The ESP Learning Hub

Dear students, perhaps this has become one of the most popular topics these days, especially since the outbreak of COVID-19 and various restrictive precautionary measures taken by the authorities in order to prevent the spread of the infectious disease. The life we are used to has stopped. We all have to spend our days at home, in isolation, without social contacts with our friends and colleagues, we have to work and learn from home, our stay outdoors is strictly limited, we keep hearing bad news in the media all day long, etc. This whole situation is very stressful to people and everyone reacts differently to it. Some people may respond more strongly to the stress of a crisis, but fear and anxiety about a disease may be overwhelming and cause negative emotions in others. At this point we are more than aware of the importance of maintaining mental health and finding ways to cope with daily stress. Mental health is defined as ' a state of well-being in which every in...

Hello everyone! It's time for our next online discussion with a new topic, and that is social media and how we could use it in education in purposeful and meaningful ways. Social media plays an important role in our lives and it is a platform where people from all over the world can connect and interact with each other. Social media has changed so many things, including people's lifestyle. Thus, people today are intimately involved with social media at every stage and they use it abundantly in their everyday life. Consequently, everyone is almost an addict to social media in one or the other way. Social media websites and applications are designed to allow people to share content quickly, efficiently, and in real-time. The ability to share photos, opinions, events, etc. in real-time has transformed the way we live, but also the way we learn and work. For individuals, social media is used to keep in touch with friends and extended family. People also use various social...

Dear students, now that we have already discussed the teaching profession and education in the 21st century in general, it is inevitable that we also discuss those who are in the focus of these processes, i.e. the 21st century learners, taking into account the skills, knowledge and understanding they require and that are completely different from what learners should have had in the past. Nowadays, we can say that we have a new breed of learners who are usually referred to as 'Net Generation' (some other terms are also in use, e.g. 'Digital Natives', 'Millenials', Generation Z', 'Generation Alpha', etc.) that differs from previous generations of learners in specific characteristics, i.e. they prefer receiving and processing information quickly, their learning styles lean toward teamwork, experiential activities, multitasking and active learning with the abundant use of modern technology. Therefore, the students in our schools today...

Hello everyone! Let me introduce our new topic by asking you a simple question: Could you ever imagine your present life again without modern technology? The answer is most likely 'No, never again!' In this situation we find ourselves in these days, we are all very aware of how modern technology helps us to overcome the various obstacles we face in our everyday life because of the obligation to stay in isolation at home due to covid-19 pandemia, for example, to do our work from home, to maintain online classes, to do all communication via mails, social networks, etc., to make online purchases and pay bills without leaving home, etc. Technology is changing at a rapid pace and that means that a 21st-century teacher should also go right along for the ride. Smartboards are replacing chalkboards, tablets are replacing textbooks, virtual classrooms are replacing traditional ones, etc., so the 21st-century teachers have to adapt to the ever-changing tools and stay up...

Hello everyone! I hope that you are all safe and sound at your homes, together with your families, and that you fully and unexceptionally respect all of the (self-) isolation and prevention measures required by the competent authorities in order to prevent the spread of covid-19 infection.  As lessons are being taught online these days, we will try to make the content of the ESP (English for Specific Purposes) course available through this blog, and thus somehow combine the enjoyable with the useful, as we will also have the opportunity to relate to each other and exchange our views and ideas on various topics. Thus, we could make at least a virtual social contact when we can no longer have the kind of live social interaction we've been used to so far. However, we do hope that this situation will not last too long. Our first topic is 'Teaching Profession in the 21st century'. As you are students of a teacher training faculty who will soon become teachers t...

Dear students! I am more than happy to announce that our ESP (English for Specific Purposes) learning blog is officially opened and I warmly welcome you all to join in! Let's start learning ESP online and enjoy in our virtual classes from now on! This blog is envisaged as a virtual space where we can all learn something new and build up a learning community where everyone is welcomed to contribute to our virtual class discussions with his/her own ideas, thoughts, opinions, experiences, etc. First of all, I would like you all to introduce yourselves to your colleagues, and apart from providing some basic information about you (name, age (optional), place of living, type of study, year of study, etc.), you can also mention at least two interesting things about you that you would like to share with your colleagues here. Secondly, as a warm-up activity, I would like you to think about your reasons to learn English (general or ESP) and what kind of a learner you are. It is...