ELEC 1

ENGLISH FOR SPECIFIC PURPOSES

Topic 1: What does ESP mean?

In the advent of content-based language instruction and skills-bases syllabus, more and mor
teachers have realized the effectiveness and practicality of teaching what the students NEED
and not what the syllabus or the curriculum dictates.
 Hutchinson and Waters (1987) use ESP as an approach rather than a product, by
which they mean that ESP does not involve a particular kind of language, teaching
material or methodology.
 They suggest that <the foundation of ESP is the simple question: <Why does this
learner need to learn a foreign language?= The answer to this question relates to the
leaners, the language required and the learning context, and thus establishes the
primacy of NEED is ESP.

Topic 2: What are the Basic Features of ESP?

1. ESP is goal oriented- Because students study English for a specific purpose, i.e. to
survive in an academic setting or in a workplace, topics and activities are specified
on the goal of the student.

2. ESP is based on needs analysis – Relevant to the first criteria, the topics and
activities embedded within an ESP course is based on the analysis of students’
needs, i.e. initial needs, learning needs, and target or end-of-course requirements.

3. ESP is time-bound - Because students study English for a specific purpose, they
do not intend to spend too much time engaging to indirect learning activities and
exercises. Each session aims to contribute to the end goal, which should be met at
a specified time or duration.

4. ESP is for adults - Although there may be some people taking up ESP courses,
most often the students are adults, simply because they are the ones who are
opting to learn English as a preparation for higher learning or for the workplace.

5. ESP is discipline specific - Most often than not, ESP courses are written to fit
a particular group of students who belong to the same field of study. If you’re a
nurse, you would not enroll in an English for Engineers course, would you?
Topic 3: What are the types of ESP?

ESP is basically divided into two types: EOP (English for Occupational Purposes)
and EAP (English for Academic Purposes). From the names themselves, learners
who are enrolled in EOP and EAP have specific objectives.

 (EOP) – is to develop English in preparation for work or job.

 (EAP) improve language proficiency to survive and function better in a
higher academic setting.

Topic 4: History and Development

The development of ESP may be summarized into five stages as suggested by Hutchinson
and Waters (1987), namely:

1. The concept of special language (register analysis) – Before ESP, language teaching
uses language samples and inputs that are most often than not, alien to the students.
During the first phases of ESP’s development, language teachers began to see that
there is a <special language=in certain fields. Thus, from the usual <This is a book=
sample sentence, teachers began to introduce more discipline-specific terms such as
<This is an Erlenmeyer flask.=

2. Beyond the sentence- From words or terms, ESP teachers began to explore more
about the <special language=by engaging in rhetorical or discourse analysis.
 3. Target situation analysis – Later on, ESP teachers began to analyze the <end goal=of a
particular language class, i.e. <What should the learners be able to do after taking up
the ESP course?=

4. Skills and strategies – The focus of teaching has turned to the skills that learners
should develop and the strategies on how theses would be achieved.

5. Learning-centered approach – Most recently, ESP gave emphasis on how learning will
be attained and how learners will learn.

Topic 5: Language Issues in ESP

ESP is geared towards developing certain specific language skills necessary for
carrying out learner goals as opposed to English for general purposes, which
forward learning all the language skills.

A. Grammar in ESP - It is often said that ESP teaching is not concerned with
grammar. ESP practitioners claim that it is incorrect to consider grammar teaching
as outside the remit of ESP.

Key Grammatical Forms

 Verbs and tense
 Voice
 Modals
 Articles
 Nominalisation
 Logical connectors

B. Vocabulary in ESP - since ESP is founded on the belief that there is a

<specialized language= it follows that there are also <specialized vocabulary=
that, most often than not, are exclusive to a particular discipline or area.
Thus, Swales (1983) emphasizes the importance of the teaching of vocabulary in
ESP.

Researchers in ESP identify three (3) levels of vocabulary:

1. Technical/Specialist vocabulary - technical vocabulary consists of words or

terminologies that are exclusive to a particular discipline or field.

2. Semi-Technical and Core Business Vocabulary - Some terms that are present
in a particular discipline would tend to have a different definition in a different field.

3. General and non-academic - Despite being discipline-specific, ESP should still

give ample time in discussing general or <layman’s terms= because these play
 an important role in their understanding and learning.

C. Discourse and Genre Analysis - Dudley-Evans et.al. (1998 as cited in

Robinson, 1991) suggest that ESP needs a system of linguistic analysis that
demonstrates differences between texts and text types. They emphasize that
genre analysis may be used as a classificatory system, revealing the essential
differences between both the genre studied and other genres and also between
the various sub-genres. They further point out that genre analysis within ESP is
prescriptive, whereas register analysis is descriptive.
 The aim of discourse analysis, particularly the system of analysis of clause
relations in written text is to describe relations that are found in all texts. It is
concerned with similarities between texts.

Topic 6: Practical concerns in ESP

A. Needs Analysis – As mentioned above, one basic key feature of ESP is that it is
<bases on needs analysis=which means that ESP lessons are not just dictated by the
school but a result of careful study on what the students need. Bu what is <need=?
Needs may refer to:

 Study or job requirements

 Necessary
 What the learner need to do
 Personal aims
 <Lacks= (or what they don’t have)
There are three basic types of analysis that ESP course developer usually do:

 Target situation analysis – focuses on the needs of the learners at the end of the
language program.
 Present situation analysis – focuses on the level of the student’s language skills at the
start or the language program
 Pedagogic need analysis – focuses on the educational needs of the students such as
<What they lack=; <How they learn=; <What cultural differences do they have=

B. Syllabus- Syllabus design plays a very important role in ESP. Course designers should
carefully in plan the content to ensure that it includes what the learners needs and
excludes what learners don’t need. Similar to English for general purposes, there are
also a number oof different syllabus designs, such as the following.

1. Content-based syllabuses - <Content= has different meaning in syllabus design. It

may mean language form, language notion, language function, situation, or even
topic. One of the most famous innovations in the 1970s was the development of the
notional-functional syllabus, in which the basic units are notions or concepts (time,
space) or functions (greeting, asking, clarifying, etc.)
2. Skill-based syllabuses - <Language skills= in these types of syllabuses would usually
focus on a particular macro and micro-skill. Examples would be a course in writing
business letters or a course in presenting business reports.
3. Method-based syllabuses – There are two sub-categories of <method=namely:
 (a) Learning process, which focuses on the students’ preferences on language learning
and
(b) Task or procedure, which focuses on the class activities that students should do; in
this type, students understand the task and they do not act mechanically. This
means that each task is relevant and subject-specific.

C. Materials – In ESP, as it is in any language program, materials play a very vital role.
They should be carefully selected and designed to suit the needs of the learners. One
important characteristic of ESP materials is its <authenticity=.
 In EGP, <authentic= is defined as materials originally produces for a purpose
other than language teaching.
 In ESP authentic=materials are those that are normally used in the students’
workplace or academic environment.

In terms of <types=ESP materials may be divided into two, namely: content-bases

materials and competency-based materials.
 Content-based ESP materials are those that focus on language form,
language notion, language function, situation, or even topic. Thus, content-
based is more appropriate in EAP.
 On the other hand, Competency-based materials focus on the language
skills (cf. skills-based syllabus); thus, this is more appropriately applied in
EOP.

D. Evaluation – Similar with materials, evaluation processes are important to ESP too.
 Evaluation provides necessary information regarding the extend to which the
learner learnt.
 In ESP, testing is mostly performance-based, as opposed to the usual paper-
and-pencil test. Since testing in ESP focuses on the question <has the students
reached the level that he’s/she’s supposed to reach?=
 In relation to this, ESP tests are criterion-referenced because a student should
reach a particular level in order to pass the course. (This is contrary to EGP
tests, which are often norm-referenced.)
E. Classroom Practice – In terms of classroom practices or methodologies, a popular
question raised against ESP is <Is there a particular technique adopted by English
language teachers in the ESP classroom?= This question was raised by Sinha &
Sadorra (1991), and their answer is <no=. Although communicative language teaching
(CLT) is the most prevalent methodology, ESP courses are not limited to this.