PBL + ESP

Project Based Learning (PBL) and English for Specific Purposes (ESP)   make a great combination, I think that teaching an ESP class is the best and easiest time and chance to use PBL for ESOL. 

Why?

Firstly, most ESP courses include students that have a similar background, activity, profession, culture, or business, so the topics are much easier to be chosen by either the class or teacher, as Susan Gaers say: The project must be geared to the population.

Secondly, in general, the ESP content of textbooks makes it easy  to work on a final project

Finally, including as part of the evaluation a PBL activity will make the students to give a practical and monitored chance to practice.

Some examples:

English for Mechanical Engineering:  Writing a short project to solve a problem (real or fictional) with Curiosity Rover

English for Law: Role play on a trial using the Red Code movie

English for Business:  Analyze an article on an industry trend of Forbes Magazine  using Michael Porter’s 5 Competitive Forces model

Luis