The challenges of designing a course in Romanian for specific purposes

Abstract

Although the teaching of Romanian as a Foreign Language has a long and established tradition in (higher) education Romanian institutions, the specific purposes component is much younger and has received little attention as focus of research in language teaching. A compulsory component of the academic programme called Preparatory Romanian Language Year organized by many higher education institutions in Romania, Romanian for Specific Purposes (RSP) poses a number of challenges to practitioners such as needs and target language use analysis, course and materials design, as well as evaluation. The present paper aims at bringing these challenges into the foreground of the teacher agenda and shows how lessons from the rich and broad research into English for specific Purposes, a leading language for specific purposes domain, can help RSP practitioners understand their multi-faceted roles and assume them, expanding the valuable pool of expertise in RSP.