My name is Lisa Nazarenko and I have been teaching English as a Foreign Language since 1988. I've focused specifically on ESP for more than a decade (academic English, business English, technical English). At first I found technical English particularly challenging since I'm not a "techie" and I don't know very much about technical subjects.
But I have found many ways to exploit material in relevant technical areas to give students practice in the four language skills (reading, writing, speaking and listening), as well as aspects of vocabulary and grammar, while focusing on their particular technical area. I enjoy making my own material, which is usually inspired by texts, video clips, and pictures I find on the internet and in published sources.
I am particulary interested in reading and writing skills, and have developed an approach to writing that has been effective in teaching my students how to structure and write English texts. I have presented this approach at various conferences, including IATEFL, and it has also formed the basis of articles I've published, as well as a chapter in the book, The College Writing Toolkit: Tried and Tested Ideas for Teaching College Writing (ed. Martha C. Pennington and Pauline Burton, Equinox, 2011).
Posts
Great work thank you Lisa. I will post information about it to IATET the International Association of Technical English Teachers
ReplyDeletehttp://groups.yahoo.com/group/IATET/
Graham Tritt (teaching in Innsbruck and Berne)
A really nice and useful blog. Thank you. I have shared the link where I can.
ReplyDeleteDuncan
www.lydbury.co.uk
Thank you, Graham, for your feedback. It's good to know that you find my material useful. We met at the ESP Conference in Ulm in 2011 (my colleague and I gave a workshop on Guiding ESP Students Through the Writing Process). This year (in October) we'll be at that conference again, presenting a workshop on reading skills for ESP students. Hope to see you there!
ReplyDeleteYour compilation of resources and comments is not just "nice". Its ideas and its links to highly useful, up-to-date study material provide a great source of inspiration for both new and experienced ESP teachers.
ReplyDeleteThanks to Graham for sharing the link to your blog!
Duncan and Uwe - I thank you for your comments. I'm trying to make this blog as useful as possible to other ESP teachers. If you have any comments or feedback (or criticism) of any particular post, I would really appreciate your adding them to the post.
ReplyDeleteGreat work, Lisa!
ReplyDeleteI'm going to post a link to your blog on the Munich English Teachers Association's forum.
Thank you, John. I'd like as many teachers as possible to be able to read and use my blog. If you have a comment about a particular post, or think of other ways to use the material, please comment on that post. I think it would be very useful to see ideas from others teaching ESP.
ReplyDeleteHi Lisa,
ReplyDeleteI like your blog about teaching English. Actually, I'd like to ask you opinion about my educational website VocApp.com. I'm really curious what you think about it as a teacher.
Cheers,
Martina
Hi Lisa, I have been teaching ESL on and off for several years and in various contexts, but I am about to teach my first technical English class to undergraduate engineering students in Germany. Your blog is giving me so many ideas. It is a fantastic resource! Thank you.
ReplyDelete-Lindsey Griffith
Thank you so much for your feedback, Lindsey! I'm glad that this is a useful resource for you.
ReplyDelete