Analysis of Target Discourse for Touring a Warship: A Task-Based Approach to ESP Materials Development Using YouTube Videos

Analysis of Target Discourse for Touring a Warship: A Task-Based Approach to ESP Materials Development Using YouTube Videos

Although the demand for ESP programs has continuously been increasing, writing effective teaching materials that satisfy learners’ needs is often very challenging. This is largely because many material writers (linguists) have limited knowledge of the language used in learners’ specific target domains. To address this challenge, the present study introduces a systematic method to develop purposeful and reliable teaching materials for ESP programs through the Analysis of Target Discourse (ATD), utilizing readily available data from the Internet. This case study specifically illustrates a procedure for developing a script tailored to one of naval officers’ target tasks: leading a guided tour of a naval vessel. After identifying learners’ needs, speech samples produced by US Navy sailors while performing the target task were collected from YouTube. These samples were then analyzed, with each target subtask serving as the unit of analysis. Through this process, the schematic structures of speeches necessary for the successful accomplishment of the target task were identified. Subsequently, a representative script was developed through data mining of the collected speech samples. The study claims that this procedure provides learners with the opportunities to acquire authentic language, as produced by native-speaking domain experts, enabling them to successfully accomplish the target task.