ESP time line

English for Specific Purposes

Assessment -Needs Analysis

Let's start with a web-search!

Goals - Objectives

• Work with a partner and identify key differences and similarities in the following concepts.

Syllabus -Course Design

Professional - Occupational needs

Summarize and present your findings.

English for Specific Purposes

1970

1975

70's

1945

The oil crisis in the USA

The first attempt

The ESP movement

The end of the second World War

Mid 80's

Early 90's

The future!

80's

The birth of semi- and subtechnical vocabulary

Rethorical use of Language and the 4 skills

Functional language and functional components

Identifying learner's needs

A variety of needs: How to start

What is the greatest challenge?

What lies ahead?

It has certainly been a changing but fruitful road for ESP, and even if some say that the evolution of this area of language study has responded mainly to teaching procedures and ma- terials development, its principles and theory have been more clearly outlined and shaped by the passing of time. Despite the prolonged economic crisis affecting most parts of the globe, the momentum of globalization bringing in its wake the consolidation of the phenomenon of English as a lingua franca and the spread of what is commonly known as “international English” continues apace.

ESP is, then, an approach to language teaching in which all the decisions as to content and method are based on the learner’s reason for learning. (…) ESP should properly be seen not as any particular language product but as an approach to language teaching which is directed by specific and apparent reasons for learning (1987, p. 19). It is then important to bear in mind that:

• ESP may be related or designed for specific disciplines.
• ESP may use, in specific teaching situations, a different methodology from that of General English.
• ESP is likely to be designed for adult learners, either at a tertiary level institution or a professional work situation, but could be used for learners at secondary school level.
• ESP is generally designed for intermediate or advanced learners.
• Most ESP courses assume basic knowledge of the language system, but it can be used with beginners

ESP Continuum

The decades of the 1990s and 2000s have seen a rapid increase in research and have continued the expansion on major ESP topics. It has certainly been a changing but fruitful road for ESP, and even if some say that the evolution of this area of language study has responded mainly to teaching procedures and materials development, its principles and theory have been more clearly outlined and shaped by the passing of time.

• The new emphases given to already established concepts, such as international rhetorics and learner genre awareness, as well as the more profound and continuous research on corpus studies have changed th way ESP is taught.

The oil crisis

This crisis resulted in a massive flow of capitals and western experts to the oil-rich countries. English became a business which brought about that the pedagogical profession was compelled to meet the needs and demands of English teachers and other social groups simultaneously (Minodora, 2015).

The end of the Second World War

The expansion in scientific, technical and economic activity on an international scale. This expansion created a world unified and dominated by two forces – technology and commerce- which in their relentless progress soon generated a demand for international language. For various reasons, most notably the economic power of the United States in the post-war world, this role fell to English.

The first "boost"

The first boost of ESP came from the register analysis of scientific and technical writing. Logically, the movement gave special importance to semi- or subtechnical vocabulary. Smoak (2003) describes the instructors’ believed job as “to teach the technical vocabulary of a given field or profession” (p. 23). While this detailed study of language in specific registers demonstrated a very positive, early interest in functional lexis, it showed an extreme concentration on form and offered little explanationabout why and how the sentences were formed and combined as they were.

The British Council

In 1975 the British Council, under the auspices of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Great Britain, made the first attempt of classification of ESP. According to its taxonomy, English for Academic Purposes (EAP) was divided into two branches: English for Science and Technology (EST) and English for Occupational Purposes (EOP).

The beginning of functional Language

It is suggested that effective ESP programs should teach the language skills necessary to function and perform satisfactorily in a given function. The theoretical basis for an effective ESP curriculum can be found in a functional-notional syllabus design, which emphasizes the communicative purpose of the language. A functional-notional approach identifies the functions, or things that can be done through language, for which learners need the language and the notions (i.e., meanings and concepts a learner needs to communicate) that they must handle with it.