Languages for Specific Purposes (LSP) & the Specialized Discourse in the University Settings: Promoting Innovative Methods of LSP Instruction

The Research Group of “The Pragmatics of Specialized Discourse in English Language” Laboratory of “Pragmatics and Discourse Analysis" PDAL In collaboration with The Department of English at the Faculty of Arts and Languages of El-Oued University and The Research Group of “Linguistics and Literature Research” Laboratory of “Interdisciplinary Studies in Language and Culture” ISILC, Biskra University Organize The First International Virtual Conference on: Languages for Specific Purposes (LSP) &the Specialized Discourse in the University Settings: Promoting Innovative Methods of LSP Instruction (LSPSD) On December 05th – 06th, 2021 Interest in Languages for Specific Purposes (LSP) teaching and Learning has grown enormously due to the positive outcomes resulted from teaching learners with specific professionl and academic needs that had been met in a predetermined time. For instance, the different courses of ‘Spanish for doctors', ‘English for Aviation', ‘Arabic for Tourism' and ‘French for Enginners' have proved their efficiency in equiping adult learners with the specific content useful to conduct professional activities. As opposed to general language teaching, with usually a delayed long term objectives to be achieved, the LSP instruction is charaterized by achieving aims in a short-term period. The LSP learning, then, presents an urgency for the specific target group of learners who have consiously selected a specialzed language to meet their professional or academic needs. The LSP instruction is no longer a mere occasional prescription of a specific content to a specific group under the pressure of a demand of individuals or institutions, it is rather an instruction that has been implemented in educational institutions to teach whole semesters or academic years. The educational policy makers are more aware than anytime before about the importance of introducing the LSP in the university settings so as to enable students to adequately achieve their academic purposes or to prepare them to perform well in their future professions. Therefore, LSP has been introducedas a asubject specialism in the tertiary educational system focusing on presenting theories to acdemicians. These theories are presented in well-designed curricula that define the aspects related to LSP such as methdologies, needs analysis, syllabbus design, material design,course design and evaluation procedures. Against this backgound, thefirst International Conference on “Languages for SpecificPurposes (LSP) & Specialized Discourse in the University Settings: Promoting Innovative Methods of LSP Instruction” will be an opportunity where researchers from different disciplines can present their findings and their innovative thoughts.