Developing L2 Leveled Speaking Materials for Sports Professionals

Jeong Chanyang (International Graduate School of English, Seoul) in Lecture Theatre 3

at The MATSDA/University of Liverpool Conference: Authenticity and Materials Development for Language Learning, June 2016

This project aims to meet the need by developing English for Specific Purposes (ESP) materials for sports professionals with low English speaking proficiency. In Korea, the majority of L2 materials have been developed for students with academic goals, however, little has concerned for student athletes, who have relatively less time and opportunities to develop their L2 speaking proficiency. It results in under-achievement in L2 learning, thus demotivating learners. Needs analysis was conducted in order to identify the needs for developing such skills through supplementary class. The material adopted a learning-centered course design framework by Hutchinson and Waters (2000), which is solely based on learners’ needs and their own reason for learning. After piloting with athletes from a Korean middle school, learning exit point was set: to learn three key sentences from a dialogue as native-like as possible, for the learners wanted to achieve a solid outcome in a short time. The ESP supplementary material is comprised of 12 units with different topics (self-introduction, meeting new coach, dorm life, watching sports games, field trip, sportsmanship, shopping, training, reporting injuries, weight control, competition) and each unit has 6 steps (warm up, vocabulary pool, conversation filed, pronunciation court, review track, snack time). Based on piloting and class observation, collaborative games, modified back-chaining, shadowing, and recording activities are adopted, regarding students’ needs and learning styles and promoting effective vocabulary learning (Kang, 2015, p.94). All situations in each dialogue are presented in a sports situation, where the target students are likely to face every day. Also, the material provides learners with pronunciation tips to promote accuracy of the target expressions, which will be recorded as a final step. Learners are expected to make a speaking portfolio to build up autonomy as well as the feeling of success. Further research is needed to find out whether the material is able to help learners’ speaking proficiency.