Language for Specific Purposes: Trends in Curriculum Development ed. by Long, Mary K

Abstract

Reviewed by: Language for Specific Purposes: Trends in Curriculum Development ed. by Long, Mary K Shannon Polchow Long, Mary K., ed. Language for Specific Purposes: Trends in Curriculum Development. Georgetown UP, 2017. Pp. 199. ISBN 978-1-62616-419-2. Evolution is the key to survival, and language departments are of no exception. They evolve in order to fulfill student expectations, and today that includes incorporating an increased number of courses on language for specific purposes (LSP) into the curriculum. As the demand for LSP increases, however, the research in the field has not kept pace. Growing out of the Second International Symposium on Language for Specific Purposes held in 2014, Mary K. Long's Language for Specific Purposes: Trends in Curriculum Development seeks to bridge this divide. The first chapter in Long's edited collection of ten essays sets the tenor for the entire work. In "New Directions in LSP Research in Higher Education," Lourdes Sánchez-López, Mary K. Long, and Barbara A. Lafford provide a call to arms for the field to unite to overcome problems that have plagued the LSP sector: "little funding, support, or recognition for in-depth research" (13). A detailed analysis of current research trends in LSP studies and potential avenues of [End Page 659] investigation in the field follows. This discussion will be of particular interest for those involved in conducting a needs assessment for their departments or involved in curricular development as it provides beneficial information about the future direction of the field. From there, the volume is divided into three parts. The first is "New Directions in LSP Curriculum Development," and the five essays of this section will touch on curriculum development, LSP's intersection with service learning, and its connections with other academic disciplines. In the first essay, "Developing and Implementing LSP Curricula at the K-12 Level," Mary Risner, Melissa Swarr, Cristin Bleess, and Janet Graham examine three very specific LSP programs implemented at the high school level. The courses include Spanish for leadership, Spanish for health care, and world language and business leadership. Although the chapter goes into great detail about these three specific programs, it serves as a starting point for contemplating the inclusion of LSP courses. The authors discuss language requirements, course activities, and outcomes for each class and they also direct readers to additional online resources. Carmen King de Ramírez follows with "Preparing Students for the Workplace: Heritage Learners' Experiences in Professional Community Internships" where she explains how internships can help heritage speakers achieve their own personal and professional goals with the language. While this essay is engaging, one begins to notice a trend in this collection: the sparse amount of data. In this particular essay, King de Ramírez details the experiences of just four particular students. The survey conducted in the first chapter of this volume was initially wide in scope, but the authors acknowledged that the response rate was extremely low. With these small sample sizes, one question arises: would the results be the same if there were more participants? Perhaps, in a way, this further highlights the need for more research in the field, as Long addresses in her introduction to the volume. "Developing Intercultural Competence and Leadership through LSP Curricula" by LeAnn Darby, Jean W. LeLoup, James Rasmussen, and Ismênia Sales de Souza details how the Department of Foreign Languages at the US Air Force Academy incorporates leadership studies into their language courses via culture-related activities. Referenced in their study are valuable materials, including cultural scenarios and scoring rubrics, however they are not contained within the physical text. One is directed to the book's website to download the materials contained within the chapter's appendix. In "Developing a More Efficient Conversation Paradigm for Learning Foreign Languages: Lessons on Asking and Answering Questions in an LSP Context," Robert A. Quinn notes that typical verb charts presented in textbooks promote rote memorization, whereas a change in presentation will facilitate the conversational skills that one needs in LSP courses. Tatiana Nekrasova-Beker and Anthony Becker's "Integrating Project-Based Learning into English for Specific-Purposes Classrooms: A Case Study in Engineering" bring the first part to a...