English for Public Policy: ESP Course Design in the Changing Social Science Education in Russia

Abstract

This paper describes the design of an English for Specific Purposes (ESP) course for postgraduate students specializing in public policy and its further development into a course book. This work is regarded in the perspective of the major issues and challenges faced by Russian social scientists and ESP experts in reforming social science education in Russia. The development of the course and its transformation into the course book English for Public Administration reflects the changing demands of Russian universities and the growing interest in both ESP and public policy matters in Russia during the last decade. The period is marked by two baseline studies conducted by the British Council in non-linguistic universities across Russia, surveying the state of things in ESP. The course book described in the paper is seen as the result of effective collaboration between the author, her ESP colleagues, professors in the discipline, and university authorities.

Keywords: course design, public policy, English for professional development, ESP research, social science education