The Origins of ESP

  
  Notably, there are three reasons common to the emergence of all ESP: the demands of a Brave New
World, a revolution in linguistics, and focus on the learner (Hutchinson & Waters, 1987).Hutchinson and
Waters (1987) note that two key historical periods breathed life into ESP. First, the end of the Second
World War brought with it an " ... age of enormous and unprecedented expansion in scientific, technical
and economic activity on an international scale · for various reasons, most notably the economic power
of the United States in the post-war world, the role [of international language] fell to English". Second,
the Oil Crisis of the early 1970s resulted in Western money and knowledge flowing into the oil-rich
countries. The language of this knowledge became English.

The general effect of all this development was to exert pressure on the language teaching profession to
deliver the required goods. Whereas English had previously decided its own destiny, it now became
subject to the wishes, needs and demands of people other than language teachers (Hutchinson &
Waters, 1987, ).

The second key reason cited as having a tremendous impact on the emergence of ESP was a revolution
in linguistics. Whereas traditional linguists set out to describe the features of language, revolutionary
pioneers in linguistics began to focus on the ways in which language is used in real communication.
Hutchinson and Waters (1987) point out that one significant discovery was in the ways that spoken and
written English vary. In other words, given the particular context in which English is used, the variant of
English will change. This idea was taken one step farther. If language in different situations varies, then
tailoring language instruction to meet the needs of learners in specific contexts is also possible. Hence,
in the late 1960s and the early 1970s there were many attempts to describe English for Science and
Technology (EST). Hutchinson and Waters (1987) identify Ewer and Latorre, Swales, Selinker and Trimble
as a few of the prominent descriptive EST pioneers.

The final reason Hutchinson and Waters (1987) cite as having influenced the emergence of ESP has less
to do with linguistics and everything to do psychology. Rather than simply focus on the method of
language delivery, more attention was given to the ways in which learners acquire language and the
differences in the ways language is acquired. Learners were seen to employ different learning strategies,
use different skills, enter with different learning schemata, and be motivated by different needs and
interests. Therefore, focus on the learners' needs became equally paramount as the methods employed
to disseminate linguistic knowledge. Designing specific courses to better meet these individual needs
was a natural extension of this thinking.

THE ORIGIN AND DEVELOPMENT OF ESP

Discussion 1 by UMG Students (Group A):
THE ORIGIN AND DEVELOPMENT OF ESP
I. Introduction

1.1. The definition of ESP

ESP has had a relatively long time to mature and so we would expect the ESP community to have a
clear idea about what ESP means. Strangely, however, this does not seem to be the case. In October
this year, for example, a very heated debate took place on the TESP-L e-mail discussion list about
whether or not English for Academic Purposes (EAP) could be considered part of ESP in general. At the
Japan Conference on ESP also, clear differences in how people interpreted the meaning of ESP could be
seen. Some people described ESP as simply being the teaching of English for any purpose that could be
specified. Others, however, were more precise, describing it as the teaching of English used in
academic studies or the teaching of English for vocational or professional purposes.
At the conference, guests were honored to have as the main speaker, Tony Dudley-Evans, co-editor of
the ESP Journal mentioned above. Very aware of the current confusion amongst the ESP community in
Japan, Dudley-Evans set out in his one hour speech to clarify the meaning of ESP, giving an extended
definition of ESP in terms of 'absolute' and 'variable' characteristics (see below).

Definition of ESP (Dudley-Evans, 1997)

1.2. Absolute Characteristics

1. ESP is defined to meet specific needs of the learners

2. ESP makes use of underlying methodology and activities of the discipline it serves
3. ESP is centered on the language appropriate to these activities in terms of grammar, lexis, register,
study skills, discourse and genre.

1.3. Variable Characteristics

1. ESP may be related to or designed for specific disciplines

2. ESP may use, in specific teaching situations, a different methodology from that of General English
3. ESP is likely to be designed for adult learners, either at a tertiary level institution or in a
professional work situation. It could, however, be for learners at secondary school level
4. ESP is generally designed for intermediate or advanced students.
5. Most ESP courses assume some basic knowledge of the language systems

The definition Dudley-Evans offers is clearly influenced by that of Strevens (1988), although he has
improved it substantially by removing the absolute characteristic that ESP is "in contrast with 'General
English'" (Johns et al., 1991: 298), and has included more variable characteristics. The division of ESP
into absolute and variable characteristics, in particular, is very helpful in resolving arguments about
what is and is not ESP. From the definition, we can see that ESP can but is not necessarily concerned
with a specific discipline, nor does it have to be aimed at a certain age group or ability range. ESP
should be seen simple as an 'approach' to teaching, or what Dudley-Evans describes as an 'attitude of
mind'. This is a similar conclusion to that made by Hutchinson et al. (1987:19) who state, "ESP is an
approach to language teaching in which all decisions as to content and method are based on the
learner's reason for learning".

II. CONTENT

2.1. THE ORIGIN OF ESP

2.1.1 The Demands of a brave new world

The end of the Second World War in 1945 heralded an age of enormous and unprecedented expansion
in scientific, technical and economic activity on an international scale. This expansion created a world
unified and dominated by two forces – technology and commerce – which in their relentless progress
soon generated a demand for international language.
The effect was to create a whole new mass of people wanting to learn English, not for the pleasure or
prestige of knowing the language, but because English was the key to the international currencies of
technology and commerce. The general effect of all this development was to exert pressure on the
language teaching profession to deliver the required goods.
2.1.2 A Revolution in Linguistic

At the same time as the demand was growing for English courses tailored to specific needs, influential
new ideas began to emerge in the study of language. Traditionally the aim of linguistic had been to
describe the rule of English usage that is the grammar. However, the new studies shifted attention
away from defining the formal features of language usage to discovering the ways in which language is
actually used in real communication (Widdowson, 1978). One finding of this research was that the
language we speak and write varies considerably, and in a number of different ways, from one context
to another. The idea was simple if language varies from one situation of use to another; it should be
possible to determine the features of specific situation and than make these features the basis of the
learners’ course.
In short, the view gained ground that the English needed by a particular group of learners could be
identified by analyzing the linguistic characteristics of their specialist area of a work or study.

2.1.3 Focus on the Learner

Learners were seen to have different needs and interest which would have an important influent on
their motivation to learn and therefore on the effectiveness of their learn. The clean relevance of the
English course to their needs would improve the learners’ motivation and thereby make learning better
and faster.

2.2 THE DEVELOPMENT OF ESP

ESP has develop at different speeds in different countries, and example of all the approaches we shall
describe can be found operating somewhere in the world at the present time.

2.2.1. The concept of special language: register analysis

This stage took place mainly in the 1960s and early 1970s and was associated in particular with the
work of Peter Strevens (Halliday Melcintosh and Stevens, 1964), Jack Ewer ( Ewer and Lattore, 1969)
and John Swales (1971).
Operating on the basic principle that the English of, say, electrical engineering constituted as specific
register different from that of, say, biology or of general English, the aim of the analysis was to
identify the grammatical and lexical future of these registers. Teaching materials then took these
linguistic features as their syllabus. A good example of such a syllabus is that of A Course in Basic
Scientific English by Ewer and Latorre (1969).

The aim was to produce a syllabus which gave high priority to the language forms students would need
in their. Sciences studies and in turn would give low priority to forms they would not meet. Ewer and
Hughes-Davies (1971).

2.2.2. Beyond the sentence: rhetorical or discourse analysis

ESP had focused on language at the sentence level, the second phase of development shifted attention
to the level about the sentence, as ESP become closely involved with the emerging field of discourse or
rhetorical analysis.

2.2.3. Target Situation Analysis.

The stage that we come to consider now did not really add anything new to the range of knowledge
about ESP. What it aimed to do was to take the existing knowledge and set it on a more scientific
basis, by establishing procedures for relating language analyzing more closely to learners’ reasons for
learning. Given that the purpose of an ESP course is to enable learners to function adequately in a
target situation, that is, the situation in which learners will use the language they are learning, then
the ESP course design process should proceed by first identifying the target situation and then carrying
out a rigorous analysis of the linguistic features of that situation. The identified features will form the
syllabus of the ESP course. This process is usually known as need analysis. However, we prefer to take
Chambers’ (1980) term of target situation analysis, since it is a more accurate description of the
process concerned.

The most thought explanation of target situation analysis is the system set out by John Munby in
communicative Syllabus Design (1978). The Munby model produces a detailed profile of the learners
needs in terms of communication purposes, communicative setting, the means of communication,
language skills, functions, structures etc.

2.2.4. Skills and Strategies

The fourth stage of ESP has seen an attempt to look below the surface and to consider not the
language itself but the thinking processes that underlie language use. There is no dominant figure in
this movement, although we might mention the work of Francoise Grellent (1981).

The principal idea behind the skills centered approach is that underlying all language use there are
common reasoning interpreting processes, which, regardless of surface forms, enable us to extract
meaning form discourse. There is, therefore, no need to focus closely to the surface forms of the
language. The focus should rather be on the underlying interpretive strategies, which enable the
learner to cope with the surface forms, for example guessing the meaning of words from context, using
visual lay out to determine the type of text, exploiting cognates (i.e. words which are similar in the
mother tongue and the target language) etc. A focus on specific subject registers in unnecessary in this
approach, because the underlying processes are not specific to any subject registers.

2.2.5. A learning-centered approach

Our concern is with language learning. We can not simply assume that describing and exemplifying
what people do with language will enable someone to learn it. A truly valid approach to ESP must be
based on an understanding of the processes of language learning.
The important and the implications of the distinction that we have made between language use and
language learning.

III. CONCLUSION

In this section we have identified the main factors in the origins of ESP and given a brief overview of its
development. We have note that the linguistic factor has tended to dominate this development with an
emphasis on the analysis of the nature of specific varieties of language use. Probably this have been a
necessary stage, but now there is a need for a wider view that focuses less of differences and more on
what various specialism have in common is that they are all primarily concerned with communication
and learning. ESP should properly be seen not as any particular language product but as an approach to
language teaching which is directed by specific and apparent reason for learning.

REFRENCES

1. http//www.esp journal.com
2. Wilkins,D.A.,National Syllabuses,Oxford University Press,1976
3. Swales,J.,Writing Sientific English, Nelson,1971
4. Carver, D. (1983). Some propositions about ESP.
5. The ESP Journal, 2, 131-137.Dudley-Evans, T. & St. John, M. (1998).
6. Developments in ESP: A multi-disciplinary Approach.
7. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
8. Gatehouse, K. (2001). Key issues in English for specific purposes (ESP) Curriculum. The Internet TESL
Journal, 7,1-11.

Questions
1. What is the definition of ESP?
2. Mention the three absolute characteristic of ESP?
3. ESP is centered on the language that is appropriate with?
4. What is the definition of ESP according to the Dudley-Evans?
5. Mention the variable characteristics of ESP?
6. What is the definition of ESP according to Thu Hutchinson?
7. What is the general effect of the demand of a brave new world?
8. What about English?
9. What is the aim of linguistics?
10. What is the idea of development of English courses for specific group of learners?
11. what will make the learners’ motivation and learning better and faster improve?
12. Beyond the sentence, rhetorical or discourse analysis, ESP had focused on what?
13. What is target situation analysis?
14. Why the target situation analysis approach didn’t really change?
15. What is the principle idea behind the skills centered approach?

ANSWERS
1. The teaching of English used in academic studies or teaching of English for vocational or professional
purposes.
2. a. ESP is defined to meet specific needs of the learners.
b. ESP makes use of underlying methodology and activities of the discipline it serves.
c. ESP is centered on the language appropriate to these activity in terms of grammar, lexis, register,
study skills, discourse, and genre.
3. Grammar, lexis, register, study skills, discourse, and genre.
4. ESP is giving an extended definition of ESP in terms of absolute and variable characteristic.
5. a. ESP may be related to or designed for specific disciplines.
b. ESP may use in specific teaching situations.
c. ESP is likely to be designed for adult learners, a tertiary level institution or in professional work
situation.
d. ESP is generally designed for immediate or advanced students.
e. Most ESP courses assume some basics knowledge of the language systems
6. ESP is an approach to language teaching in which all decisions as to content and method are based
on the learner’s reason for learning.
7. Exert pressure on the language teaching profession to deliver required good.
8. English had became accountable to the security of the wider world and traditional leisurely and
purpose free stroll through the landscape of the English language seemed no longer appropriate in the
harsher realities of the market place.
9. The aim of linguistic is to discovering the ways in which language is actually used in real
communication.
10. Language varies from one situation to another, it should be possible to determine the features of
specific situation.
11. The learners’ motivation and learning become better and faster will improve with the clean
relevance of the English course to their needs.
12. ESP had focused on language at the sentence level and the second phase of development shifted
attention to the level about the sentence.
13. Target situation analysis is a detailed profile of the learners needs in term of communication
purposes, communicative setting, the means of communication, language skill, functions, structures,
etc.
14. Because in its analysis of learner need. It still looked mainly at the surface linguistics features of
the target situation.
15. The principle idea behind the skills centered approach is that underlying all language use there are
common reasoning interpreting processes which regardless off surface form, enable us to extract
meaning form discourse.