ENGLISH FOR SPECIFIC PURPOSES

I. What does ESP mean?

In the advent of content-based language instruction and skills-based syllabus, more and more teachers have realized the
effectiveness and practicality of teaching what the students NEED and not what the syllabus or the curriculum dictates.
Hence, the birth of English for Specific Purposes. 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 learners, the language required and the learning context, and thus
establishes the primacy of NEED in ESP.

II. 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. Hence, the program should not be
geared towards a general approach to teaching the English language.
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?

III. 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, that is to
develop English in preparation for work or job (EOP) and improve language proficiency to survive and function better in a
higher academic setting (EAP). The table below shows the different types of ESP.

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

IV. Language Issues in ESP

A common area of criticism in ESP is on how language is treated in classes because 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. The following are some of the language areas that were questioned.

A. Grammar in ESP- There are many misconceptions about the role of grammar in ESP teaching. 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. How much priority is paid to grammatical
weakness depends on the learners’ level in English and whether priority needs to be given to grammatical
accuracy or to fluency in using the language.

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. These should be highly considered in ESP
classes because students would experience difficulties in understanding texts if they don’t
understand certain terms
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. These are categorized as
Semi-technical.
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.

V. Practical concerns in ESP

 A. Needs Analysis- As mentioned above, one basic key feature of ESP is that it is “based 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. But what is “needs”? Needs may refer to:
● Study or job requirements
● Necessary
● What the learner needs 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 students’ language skills at the start of the
language program
● Pedagogic needs 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 learner needs and excludes what learners don’t need. Similar to
English for general purposes, there are also a number of 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 (i.e. what
happens in the classroom is a negotiation between the teacher and the student) 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. Moreover, tasks are appropriate and meaningful (e.g. If students have to write a
letter of application in class, they know that writing is required in the process of application, and not
just a language practice activity.)

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 produced 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-based materials and competency-based
materials. In relation to previous discussions on syllabus design, 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 extent 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 student
reached the level that he’s/she’s supposed to reach?” there will be no better way to know this but through
“simulated” tests that compel students to perform. 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”. Indeed, this question has haunted language teachers,
in particular, ESP teachers. Although communicative language teaching (CLT) is the most prevalent
methodology, ESP courses are not limited to this.
Philipps as cited in Robinson (1991) suggests four key methodological principles, namely:

(a) reality control, which relates to the manner in which tasks are rendered accessible to students;
(b) non-triviality, i.e. the tasks must be meaningfully generated by the students’ special purpose;
(c) authenticity, i.e. the language must e naturally generated by the students’ special purpose; and
(d) tolerance of error, i.e. errors which do not impede successful communication must be tolerated.

Below is a list of some commonly used activities in an ESP program:

1. Role play and Simulation- Students assume a different role or a role that is present in their future work area.
For example, a student pilot may assume the role of the captain and give orders to his crew or report
coordinates to the air traffic control tower.
2. Case studies- This activity is common in business, medicine, and law. It involves studying the facts of a
real-life case, discussing the issues involved, and coming up with a decision or plan.
3. Project work- Here students work on a particular “project” which may include out of the class activities. Then,
students are expected to construct manuals, which explain how it works and/or discuss how their project was
made. This may be applicable to engineering students specifically to those who are in the field of robotics and
other innovative gadgets.
4. Oral presentations- Relevant to the activities above, students may present or even defend a particular product
or issue. Here, students are exposed to possible academic or work environment that they may face in the
future.

Other pertinent principles and issues in ESP methodology involve:

1. Knowledge for content- One problem in ESP is the language teacher’s mastery over content. Since the
teacher is a language major, it would be difficult for him or her to have mastery of the content. A usual
approach to address this issue is to team teach with a subject-matter expert

2. Teacher talk- Since ESP courses are communicative in nature, teachers are expected to be facilitators rather
than classroom authorities. Students should have more talk time instead of the teacher.

3. Learners’ cognitive and emotional involvement- Tasks and activities should make the students feel
“successful” at the end of the program. It should be noted that these students took the course to achieve a
certain degree of language proficiency. Thus, they should develop a positive outlook on the program, because
this will in turn affect their cognitive development.