THE FOUR PILLARS OF ESP

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• Hired by a global banking company
that routes its customer inquiries to
a call-center in the Philippines
• Provide a three-day intensive English
course to help the staff improve their
responses to customer inquiries
• A day to discuss the course with the
management team and a week to
prepare the course and strategy
• What kind of information would
you try to gather about the staff?
• How would you go about obtaining
a description of call-center
English?
• What materials and teaching
strategies might you employ?
• How would you measure the
success?
NEEDS ANALYSIS
• Understanding the learner’s
needs
• What are the necessities, lacks
and wants of the target learners
• Questions about the
environment where the learning
will take place
LEARNING OBJECTIVES
• Establishing what language,
genres and skills the learners
might be expected to use in a
target situation
• Establish a set of learning
strategy objectives
MATERIALS AND METHODS
• The choice of teaching
methodology may be determined
by or lead to the use of a particular
set of teaching materials
• One possible source of useful
materials may emerge from your
analysis of the target language
EVALUATION
• The measurement of learner performance
gains on the test: How much have the
learners improved as a result of the course?
• Evaluation of the quality of instruction and
the ESP course itself

Problem:
• Your own ability to judge the success of the
learner
EVALUATING THE COURSE
Determine:
• How many participants started the course?
• How many completed it?
• What is the success rate?

Qualitative Data about the Course:

• Did the learners find it useful?
• Did they enjoy the activities and feel motivated to learn
more?
• Did they believe that the course was too short or long?
• Did they think some important language skill is missing
from the course?
EVALUATING THE COURSE
Evaluate your Own Success in
Leading the Course:
• Analyze test results
• Qualitative survey of the learner’s
impression of the course
 Evaluation
Evaluation
How
Howwell?
well?

Learning
Learning
Objectives
Objectives
ESP
ESP Materials
Materialsand
Methods
Methods
and

What?
What? COURSE
COURSE How?
How?

Needs
NeedsAnalysis
Analysis
Who?
Who?Where?
Where?
Why?
Why?When?
When?
THE ROLES OF LEARNERS,
INSTRUCTORS AND
ADMINISTRATORS OF ESP
• Assigned to teach a one-semester
university first-year course in
academic lecture and
comprehension
• Held in the faculty of liberal arts
and humanities with a wide range of
international students
In a one hour meeting with
the course management
team, what questions will
you ask?
LEARNERS
• An ESP course that closely match their
needs
• Aware of their needs and lacks and strong
views on what they want from the courses
• Objective and critical in their evaluation of
their courses
• Heavily influenced by perception of course
or program
LEARNERS
• Focus for Learning: The ESP student has a
particular purpose and focus for learning.
• Subject-Matter Knowledge: Learners in the ESP
classroom are generally aware of the purposes
for which they will need to use English
• Adult Learning Strategies: Learning as an adult
has advantages -- adults must work harder than
children to learn a new language, but the
learning strategies they bring to the task enable
them to learn faster and more efficiently.
INSTRUCTORS
In EAP setting:
• Support and guidance for their postgraduate
studies and careers
• Design and manage the English support
program
• Responsible for establishing the four pillars
of ESP
• First points of contact for publishers wanting
to develop general materials and courses
INSTRUCTORS
In EOP setting:
• Help workers with daily task and
provide opportunities for career
advancements
• Bridge between workers and
management
INSTRUCTORS
“PRACTITIONERS”

Examining the needs of the learners

Collaborating with
Researching target language skills specialist informants

Designing courses Evaluating learner

Instructing learners performance and the success
and materials of the course or program
INSTRUCTORS
ESP Instructors:
• Have backgrounds in humanities,
literature, linguistics, applied
linguistics, TEL/TESL
• Have backgrounds in specialized
discipline such as STEM fields or
medicine
INSTRUCTORS
ESP Instructor with background in humanities, literature,
education, linguistics, applied linguistics, TEL/TESL

ADVANTAGES
Strong background in teaching
methodologies
Best positioned to determine the
types of materials and activities that
will ‘work’ with learners
Good judge of the immediate general
language needs of the learners
DISADVANTAGES
May not have a clear understanding of
the specific target needs of learners
Little experience in highly specialized
discipline like STEM subject, medicine,
nursing
INSTRUCTORS
ESP Instructor with backgrounds in specialized discipline
such as STEM fields or medicine

ADVANTAGES
Gained undergraduate/graduate
degrees and goes on to work in the
field for some years
Easily identifies the specific needs of
learners (especially in EAP setting)
Can provide insights on the
occupational needs of the learners
DISADVANTAGES
May have little to no teaching
experience
Unaware of the language difficulties
faced by target learners
May focus extensively on word forms
and provide lengthy explanations
ADMINISTRATORS
• Decide if and when ESP course
will run
• Determine the overall aims of
the course
• Decides how the ESP courses
will be run and the importance
attached to it
ADMINISTRATORS
In EAP setting:
• Run courses to address
language learning problems
• Run EAP courses to attract
overseas students or increase
revenue for the institution
ADMINISTRATORS
In EOP setting:
• Run EOP courses to address language
problems that affect customer
satisfaction
• A new strategy to attract foreign
customers
• To increase revenue through
improved training of the salesforce
ADMINISTRATORS
Task of Administrators
• Management of funding and
longevity of a program
EAP Setting EOP Setting
Learner tuition fees, Provided by the higher
institution special funding or management, may be a fixed
external funding schemes amount each year, depending
on the learner outcome
ADMINISTRATORS
Task of Administrators
• Management of opportunity in the
program
Learners Instructors
Provide an opportunity to learn the Provide an opportunity to interact
necessary language and skills to with others in the development
meet their target needs and teaching of courses
Take part in professional
development and career
development initiatives
WHO SHOULD TEACH ESP?
• ESP should be considered as a
team project, where each
individuals expertise is
respected and utilized
• Combining the strengths of team
members can result in a stable
and effective ESP program