Extra-curricular reading as a supplementary and motivational tool for students of economics: a needs analysis and learning-centered approach

Extra-Curricular Reading as a Supplementary and Motivational Tool for Students of Economics: A Needs Analysis and Learning-Centred Approach M." del Pilar González de la Rosa y Ángeles Pazos Lobón Universidad de Las Palmas de Gran Canaria This paper describes and analyses a recent pedagogical experience of using the text Lives of the Lauréales by Breit and Spencer [Breit, W. and R.W. Spencer, 1990 (1986). Lives of the Lauréales. Ten Nobel Economists. Cambridge and London: The Mit Press] as extra-curricular materials and motivational activity for students of 'Englishfor Economists' in a Spanish university classroom. The present paper balances the descriptive approach of needs analysis with a pragmatic and real content based approach supported by the valuable statements put forward by Fuentes Quintana in his personal «apología del economista» and other specialised Economists. The main focus of the paper is on the exploitation of this supplementary materials through reading comprehension strategies as well as the transmission of first-hand social valúes in the ESAP classroom. This suggests that there may be a need for expanding uses of such materials especially in the case of non-native speakers living outside Anglophone environments. Moreover, such accounts couldprovide new insights into genre-based approach and include further interdisciplinar and humanistic materials in Une with their academic and professional expectations. 120 Revista de Lenguas para Fines Específicos N"" 7 y 8 (2000 y 2001) «It is in the real world where the action is; and if we want to interest students of economics, and make economics more relevant, the teaching of economics must reflect the real world, not abstract deductive models that lead nowhere fast, and may lead nowhere slowly.» (David Colander, 2000: 15) 1. Introduction The debate on the contents and goals to be achieved by students of economics in Spanish universities is an ongoing issue periodically reassessed and updated. It is generally assumed that the study of economics should provide students with insights into how the world around us works, a deeper understanding of the various socioeconomic topics we have to face up to, and a rigorous background and training in qualitative and quantitative reasoning. Simultaneously, experts claim that economic tools are increasingly used to analyse contemporary global issues, such as inflation, unemployment, poverty, environmental degradation, overpopulation, gender and race discrimination, International relations, etc. However, it seems to be that there is no adequation between the teaching of economics and the definite reality. It is also a matter of significance for teachers in Revista de Lenguas para Fines Específicos N"' 7 y 8 (2000 y 2001) 121 M." del Pilar González de la Rosa y Ángeles Pazos Lobón Spanish Faculties oí Economics to take for granted their learners' competence in the English language and, in addition, their language provisión for relevant English terminology within this context. Henee, the deep concern of both ESAP teachers and distinguished specialists in Economics Science with regard to the learners' second language reading performance especially when they are non-native speakers of English studying at non-English médium universities. We shall examine this issue through the ideas posed by researchers from different but related disciplines, those on ESAP and economists, respectively. The paper begins with the description of the setting, then it focuses on the interdisciplinary perspectives on which this pedagogical experience is based and finally it includes some guidelines for exploiting extra-curricular reading comprehension texts for students of economics used in the classroom. 2. The context A prerequisite is required to enter into the degree in economics at the Faculty of Economics and Business Administration at the ULPGC (Universidad de Las Palmas de Gran Canaria), that is to say, students need to get a global mark of at least seven points out of ten. Once admitted, the subject «English for Economists», included on their academic timetable, can be taken either on the first or the second course of the degree, and at least pass mark is compulsory for students to be able to enter in the third course. The subject courses are taught in the national language, Spanish. Our subject is scheduled for two-hour sessions twice a week. The total intake of learners is divided into two groups with around eighty students each. At that particular academic year their degree of English language proficiency was upper-intermediate in general terms. Such a large audience involved the possibility of meeting different 122 Revista de Lenguas para Fines Específicos N"" 7 y 8 (2000 y 2001) Extra-Ctirriadar Reading as a Suppkmentary and Motivational Tool for Studeiüs... previous personal learning experiences and types of personaiity. Participation was a common factor in both groups. Where timing is concerned, there is a hard competition for available space on the timetable among the various Departments conforming the curriculum, which does not allow time for further pedagogical considerations. Otherwise, the prevailing idea of extra preparation is largely grounded together with that of the individual effort on the students' part, and the aggravating factors of the extra cost implied and the lack of specific courses on «English for Economists». Within such a context we cannot expect our students to be independent and self-sufficient readers of English written materials versing on economics. 3. Rationale for the study The present study balances the descriptive approach of needs analysis with a pragmatic and real content based approach supported by the valuable statements put forward by respected economists. As ESAP teachers we were faced with a number of issues and practical problems which we intended to solve by applying the needs analysis approach posed by Hutchinson and Waters (1987) and thoroughly developed by Dudley-Evans and St. John (1998). This has been one of the most useful methods for determining what to include in ESAP curricula, and it aims to provide descriptions of academic skills that non-native students may encounter in their future and specific courses. In their discussion of what they term «A current concept of needs analysis», Dudley-Evans and St John (1998, 126) suggest that different aspects pertaining previous approaches throughout the history of ESP be recognised: The aim is to know learners as people, as language users and as language learners; to know how language learning and skills learning can be maximised Revista de Lenguas para Fines Específicos N" 7 y 8 (2000 y 2001) 123 M.° del Pilar González de la Rosa y Ángeles Pazos Lobón for a given learner group; and finally to know the target situations and learning environment such that we can interpret the data approximately. All the aspects illustrating this concept of needs analysis are shown in the figure below (op.cit. p. 125): how to communicate in the target situation ^^""^ language learning needs personal Information about learners environmental situation language information about target situations learners' lacks learners' needs from course Considering the suggestions presented by these specialists and the context in which our teaching and our students were involved, we reflected on what their actual needs were, that is, to what extent our students of «English for Economists» at ULPGC needed to use the English language to successfully fulfil their linguistic, cultural and subject-specific needs. We found out that our students were required to deal with supplementary materials provided in the classroom by other subject specialists, look into content-course bibliographies in English and read specialised articles from Englishlanguage journals in economics for their academic courses, where the médium of instruction and communication was not English. We realized that our students did lack background knowledge of Economics Science and henee the specific English terminology 124 Revista de Lenguas para Fines Específicos N" 7 y 8 (2000 y 2001) Extra-Curricular Reading as a Supplementary and Motivational Tool for Studcnts... required. Consequently, our goal was to help them with the skills and strategies needed to meet their English reading requirements and, additionally, with the economic literature. We didn't want to confine ourselves just to the textbook foUowed in the core syllabus for that course, so we made some research on the materials provided in the Facuky resource centre and carne across a text on lauréate economists which caught our attention. It focused on a Corpus of academic lectures collected in the volume titled Lives of the Lauréales. Ten Nobel Economists that we agreed it could be useful for our purposes. One of the main reasons which spurred us to use this supplementary text was that besides the fact that our students were a lay audience in this specific field, it could offer the possibility of creating a cultural bridge to fill in their actual needs. This necessity is considered by Fisher (Dudley-Evans and Henderson, 1990: 84) when she contends that the área of 'culture' is one of the problem áreas requiring the special attention of the teacher because «[t]he English for economics textbooks do not address the problems that non-native speakers may have in understanding 'everyday examples' drawn from a culture different from their own.» Similarly, students could become familiar with some of the ideas, concepts, theories and vocabulary they were studying, and establish a link between the specific English terminology for economics, from the perspective of Nobel economists, and the practice of the English language. Our second approach was underpinned by the well-known Spanish economist Fuentes Quintana.' In his contribution La Economía, he makes two considerations when he comes to state his personal «apología del economista». Firstly, as regards the degree of economics, Fuentes Quintana is Emeritus Professor of UNED since 1990 and Honorary Doctórate by seven Spanish universities. Revista de Lenguas para Fines Específicos N" 7 y 8 (2000 y 2001) 125 M." del Pilar González de la Rosa y Angeles Pazos Lobón he points out that every economist should have a very good command of what he terms five 'languages', namely, «English, Ma-thematics, Accounting, Information Technology and Statistics.» (Fuentes Quintana, 1993: 47). Secondly, Fuentes Quintana is also concerned with the importance of reading in the training of future economists: Attention should be focused on three categories when selecting readings. First, the one concerning some of the major masterpieces from the past. In every Faculty of Economics there should be a seminar versing on the reading of masterpieces introducing the intellectual figure of the selected economist together with his most prominent work. There is nothing so rewarding and formative as getting to know the life and the way of thinking of an important economist in the milieu that defined his world and how he tried to change or reform it... The second category of reading should be concerned with Annual Reports on Spanish Economy... [and the third one deals with] Cuadernos de Información Económica... (Fuentes Quintana, 1993: 53)- With respect to the origins of economics, there seems to be general agreement in considering 1776 its starting point as a sepárate discipline, when the Scottish philosopher Adam Smith published the first full-scale treatise in this field known as The Wealth of Nations. Overall, Economics is usually defined as an obscure and gloomy science. As Kevin D. Hoover in The Complexity Vision and the Teaching of Economics (Colander, 2001: 189), puts it, «for many, perhaps most, of our students, the connection between what we teach in elementary and intermedíate courses and the world is really very obscure.» Significantly, Duncan K. Foley' (Colander, 2001: 169) and A. Hewings (Dudley-Evans and Henderson, 1990: 32) express in the same terms when they take up the complexity involved in the teaching of this subject matter: - Our translation. ' Duncan K. Foley and Kevin D. Hoover are Professors of Economics in the USA. 126 Revista de Lenguas para Fines Específicos N'" 7 y 8 (2000 y 2001) Extra-Curricular Reading as a Siippkmentary and Motivationnl Tool for Stiidents... Traditional economic pedagogy aims to convince students that they should think abstractly. We ask them to put aside their intuition, based on their real experience of social life, which is complicated, rich, textured, and nuanced, to learn a method of analysis based on abstractions that are in many cases quite unintuitive. Since early the twentieth century, individuáis working on disciplines considerad as «Science» have been widely recognized and awarded with the Nobel Prize. It will not be until 1969 that economics is considered apt to be included among these prizes, which are given to those who have conferred a great benefit on society. For Paul A. Samuelson, second Nobel Prize in this science (1970), Economics is the oldest of arts, the most modern of Social Sciences and has raised one of the most fascinating and best financially rewarded professions. It is noticeable that this particular área of study is a social science, and given that most Nobel prizes in this field have been from AngloSaxon origin, it is evident the integral and crucial relationship between economics and the English language and culture. Henee, we questioned about the expediency of exploiting this source of input, that is, Lives of the Lauréales, to enhance the students' learning process and in this way to support their second-language reading competence. 4. Description of the task As noted by Hutchinson and Waters (1987: 117) when they deal with materials design models in their learning-centred approach, the task «provides a clear objective for the learners and so helps to break up the often bewildering mass of the syllabus, by establishing landmarks of achievement.» Our students, as stated earlier, were required to follow a core syllabus textbook, Reading and Writing for Students of Economics (M.R. Bueno and C. Millar, 1995, Level I and Level II). It meant that they were going to deal with unfamiliar Revista de Lenguas para Fines Específicos N"' 7 y 8 (2000 y 2001) 127