Language for Specific Purposes: Trends in Curriculum Development

Language for specific purposes (LSP) refers to language courses specific to a content area, such as Business Spanish or French for Engineering. Although around for some time, it has gained increasing interest in the last ten years because of the demand for language programs to provide a "practical skill" and, in many cases, from students wishing to build marketability with their language skills. At most language conferences, LSP sessions are on the agenda in some form. There's also crossover in this area with languages in the community programs (service learning/social justice/heritage learners/etc.).
Liittle research has been done on the topic. Rising from a new biennial conference, this edited volume provides a seminal set of studies that opens dialogue for further development of LSP curriculum--a hot topic. The areas of focus include, what research is needed going forward, current curriculum development and where it is going, and what it means to bring language skills into the workplace. Both K12 and higher ed are addressed. The editor has pulled together strong essays to address some key topics in LSP into a volume that will really contribute to the field. TOC includes a who's who in the field. Extra research data as PDFs will be made available on the GUP website for those interested.

Mary K. Long is Senior Instructor and Director of the Spanish for the Professions program at the University of Colorado--Boulder. Her research areas include twentieth and twenty-first-century Mexican literature and culture and cross-cultural communication between Latin America and the US. She has also presented and written about Spanish for the Professions and LSP.