Language and Communicative Needs Analysis for ESP course ‘English for Media and Journalism

Introduction

In Russia, as in many other countries, English is studied in the frame-work of a general education program as a foreign language (EFL format - Eng-lish as a foreign language). Considering the peculiarities of teaching English in the EFL format, many specialists have recently come to the conclusion that this approach is not effective enough. It is based on the idea of a student as a stranger, a foreigner, whose task is to imitate the linguistic behavior of native speakers as best as possible. According to D. Graddall, who studies English as a linguistic tourist - he is allowed to visit, but not given the right to stay, and he must always respect the superiority of native speakers [2]. This approach can be considered a legacy of those times when the spread of the English lan-guage in the world was due to the economic and geopolitical domination of Russian-speaking countries.
In modern society, according to statistics, only one out of four people speaking English is native [3], therefore, in most cases, English acts as a lingua franca, that is, serve as a mediator in communication, not being native to any of the interlocutors. English language teaching methodology is evolving to meet the political and economic needs of the new world in which it is studied and used.
General formulation of the problem and its connection with important scientific and practical problems. Dynamic transformations in Russia, the pro-cesses of globalization in the economic and political spheres actualize the need for specialists in various fields of knowledge in the study of foreign languages. At present, high requirements are imposed on specialists in various fields re-lated to the use of innovative technologies, a creative approach to professional activities, as well as a foreign language as a tool for intercultural interaction. Knowledge of foreign languages increases the competitiveness and demand for a specialist.
Currently in Russia is a popular area of teaching a foreign language in certain areas of knowledge. In higher education centers and language centers there is a separate academic discipline called "English for Special Purposes" (language / languages for special / special purposes (hereinafter LSP)). Major research centers for advanced learning, as well as English for special purposes are taught in corporate and continuing education courses.
The results of research and publications are analyzed. highlighting previ-ously unresolved parts of a common problem. Having arisen on the basis of the linguistic theory of LSP and relying on the achievements of the theory of student-centered learning, recognized as key for this area, the linguodidactic concept of LSP by T. Hutchinson and A. Waters [1], which has been develop-ing since the 80s, continues to develop the work of domestic and foreign scien-tists such as O.V. Akimova [2], G. Gumovskaya [3], T.G. Petrashova [4], O.G. Polyakov [5], D. Cover [6], P. Strevens [7], M. Trickey [8], J.M. Swalz [9].
English for special purposes is correlated with a certain area of knowledge or field of activity, it involves the use of a special teaching method-ology, which is different from the methodology of teaching English for general educational purposes, and implies, in most cases, the teaching of adults, if the students have a certain level of knowledge [10].
The foregoing determined the relevance of the chosen topic.
The purpose of the course work is analysis of language and communica-tion needs for the ESP course "English for Media and Journalism".
In accordance with this goal, it is necessary to solve a number of tasks, such as:
 to consider the early roots of ESP;
 to reveal the vocabulary approach to teaching ESP;
 to describe the transition from grammar and vocabulary to language use;
 to justify the role of specialists in this area as a content consultant;
 to describe the importance of rhetorical techniques and discourse anal-ysis;
 to outline the approach to genre analysis / awareness and corpus re-search in ESP;
 to analyze current trends in ESP;
 to compare the needs of EFL and ESP.
The object of the research is English for special purposes, the subject is the peculiarities of its application in the course "English for Journalism and Mass Media".
The structure of the work is determined by the purpose and objectives of the study. Course work consists of an introduction, two chapters, a conclusion and a list of sources used.

Chapter 1.History of Development and Definition of ESP

1.1. Introduction. Early roots of ESP
The progress of society is characterized not only by the development of industrial spheres, but also by the interests and values of members of society, that is, by human capital. Human capital refers to the abilities, knowledge and skills (skills) required by workers to carry out activities in the socio-economic spheres. Such qualities, first of all, are determined (revealed) by the quality of education, reflecting the intellectual potential of society, a developed education system that offers quality education, and the like.
A foreign language embodies great potential that meets the needs of soci-ety and occupies an important place in the comprehensive harmonious devel-opment of the individual. Teaching foreign languages is not only the provision of knowledge about a foreign language, but also a factor influencing the for-mation of a person who is ready to independently master knowledge, who is able to think creatively, who is aware of the cultural heritage of his homeland and the country of the language being studied and the place they occupy in world history. A foreign language is a source that plays an important role in a person's achievement of intellectual, cultural and professional excellence, as well as a factor that plays an important role in his cultural development.
The teaching of vocational English is a scientific field, born in the late 1960s, and it is considered a type of education that meets the educational needs of those receiving education and the social order of society.
The abbreviation ESP (English for Specific Purpose) is currently consid-ered a term that has entered the scientific circle of theorists and practitioners of teaching professionally oriented English [2]. Teaching English as an ESP (Eng-lish for Specific Purpose) requires not only a new approach to its methodolo-gy, but also a new look at the content of a foreign language. In particular, in non-philological higher educational institutions, ESP requires such an ap-proach to the content of teaching English, in which, for example, in teaching professional communication (dialogue), the content of education is planned in stages; at the initial stage, the hours allotted for a foreign language are mainly directed to the formation of lexical, grammatical and phonetic skills and com-munication skills, etc.
The timeline of ESP development is presented below.


1.2. Vocabulary-based approach to ESP teaching
Currently, the direction of profile teaching English (ESP) is one of the fastest growing. Like most disciplines related to integration processes in vari-ous spheres of human activity, ESP turned out to be the phenomenon, the rel-evance of the development of which is determined by a number of rapidly de-veloping trends, of which, in our opinion, the following should be distin-guished:
1) Due to the world recognition of the English language - international, the need arose to know the English language in accordance with the specific needs in professional activities. As Tom Hutchinson and Alan Waters notes, “English has become the generally accepted international language of technolo-gy and economics” [7, 6];
2) The rapid development of applied linguistics, according to which, ac-cording to John Allen and Henry Widdowson, there is a tendency to switch the attention of linguists from studying and determining the formal features of the language to finding ways and disclosing the possibilities of using the language in the context of real communication [1]. This, in turn, necessitates the devel-opment of new methodological and didactic approaches to organizing the pro-cess of learning English for a specific group of students, taking into account the specifics of their professional activities;
3) New developments in the field of educational psychology, which, ac-cording to Rodgers, also contributed to the development of ESP, bringing to the fore the students themselves and their attitude to learning [12]. Since the needs and interests of the student influence the degree of their motivation and the level of effectiveness of their learning.
Thus, as noted by Tom Hutchinson and Alan Waters “these factors de-termine the need for target specialization in language learning” [7,8], which to-day many researchers and practitioners interpret differently, defining the con-cept of ESP and the degree of its target specialization ...
According to the definition proposed by John Munby "ESP are courses for which the curriculum and materials are determined depending on the pre-liminary analysis of the student's communication needs" [10, 2]. According to Jo McDonough, ESP is a focus on the learning process, which certainly has its own accents and priorities. He emphasizes that ESP is a kind of way of teach-ing a foreign language [9]. Although Pauline Robinson claims in his work that ESP includes EAP (English for Academic Purposes) and EEP (English for Economic Purposes) and is intended to be studied as a separate specialized discipline or academic subject [11, 2].
Following Hutchinson and Waters, we adhere to the broadest definition of ESP, according to which it reads as follows: "ESP is an approach to teach-ing a foreign language in which all aspects of teaching, such as content and methods, are based on the motivation of students to learn a foreign language." [7,19]. Consequently, ESP should be viewed as an “approach” to learning IL, not a learning outcome.
In turn, Peter Strevens notes that ESP is a special case of the general di-rection of teaching foreign languages for special purposes. It characterizes ESP by describing the differences between absolute and variable characteristics. At the same time, defining ESP as goal-oriented teaching of foreign language, or as one of the areas of teaching English [14]. Later Dudley-Evans and St. John modified the stats given by Peter Strevens and revealed the essence of ESP from the following two aspects:
I. Absolute characteristics
1) ESP is aimed at meeting the specific needs of the student;
2) ESP implies the use of a certain methodology, taking into account the specifics of the professional orientation of the discipline in which ESP is stud-ied;
3) ESP is focused on linguistic phenomena (grammatical, lexical, stylis-tic), on speech skills and abilities (listening, reading, writing, speaking), on the peculiarities of discourse, styles and genres corresponding to a certain profes-sional activity.
II. Variable characteristics
1) ESP can be associated with or intended for specific disciplines;
2) In the process of teaching ESP, in specific educational situations, it is possible to use a certain methodology that is different from the general princi-ples of teaching basic English (GE - General English);
3) ESP may involve teaching an adult audience, or is intended for stu-dents of higher educational institutions, or for a professional field of activity. However, it can be introduced to students at the high school level;
4) ESP is mainly designed for students with an intermediate or advanced level of knowledge of a foreign language;
5) Most ESP courses require some basic knowledge of the language sys-tem, although it can be used at an elementary level among beginners [4, 4-5].
According to the author, the last three points of the variable characteris-tics contradict each other, in particular the fourth and fifth points. According to the author, the fourth point is legitimate. According to which ESP should really be mainly designed for students with an intermediate or advanced level of knowledge of a foreign language. This, in turn, implies the ESP training conditions listed in the third paragraph, with the exception of the last category, i.e. high school students.
Thus, considering the variable characteristics in the context of modern requirements for the level of language training of students of non-linguistic universities, taking into account the peculiarities of the formation of profes-sional foreign language competence, we consider it necessary to modify them as follows:
1) ESP is related to or intended for specialized disciplines;
2) In addition to the general principles of GE training in the ESP training process, in specific training situations, it is necessary to apply a certain meth-odology different from the GE training methodology;
3) ESP involves teaching an adult audience, that is, it is intended for stu-dents of higher education institutions, or for a professional field of activity;
4) ESP is designed for students with at least an intermediate level of lan-guage proficiency achieved in the previous stages of study according to a mul-ti-level system of continuous education.
Taking into account all the above definitions, we can come to the conclu-sion that, firstly, despite their versatility, they all show that ESP is part of ELT (English language teaching); secondly, in the process of teaching ESP, it is nec-essary to use a certain methodology, developed taking into account the specif-ics of future professional activities.
At the same time, we adhere to the position that ESP is not a special kind of English language. Because "language for special purposes" and "spe-cialized language" are two different concepts. As R. Mackay and A. Mountford argue, “the only practical way with which we can interpret the concept of“ spe-cialized language ”is to understand it as a limited repertoire of words and ex-pressions selected from the lexical system of the language, since this is ny vo-cabulary can be used only within a clearly defined context, or in accordance with a specific task or limited activity ”[8, 4].
While the concept of "language for special purposes" implies the pur-pose for which students learn a foreign language, and does not reflect the na-ture of the language they are learning. According to Kristen Gatehouse, “the word“ special ”in ESP should focus on the purpose for which students learn the language, and not on the specific jargon or specific stylistic levels that they learn” [6, 3].
In addition, in practice, in the process of learning FL, it is sometimes dif-ficult to draw a clear demarcation line and define the boundaries of GE and ESP. According to L. Anthony “it is not clear where the GE course ends and the ESP course begins” [2, 9]. Although we are trying to use such generally ac-cepted categories as Business English, English for Economics, English for So-cial Sciences and others, precisely in order to distinguish between ESP and GE.
In turn, Tom Hutchinson and Alan Waters in their study came to the conclusion that the differences between GE and ESP approaches “in theory there is no, but in practice it is huge” [7, 53]. Hence, ESP is part of ELT in the-ory. But in practice, the goal for which students are learning ESP is different from the goal of learning GE, as it implies the acquisition of language skills and skills for communication needs at a conversational everyday level. At the same time, the purpose for which students study ESP is more specific, taking into account the needs of students and has a specialized nature of the orienta-tion of the educational process to mastering future professional activities. And to optimize it, English teachers in a non-linguistic university, in particular an economic profile, need to use the ESP approach when drafting curricula, which should be based on an analysis of the goals and needs of students, as well as the characteristics of the formation of a professional foreign language. compe-tence, taking into account the specialization of a particular university, faculty, department. Moreover, applying the latest methodological developments in the field of ESP, and using the capabilities of modern information communication technologies, it is necessary to create educational situations, practicing the use of English in the process of real communication.
The training of mature specialists who meet the requirements of the time requires perfect knowledge of foreign languages. Therefore, at present, for methodologists, the development of innovative systems for professionally ori-ented teaching of foreign languages in higher educational institutions is one of the spiteful issues of the day. Such a system, in turn, should:
- to meet the interests of society and the individual, to strengthen the place that foreign languages occupy in the future professional activities of stu-dents and the motivation to learn a foreign language from students who are aware of the functional importance of this language;
- to contribute to an increase in the general degree of knowledge of for-eign languages;
- to provide an opportunity to characterize the goals, objectives, methods and means of teaching foreign languages in the system of professional training of students;
- to reveal the features of the professional activity of teachers and stu-dents;
- to provide an opportunity to overcome the contradictions that exist in teaching foreign languages in higher educational institutions and professional colleges.
The development of a system of professionally oriented teaching of for-eign languages to students maximally manifests the interests of the individual and at the same time is aimed at fulfilling a new social order.
Professionally-oriented teaching of a foreign language should become an impetus for the formation of the personality of a specialist who has an active life point of view (position) throughout his career. To do this, it is necessary to create such an educational and methodological environment that forms and de-velops the skills and abilities necessary for a future specialist, a future teacher (teacher) of a foreign language, which subsequently, through an interest in learning a foreign language, would enhance the student's interest in res and to their future profession [1].
To achieve good mastery of English language materials by students in educational institutions, it is necessary to achieve the following:
- students' enthusiasm for learning a foreign language was to the required degree;
- the process of teaching foreign languages was communication-oriented;
- the teacher was creative in the choice of teaching methods;
- a favorable psychological environment was created during classes on performing oral exercises and teaching dialogue in a foreign language;
- various teaching aids were available and opportunities were created for their constant use in the learning process;
- classroom and extracurricular (classroom and extracurricular) creative work on the study of the English language was carried out in a coordinated manner.