An online workshop on English for Specific Purposes from the complexity perspective: A teacher’s report

Abstract

This paper aims at presenting the experience of a teacher, designer and mediator in an online workshop on English for Specific Purposes, offered to 867 students of various undergraduate courses, on a Moodle environment. Theoretically, the course design was grounded on the notions of English for Specific Purposes, virtual learning environment and complexity and its three essential principles (dialogical, recursive and hologramatic).The six-week workshop aimed at developing reading skills, providing undergraduate students with the possibility to enlarge their competence in reading academic texts to complement and deepen their studies in their respective fields. This article describes the way the workshop was planned and presents the teacher’s reflections upon de complex model adopted.