Editorial | Scripta Manent, 7 (2)

Journal of the Slovene Association of LSP Teachers

ISSN: 1854-2042

Editorial

As educators working in the field of languages for specific purposes (LSP), we are often confronted with the question of how to firstly identify the specialist terminology that our students need to learn and then, secondly, how to work that terminology into materials appropriate to our context that effectively support our students in internalizing and utilizing the language. Of course, there are many excellent books that go some way to doing this for us. However, in view of the very specific and diverse contexts for which our students require a foreign language, identifying relevant language and creating materials that practice that language are two important aspects of the LSP teacher’s repertoire.

The first of the two articles in the current issue of Scripta Manent focuses on the first of the aforementioned aspects, namely identifying specialist terminology. In “Technical Terminology in Standard Terms and Conditions of Sale: A Corpus-Based Study of High Frequency Nouns and their Collocations”, Gajšt presents the results of a corpus-based study of the language of commerce. An analysis of just sixteen of the most frequently occurring nouns in the corpus reveals how these nouns are used in almost 250 significant commerce-related collocations that, the author suggests, might be used as the basis for syllabus design in the field or in the creation of additional materials for already existing courses.

In “Vocabulary Acquisition for Future Nursing Staff: Authenticity in the Classroom”, Hempkin and Kline describe a rationale for the development of English-language vocabulary building activities for nursing students using Tomlinson’s (2010) framework for material development. Central to the article is a discussion of the theoretical considerations of authenticity and principles of second language acquisition in materials design that underpin the framework.

Finally in this issue, Čepon reviews “English for Business and Economic Studies 2” by Mateja Dostal, Alenka Umek and Danica Čerče, a coursebook primarily written for Slovene undergraduate students of Business and Economics, but which, as the reviewer argues, may be equally relevant for ESP classes in non-Slovene contexts.

Rachel Lindner

Editorial board member

References

Tomlinson, B. (2010). Principles and procedures for self-access materials. Studies in Self-Access Learning Journal, 1(2) [online]. Available: http://sisaljournal.org/archives/sep10/tomlinson/ (5 February 2013).

Scripta Manent Vol. 7(2)

» Contents

» N. Gajšt

Technical Terminology in Standard Terms and Conditions of Sale: A Corpus-Based Study of High Frequency Nouns and their Collocations

» K. Hempkin & B. Majcenovič Kline

Vocabulary Acquisition for Future Nursing Staff: authenticity in the classroom

» S. Čepon

English for Business and Economic Studies 2, by Mateja Dostal, Alenka Umek and Danica Čerče

Review

Previous Volumes

» Volume 7/1

» Volume 6/1-2