The Origin of ESP

Why English is a Global Language?

What are factors behind the
emergence of ESP?
• The Demand of the New World
• Shifts in the field of Linguistics
• Shifts in the field of Educational Psychology
 The Demand of New World
• Post-War in 1945
• The economic domination of The US
• The role of English: the key to international
currencies of technology and commerce.
• English is accepted as an international
language of technology and commerce  new
learners who knew specifically why they need
to learn a language.
• Oil crises in 1970  massive flow of funds
from Western to oil rich countries.
We don’t know why we learn
English  we know why learn
English
 Linguistic shifts
• Teaching English = Grammar
• Teaching English = teaching how to use English
in real life
 If language varies from one
situation of use to another, it
should be possible to determine
the features of of specific
situations and then make these
features the basis of the learners’
courses.
Tell me what you need English for
and I will tell you the English that
you need.
 Educational Psychological shifts
• The central importance of learners and their
attitudes to leaning 
• Learners have different needs and interests 
motivation to learn 
• The effectiveness of their learning.
The clear relevance of the English
course to their needs would
improve the learners’ motivation
and makes learning faster and
better.
 Three Minute Discussion
• Why was ESP introduced in your country?
What kind of ESP are taught?
 Three Minute Discussion
• How can motivation affect the way you learn?
 The Development of ESP
Phase One:
The concept of special language: register
analysis (1960-1970)
Analyzing specific register in various fields which
aims to  identify the GRAMMATICAL and
LEXICAL features of these registers  design
syllabus  A Course in Basic Scientific English
(1969).
• The aim was to produce a syllabus which gave
high priority to the language forms students
would meet in their Science studies and give
low priority to forms they would not meet.
• For example: comparing Science students’
book with English textbooks: the schools
neglected compound nouns, passives,
conditionals, and modal verbs.
• Phase Two:
Rhetorical or Discourse Analysis: Understanding
how sentences were combined in discourse to
produce meaning  identify the
organisational patterns in texts and to specify
the linguistic means.
For example: A Discourse Approach by Louis
Trimble (1985)
• Typical materials: teaching students to
recognize textual patterns an discourse
markers mainly by text-diagramming
exercises.
• Phase Three:
Target Situation Analysis (a simple version of
needs analysis): identifying the target
situation and analysing its linguistic features
which then formed as the course design.
Communicative Syllabus Design
(Munby, 1978)
• Phase Four:
Skills and strategies: An attempt to look at the
thinking proceses underlie the language use
 common reasoning and interpreting
processes to extract meaning from discourse.
For example: guessing the meaning of words
from context, using visual layout to determine
the type of text, exploiting cognates (words
which are), etc.
• Exercises mainly emphasise on listening and
reading.
• Learners reflect on and analyse how meaning
is produced and retrieved from written or
spoken discourse.
• Phase Five:
All other phases concerns only on language use
(what people do with the language). The fifth
phase concerns more on Language learning.
 Discussion
• Discuss with your group the weaknesses of
each development phase of ESP (1,2,3,4).
Phase One

Phase Two

Phase Three

Phase Four
 Types of ESP (David Carter, 1983)
• English as Restricted Language (SEASPEAK,
AIRSPEAK, etc)
• English for Academic and Occupational
Purposes
• English with Specific Topics
 Classification of ESP (Dudley-Evans,
1999)
Area Subarea

English for Specific English for •English for Science and Technology
Purposes Academic •English for Medical Purposes
Purposes •English for Legal Purposes

English for English for •English for

Occupational Professional Medical Purposes
Purposes Purposes (chemist, •English for
pharmacist, Business Purposes
lawyer, etc)
English for •Pre Vocational
Vocational English
Purposes •Vocational English
(plumbing,
elecrician, printing
pressman, etc)
 ESP: Approach not product
• ESP is not a matter of teaching ‘speacialised
varieties’ of English: it is not a special form of
English.
• ESP is not only a matter of Science words for
Scientist, Hotel words for Hotel staff, and so
on. There are more materials than those to
enable learners to perform.
• ESP is not different kind of any other language
teaching. There is no ESP methodology.
• ESP is not a particular type of LANGUAGE, or
METHODOLOGY, or TEACHING MATERIALS.
ESP must be seen as an APPROACH, not a
product.
• ESP is an approach to language teaching in
which all decisions as to content and method
are based on the learners’ reason for
learning.
 Discussion Three
• What differences would you expect to find
between EAP for doctors and EOP for doctors?