Stephen van Vlack
Sookmyung Women`s University
Graduate School of TESOL
English for Specific Purposes (ESP)
Spring 2006
Week 2 - ESP, Chapter 1 & Johns, Ann. (1991) - Answers
1. Where does ESP come from and why was it developed as a subfield within ELT?
ESP developed initially as a subfield within ELT largely because of a change in the status of English in the world. As pointed out in ESP the field all of English language teaching (ELT) was becoming overpopulated and people decided to do something different, but this is not really how the story of ESP came to pass. Really ESP came from ELT but differed from standard ELT in that it filled a particular need in learners. ESP is designed to fill highly specified goals for highly specified learners.
One thing it was learned fairly early on in the post-World War II era when ESP developed (and students of Discourse Analysis should be very aware of this) was that each different area of English use is different. Simple observation is that doctors need to use English differently than auto mechanics, engineers, or dancers. It might seem obvious that certainly different fields would each require their own jargon in the form of vocabulary, what is even more interesting is that they actually patterned their discourse differently according to different contexts and different functions for each job. This is where ESP and really begins to take off. As soon as discourse analysis arrived at an acceptable level than ESP becomes not only an acceptable field within ELT but actually becomes unnecessary addition to ELT.
2. What are the conditions that made the development of ESP possible?
The conditions that may ESP possible in the world, as briefly mentioned above, relate to the changing role of English in the world after the second world war. Although English had been a powerful language in the world for quite some time it was not until after the second world war when the relative power of English as opposed to all other language than the world achieved in extremely high level disparity. In the post-World War II world where it Europe was largely destroyed and only the United States was left intact as a developed country English was poised for a tremendous global expansion which of course is still occurring today.
Crystal (2003) lists ten major areas of world culture in which English plays a dominant role. These are listed below, but I am sure that we could certainly sit down and think of many more different areas in which English is also dominant.
1. International relations
The media
2. The press
3. Advertising
4. Broadcasting
5. Cinema
6. Popular music
7. International travel
8. International safety
9. Education
10. Communications
Crystal, D. (2003). English as a global language (2nd Edition). Cambridge: CUP, pp86-122.
Such global dominance for one particular language is completely unprecedented in history of the world and certainly the English language community was not ready initially for such a challenge, and we can argue is still facing this challenge very badly. ESP is virtually the only aspect of ELT which is directly facing this global challenge. English teachers and even English speaking countries seem to neglect the idea that English is not just something that people must know but it is actually something that people must do very specific things in. That is the essence of ESP and that is why ESP was created. If English had not become the global language that it now is, with a finger in every pie, then there is no need for ESP and for so many different subfield within ESP.
3. What are some of the subcategories of ESP?
There are many different subcategories of ESP and as new technologies and new fields of study are developed certainly new subcategories constantly enter the fold, but in general we can divide the subcategories of ESP into two larger groups. The first of these groups is English for vocational purposes (EVP). As the name implies these relate to different jobs in which English is required and of course in Korea nowadays it is hard to imagine almost any job and which English is not even required or we would certainly be welcome. The other major category in the ESP family is English for academic purposes (EAP). In the list above we can certainly see that English has become a dominant force in education not only in Korea but all over the world. One of the greatest challenges for English teachers is to give students the academic skills they need in English so that they can study further or become proficient in their fields of study.
It should also be knowledge that these subcategories certainly do overlap. A teacher, researcher, or university professor for example is going to need to have certain academic skills as part of their job. Likewise for people working in companies where in their job requires writing skills and skills that are more formalized than EAP is going to overlap again somewhat with EVP. These different subcategories are going to very according to the vocabulary that each subcategory employs, as well as the discourse patterns which and to be used in that subcategory or field. At design time however there may be similarities in the different skills needed for variant subcategories. Some are going to be more related to a heavy types of writing while others might relate to more communicative types of speaking endeavors and in this respect they will require similar skills whether they be certain writing skills or pronunciation skills or skills allowing the speakers to deal with specific types of contextual situations.
4. What are some of the main factors associated with ESP?
The main factors associated with ESP are simply the idea that it is highly specific and highly specific so that it can better serve the needs of the learners. In this respect it is hard to disassociate this question from the following question because it is certainly true that ESP has either forced ELT to change or that somehow the changes that occurred to ELT in relation to materials development in particular occurred concurrently with the development of ESP is a specific subfield all the ELT. The real key to ESP is its on unabashed focus on the learner. It is certainly true that within ELT lip service is often paid to the learner. Teachers talk about the learner centered classes and blah blah blah, but it often is really only lip service. The beauty of ESP is that in ESP cost can not be conducted at all without an all-encompassing focus on the learner. This focus on the learner is manifested in different ways including the things we will talk about in the next questions such as needs analysis, materials design, and authenticity. It is hard to say ESP forced ELT to adopt some of these ideas but it certainly help in getting these ideas accepted within a larger ELT community.
5. What are some of the main contributions ESP has made to language teaching in general?
In general but can think of three main contributions that ESP has made to language teaching overall. These are needs analysis, materials design, and authenticity. Since these are the central core of ESP and make perfect sense not only in ESP but in English-language teaching in general such considerations have had an effect on English language teaching. Because ESP is so learner centered it isn’t possible to do in ESP chorus without finding out specifically what it is that the learners need to actually do with the language. This is not the simple question of why are you learning English this involves finding out exactly how the learners use English in their environment be it work or study (And we will be perfectly honest here every Korean needs to use English. There are no exceptions among the students you teach.) and the problems they incur in trying to use English. That is how ESP defines needs analysis. It is quite different than what needs analysis has developed into an ELT, which is really just a mushy, touchy-feely blob of not very useful drivel. A needs analysis in ESP cuts right to the bones of the issue: what do you actually use English for and what problems do you have in trying to do so?. It is only after this needs analysis has been conducted that materials can be developed. Materials design must directly reflect the results of the needs analysis. If the needs analysis is not directly reflected in the materials design and there’s simply no point in doing a needs analysis or your needs analysis was not very good. In ESP it is impossible to separate the needs analysis from the materials design. The two are locked at the hip, and the head, and the ankle. Another driving force in ESP is the idea of authenticity. Since we are dealing with English use in real situations and not just some ridiculously vague idea of how English might be used in the future we need to use authentic models of how English is used in the same situations by proficient users of English. To use anything that is not authentic in an ESP teaching situation is simply a waste of time for the students. Why would you teach the students how to use language in ways which other people do not use the language? That would be utterly ridiculous.
It is easy to see how these three cornerstones of an ESP type program have affected the ELT but the main difference is that an ELT there would seem to be a compromise between how these three are actually implemented and used. In ESP there can be no compromise because if any of these is not present or well enough related to the any of the others then the course itself is going to be a damn mass and a far cry from the ESP ideal.