ICT Tools in ESP Syllabus Design

In recent years, Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) have become a regular part of everyday English Language Teaching (ELT) practices in higher education and are merging with face-to-face activities. A hybrid modality, defined as Blended Learning (BL) (Sharma and Barrett 2007), has become established practice in Italian universities. The advantages of BL have long been recognized, particularly in ESP instruction (Luzón, 2009; Arnó-Macía, 2012), whose overall objective is to adapt the language learning experience to the learners’ specific needs. ESP practitioners who have experimented with BL to deliver their university courses may have recognized in it an efficient way of meeting the students’ needs and offering them an original experience. Having learned the lesson of the Covid-19 pandemic, and since they will very likely continue to teach their courses in hybrid or blended modalities in the future, it is arguably essential that ESP practitioners explore the full potential of ICT tools and are brought to reflect on the issues pertaining to their use. This paper aims to contribute to a reflection on the use of ICT in English language teaching (ELT) in higher education. It draws on the author’s personal experience of designing a Blended Learning (BL) syllabus for an undergraduate English for Specific Purposes (ESP) course in Technical English at the Department of Sciences and Methods for Engineering (DISMI) of the University of Modena and Reggio Emilia in the academic year 2021/2022. It describes the syllabus design process, illustrating how ICT tools and particularly online resources were used to analyze target students’ needs and customize the syllabus for the Technical English course.