Figure from:Specificity and Esp Course Design
Table 1 I will argue that there are in fact three different types of ESP course design rather than two as suggested by the narrow- vs wide-angled dichot- omy: one narrow-angled option and two wide-angled options (courses that focus on common needs and those that focus on a language variety). The following section of this paper describes and illustrates the three options shown in Table 1. Section Three discusses them in relation to the concept of specificity and highlights the advantages and disadvantages of each. In recent years there has been a growing tendency toward wide-angled course designs in English for Academic Purposes (EAP) (Hyland 2002). Hyland (2002) perceives this tendency negatively and attributes it largely to the reluctance of universities to fund the development of highly specific, that is, narrow-angled EAP programs. Ferris (2001) reports that in the US the majority of EAP writing classes are based on the generalized skills and process approach. Ferris attributes this to practical concerns (the lack of funds to offer a range of specialized writing courses for the different disci- plines and the lack of teacher education about how to research commu- nications in different disciplines).