Editorial: if you would like to express your opinion, share a thought or other please write to me at hania.kryszewska@pilgrims.co.uk

Letter 1

Dear HLT Reader,
This letter was among other materials Mario has handed over to me. I think it is a great voice in the ESP debate. Would anybody like to join in?
Please write to me at: hania.kryszewska@pilgrims.co.uk

Yours
Hania

Dear Mario,

Many thanks for your message. It is good to see your great diligence and enthusiasm for helping your geology students improve their English.

In my opinion, English for Special Purposes may not focus on what students really need. I found that all my geologists, both in Mexico and Saudi Arabia had a great need for mastering the basic structure and basic vocabulary of English and very little need for practicing the specialized vocabulary of geology. They learned geological vocabulary quite easily but their problem was that they were weak in using the function words of English (or sometimes, the pronunciation of English). By function words, I mean words like "which, of, since, these" and structures like the passive voice ( very important for scientists).

ESP courses are very popular in schools, but I think they are not needed if students learn real mastery of the basics of English. Look at the following sentences:

Did that vuggy sample contain dickite?

Did that delicious drink contain sugar?

Anyone who studies geology knows that "vuggy" means "full of holes." mastery of this sentence has nothing to do with the words vuggy and dickite. The students need to master the use of "did" in questions. The student may want to say "Did that drink contained sugar?" and needs the teacher's help to learn how to make questions correctly in English. It's easier to practise these things using basic vocabulary like drink and sugar. Once the student has mastered the structure, he can substitute words like metamorphic or palygorskite….the geological terms are not the problem.
This is the procedure we use teaching English the Silent Way: we have techniques for bringing students to mastery of the function words and structures during their first months of study and afterwards they can easily learn the vocabulary of physics, medicine or geology, with no need for a teacher.

As for professional geologists who need to make reports in English, I suggest you work with them on actual reports they have written, pointing out parts of their sentences which have mistakes, but giving them a chance to figure out the nature of those mistakes and perhaps generating a study session based on the grammar or other problems that you discover in the students' writings. This may be far more useful to your students than trying to use some textbook that supposedly teaches "English for Geologists." these same students need to do A LOT of reading in English. However, geological writings are notoriously (and deliberately) boring. I found it much more useful to use (in class) newspapers, Time or Newsweek magazines, etc. most geologists quickly learn to understand the meaning of texts in their field, maybe far better than we English teachers could ever do.

What do you think about that?

I will send a copy of this message to some of my fellow teachers, hoping they might have some comments to add.

All the best from Mexico!

John Pint

Letter 2

This witty reply refers to Mario's article, as the author puts it, to the HLT haggle: cemetry or graveyard.

Hello Mario,

I consider both words to be of equal importance.
They're always found in exactly the same place:
The dead centre of town.

Looking forward to seing you again in the summer.

Mike Fisher

Letter 3

From:
Xanthi Drakopoulou
Acharnon 23
Mesolonghi
Greece.

Dear Editor,
I want to congratulate you for all your work making so many good ideas available to us teachers on a regular basis on the Internet, and free of charge.
However I have one bone to bite with you about the orientation of the magazine.
Why do I eagerly scan the CONTENTS screen and only find one or two things in each issue aimed at helping me to improve at the level I teach: 8-10 year olds? Why are there so many articles on teaching teenagers/adults and so little on working with the most language sensitive age: the primary level?
Here in Greece you have to have a full university degree in English to be allowed to teach the subject in primary school. Perhaps in my country we accord a greater respect to teaching children of this early age than you do in the "younger" areas of Europe.
Is this the reason why HLT gives so little space to the concerns of primary teachers?
Please remember, in the language teaching arena, tomorrow is ours.

Yours faithfully,

Xanthi Drakopoulou

Dear Xanthi, if I may,
Thank you for your valuable comments. I am aware that Mario has a bit neglected 'the little ones' and their teachers. As you can see in this edition there some articles relating to the area. Perhaps you would like to write an article yourself and offer us a voice from the Greek perspective.
I am looking forward to hearing from you

Hania Kryszewska
hania.kryszewska@pilgrims.co.uk