English For Specific Purposes

English for Specific Purposes:
Tailoring Courses to Student Needs— and to the Outside World
1
What is ESP?
English for Specific Purposes (ESP) is a
movement based on the proposition that all
language teaching should be tailored to the
specific learning and language use needs of
identified groups of students— and also sensitive
to the sociocultural contexts in which these
students will be using English.
Most of the movement's practitioners are
teachers of adults, those students whose needs
are more readily identified within academic,
occupational, or professional settings.
2
ESP Brief History
The creation of materials and instruction in
languages for specific purposes (LSP) has a long history,
initiated in ancient times as people traveled and came into
contact with speakers of other languages, but had a
limited amount of time to develop the competence needed
to communicate, conduct their business, or study in their
new contexts. In the 20th century, as English became the
pre-dominant global language, the LSP for the world
increasingly became ESP. According to Uber Grosse (1988),
the modern ESP movement began in England in the 1920s
and has continued apace, especially in the British colonies,
and now, throughout the world.
3
What is the rationale of the movement?
ESP experts are in considerable agreement about its core characteristics.
Strevens’ list (1988), later revised by Dudley-Evans and St John (1998), identified
these as absolute and variable features for ESP curricula and teaching:
Absolute characteristics: ESP consists of

1.
English language teaching which is:
Variable characteristics: ESP may be,  Designed to meet the specified needs
2.
but is not necessarily of the learner;
Restricted as to the language skills to  Related in content (i.e., in its themes
be learned (e.g., reading only); and topics) to particular disciplines,
Not taught according to any pre- occupations and activities (and
ordained methodology. contexts);
 Centered on the language (and
behaviors) appropriate to those
activities in syntax, lexis, discourse,
semantics (etc) and analysis of this
discourse;
4  In contrast with General English.
It can be seen, then, that ESP is a practitioners’
movement based on the proposition that language
teaching methodologies should be well-researched
and carefully focused--tailored to the specific
learning and language use needs and goals of
identified groups of students--and curricula should be
sensitive to the sociocultural and discourse contexts in
which these students will be using the language.
5
Categories: English for Specific Purposes
English for Academic Purposes
(EAP)
English for Science and Technology English for Occupational

(EST) (Academic)
Purposes (EOP)
English for Business and Economics
(EBE) (Academic)
English for Professional
English for Medical Purposes Vocational ESL (VESL)
Purposes (EPP)
(EMP) (Academic)
English for the Law

English for Medical Purposes Pre- employment (VESL)
(ELP) (Academic)
(EMP)
Occupational Specific (VESL)
English for Business Purposes
(EBP) Cluster (VESL)
Workplace (VESL)
6
Central ESP Components
Although the modern ESP movement has evolved in many directions since it was founded in the
mid-1960s (see Swales [1988] for an excellent overview), several components have remained
relatively constant throughout its history. In 1988, Peter Steven's provided the following overview
of ESP and its features.
The claims for ESP are that it is:
Focused on the Successful in

01 learner’s need 03 imparting
and wastes no learning
time
More cost-
Relevant to the 04
effective than
02 “General English."
learner
7
Issues addressed in ESP program planning
Stakeholders in the Class or Project
01 what are the sources of demand for this ESP program? Who are the
clients? An employer, an agency, a government, a more traditional
educational institution, or the students themselves?
Available Teachers
02 a central issue to be considered is the nature of the teachers who will
be involved in an ESP program. What content, skills, and literacies will
they be expected to teach?
Authenticity Issues
03 because ESP involves special English’s and contexts, not "General
English,” efforts to achieve maximum linguistic, strategic, and
situational authenticity are made in designing curricula.
Curricular Decisions
04 in making curricular decisions. ESP practitioners have been
influenced over the years by trends in applied linguistics and general
ESL/EFL teaching, when relevant to their students, moving through
the methodological variations
Assessment
05 all ESL/ EFL teachers must consider issues of assessment.
8
Preparing an ESP curriculum
In every genuine ESP course, needs assessment is obligatory, and in many programs, an ongoing needs
assessment is integral to curriculum design and evaluation. In performing an assessment, practitioners attempt
to determine as closely as possible what students will need to do — and how they will need to do it— in English
language contexts or with English language literacies. Over the tears, methods of assessing learner needs
have become increasingly sophisticated and process-based. Here are a few of those employed, often for the
same curricular design:
Questionnaires Observation, job-shadowing,

Modes of working
and surveys and analysis
1 3 5
2 4 6
Spoken or written reflections

Interviews of experts, Multiple intelligence and
by the students— or their
students, and other s learning style surveys
supervisors— before, during
takeholders of the students
9 or after instruction
Rationale and Responsibilities of
ESP Practitioners
Work closely with the in the target situation
01 No matter what the students’ goals may be, a close,
continuous interaction with experts and stakeholders in the
target situation in which students will work
Conduct effective needs assessment and target
02 situation research
First, and often, practitioners must determine, as best they can,
the students’ goals and language and cultural needs as well as
the nature of the language and genres of the context in which
they will be using English.
Adapt and develop methods and curricula
03 Experienced ESP teachers do not work solely with pre-
determined curricula or pedagogies.
04 Teach skills and strategies for far transfer

A central goal for ESP programs should be to prepare students
with skills and strategies for their future use in different
contexts. In the literature, this ability to adapt previously-
learned skills to apparently new future tasks and contexts is
10 called far transfer.
ESP Instructional Models
English for Academic Purposes
Stand-alone EAP courses
01 Stand alone is the most common format. These are
reading and writing courses, most frequently taught at
the undergraduate level, that enroll students from all
academic disciplines.
Adjunct
02 A model that is closely related to a single content
course (e.g., biology, sociology) is the adjunct or linked
model.
Team-teaching
03 In this model, the content and language instructors
team-teach a group of students, often within the
same classroom.
11
ESP Instructional Models
Vocational English as a Pre-employment VESL
Second Language This is a modified version of a general English or “wide-angled” ESL
model, for the content is broadly defined and relates to a number of
EOP areas. Instruction is devoted to job readiness and general "soft"
Workplace VESL job skills as outlined in the SCANS Report (The U.S. Secretary's
In this model, ESP classes are offered Commission on Achieving Necessary Skills, 1999). Technology
to employees on the job site. Often, the integration is key to pre-employment VESL, for the application
employer pays for some or all of the process generally takes place online
course, and employees are excused
during their workday to attend. Occupation-specific VESL
This is a “narrow-angled” curriculum focusing
upon one particular job, such as nursing
VESL assistant or welder, and, as such, is closer to
the ideal in ESP.
Cluster VESL
This popular model combines “wide- I-BEST (Integrated Basic Education
angled” and “narrow-angled” approaches.
and Skills Training) VESL
Initially, students from different vocations
are in one classroom. They study all four This is an adjunct, or sometimes a team-teaching
skills (listening, speaking, reading and model, for the ESL instructor is paired with the
writing), often in a theme-based professional-technical instructor in the classroom
program (e.g., "The World of to concurrently provide students with literacy
12
Work"). education and workforce skills.
Summary  ESP programs are designed for a specific group of
ESL/EFL students, usually adults, who have a limited
time to develop the competence needed to work or
study in identified contexts.
 ESP is distinguished not by a particular linguistic

theory or teaching methodology but by its needs
assessments and target situation analyses which
determine the focus of the curricula and pedagogy
for a specific group of students in an identified
context.
 Successful ESP teachers do not need to be content

experts; however, they do need to have a solid
linguistics background, to be skilled at various
approaches to needs assessment and target
situation analysis, be adept at working with a variety
of stake-holders in a variety of cultures, and be open,
observant, and flexible as their curriculum and
instruction evolves.
13
Conclusion ESP requires of the practitioner an open
mind, a willingness to conduct appropriate
needs assessment and target situation research,
knowledge of language and linguistics, corpus
studies, and genres, and a broad understanding
of curricular models and pedagogies, as well as
English the new technologies. It requires of the future
researcher to look beyond text products and
for Specific consider more seriously learner processes,
Purposes cognition, and target contexts, and to
investigate the complexity and challenges that
online and other contexts present (Belcher,
2006). The future of ESP requires practitioners
who will be true to the foundational principles
but who view their course design as ever more
challenging, as technologies, language use, and
research practices become more complex.
14
Thank you and God bless!
15

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English for Specific Purposes:

Tailoring Courses to Student Needs— and to the Outside World

Absolute characteristics: ESP consists of

English for Science and Technology English for Occupational

English for the Law

The claims for ESP are that it is:

Focused on the Successful in

Questionnaires Observation, job-shadowing,

Spoken or written reflections

04 Teach skills and strategies for far transfer

 ESP is distinguished not by a particular linguistic

 Successful ESP teachers do not need to be content

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