is that the students acquire language skills that are relevant for their academic field and a Swedish workplace context. This methodology is refered to as language for speficic purposes or LSP. The challenge is to define what language skills in Swedish the students actually need to function at a Swedish workplace and how to seperate those skills from general language skills. At our department, I believe it would help us in our further development of the courses, if we agreed on a more concret definition of LSP.
Local CPD goals
The goal of this user case is to make the teaching staff at the department agree on a definition of the term "language for specific purposes" and to develop their knowledge and be able to implement the LSP methodology in the courses or make a plan for the implemantation.
Needs defined in STEM-CPD Roadmap
Competences
Attitudes
Activities
CPD activities at the local university
The CPD activities are for the teaching staff in the field of languages and communication and they are set up in a collaboratory and constructivistic manner:
1. Meeting: Introduction of the purpose of the activities, the working methods and the learning materials; getting everyone "on board".
2. Meeting: Discussion of articles on the methodology of LSP and The Global Engineers Language Skills (GELS) framework.
3. Workshop: Based on the result of the readings, the staff members will define a local definition of LSP and then within the various language groups, revise the courses and integrate the new aspects of the LSP paradigm in learning activities.
4. Workshop/meeting: Seperate meetings within the various language groups to continue the developing of the courses.
Teaching and learning materials
- Pedagogical articles on LSP
- The Global Engineers Language Skills (GELS) framework
Expected impact of the CPD User Case
The expected impact is to make our courses in langauge and communication better adaptet and more relevant to the student target group.
Plans for eventual continuation of the CPD within the same topic
Conduct a needs analysis with stakeholders from e.g. industry/tech companies and academia
Developing confidence in sound course design, and learning facilitation (type P1-1, P1-3)
This CPD scenario describes a User case in which lecturers develop their competence in sound course design and facilitating problem solving and develop attitudes in reflecting on own teaching practice and knowledge sharing.
The approximate duration of a User case that follows this scenario is several weeks.
In this CPD scenario the participants professionalize in a close connection to their own teaching practice (at their workplace) and meet in person on location with the training staff and with other participants.
Activities
Learning environment
Time
Several weeks
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