Here - EnglishAgenda - British Council

not so much for language improvement but training in the soft skills of a) deliveringpresentations/briefings and b) producing reports.I faced, however, a number of challenges. As professionals, trainees spentconsiderable time out of the country in locations ranging from Minsk to Riga toBangkok. This precluded regular standard course delivery. Secondly, as a projectmanager with a wide, varied portfolio (and a relatively small budget), I could notcommit to regular classroom teaching. Neither was there a pool of local teacherson whom to draw: one of my roles was to enhance teacher skills to a point at whichthere would be. Blended learning, therefore, was not just a good idea but a necessity.Rationale for course designThe AMFA requested soft skills training, in particular report-writing and presentationdelivery.An often subtle mix of language and skills, this type of training delivery islocated on that intriguing, vast and sometimes forgotten branch of Hutchinson andWater’s ESP tree as English for Occupational Purposes (Hutchinson and Waters, 1987:13) or perhaps more helpfully, English for the world of work. Content of such a courseneeds to directly target workplace needs and both AMFA administration and thetrainer agreed that the focus of training should not be on the language itself but whatcould be done with the language.Looking at genreLike many course-designers, I find it useful to think in terms of genre, genericfeatures and generic moves: identification of, and hands-on practice by, genericfeatures by learners seems to me to provide a common-sense rather than atheoretical route to enable novice writers/speakers to handle the discourse theyaspire to use effectively. In our context, ‘presentations’ and ‘reports’ are often veryloosely-used terms which cover a wide variety of genres and one challenge to thecourse designer is to determine which specific generic features are of relevance.However, I would argue that both genres have a great deal in common, a fact whichnicely lends itself to course design. Discussion and needs analysis showed the targetgroup would be expected to:■■■■■■give briefings/produce reports to highlight information which had been gatheredin some waydescribe how that information had been identifiedoutline what should be done based on that information.Topped and tailed with introduction and conclusion, this gave a familiar genericstructure for both oral and written forms of:IMFRCIntroductionMethodologyFindingsRecommendationsConclusion148 | Blended learning for English for occupational purposes