Abstract:

The need to use authentic materials has always been an educational priority with English for Specific Purposes (ESP) students and providers within the continually progressive teaching - learning process, and specialists throughout the academic world have repeatedly underlined the tremendous importance and impact the use of such materials has on the students’ efficient language and content acquisition. The main aim of the current study is to closely analyze the selection criteria applied to authentic video materials, their contextualized display during ESP class interactions, as well as descriptive outcome in what concerns improved listening skills and upgraded technical vocabulary. The analysis is based on four specific cases of adapting listening comprehension tasks to ESP students specializing in Land Survey, Landscaping and Geography of Tourism. The authentic videos the present paper findings are supported by refer to detailed sequences of performing field surveys and steel-work surveys (offset and elevation layout with robotic total stations), as well as to border gardens (particularized instances) and the main components of tourism (within the tourism and travel industry). Because ESP classes should also provide enhanced career-oriented skills, the fourth case is strictly connected to aspects to be considered when taking part in a job interview (pre-interview, interview and post-interview). Besides the added value of authenticity ensured by the fact that the providers of the selected videos are professionals in their own field of expertise, there is also a wide array of comprehension and vocabulary tasks that were devised in relation to them. Thus, increased motivational levels have been observed as a direct result of the ESP students being exposed to authentic video materials combining elements of English language, specialized content and mock practice of interview procedures.

Keywords:

Authentic videos, improved listening skills, upgraded technical vocabulary, increased motivation.