Aspects Related to Information Security within the ESP Course at

Russian Colleges and Universities

Natalya V. Matveeva

and Elena V. Fedotkina

Chair of Russian and Foreign Languages, Basic Training Academy, Russian University of Transport, Moscow, Russia

Keywords: Information Security, Esp Course, College, University, Graduate Chair, Textbook, Active Leaning Methods.

Abstract: The paper gives a picture about the current state of teaching and learning information security related topics

within the ESP course at Russian colleges and universities. The research was completed on an example of

colleges of Moscow region and the Russian University of Transport, Moscow. The results of thematic analysis

of paper and electronic ESP textbooks are presented and the learning methods used are stated. The findings

show that the thematic coverage of the textbooks used at colleges is wider if used sequentially than of the

ones created for universities. Moreover, the university textbook created under the guidance of the graduate

chair covers a wider range of topics than most of the British textbooks. The research also proves that there is

a sound continuity in ESP teaching between colleges and universities. Active learning methods used by the

ESP teachers at colleges and universities comprise mostly project work, role plays, preparation for the

students’ conferences. The necessity of strong partnership of linguistic and graduate chairs is highlighted.

1 INTRODUCTION

The problem of teaching English for Specific

Purposes (ESP) emerged at Russian colleges in 2016

when the new Federal Educational Standard (FGOS)

of Secondary Vocational Education for speciality

09.02.07 – Information systems and programming

was adopted, and the speciality was included into the

list of 50 top-requested for the Russian economy

specialities. The Tentative Educational Program of

the speciality introduced a new academic discipline

named “Foreign Language for a Career”. The only

recommended textbook at that time was “Information

Technology” by Evans V., Dooley J., Wright S.

(Express Publishing, 2011). By 2018 it has become

clear that this textbook was unable to cover the entire

course of about 200 academic hours, and the

Publishing House “Academia-Media” established an

interactive platform “Moscow Area Digital College”

having invited a number of authors to develop

educational supplies of different types in a variety of

subjects: textbooks; online courses; virtual learning-

by-doing materials; skill training modules with

simulations and virtual practices; and learning packs

(educational and methodological complexes). We

https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4325-9739

https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6192-5758

were lucky to be among the authors and have

developed an electronic learning pack for studying

English for Specific Purposes. When our materials

were revised, approved and published, we were happy

to know that three more educational resources for

teaching English for Specific Purposes to college

students majoring in Information systems and

programming appeared on the platform. They are

skill training modules “Computer Network Cabling”,

and “IT Network Systems Administration” and “Web

Development”; and an online course in English for

Specific Purposes (ESP). Thus, the coverage of the

topics related to computer systems was enlarged, and

the types of activities for learning English appeared

to be quite diversed. College teachers got a chance to

use qualitative educational supplies in the learning

process.

As for teaching ESP to students majoring in a

wide range of specialities related to Computer

Sciences at Russian Higher Education Institutions

(HEI), it is being performed within the course of

professionally oriented foreign language. It dates

back to contextual education ideas (Verbickj, 1999)

on learning a foreign language in the context of future

professional activity, later developed by a number of

Matveeva, N. and Fedotkina, E.

Aspects Related to Information Security within the ESP Course at Russian Colleges and Universities.

DOI: 10.5220/0010617000003170

In Proceedings of the International Scientiﬁc and Practical Conference on Computer and Information Security (INFSEC 2021), pages 35-40

ISBN: 978-989-758-531-9; ISSN: 2184-9862

 2023 by SCITEPRESS – Science and Technology Publications, Lda. Under CC license (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0)

Russian academics (Maslova, 2000; Grigorenko,

2001) and others.

The works of British methodologists contributed

greatly to the methodology of teaching English as a

Foreign Language (EFL) at Russian universities in

general and English for Specific Purposes (ESP) in

particular (Hutchinson & Waters, 1987; Strevens,

1988). Nowadays, Russian teachers, the same as

teachers of foreign languages from all around the

world, endeavour to adjust their ideas to a new reality

in order to achieve the main goal – forming

professional foreign language and communicative

competence in bachelors’ degree students.

This paper presents a research on the current state

of teaching and learning information security related

topics within the ESP course at Russian colleges and

universities and is aimed at mapping a path of

enhancing learning as information security is

becoming a top priority area in the modern digitized

world.

2 METHODOLOGY

When we speak about teaching ESP, three necessary

components should be considered (Nurpahmi, 2016):

Who, why, when and where are thought (learning

situation)? What to teach to ESP students (language

description)? How to teach (teaching methods)?

These are the three components engaged in our

research.

Proving that integrated approach in ESP course

design is the most suitable among others, Nurpahmi

highlights that it involves integrated source of

requirements – a stakeholder, a learner, a teacher, and

an expert. Stakeholders are students’ parents.

(Chapleo et al., 2010). educational institutions,

content providers, educational technology providers,

accreditation bodies, and employers (Wagner et al.,

2006).

Employers don’t deal with the ESP teaching and

learning at educational institutions directly, they

influence the process through their affiliates –

Worldskills Russia movement practitioners for

colleges and graduate chairs at universities. The

Worldskills demonstrational examination nowadays

is an integral part of secondary vocational education,

the movement dictates, pushes forward, and

facilitates through its structural subdivisions such as

Regional Competence Centres and Advanced Career

Centres, content providers, and educational

technology providers to work hard on education

renewal by means of new curricula creation and the

Moscow Area Digital College platform ensuring

delivering educational materials to students and

processing and managing their success.

The Russian University of Transport is a sector-

specific university. Its founding shareholder is the

Ministry of Transport of the Russian Federation.

Some of the engineering training programs refer to

transport sector, such as 09.03.02 - Information

systems and technology on transport, others have a

wide range of transport-related disciplines. The

graduate chairs “Information Management and

Protection” and “Transport Process Management

Digital Technology”, review, approve and supervise

ESP syllabus, provide recommendations on the topics

to be included.

The task of our research is to examine ESP

textbooks for college and university students

majoring in Computer Sciences in terms of a thematic

analysis, and in respect to the topic related to

Information Security teaching and studying.

At this stage, we analysed both paper and

electronic ESP for computer users textbooks used at

colleges and universities to know how much the

aspects of information security within the ESP course

at these educational levels are inter-lapped, and if

there are any thematic gaps needed to be bridged.

The ideas and concepts on information security

involved in studying ESP at Russian colleges and

universities were grouped according to the

International Federation for Information Processing

(https://ifip.org/): (1) cyber defense (cryptography,

computer security, network security, and information

assurance); (2) cyber operations (cyber attack and

penetration testing, reverse engineering and

cryptoanalysis); (3) digital forensics (hardware and

software forensics on hosts and service, mobile

devices, embedded systems, incident response, cyber

crime, and cyber law enforcement); (4) cyber

physical systems (SCADA, IoT, and industrial

control systems), (5) secure software developments

(secure systems design, secure coding), (6) cyber

policy, governance and law; (7) cyber risk

management (disaster recovery and business

continuity); (8) cyber economics; (9) human

behaviour relating to cyber systems and operations

(social engineering).

The paper and electronic ESP textbooks under

examination were marked as follows.

For colleges:

1 - Evans V., Dooley J., Wright S. “Information

Technology.” Express Publishing, 2011.

2 – Electronic Learning Pack in ESP for college

students majoring in speciality 09.02.07 –

Information systems and programming, Moscow

Area Digital College;

INFSEC 2021 - International Scientiﬁc and Practical Conference on Computer and Information Security

3 - Online course in ESP for college students

majoring in speciality 09.02.07 – Information

systems and programming, Moscow Area Digital

College;

4 – Electronic skill training modules in ESP for

the Worldskills competency “Information network

cabling”, Moscow Area Digital College;

5 – Electronic skill training modules in ESP for

the Worldskills competencies “IT Network Systems

Administration” and “Web development”;

For universities:

6 – Esteras S. R. “Infotech English for Computer

Users.” – 4th edition. – Cambridge University Press

(Intermediate), 2008.

7 – Esteras S.R., Fabre E.M. “Professional

English in Use. For Computers and the Internet. ICT”.

Cambridge University Press. 2009.

8 – Uchebno-metodicheskoye posobie dlya

prepodavateley i studentov k uchebniku “Infotech.

English for Computer Users” by Santiago Remacha

Esteras (4th ed.) [Study guide for teachers and

students for the textbook “Infotech. English for

Computer Users” by Santiago Remacha Esteras (4th

ed.)]. –М.: Higher School of Economics Publishing

House, 2018.

9 – Uchebno-metodicheskoye posobie k

uchebniku “Professional English in Use. ICT. For

Computers and the Internet“ Study guide for the

textbook “Professional English in Use. ICT. For

Computers and the Internet“ – М.: Higher School of

Economics Publishing House, 2013.

10 – Informatika: teksty po spetsial’nosti na

angliyskom yazyke k uchebnomu posobiyu “Infotech

English for Computer Users. 4th edition” Texts on

Informatics. Supplementary materials for the

textbook “Infotech English for Computer Users.4th

edition”: MIIT), 2018.

The results of the thematic analysis are presented

in the following section (Tables 1-2).

To investigate the third component of the ESP

which is how to teach or the methods of teaching we

conducted a survey for ESP teachers at colleges and

universities. We would like to know if college and

university ESP teachers consider the ESP taught to

students majoring in Computer sciences (including

the topic related to information security) to be aimed

at promoting live professional communication or the

ESP course still remains “vocabulary teaching‟ and

“reading comprehension” (Kenny, 2016). We wanted

to know if active learning methods are used in

teaching and learning ESP in this special subject area,

as it is exactly active learning methods that are

focused mainly on developing thinking, improving

speech and business behavioural skills, social skills,

forming communicative strategy and tactics, general

and professional competencies (Kryachkov et al.,

2015). They engage students in intellectual, creative

and more often independent work: role plays, solving

cases, debating, verbal sparring, making albums,

newspapers, short videos, etc. Scientific papers from

all over the world describe a number of practices in

teaching the ESP courses: debate (Rybushkina et al.,

2016); project work, namely, creation of video

projects (Marenzi et al., 2013); case studies and

presentations preparation (Kenny, 2016).

We offered the ESP teachers at Russian colleges

and universities the question: What active learning

methods do you use in teaching topics on information

security within the ESP course? We suggested the

options:

 preparation for the conferences;

 role plays;

 case studies;

 open space workshops;

 creative projects;

 other methods.

A respondent could provide comments giving

detail information on the methods he/she uses. The

survey participants were Moscow Region college

ESP teachers and the Russian University of Transport

ESP teachers who were delivered the survey through

the educational authorities’ social media groups. The

results of the survey are presented in Table 3.

3 RESULTS

This section presents the results of the research.

Tables 1-2 present the thematic analysis of the

predetermined paper and electronic ESP textbooks

used at Russian colleges and universities showing the

appearance of the aspects grouped according the

International Federation for Information Processing

as follows: (1) cyber defence (cryptography,

computer security, network security, and information

assurance); (2) cyber operations (cyber attack and

penetration testing, reverse engineering and

cryptanalysis); (3) digital forensics (hardware and

software forensics on hosts and service, mobile

devices, embedded systems, incident response, cyber

crime, and cyber law enforcement); (4) cyber

physical systems (SCADA, IoT, and industrial

control systems), (5) secure software developments

(secure systems design, secure coding), (6) cyber

policy, governance and law; (7) cyber risk

management (disaster recovery and business

continuity); (8) cyber economics; (9) human

Aspects Related to Information Security within the ESP Course at Russian Colleges and Universities

behaviour relating to cyber systems and operations

(social engineering).

Table 1: Aspects of information security within the ESP

course at Russian colleges.

Textbooks

Themes

Thematic group (1)

–

Thematic group (2)

–

Thematic group (3)

–

Thematic group (4)

–

Thematic group (5)

–

Thematic group (6)

–

Thematic group (7)

–

Thematic group (8)

–

Thematic group (9)

–

Table 2: Aspects of information security within the ESP

course at Russian universities.

Textbooks

Themes

Thematic group (1)

Thematic group (2)

Thematic group (3)

–

Thematic group (4)

–

Thematic group (5)

–

Thematic group (6)

–

Thematic group (7)

–

Thematic group (8)

–

Thematic group (9)

The results of the research show that the aspects

related to information security studied by means of

textbooks within the ESP course at Russian colleges

are more diverse than at Russian universities and

cover 7 of 9 predetermined thematic groups: (1) cyber

defense, (2) cyber operations, (4) cyber physical

systems, (5) secure software development, (6) cyber

policy, governance and law, (7) cyber risk

management and (9) human behaviour relating to

cyber systems and operations, while such topics as

(3) digital forensics and (8) cyber economics are not

presented in the college ESP textbooks. In general if

studied sequentially the textbooks give students a

good picture about the information security issues in

English.

Only three of the predetermined topics are widely

presented in the ESP textbooks for higher education

institutions : (1) cyber defense, (2) cyber operations

and (9) human behaviour relating to cyber systems

and operations. The exception is provided by the

educational supply 5 – Informatika: teksty po

spetsial’nosti na angliyskom yazyke k uchebnomu

posobiyu “Infotech English for Computer Users. 4th

edition” [Texts on Informatics. Supplementary

materials for the textbook “Infotech English for

Computer Users. 4th edition”: [Electronic recourse] :

MIIT), 2018. This educational supply was created at

the Russian University of Transport and thus includes

a wider range of topics, concepts and ideas in

information security presented. In addition to three

mentioned above thematic groups it presents (5)

secure software developments (secure systems

design, secure coding) and (6) cyber policy,

governance and law texts, concepts and ideas.

Eight college ESP teachers and nine university

teachers took part in the survey on the active learning

methods used in teaching and learning ESP topics

related to information security. The results are shown

in Table 3.

Table 3: Active learning methods in teaching topics related

to information security within the ESP course at Russian

colleges and universities.

Active learning method

College

ESP

Teachers

University

ESP

Teachers

preparation for the

conferences

role plays

case studies

open space workshops

creative projects

other methods

All suggested in the survey active leaning

methods were mentioned. The ESP teachers at

colleges and university to this or that extent prepare

their students for the conferences, use role plays, case

studies, open space workshops, creative projects.

Among other methods the usage of ICT was

mentioned. These are the Moscow Area Digital

college platform, some other Learning Management

Systems, such as Wardwall, Lifeworksheets, Google

Forms. One teacher reported the usage of the

gamified lessons on information security Cyber

Security Training www.tryhackme.com.

4 DISCUSSION

In our research we have studied the current state of

teaching topics related to information security within

the ESP course at Russian colleges and universities.

The research was completed in two stages. The first

stage comprised the thematic analysis of ESP paper

INFSEC 2021 - International Scientiﬁc and Practical Conference on Computer and Information Security

and electronic textbooks used at colleges and

universities. The results showed that the wide range

of topics related to information security grouped in

accord with the International Federation for

Information Processing are covered by the examined

textbooks. The only topic not reflected in the ESP

course books is (8) cyber economics.

We also found out that the affect of the main

stakeholders such as Worldskills practitioners

community for colleges and graduate chairs for

universities on the content of the ESP is quite

significant. It is these bodies that deal with the

employers directly, understand the employers’

requirements, review, adopt and supervise ESP

syllabus. Moreover, the findings highlight that there

is a sound continuity in studying topics related to

information security between Russian colleges and

universities.

There is a chance, however, that college graduates

entering the university to continue their education in

the chosen sphere will feel themselves like “know-

all” masters, thinking about the university ESP course

as deceptively simple one. In such a case they will

need additional attention from the university ESP

teachers and their learning needs should be dealt with

individually.

The research on active leaning methods used at

colleges and universities showed quite a low level of

enthusiasm of the ESP teachers to take part in our

survey. It could be explained by the fact that mostly

traditional methods of teaching are used in the ESP

course. It could happen that active learning methods

set the additional requirements to knowledge of the

ESP teacher in the subject area he/she teaches. For

sure, an ESP teacher should not teach content in the

subject area as he/she doesn’t have sufficient

knowledge. But cooperation of the ESP teacher with

the subject teacher helps him/her to delve into a

subject background and their common efforts would

facilitate students’ success.

Nevertheless a good number of teachers who

probably have advanced expertise in teaching topics

related to information security organize project work,

conferences, role plays, case studies, open space

workshops. Here a few questions arise: if students are

involved in the discourse what level of General

English they should have to be successful, if studying

General English should stop when a student starts an

ESP course, if the ESP course should be integrated

into the General English course (Chostelidou, 2011;

Ju Bei, 2014). These questions for sure require

additional investigation.

Our research proves that the continuity in

education in respect to active learning methods in the

area under study is ensured as well..

5 CONCLUSION

The paper describes the current state of teaching and

learning information security related aspects at

Russian colleges and universities and proves the

textbooks approved for usage in the learning process

at colleges and universities cover a diversity of

information security related topic, but not all the

International Federation for Information processing is

concerned with. The topics related to (8) information

economics should be considered as the valuable one

to be included into the ESP for computer users course.

We also claim that the collaboration of the chairs of

foreign languages with key stakeholders improve

learning conditions and facilitate new educational

materials developments. This collaboration should be

continued, to meet new requirements to a young

specialist in information security, such as the

necessity to pass the examination to get the valuable

international certificate and in general, to counteract

the modern world information wars.

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