From the editors
2
E&ih/w Spec& Putpom. Vol. 11. pp. 91-92. 1992 Pergamon Press Ltd. Printed in Lhe USA. 0889-l906/92 %s.cQ + .cMl Copyright 0 1992 The American unwmty From the Editors This volume is devoted to papers that resulted from the Second Latin Amer- ican ESP Conference held in Santiago, Chile in early November 1990. The conference was attended by more than 50 participants representing Argentina, Brazil, Ecuador, Mexico, Venezuela, and the host country, Chile, as well as countries outside the region, Great Britain, Hungary, South Africa, and the United States. Organized by Association Chilena de Profesores para Lenguas con Propositos Especfficos, and sponsored by the British Council and the United States Information Agency, this conference was truly international, representing the research and pedagogical concerns of the community of Latin American scholars and of some of the global ESP concerns as well. Two of the program organizers, Anamaria Harvey and Maria Horsella, have worked with Tony Dudley-Evans to invite manuscripts from the 45 presenta- tions made, to encourage manuscript revision, and 6nally, to select six repre- sentative papers f?om the many that were presented at the colloquium. The papers discuss topics and approaches that are current in ESP practice in the region. Fransoise Salager-Meyer (Universidad de Los Andes, Venezu- ela), noting that abstracts in texts are widely read, discusses the relationships between verb tense, function, and modality in four types of medicd English text abstracts, concluding that “medical text types do have a direct bearing on the use of tenses and modality whereas research-types do not.” Anamaria Harvey (Universidad de Chile), is concerned with the interaction between writers’ and readers’ goals in the construction of text within scientific discourse communities. She demonstrates how indexical markers can assist researchers in answering questions about the nature of expert interaction as realized in written discourses. Maria Horsella and Gerda Sindermann (Universidad de Chile) are concerned with the issues of argumentation as found in scientific discourse and the manner in which text features act to “persuade a scientific audience of the truth or value of the ideas presented.” Their paper focuses upon conditional forms and their roles in advancing argumentation in texts. Gillian Moss (Universidad de1 Norte, Colombia) begins with a pedagogical problem: the presentation of cognates in the teaching of reading courses. After providing evidence for the frequency of cognates in scientific prose, she dis- cusses a study in which student difficulties with interpreting cognates were assessed. She then suggests how cognates should be selected for instruction in a reading course. Adriana Bolivar (Venezuela) moves from the area of written scientific discourse to dialogue within the discourses of two major political parties. She examines the macro-functions of the discourses, the top- ics, and the slogans, finding that the appearance of power is one of the key facets in the efforts to persuade. Finally, Myriam Brito Correa Nuries dis- cusses action research methods within classrooms as they apply to issues of student perceptions of reading task difficulty and the factors that influence perceptions. She provides useful suggestions for grading and sequencing of 91
Transcript of From the editors
E&ih/w Spec& Putpom. Vol. 11. pp. 91-92. 1992 Pergamon Press Ltd. Printed in Lhe USA.
0889-l906/92 %s.cQ + .cMl Copyright 0 1992 The American unwmty
From the Editors This volume is devoted to papers that resulted from the Second Latin Amer-
ican ESP Conference held in Santiago, Chile in early November 1990. The conference was attended by more than 50 participants representing Argentina, Brazil, Ecuador, Mexico, Venezuela, and the host country, Chile, as well as countries outside the region, Great Britain, Hungary, South Africa, and the United States. Organized by Association Chilena de Profesores para Lenguas con Propositos Especfficos, and sponsored by the British Council and the United States Information Agency, this conference was truly international, representing the research and pedagogical concerns of the community of Latin American scholars and of some of the global ESP concerns as well.
Two of the program organizers, Anamaria Harvey and Maria Horsella, have worked with Tony Dudley-Evans to invite manuscripts from the 45 presenta- tions made, to encourage manuscript revision, and 6nally, to select six repre- sentative papers f?om the many that were presented at the colloquium.
The papers discuss topics and approaches that are current in ESP practice in the region. Fransoise Salager-Meyer (Universidad de Los Andes, Venezu- ela), noting that abstracts in texts are widely read, discusses the relationships between verb tense, function, and modality in four types of medicd English text abstracts, concluding that “medical text types do have a direct bearing on the use of tenses and modality whereas research-types do not.” Anamaria Harvey (Universidad de Chile), is concerned with the interaction between writers’ and readers’ goals in the construction of text within scientific discourse communities. She demonstrates how indexical markers can assist researchers in answering questions about the nature of expert interaction as realized in written discourses. Maria Horsella and Gerda Sindermann (Universidad de Chile) are concerned with the issues of argumentation as found in scientific discourse and the manner in which text features act to “persuade a scientific audience of the truth or value of the ideas presented.” Their paper focuses upon conditional forms and their roles in advancing argumentation in texts. Gillian Moss (Universidad de1 Norte, Colombia) begins with a pedagogical problem: the presentation of cognates in the teaching of reading courses. After providing evidence for the frequency of cognates in scientific prose, she dis- cusses a study in which student difficulties with interpreting cognates were assessed. She then suggests how cognates should be selected for instruction in a reading course. Adriana Bolivar (Venezuela) moves from the area of written scientific discourse to dialogue within the discourses of two major political parties. She examines the macro-functions of the discourses, the top- ics, and the slogans, finding that the appearance of power is one of the key facets in the efforts to persuade. Finally, Myriam Brito Correa Nuries dis- cusses action research methods within classrooms as they apply to issues of student perceptions of reading task difficulty and the factors that influence perceptions. She provides useful suggestions for grading and sequencing of
91
92 From the Editors
tasks involving pre-reading, vocabulary, noun compounding, cohesive ties and discourse markers, text organization and reading for meaning.
Two of the editors of this journal have been closely involved with the Latin American Colloquium: Ann Johns was a keynote speaker, and Tony Dudley- Evans co-edited this issue with Maria Horsella and Anamaria Harvey. It was a pleasure for both of us to work with the colloquium participants and to publish their research for a wider audience. We hope that in the future, English for Specific Purposes will be able to publish more special issues devoted to regional or international conferences on ESP.
The ESP Interest Session has been instituted by TESOL. If you plan to attend the TESOL ‘93 conference, you might want to consider submitting to the ESP Interest Section.
And we have our first award to announce: Frances Boyd has been named co-winner of the 1991-92 Fred W. Malkemes Prize presented by New York University, for her article which appeared in English for Specific Purposes entitled “Developing Presentation Skills: A Perspective Derived from Profes- sional Education. Congratulations, Frances.
