Abstract:

When we take into account the theoretical framework of teaching English for Specific Purposes (ESP) at academic level, we must focus on the peculiarities, methods and strategies related to language acquisition. At the Technical University of Cluj-Napoca, Faculty of Civil Engineering, our students’ knowledge of English for science of technology is assessed by testing their ability to understand a written text, to elaborate a written document, to listen and understand a text in English and to communicate orally, according to the requirements and specifications of the Common European Framework of Reference (CEFR). This paper aims to present some of the elements of this system for teaching, learning and assessing foreign languages. According to the Council of Europe guidelines, it has three central components or “building blocks” (can-do statements, language activities and communicative competences) and provides the means to achieve the goal of communicative effectiveness and use language for better communication and collaboration between speakers of different language background. This emphasis on communicative effectiveness drives the types of activities, strategies and competences which teachers and students can choose to focus on. A further step is represented by integrating language skills during ESP seminars. This study aims at pointing out the language activities which bridge the gap between the mainly receptive vocabulary (obtained through reading / listening at the specialized courses) by activating the productive vocabulary (through speaking / writing activities). Communicative competences are sets of knowledge, aptitudes, skills and attitudes, which contribute in different ways to the learners’ ability to communicate. Three key sets of communicative competences include: linguistic competence, socio-linguistic competence and pragmatic competence. Alignment with the CEFR provides us with a “common language” for describing objectives, methods and assessment; facilitates the comparison of the language learners’ levels and facilitates mutual recognition and co-operation among educational institutions in different countries.

Keywords:

Language, skills, ESP, language activities, communicative competences.