Students’ Integration in Target Communities of Practice: an ESP Perspective
Students’ Integration in Target Communities of Practice: an ESP Perspective

Summary/Abstract: After the fall of communism, Romania witnessed the rapid increase in number of foreign companies that opened subsidiaries or started new businesses in the country, and subsequently needed local workforce. The demand for English speakers has steadily grown, hence the importance of teaching English for Specific Purposes for the benefit of future employees, employers and customers. The aim of this paper is to approach the issue of learners’ needs with respect to the requirements of target communities of practice, and to propose a range of activities that teachers can use in Business English classes, in order to support learners’ integration in those communities. The classroom activities are designed on the principles of Communicative Language Teaching, emphasising the social dimension of learning. As a method, we resort to researchers’ considerations on needs’ analysis, language and sociocultural skills in order to build the theoretical framework for the presentation of communicative teaching activities. The conclusion is that the shift from a linguistic to a communicative approach in language teaching has significantly changed ESP course design

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