TEACHING ESP ONLINE: ACTION RESEARCH

Abstract

The extensive application of online ESP teaching on account of the Covid 19 pandemic, and its tendency to become a norm, calls for comprehensive research into today’s experience, to furnish us with vital clues for more efficient performance. This paper provides an overview of the basic research on online education, its pros and cons, types of delivery, and focuses on the use of the LMS Moodle platform. It highlights the benefits of the Moodle instrumental tool kit for teaching listening, reading and writing and surveys the gaps and limitations of the online mode in teaching communicative language which is essential in ESP for humanities. The paper discusses the specifics of such instruments as team work, role-play, humour and feedback in online framework. Next, it examines the instructor’s part and impact in the Moodle classroom. The paper concludes with a discussion of blended education and flipped tutoring, expressing hope that targeted technological developments will soon enable to conduct fully integrated communicative online classes.