Independent b1

• Can understand the main points of clear standard input on familiar matters regularly encountered in work, school, leisure, etc.

• Can deal with most situations likely to arise while travelling in an area where the language is spoken.

• Can produce simple connected text on topics which are familiar or of personal interest.

• Can describe experiences and events, dreams, hopes and ambitions and briefly give reasons and explanations for opinions and plans.

Independent b2

• Can understand the main ideas of complex text on both concrete and abstract topics, including technical discussions in his/her field of specialization.

• Can interact with a degree of fl uency and spontaneity that makes regular interaction with native speakers quite possible without strain for either party.

• Can produce clear, detailed text on a wide range of subjects and explain a viewpoint on a topical issue giving the advantages and disadvantages of various options.

Proficient C1

• Can understand a wide range of demanding, longer texts, and recognize implicit meaning.

• Can express him/herself fl uently and spontaneously without much obvious searching for expressions.

• Can use language fl exibly and effectively for social, academic and professional purposes.

• Can produce clear, well-structured, detailed text on complex subjects, showing controlled use of organizational patterns, connectors and cohesive devices.

Proficient C2

• Can understand with ease virtually everything heard or read.

• Can summarize information from different spoken and written sources, reconstructing arguments and accounts in a coherent presentation.

• Can express him/herself spontaneously, very fluently and precisely, differentiating fi ner shades of meaning even in more complex situations.

A detailed description of Level C1 and Level C2 is given below because these are the ones graduate students are expected to have closely approached. Consequently, the ESP classroom students are recommended to start by finding where they are and identify personal objectives to be achieved with the help of this Manual.

	C 1	C 2
Listening	I can understand extended speech even when it is not clearly structured and when relationships are only implied and not signalled explicitly. I can understand television programmes and films without too much effort.	I have no difficulty in understanding any kind of spoken language, whether live or broadcast, even when delivered at fast native speed, provided. I have some time to get familiar with the accent.
Reading	I can understand long and complex factual and literary texts, appreciating distinctions of style. I can understand specialised articles and longer technical instructions, even when they do not relate to my field.	I can read with ease virtually all forms of the written language, including abstract, structurally or linguistically complex texts such as manuals, specialised articles and literary works.
Speaking. Spoken Interaction	I can express myself fluently and spontaneously without much obvious searching for expressions. I can use language flexibly and effectively for social and professional purposes. I can formulate ideas and opinions with precision and relate my contribution skilfully to those of other speakers.	I can take part effortlessly in any conversation or discussion and have a good familiarity with idiomatic expressions and colloquialisms. I can express myself fluently and convey finer shades of meaning precisely. If I do have a problem I can backtrack and restructure around the difficulty so smoothly that other people are hardly aware of it.
Speaking. Spoken Production	I can present clear, detailed descriptions of complex subjects integrating subthemes, developing particular points and rounding off with an appropriate conclusion.	I can present a clear, smoothly-flowing description or argument in a style appropriate to the context and with an effective logical structure which helps the recipient to notice and remember significant points.
W r i t i n g	I can express myself in clear, well-structured text, expressing points of view at some length. I can write about complex subjects in a letter, an essay or a report, underlining what I consider to be the salient issues. I can select a style appropriate to the reader in mind.	I can write clear, smoothly-flowing text in an appropriate style. I can write complex letters, reports or articles which present a case with an effective logical structure which helps the recipient to notice and remember significant points. I can write summaries and reviews of professional or literary works.

Students should receive practice in reading for different purposes, such as finding main ideas, finding specific information, or discovering the author's point of view. Students should have a clear idea of the purpose of their reading before they begin. Background information is very helpful in understanding texts. Students need advance guidelines for approaching each assignment. Knowing the purpose of the assignment will help students get the most from their reading effort. From the title, for instance, they can be asked to predict what the text is about. It is also helpful to give students some questions to think about as they read. The way they approach the reading task will depend on the purpose for which they are reading.

PART 1. THE SKILLS OF INTENSIVE READING

MODULE 1-1. ENGLISH AS A CONTACT LANGUAGE OF INTERNATIONAL COMMUNICATION

Unit 1-1. GLOBAL DEMOGRAPHY AND LANGUAGES

Section 1. Guidelines for intensive reading of ESP texts

Reading is the primary channel through which students will progress in English after the ESP course is over. A good reading program provides instruction in the skills required at various levels of reading, along with plenty of practice in this skill, which can only be developed through intensive and continual practice.

Two types of skills are needed in reading: simple identification skills, (decoding) and higher level cognitive skills such as analyzing, synthesizing, and predicting. The reading program should work on two levels to develop both types of skill.

In order to do this, two types of reading tasks are incorporated in the Manual: intensive and extensive.

Part 1 of the Manual is designed for intensive reading (analyzing, synthesizing, and predicting) in the classroom through close analysis of shorter passages, and can be used to develop vocabulary, grammar skills, and comprehension.

Part 2 of the Manual is designed for extensive reading (simple identification skills or decoding) by way of faster individual reading of longer passages to develop understanding of writers' organizational strategies, to improve reading speed, and to focus on main ideas.

Fluent reading depends primarily on knowledge of vocabulary and subject matter, and secondarily on knowledge of grammatical structure and familiarity with the ways that writers organize texts in English. Vocabulary development, then, is a vital aspect of reading (and listening) development. Students will need to develop a good vocabulary in order to be efficient ESP readers. They already know quite a lot of special vocabulary in English in their fields though most certainly they will have to expand it and develop the additional vocabulary they need for further study. Vocabulary should be learned only in context, never in word lists to be memorized with dictionary definitions.

Grammar is best learned in connection with writing, but exercises related to the reading passages the students have worked with can also help them to increase their reading comprehension. Higher level cognitive skills necessary for good reading depend on knowledge of the subject matter of the texts and knowledge of the way that information is organized in writing.

Text 1-1. GLOBAL DEMOGRAPHY AND LANGUAGES

(Based on David Graddol’s English Next. Why global English may mean the end of English as a Foreign Language)

1. The growth of the use of English as the world’s primary language for international communication has obviously been continuing for several decades. But even as the number of English speakers expands further there are signs that the global predominance of the language may fade within the foreseeable future.

Complex international, economic, technological and cultural changes could start to diminish the leading position of English as the language of the world market, and UK interests which enjoy advantage from the breadth of English usage would consequently face new pressures. Although the world’s population is still increasing fast, different countries – and languages – are affected in very different ways. Some languages are ‘demographically challenged’ whilst others are rapidly acquiring new native speakers.

Demographic change is one of the most important factors affecting languages – and to a much greater extent than other key trends affecting English – they can be predicted.

Much of the rapid change which we have witnessed in recent years – in economic, political and social spheres – is related to population trends. As the developing world becomes more populous whilst developed countries meet the challenges of an ageing population, the world language system has been transformed.

2. Demography – who lives where – has been, along with scientific and technological progress, the main driver of change in the world since the 18th century. The world population then started rising fast.

Cities in Europe expanded, sustained first by the agrarian revolution, which allowed greater food production with fewer workers, by the industrial revolution, which created new employment opportunities in towns, and by improvements in healthcare, which reduced mortality rates. This trend towards population increase, industrialisation and urbanisation is still not completed in much of the world. By the 1990s, population increase in many developed economies had slowed, but in less developed parts of the world it was still rising fast. The reasons for this imbalance lie in a complex mix of material circumstances, life chances and financial needs. In rural areas, children are important to family economies and as a future support for parents. In urban, middle class families children become more of a financial and lifestyle liability. This is one reason why populations grow more slowly as a country becomes more urbanised, middle class, and wealthy.

3. Demographic trends are among of the most important factors affecting language spread, language shift, and language change. As populations in the less developed countries rise, the demographic balance between languages is changing. Languages differ remarkably in the age structure of the population speaking them, which will affect the future destiny of languages in the world but also the nature of educational services.

Despite increasing immigration controls in some of the preferred destination countries, global migration is higher than ever before. Analysis of international travel movements suggests that three-quarters of all travel is between non-English speaking countries. This suggests a large demand for either foreign language learning or the increasing use of English as a lingua franca.

4. By the 1990s public concern had arisen in developed countries about what was perceived as unsustainable population growth in the developing countries. In the 21st century, the focus of debate has shifted to the economic and social problems caused by ageing populations in developed nations: lack of skilled workers, problems in providing public services for the elderly – especially health – and the ‘pension crisis’.

However, the world’s population overall is still young and numbers are growing. Yet demographic projections suggest that the rate of increase in developing countries is also now slowing and that the world population will stabilise at between 9–10 billion, possibly later this century.

5. If we chart these demographic changes we get an ‘S-shaped’ graph. The curve starts gradually, rapidly gains speed, then begins to slow and level out as time passes. Such an S-shaped graph is familiar to anyone analysing social change or the spread of innovation – whether it be new mobile phone users, the diffusion of a sound change through the lexicon in a rural English dialect, or the spread of a contagious disease.

Instead of thinking about the ‘population explosion’ as a process which is out of control, it may be more helpful to think of the world system as switching from one state to another: from a population of around 500 million to a population of 10 billion. We are now in the middle of this switch and many of the – at times bewildering – changes taking place in the economic, social and political world are ultimately attributable to this.

6. Conventional wisdom suggests that the further ahead we look, the less accurately we can predict. But we live in a transitional age where change is rapid, making it more difficult in some cases to forecast year-to-year change than the general shape of things to come.

The future of languages in the world depends on people. Who lives where? What are their basic needs? What kind of work will they be doing?

In order to understand some of the remarkable events and trends now taking place, we must look beyond the next few years and try to envision the world of the future.

This suggests where destiny lies – even if the way there is strewn with surprises.

Recent population growth has been mainly in the less developed countries. The more developed countries are experiencing a shrinking, ageing population. This, in turn, is changing the relative size of the world’s languages.

One consequence of the rapid population growth in the developing world is that the age structure of countries varies considerably. In 2005, the median age in Italy was over 40 years, and getting higher year by year. Italy’s problem is faced, albeit to a lesser extent, by many other countries in western Europe. In Uganda, on the other hand, the median age was under 15 years.

In many developing countries, the number of children needing primary education is rising faster than governments can build new schools and train teachers.

7. It is not unusual to see age peaks and troughs in the age profile of a population as a ‘baby boom’ gives rise to a ‘baby boomlet’ a generation later. Such waves make capacity management at different educational levels tricky. On the whole, it is easier to increase the participation rate and introduce major curriculum innovations when a demographic cohort is declining in size.

In Poland, for example, a demographic wave worked its way through the educational system in the last decade or so, but declining numbers of young people are entering school.

8. Countries like Italy, facing declining numbers of young people in comparison with the numbers of elderly, are likely to receive large numbers of migrant workers to support the economy. This will in turn change the ethnic and linguistic profile of the country. On the other hand, countries which have rising numbers of people of working age, such as Poland, may experience high levels of emigration. Such migrant workers may acquire language skills which they bring back to the country at a future date.

Demographic patterns have a profound impact on societies – affecting social structures, educational systems, and economic futures.

9. This report draws on research data generated by a computer model of global demographics created by The English Company (UK) Ltd. The model allows the visual exploration of past and future population trends in different countries. The model also allows the impact to be estimated of educational initiatives – such as the lowering of the age at which the teaching of English begins.

The computer model allows similar projections to be produced for the populations of native speakers of different languages.

OVERVIEW QUESTIONS: MAIN IDEA, MAIN TOPIC, AND MAIN PURPOSE OF THE TEXT

Instruction: After almost every text, the first question you should ask is an overview question about the main idea, main topic, or main purpose of the text. Main idea questions ask you to identify the most important thought in the text, the main idea or topic of a passage.

There are two types of main idea questions: matching headings with paragraphs or sections, and identifying which sections relate to certain topics. For both types of questions you should use the skill of surveying the text, but because the strategies are slightly different for each question type, we will look at them separately.