Seminario de Ingles Técnico y Científico

Maximiliano Ahumada
MUN 2610

The Idioma Moderno - Inglés class I attended on the 8 of October was a glance at an
EAP course that allowed me to consider the literature observed thus far in the course
Ingles Tecnico in the context of an actual EAP class. In this essay, I shall comment on
some of the EAP features I noticed during the lesson and suggest whether this is an
EGAP or ESAP course.

Before discussing my observations, Dudley-Evans' four types of EAP situations should

be considered for a better understanding of the key determinant factors that configure
the way Idioma Moderno is taught. This is a course that falls into the fourth situation as
regarded by Dudley and Evans, which they define as: “A situation where all subject
courses are taught in the national language, but English may be important for ancillary
reasons.” In my opinion, this is unmistakable evident in why the class is conducted
entirely in Spanish. Many other aspects of the course, such as class aim, language
activities, student interaction and participation, etc. are also directly tied to the fact that
English is not a recurrent element in the student's lives before, during or after taking the
course.

Regarding the lesson taught by Ms. Diaz, it shall be noted that this one lesson, as a
sample, may not do justice to the teaching of the course as a whole and with her
assistants. Specifically commenting on what I was able to see in this class, there are a
few salient features. First, Ms. Diaz prefaced the class as a revision class, and then went
on to provide a detailed account of the grammar mechanics of the simple past, the
present and past perfect, and the passive voice with modal verbs. For the first 70 or 80
minutes of the class there was virtually no student involvement.

After Ms. Diaz's portion of the class, Ms. Lobo and Mr. Buadas became in charge of the
lesson. They considered each item of a recent test and discussed a few issues with
misunderstanding instructions and recurring mistakes. Student's participation improved
a little bit here but not by a large extent.

The class was not homogeneous. There were Spanish students, philosophy students,
education sciences students, among others. According with Dudley-Evans, "ESAP refers
to the teaching of features that distinguish one discipline from others." This would be
difficult with such a heterogeneous audience. EGAP, on the other hand, can be applied
to a class that is taught "the skills and language that are common to all disciplines". For
this reason, I believe Idioma Moderno is an EGAP course.

Reference

Dudley-Evans, T. and M.J. St John (1998) Developments in English for specific

purposes. Cambridge University Press

Paltdrige, B. & Startfiel S. (2013) The handbook of English for specific purposes. UK.