Lingua e Traduzione Inglese 2

HIGHLY BINDING TEXTS

- Scientific texts: they perform a cognitive function, based on assertions

subjected to the true/false criterion. Ex.: scientific and formalized descriptions

and definitions.

- Normative texts: they perform a prescriptive function, based on an event of

coercive will governed by a system of principles. Ex.: laws, decrees, regulations,

administrative documents, contracts.

- Technical-operational texts: they perform an instrumental-regulatory

function, based on the receiver’s adhesion to the instructions given by the

sender. Ex.: instructions for appliances or tools, instructions given to receivers

to perform certain operations (game, movements).

MODERATELY BINDING TEXTS

- Expository texts: they have an explanatory-argumentative function,

explaining something to someone, negotiating practical issues or discussing

various theses. Ex.: treaties, manuals, encyclopedias, critical essays, political

speeches.

- Informative texts: they have an informative function, making information

available, popularizing various notions. Ex.: journalistic texts.

MIDLY/NOT BINDING TEXTS

- Art or literary texts: they have an expressive function, based on the sender’s

intention to express feelings. Ex.: artistic works, advertising texts, literary texts,

proverbs, prayer texts.

These languages work differently according to the culture in which they are used.

Cultural mediation is very important in translation.

Reasons for ESP emergence:

1) Demands of a Brave New World: the end of the WW2 brought a demand for

an international language to communicate. English was chosen, considered the

economic power of the USA. Also, with the oil-crisis in the ‘70s, Western money

and knowledge flowed into oil-rich countries, and English became the language.

English is now subjected to people’s wishes, need and demands.

- Revolution in linguistics: linguists, aware of the world changes, began to

focus on how language is used in real situations. Traditionally, language studies

focused on the grammatical rules, but it was discovered that language varies

according to contexts. It’s found that spoken and written English are different. If

language varies according to the context, it’s possible to create language

instructions to meet the needs of learners in specific contexts.

- Focus on learner: ESP was influenced by psychology. Attention is given to the

ways learners acquire language and the ways language is acquired. Learners

employ different learning strategies, different skills, and have different needs

and interests. Focus on the learners’ needs is as important as the method used

to spread linguistic knowledge.

English for Special

Purposes English for Occupational

English for Academic Purposes

Purposes English for English for

Professional

1. English for Science Vocational Purposes

Purposes

and Technology

2. English for Medical

purposes

3. English for Legal

purposes 1. English for Medical 1. Pre-Vocational

4. English for Professions English

Management Finance 2. English for Business 2. Vocational English

and Economics purposes

3. English for

Engeneering

4. Legal English

ESP is a branch of English language teaching students the language necessary to

perform certain roles efficiently. ESP teacher meets the students’ specific needs.

Different phases of ESP

ESP is now in a fourth phase, with a fifth phase starting to emerge.

- The early years (1962-1981)

- The recent past (1981-1990)

- The modern era (1990-2011)

- The future (2011-now)

Different ESP phases:

1. Register analysis: 1960s-70s, work of Strevens, Ewer, Swales. The analysis

aims at identifying the grammatical and lexical features of the registers and at

creating a syllabus that prioritizes the language forms students meet in their

Science Studies. Rapidly overtaken by the development of linguistics.

2. Rhetorical or discourse analysis beyond the sentence: the main authors

are Widdowson and the Washington School of Selinker, Trimble, Lackstrom and

Todd-Trimble. In the first stage ESP focused on language at the sentence level,

on sentence grammar, but in the following it focuses on the level above the

sentence, how sentences are combined to produce meaning. They research

organizational patterns in texts and their linguistic means.

3. Target situation analysis: most useful approach. It sets the existing

knowledge on a more scientific basis, establishing procedures for language

analysis closer to learners’ reasons for learning. ESP courses enable learners to

function adequately in a target situation, ESP courses should first identify the

target situation and then carry out an analysis of the linguistic features, forming

the syllabus. Munby’s model produces a profile of the learners’ needs in terms

of communication purposes, communicative setting, functions, language skills,

etc.

4. Skills and strategies: look below the surface, considering not the language

itself but the thinking processes that underlie language. Underlying all language

use there are common interpreting processes which enable us to extract

meaning from discourse. The focus isn’t on the surface forms of the language,

but on the underlying interpretative strategies that learners use to cope with

the surface forms (ex. guessing the meaning of words from context).

5. Learning-centred approach: the main concern is the notion of language

learning. ESP has developed at different speeds in different countries. One of

the first step when dealing with specialized languages is to identify the level of

specialization. The level of specialization demanded by the situation, changes

the approach towards the study and the use of specialized languages.

Critical perspectives on ESP

Different levels of popularization often combine and interact. The term popularization

can also be applied to various television and cinematographic products that somehow

‘translate’ specialized discourse.

We can refer to 3 main trends in the theoretical approaches to English for Special

Purposes:

1) the sociodiscoursal (focusing on genre theory and genre-informed pedagogy)

2) the sociocultural (focuses on theories of situated learning and their practical

corollaries)

3) the sociopolitical (emphasizes on theories and applications of critical Pedagogy)

This model of ESP syllabus can be applied to situations of popular products as well,

since they often try to respond to the audience's needs. Generally, in the fictional

world of tv series or comic books, there’s a character who is the “layman” or the

learner of the situation. According to Needs Analysis, they way specialized languages

are taught and learned depend on the needs of the learners. The protagonist, so, could

be described as an ESP practitioner as teacher, in charge of explaining the terminology

and notions to other characters who aren’t specialists. Thanks to the identification

process, the extra-textual receiver (spectator/reader) is like a learner. The advantage

is that the spectator is not actually taught any lesson but it’s also entertained

(edutainment: blend of education and entertainment).

The functions and the tools of television have changed, compared to those of the

beginning, through the new media. The increasing intrusion of specialized languages

in mass and popular products should be considered from a quantitative and qualitative

point of view.

The nature and main features of specialized language

The nature of specialized languages

Understanding the technical and specialized aspects of these languages is essential

for everyone:

1) because the popularization of various specialized languages places them at the

centre of people’s daily lives

2) because the increasing specialization in our societies requires that everyone has

some knowledge of these languages, to be a functional member of the society.

Specialized languages are often perceived as “esoteric”, so only few people have

some knowledge.

“Languages for special purposes”, “specialized languages”, “micro languages” and

“technolects” imply some differences in their meaning. According to Gotti (and

“those languages that use their own rules

Cortelazzo), special languages indicate

and particular symbols, different from those of the common language ”.

“refers to the

Similarly, the expression micro language seems inadequate, as it

image of a microcosm not provided with all the expressive potentialities typical of the

standard linguistic system”.

Sometimes specialized languages are equated with the restricted languages, but

“restricted codes that make use only of some phrases of the

they actually refer to

common language for specialized communication [such as the codes] of the flight

controllers, which exchange predetermined messages using pre-made phrases

containing predetermined variants”.

The expression sectorial languages is vague because of the heterogeneity of the

various sectors.

The society demands a higher degree of comprehensibility in terms of specialized

languages, especially our age, characterized by migratory flows, requiring non-native

speakers to decode documents and texts to understand, approve or sign them. The

global world needs to translate these languages interlingually.

Even native speakers (non-specialists) struggle in comprehending specialized

documents.

Intralingual and intersemiotic translation might be the first step towards an objective

approach to specialized languages. It’s important for interlingual translators too, who

must know the genres to translate them.

General features of specialized languages

- Monoreferentiality: each word has only one referent, the meaning of a word

in a specialized context is different from the meaning in general English (ex.

mouse = animal and computer tool). However, some words in specialized fields

can be characterized by polysemy.

- Precision: it is essential because any ambiguity might lead to disastrous

consequences, even putting lives in danger. (ex. language of the law, medicine,

technology).

- Conciseness: tendency to pack information into the shortest possible linguistic

form. Presence of:

Complex nominal groups: short space thanks to pre-modification

 Presence of compounds: meaning of different words in a single lexical

 item, omitting prepositions, linking words

Presence of acronyms: entire sentences can be abbreviated to single

 lexical items

Presence of abbreviations: long compound words are reduced



- Transparency: in compound words in specialized languages, analyzing each

component of the word the meaning will become apparent.

- Lack of emotivity: specialized language is generally objective and impersonal.

Specialized English is different from general English, in structure, grammar,

punctuation, etc.

It’s easy to be tricked