English for specific purposes

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Jump to: navigation, search English for Specific Purposes (ESP), not to e confused !ith speciali"ed English, is a sphere of teaching English language including #usiness English, $echnical English, Scientific English, English for medical professionals, English for !aiters, English for tourism, English for %rt Purposes, etc&'() %viation English as ESP is taught to pilots, air traffic controllers and civil aviation cadets !ho are going to use it in radio communications&'*) ESP can e also considered as an avatar of language for specific purposes&'+)

Definition of ESP
Absolute characteristics
(& ESP is defined to meet specific needs of the learners( ,aslo!-s .ierarchy of needs) *& ESP makes use of underlying methodology and activities of the discipline it serves& +& ESP is centered on the language appropriate to these activities in terms of grammar, le/is, register, study skills, discourse and genre&

Variable characteristics
(& ESP may e related to or designed for specific disciplines *& ESP may use, in specific teaching situations, a different methodology from that of 0eneral English +& ESP is likely to e designed for adult learners, either at a tertiary level institution or in a professional !ork situation& 1t could, ho!ever, e for learners at secondary school level 2& ESP is generally designed for intermediate or advanced students& 3& ,ost ESP courses assume some asic kno!ledge of the language systems

Teaching
ESP is taught in many universities of the !orld& ,any professional associations of teachers of English ($ES45, 1%$EF5) have ESP sections& ,uch attention is devoted to ESP course design&'2)'3) ESP teaching has much in common !ith English as a Foreign or Second 5anguage and English for %cademic Purposes (E%P)& 6uickly developing #usiness English can e considered as part of a larger concept of English for Specific Purposes&

English for Specific Purposes: What does it mean? Why is it different? Laurence Anthony Dept. of Information and Computer Engineering, Faculty of Engineering Okayama University of Science, 1 1 !idai c"o, Okayama #$$, %apan ant"ony &at& ice.ous.ac.'p (& 0ro!th of ESP From the early (789-s, English for Specific Purposes (ESP) has gro!n to ecome one of the most prominent areas of EF5 teaching today& 1ts development is reflected in the increasing num er of universities offering an ,% in ESP (e&g& $he :niversity of #irmingham, and %ston :niversity in the :;) and in the num er of ESP courses offered to overseas students in English speaking countries& $here is no! a !ell<esta lished international =ournal dedicated to ESP discussion, >English for Specific Purposes: %n international =ournal>, and the ESP S10 groups of the 1%$EF5 and $ES45 are al!ays active at their national conferences& 1n Japan too, the ESP movement has sho!n a slo! ut definite gro!th over the past fe! years& 1n particular, increased interest has een spurred as a result of the ,om usho-s decision in (772 to largely hand over control of university curriculums to the universities themselves& $his has led to a rapid gro!th in English courses aimed at specific disciplines, e&g& English for ?hemists, in place of the more traditional -0eneral Englishcourses& $he ESP community in Japan has also ecome more defined, !ith the J%?E$ ESP S10 set up in (778 (currently !ith *@ mem ers) and the J%5$ A<S10 to e formed shortly& Finally, on Aovem er @th this year the ESP community came together as a !hole at the first Japan ?onference on English for Specific Purposes, held on the campus of %i"u :niversity, Fukushima Prefecture& *& What is ESPB %s descri ed a ove, ESP has had a relatively long time to mature and so !e !ould e/pect the ESP community to have a clear idea a out !hat ESP means& Strangely, ho!ever, this does not seem to e the case& 1n 4cto er this year, for e/ample, a very heated de ate took place on the $ESP<5 e<mail discussion list a out !hether or not English for %cademic Purposes (E%P) could e considered part of ESP in general& %t the Japan ?onference on ESP also, clear differences in ho! people interpreted the meaning of ESP could e seen& Some people descri ed ESP as simply eing the teaching of English for any purpose that could e specified& 4thers, ho!ever, !ere more precise, descri ing it as the teaching of English used in academic studies or the teaching of English for vocational or professional purposes& %t the conference, guests !ere honored to have as the main speaker, $ony Cudley<Evans, co<editor of the ESP Journal mentioned a ove& Dery a!are of the current confusion amongst the ESP community in Japan, Cudley<Evans set out in his one hour speech to clarify the meaning of ESP, giving an e/tended definition of ESP in terms of -a soluteand -varia le- characteristics (see elo!)& Cefinition of ESP (Cudley<Evans, (77E)

% solute ?haracteristics (& ESP is defined to meet specific needs of the learners *& ESP makes use of underlying methodology and activities of the discipline it serves +& ESP is centered on the language appropriate to these activities in terms of grammar, le/is, register, study skills, discourse and genre& Daria le ?haracteristics (& ESP may e related to or designed for specific disciplines *& ESP may use, in specific teaching situations, a different methodology from that of 0eneral English +& ESP is likely to e designed for adult learners, either at a tertiary level institution or in a professional !ork situation& 1t could, ho!ever, e for learners at secondary school level 2& ESP is generally designed for intermediate or advanced students& 3& ,ost ESP courses assume some asic kno!ledge of the language systems $he definition Cudley<Evans offers is clearly influenced y that of Strevens ((7@@), although he has improved it su stantially y removing the a solute characteristic that ESP is >in contrast !ith -0eneral English-> (Johns et al&, (77(: *7@), and has included more varia le characteristics& $he division of ESP into a solute and varia le characteristics, in particular, is very helpful in resolving arguments a out !hat is and is not ESP& From the definition, !e can see that ESP can ut is not necessarily concerned !ith a specific discipline, nor does it have to e aimed at a certain age group or a ility range& ESP should e seen simple as an -approach- to teaching, or !hat Cudley<Evans descri es as an -attitude of mind-& $his is a similar conclusion to that made y .utchinson et al& ((7@E:(7) !ho state, >ESP is an approach to language teaching in !hich all decisions as to content and method are ased on the learner-s reason for learning>& +& 1s ESP different to 0eneral EnglishB 1f !e agree !ith this definition,, !e egin to see ho! road ESP really is& 1n fact, one may ask -What is the difference et!een the ESP and 0eneral English approachB.utchinson et al& ((7@E:3+) ans!er this Fuite simply, >in theory nothing, in practice a great deal>& When their ook !as !ritten, of course, the last statement !as Fuite true& %t the time, teachers of 0eneral English courses, !hile ackno!ledging that students had a specific purpose for studying English, !ould rarely conduct a needs analysis to find out !hat !as necessary to actually achieve it& $eachers no!adays, ho!ever, are much more a!are of the importance of needs analysis, and certainly materials !riters think very carefully a out the goals of learners at all stages of materials production& Perhaps this demonstrates the influence that the ESP approach has had on English teaching in general& ?learly the line et!een !here 0eneral English courses stop and ESP courses start has ecome very vague indeed& Gather ironically, !hile many 0eneral English teachers can e descri ed as using an ESP approach, asing their sylla i on a learner needs analysis and their o!n specialist kno!ledge of using English for real communication, it is the ma=ority of so<called ESP

teachers that are using an approach furthest from that descri ed a ove& 1nstead of conducting intervie!s !ith specialists in the field, analy"ing the language that is reFuired in the profession, or even conducting students- needs analysis, many ESP teachers have ecome slaves of the pu lished te/t ooks availa le, una le to evaluate their suita ility ased on personal e/perience, and un!illing to do the necessary analysis of difficult specialist te/ts to verify their contents& 2& $he Future of ESP 1f the ESP community hopes to gro! and flourish in the future, it is vital that the community as a !hole understands !hat ESP actually represents& 4nly then, can ne! mem ers =oin !ith confidence, and e/isting mem ers carry on the practices !hich have rought ESP to the position it has in EF5 teaching today& 1n Japan in particular, ESP is still in its infancy and so no! is the ideal time to form such a consensus& Perhaps this can stem from the Cudley<Evans- definition given in this article ut 1 suspect a more rigorous version !ill e coming soon, in his ook on ESP to e pu lished in (77@& 4f course, interested parties are also strongly urged to attend the ne/t Japan ?onference on ESP, !hich is certain to focus again on this topic& 3& Geferences Cudley<Evans, $ony ((77@)& Cevelopments in English for Specific Purposes: % multi< disciplinary approach& ?am ridge :niversity Press& (Forthcoming) .utchinson, $om H Waters, %lan ((7@E)& English for Specific Purposes: % learner< centered approach& ?am ridge :niversity Press& Johns, %nn ,& H Cudley<Evans, $ony ((77()& English for Specific Purposes: 1nternational in Scope, Specific in Purpose& $ES45 6uarterly *3:*, *7E<+(2& Strevens, P& ((7@@)& ESP after t!enty years: % re<appraisal& 1n ,& $ickoo (Ed&), ESP: State of the art ((<(+)& SE%,E4 Gegional 5anguage ?entre&