English for Specific Purposes Activities to Enhance Listening and Oral Production for Accounting

This study explores the use of ESP and its future implementation in an accounting group from a technical High school. Accordingly, it briefly reviews the history of ESP in Business and Accounting as well as the different material and methodologies and approaches used when implementing it. In addition, it provides relevant data about the topic from authors such as Laurence (2011) and Dudley and Evans (2015) which are prominent researchers in the area. The paper also describes activities, in a methodological framework, created to be implemented to better the language learning process with ESP in accounting. Finally, conclusions provide information about the relevance of the use of ESP in accounting, as well as activities that enhance the listening and oral production in the area.

The purpose of studying ESP lies in the need of finding more information on the different way ESP has been used in the Business Area, as well as having a broader perspective on the different methodologies, activities and other factors that directly affect in its implementation. This way, based on the data and expertise gotten from this research, there would be an opportunity to develop several activities that can be put into practice in the areas of listening, spelling and pronunciation in Business.

OBJECTIVES
In this paper, the following objectives will be tested and put into practice in order to achieve the desired results, as well as finding data from the purpose of the research such as later providing recommendations and conclusions.

General
• To propose ESP activities in the accounting area for enhancing listening and speaking skills.

Specific
• To determine how the ESP helps students in the accounting area.
• To identify ESP activities that help students in the development of listening and speaking skills.
• To understand new vocabulary and expressions used in accounting by participating in the activities proposed.

Defining English for Specific Purposes
During the last couple of decades, ESP has been introduced in many countries in order to strengthen some weakness in their educational systems as well as functioning as an innovative way to catch up with P á g i n a 3638 the latest standards of competitiveness required in the XXI century. Laurence (2011) provides a definition of ESP in which states the following: English for Specific Purposes is an approach to language teaching that targets the current and/or future academic or occupational needs, focuses on the necessary language, genres, and skills to address these needs, and assists learners in meeting these needs by general and/or discipline-specific teaching materials and methods. (p 10) As it is observed from Laurence' definition, ESP focuses on providing learners with language instruction; however, its implementation mixes a variety of approaches, methodologies and techniques in order to fulfil not only linguistic objectives but non-linguistic objectives as well. Dudley-Evans and St. John (as cited in Rahman, 2015) provided a more characteristics of ESP and describe:

Absolute characteristics
• ESP in defined to meet specific needs of the learners.
• ESP makes use of the underlying methodology and activities of the discipline it serves.
• ESP is centered on the language appropriate to these activities in terms of grammar, lexis, register, study skills, discourse, and genre.

Variable characteristics
• ESP may be related to or designed for specific disciplines.
• ESP may be use, in specific teaching situations, a different methodology from that of general English: • ESP is likely to be designed for adult learners, either at a tertiary-level institution or in a professional work situation. It could, however, be for learners at secondary school level.
• ESP is designed for intermediate or advanced students.
• Most ESP courses assume some basic knowledge of the language systems. (p 24) Based on these characteristics presented by the authors mentioned above, it could be inferred that ESP can be used when learners have already acquired certain levels of proficiency since many of the tasks require some complexity, since the subject matter could also deal with specific vocabulary from a P á g i n a 3639 discipline. Other researchers have stated other definitions of ESP, its pillars, concepts, factors, etc.; however, for the purpose of this research, the two definitions presented above will be used as the basis of this project.

English for Specific Purposes; Brief History and Methodologies
Since the use of ESP was promoted in different countries, many have implemented it in the search of getting better results in language teaching and competence. The way its implementation has occurred has been most likely following the same core values needed when using ESP; nonetheless, some educational centers use a variety of activities to see if the process can be enhanced.
To continue describing how ESP has been approached in several countries, first, it is necessary to provide a brief description of ESP and its starting points. Rahman (2015) states: The emergence of ESP has resulted from many occurrences like the second world war in 1945, the rapid expansion in scientific, the growth of science and technology, the increased use of English as the international language of science, technology and business, the increased economic power of certain oilrich countries and increased numbers of international students studying in UK, USA, and Australia. When teaching ESP, it is of great importance to remember that the material needs to cater to the needs from the needs analysis. In business there is an extensive number of books for Business.
Textbooks often provide additional materials for both teachers and students such as workbooks with an accompanying CD, resource packs with photocopiable activities, grammar booklets, videos, access to a specific website for the book, etc. These materials are of particular importance in the EFL situation as it can help to compensate for the limited outside opportunities for exposure to the target language. When the extra materials include reading and listening practice it is especially beneficial as learners often need P á g i n a 3640 to reinforce their ability to use English compared to their capacity to memorize grammar rules and vocabulary lists. (Garcia and Litzler, 2015, p.46) Some other places have tried using technology to enhance the implementation of ESP and have put into action several applications, platforms, etc. However, studies haven't found there is not considerable benefits that arise from the use of it. A study in Saudi Arabia that had as a major concern finding out the benefits obtain in implementing media to enhance vocabulary found that: The students who participated in the Facebook tutoring generally exhibited a positive attitude toward this new type of learning experience. The learning achievement of the Facebook group was slightly better than that of the control group. Students' attitudes towards Facebook tutoring were overall positive as the platform provided them with a flexible environment to communicate and share information. However, there was no significant difference in terms of learning achievement between Facebook assisted language learning and traditional classroom teaching. (Slim and Hafedh, 2019 p,66)

Task Based Language Teaching
It is of great importance when developing the topic, it is necessary to define an approach used when using ESP in any educational center. TBLT has been chosen by many scholars as a very resourceful and fruitful type of instruction in language teaching since it connects the subject matter that has been studied during the language lessons with activities or tasks that provide real-life situations. Ellis (as cited in Laurence, 2011): "describes [tasks] as being primarily meaning-focused, and containing some kind of information, reasoning or opinion gap that must be negotiated by the learners. Task should also be designed to have a clearly defined, non-linguistic outcome."

Accounting
There is an urgent necessity to teach accounting in an educational context; the ESP helps the students to have new opportunities and integrate their skills as part of an enterprise. According to Wann (2023) "Accounting education is one of the most important disciplines that students can learn. It teaches students how to manage and analyze financial information to make sound business decisions."

Gross: __________________________________________________________________
Income tax: ______________________________________________________________ Transcript: Liquid assets are important for a company to maintain a healthy cash flow and cover any short-term obligations.
Net income is a measure of a company's profitability, calculated by subtracting all expenses from its revenue.
Property, such as land, buildings, and equipment, is a long-term asset that can appreciate in value and generate income for a company.
Payroll is a liability that represents the wages and salaries owed to employees for their work performed during a specific period.
Liabilities are debts or obligations that a company owes to creditors, such as loans, accounts payable, and taxes.
A journal is a record of all financial transactions that a company makes, including the debits and credits for each account.
Expense is a cost that a company incurs to generate revenue or maintain its operations, such as salaries, rent, and utilities.
Gross revenue is the total amount of money a company earns before subtracting any expenses.
Income tax is a government levy on a company's earnings, which must be paid to the appropriate tax authority.
Speaking activity #1. Annex 4. P á g i n a 3650 10-Do you like to dance?

Speaking activity #2 Annex 5
There is going to be a meeting from a company that has branches in 4 countries. The boss is going to ask some questions related to the income and the expenses of the products they sell.
The students are explained about the characteristics and important details of a job meeting. They are presented with examples of important questions asked during a meeting and given samples of that type of conversation. Once they have all that information, they are asked to form pairs and formulate 15 questions to be asked in this kind of situation.