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Arab Academy for Science, Technology and Maritime Transport

College of Language and Communication

MA in ESP (Professional Track)

Course Title: Academic Research Writing

Course code: AP703

Term Paper

English for specific purposes (ESP) as a challenge to meet: Empirical studies at

higher education institutions in Indonesia

Presented to: Prof. Abeer Refky.

Prepared by: Amira F. Abo Sedaa

Registration No.: 2012506

February (2021)
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Table of contents

1. Introduction …………………………………………………………………………………………….……..………...3

2. Review of Literature…………………………………………………………………………………………………….4

2.1 English for Specific Purposes (ESP) background………………………………………….……………..…..4

2.2 Differences between ESP and English for General Purposes (EGP)………….………..…………..….7

2.2 Challenges of ESP teaching.……………………………………………………………………………………….…8

2.2.1 Challenges related to teachers…………………………………………………………………………….8

2.2.2. Challenges related to students…………………………………………………………………………..8

2.2.3. Challenges related to the learning environment and other issues……………………………9

3. Methods……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….9

4. Findings and discussion ……………………………………………………………………………………………….10

5. Conclusion………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….12

6. References…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………..14
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ABSTRACT: Along with the growth of English for ESP practice all over the world, it is

essential to investigate the challenges of ESP teaching. This paper is an attempt to discuss the

fundamental points such as potential challenges faced by ESP teachers and students at

different higher educational institutions in Indonesia. Some basic concepts of ESP: general

background about ESP development among the last forty years, and ESP teacher`s role are

discussed. Additionally, tasks of ESP teachers like course design, assessment, curriculum

design, and needs analysis are succinctly explained. The data of this qualitative study was

obtained through interviews with different ESP teachers in higher educational institutions. The

interview question was concerned with the knowledgeability in teaching related to subject-

specific contexts, appropriateness of ESP training in addition to students' response to ESP and

the classroom environment. The findings reveal the evident challenges encountered by ESP

teachers and recommend a policy to minimize those problems and improve the practice of ESP

teaching.

Keywords: Challenges, EGP, ESP, ESP teachers.

1. Introduction

In the trend of modernization and as a result of globalization, the demand for teaching and

learning English for specific purposes is rising widely. The idea of adopting ESP in classrooms at

universities could not be avoided. ESP is mostly designed to fulfill what learners need and what their

future careers demand. ESP has been developing since 1960 specifically, after the Second World

War. The concept of The Discourse Analysis in 1974 was just a start of the development process

followed by The Genre Analysis Approach that did not last for long due to several reasons which gave

space to the Analytical Approach to lead. Later on, the Target Situation Approach (TSA) and

Learning-centered Approaches were recognized as the most effective approaches. The process of

developing ESP is constant, ESP developers work on developing new approaches to help ESP

compete with other ESL branches.

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Teaching ESP has been a challenge for several reasons. Most ESP teachers are English for

General Purposes (EGP) teachers while teaching ESP requires knowledge in the specific field of the

study. The adoption of previously mentioned approaches in ESP classes presents numerous

challenges for ESP teachers, students, and other challenges that are related to the learning

environments and syllabus design.

This research was conducted as this growing field needs a close focus on the current status of

ESP. Researchers in Indonesia felt that ESP teachers are struggling to teach ESP because they are

not sufficiently trained. The research question of this study tackles several points such as the hardest

challenges faced by ESP teachers in higher educational institutions and their overall feedback about

this teaching experience. The findings can be used to encourage stakeholders and policymakers of

ESP in higher educational institutions to pay significate attention to ESP practice and development.

This research paper is outlined as follows: The literature review on the background of ESP

followed by ESP challenges faced by teachers, learners, and other challenges related to the learning

environment. Results are discussed along with the methodology employed in the paper and the paper

is finalized by the conclusion section and recommendations for further studies.

2. Review of literature

2.1 English for Specific Purposes (ESP) background

English for specific purposes (ESP) has been progressively growing since its beginning in the

1960s. As a consequence of globalization inspiration, it has become a key part of English as a Foreign

Language (EFL) teaching around the world. ESP has been formed based on a process that addresses

the needs of certain communities of learners and in the past forty years, for ESP to accomplish its

current status, different concepts have evolved.

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Authenticity has been the main concept behind ESP typology (Coffey, 1984). Due to the ESP

oriented focus, it exhibited some characteristics that differentiated ESP from English for General

Purpose (EGP) or English as a second language (ESL). A three-directional process began after the

Second World War to develop ESP. The prodigious need of people interested in learning English, not

for the pleasure of practicing it, but for its utility and efficiency in handling specific job-related

practices was the first direction to ESP development. The second direction was a linguistics

revolution which shifted specialist`s attention towards the communicational context rather than the

outdated formalist view on language. The last direction stressed the role of learners` needs and

interests that played a critical part in the development of future courses and syllabi.

At the early stages of ESP development, there was no differentiation between the language

content used for ESP and EGP. Several early ESP materials designers analyzed huge corpora of

specialized texts to establish the statistical contours of different registers. Ewer and Latorre (1967)

put it the following way: "To get an effective idea of what this basic language consisted of a frequency

analysis of the English used by scientific writers was required …. In subject, it covered ten main areas

of science and a large number of individual disciplines from anatomy to volcanology."

The Discourse Analysis Approach by then was a reaction of the register analysis. It focused on

the communicative value of discourse rather than the grammatical and lexical properties of register.

Allen and Widdowson (1974) set out the approach as follows: the ability to understand the rhetorical

function of language in use and the ability to recognize the formal devices used to combine sentences

to create proper passages. Accordingly, this approach focused on the way sentences are used in the

performance of acts of communication and developed materials based on function.

As expected, the discourse analysis approach came under attack for not being able to combine

these functions to make longer texts. "We are given few ideas of how these functions combine to

make longer texts." (Robinson, 1981). The Genre Analysis Approach came to make up for this
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shortcoming. This approach has dealt with any text as a total entity. This, as Johnson (1993) says,

can be achieved by looking for identifying the overall pattern of text through a series of stages or

moves. Unfortunately, genre analysis researches were hardly applied to pedagogy due to the

limitations of genre analysis.

In the mid-1970s, the Analytical Approach was to lead the way. Munby's model of needs

analysis (1978) established the place of needs as central to ESP yet the target situation for which

learners were being prepared has to be defined. Therefore, Chambers (1980) defined the Target

Situation Approach (TSA) as follows: " Needs analysis should be concerned with the formation of

communicative needs and their realizations, resulting from an analysis of the communication in the

target situation ".

Later, the Pedagogic Needs Analysis Approach came to support the TSA. According to (Swales,

1989), this approach has three types of analysis: deficiency analysis, strategy analysis, and means

analysis. The first has been concerned with what learners lack, the second has been concerned with

learner`s preferred learning styles and strategies and the last has been concerned with the

educational environment in which ESP courses take place.

Finally, Learning-centered Approaches took the lead. The attention to learner`s preferred

learning styles and strategies gave rise to this approach as a new generation of ESP materials based

on the conception of learning. The main concern now with language learning is not only language

use but also language learning. A valid approach to ESP has to be based on an understanding of the

processes of language learning." (Hutchinson and Waters, 1982). ESP has been presently taught all

over the world in universities and promoted by international corporations to enhance their

employee`s level of English.

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2.2 Differences between ESP and EGP.

The division between ESP and EGP within the English as a Foreign Language (EFL) is essential.

EGP has been considered as a broad foundation rather than a selective and comprehensive

specification of goals. In other words, it has been described as a “general purpose” or “English for

educational purposes” (EEG). In contrast, ESP has been considered as combined recognizable

activities within the broader professional framework of ELT.

The overlapping between ESP and EGP has created special features for each one of them. EGP

has focused on education with no prediction of students` needs while ESP has focused on training as

English is intended in a selection of appropriate content. Additionally, EGP and ESP have differed

not only in the nature of the learner but also in the aim of instruction. In fact, all four language skills

are stressed equally in EGP while in ESP, a needs analysis has to be done to determine which language

skills are most needed and the syllabus is tailored accordingly.

Learners and their purposes of learning have concerned ESP developers for long, In ESP

classes, learners are usually adults with proper knowledge of the English language and their main aim

is to learn the language to perform particular job-related functions. In EGP classes, the age of learners

varies, and the main subject of the class is learning English. EGP classes have concentrated on

teaching grammar and language structures. But in ESP the focus has been on the content as the

learning style is authentic.

ESP has become progressively important, there has been an increase in vocational training and

learning all over the world. Gradually, people are using English in a growing number of occupational

contexts; learners are starting to learn and master general English at a younger age to move on to

ESP. ESP evaluates needs and integrates motivation and content for the teaching of relevant skills.
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2.3 Challenges of ESP teaching

In comparison with teaching EGP, teaching ESP regularly posed a lot more challenges. As

emphasized by Luo and Garner (2017), “A novel approach concentrating on the use of language for

communication should be employed by ESP teachers”. Therefore, there were numerous researches

on the challenges faced in teaching ESP. This can be discussed on three main levels: challenges

related to teachers, challenges related to students, and challenges related to the learning

environment and process.

2.3.1. Challenges Related to Teachers

• According to ESP teachers, the first common problem they faced was the pronunciation of

certain words: this has always been an issue as sometimes students know the professional

vocabulary that teachers have no background about.

• The quality of lectures and textbooks has been an urgent matter: some teachers believe that

teaching vocabulary only is good enough for students while most of the materials are

designed to develop the four skills. Students, therefore, forget the learned vocabulary after

each exam as they were not introduced to them properly.

• ESP teachers` qualifications and teaching methods: ESP course titles didn`t match the

qualifications of ESP teachers, teachers might have been teaching Business English while

most of them have Masters in English Literature. Teachers also faced problems related to

course design, assignments, and teaching methods and due to lack of time, lessons are

sometimes ineffective as they are designed by unqualified teachers.

2.3.2. Challenges Related to Students

• According to Suzini et al. (2011), the students’ demand for ESP has not been met adequately,

as follows: Students expected their teachers to use traditional teaching methods, accordingly,

they are passive when they take ESP courses and as a result, many students gave up learning
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ESP as they could not remember or use ESP for their work.

• Students’ proficiency is different, and this harmed ESP teaching, for example, students from

towns have lower foreign language proficiency than those from cities.

• lack of vocabulary has been a significant issue for students. Students didn`t feel that they will

use the unfamiliar ESP vocabulary they have been introduced to, so they did not exert effort

to learn them as they are rarely used in their daily lives.

• Most ESP teachers could not motivate students enough to learn.

• Lack of skills in using the dictionary is also a common challenge: lack of special ESP terms

restricted the learning process as students depended mostly on the dictionary when they see

new terms that they cannot guess their meanings nor understand from the text.

2.3.3. Challenges related to the learning environment and other issues.

• Students number of ESP classes were up to 70-90, this has been the main obstacle in ESP

learning as most students` proficiency level varied massively, some students find ESP taught

in class either very easy or very hard compared to their knowledge therefore, they are not

motivated to study.

• Most ESP instructors have lacked technical facilities.

• Teaching ESP was mainly CD players while PowerPoint and electronic lessons were rarely

used. One more challenge was the quality of ESP documents, there were developed by

unspecialized teachers which made their quality very low.

• Students had limited knowledge of the textbook and that stopped them from expanding their

understanding.

3. Methods

This study employed a qualitative method from two different papers to explore the challenges

faced by ESP teachers. The participants of this study are ESP teachers in higher education

institutions in Muhammadiyah Malang, Indonesia, and Yogyakarta Province, Indonesia. The below

tables have been modified to suit this paper and unnecessary information like the ESP teacher`s
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gender and the university name has been removed. The unequal number of participants in the

following tables is due to the limited universities teaching ESP. As this study was qualitative, the

data were collected through interviews to construct multiple realities and gain insight and

understanding of some fundamental phenomena related to ESP practice. The interview questions

about the difficulties are taken as general feedback about ESP courses those teachers have taught.

Table 1.
The ESP teacher`s profile in Muhammadiyah Malang, Indonesia

Initials Status Qualifications Years of experience

TA Part-time Master of education policy 5
IBW Part-time Master of education policy 5
THS Part-time Master of English education 5
PE Part-time Bachelor of English education 4
KNW Full-time Bachelor of English education 4
ZE Part-time Master of education policy 3.5
HA Part-time Bachelor of English education 3
FM Part-time Master of English education 3
OR Full-time Bachelor of English education 3
SI Full-time Bachelor of English education 1.5
HDK Full-time Bachelor of English education 1.5
LR Full-time Bachelor of English education 1

Table 2.
The ESP teacher`s profile in Yogyakarta Province, Indonesia

Department Qualifications Years of

experience
Nursing Master`s program of English Language education 5+
Chemical Engineering Master`s program of Linguistics. 5+
Mechanical Engineering Master`s program of English Language education 5+
Geological Engineering Master`s program of English Language education 3 to 5
Nursing Master`s program of English Language education 3 to 5

4. Findings and discussion

This study reveals several findings, some of them are mentioned in the literature review and

the rest are new. The first emerge challenge found is ESP teacher`s perceived knowledge and

teaching competence in ESP teaching: ESP teachers lack knowledge of learners` discipline, which
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affects teacher`s anxiety. Some participants used expressions like “overwhelming” and “ difficult” to

describe their experience. Moreover, researchers have emphasized the importance of mastering

specialty knowledge on the way to be a professional ESP teacher (Bracaj, 2014; Maleki, 2008) in

addition to their teaching competency and English language proficiency. It`s recognized from the

feedback received from the ESP teachers that insufficient knowledge on the subject matter brings

negative feelings to teachers and this has a bad influence on the teaching-learning atmosphere.

Accordingly, a sufficient period should be given to ESP teachers before they start teaching ESP so

that they are well prepared.

The second aspect is the lack of training, the majority of the participants claimed that they did

not receive any ESP training before teaching. This unexpected act results in “confusion” as lamented

by many participants. This experience contrasts with Richards and Farrell (2005), who urged that

training should be aimed to fulfill the institution’s needs and teacher’s needs. Training for ESP

teachers should aim to enhance teacher`s knowledge and understanding of the different

methodologies of teaching to equip them with the required knowledge on the subject matter.

The next challenge is the lack of proper needs analysis. It was admitted by all participants that

their institutions have not conducted proper needs analysis which led to giving unrealistic teaching

material and syllabus to ESP teachers. ESP teachers admitted that they had to select materials by

themselves without their institution`s involvement. The absence of needs analysis results in

uneducated students as the main aim of the courses are not clear. It is worth mentioning that it is

not easy to gather information from students to identify their needs yet when it’s done systematically,

it can create a proper guideline for ESP syllabus designers and teachers. This matter needs to be

seriously considered, the decision to run ESP programs without needs analysis is mainly happening

because of those who are in charge of the department or program coordinators.

The following challenge is considered with the classroom condition. As mentioned in the

literature review, most ESP teachers acknowledged that ESP classes are having a large number of
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students. Harmer (2001), states that large classes expose challenges that are not found in smaller

classes. One main reason behind this challenge, which is the financial state of the institution, the

more teachers are hired, the higher cost they will take. On the other hand, some instructors admitted

that the financial status is not the only controller of this situation, the mismanagement is one other

reason behind the large number of students in ESP classes. The Lack of principal knowledge on

managing a foreign language class will consequence in treating ESP classes similarly to other

subjects in which a large number of students is manageable. This condition will defiantly affect the

learning outcomes as it limits the teacher`s options in choosing proper classroom activities and

decrease the possibility of having individual work.

One common challenge that most of the participants voiced is learners having various English

abilities. Student`s mixed abilities have created a noticeable gap in the learning process. The main

cause of this gab is the absence of placement tests and unfortunately, the reason behind this has

nothing to do with students or ESP teachers, it is completely related to the institute`s management

and the program coordinators. Placement tests are costly and require a lot of admin work and

preparation. One more reason is that it is very hard to find a suitable measurement instrument for

ESP classes.

5. Conclusion

Finally, in comparison with teaching EGP, teaching ESP poses a lot more challenges. Focusing

on the specific needs of the learners, thinking more on language in context, preparing a suitable class

environment, and considering students’ need to acquire a set of professional skills and certain job-

related functions, ESP persists to be a major testing experience for all teachers in charge of it. Even

though it is known as a learning-centered approach, this fact requiring the combined effort of both,

teachers, and learners. The emphasis on learners’ needs and objectives and learning autonomy does

not weaken the role of the teachers; in contrast, they need to subject themselves to a nonstop process

of adaptation and evaluation to meet the requirements imposed by the subject they are teaching.
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ESP teachers need to design courses keeping in mind the nature of the particular target and learning

situations they are to deal with, at the same time juggling professionally with the obligations imposed

by working with enormous heterogeneous classes.

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6. References

Allen, P., Widdowson, H. G., 1974. Teaching the communicative use of English. Review of Applied
Linguistics XII (1), 19-29.

Allwright, R., 1982. Perceiving and pursuing learners' needs. In: Geddes, M., Sturtridge, G. (Eds.),
Individualization. Modern English Publications, Oxford, PP. 24-31.

Bracaj, M. (2014). Teaching English for Specific Purposes and teacher training.

Chambers, F., 1980. A re-evaluation of needs analysis in ESP. ESP Journal 1 (1), 25-33.

Coffey, B., 1984. State of the art: English for Specific Purposes. Language Teaching 17 (1), 2-16.

Ewer, J., Latorre, G., 1967. Preparing an English course for students of science. Language Teaching
XXI (3), 221-229.

Harmer, J. (2001). The practice of English language teaching (3rd ed.). Longman Education Limited.

H.G. Widdowson. Learning Purpose and Language Use. Oxford University Press 1983.

Iswati, L., & Triastuti, A. (2021). Voicing the challenges of ESP teaching: Lessons from ESP in non-
English departments. Studies in English Language and Education, 8(1), 276- 293.

Johnson, C., 1993. State of the art: Business English. Language Teaching 26, 201-209.

Luo, J., & Garner, M. (2017). The challenges and opportunities for English teachers in teaching ESP
in China. Journal of Language Teaching and Research, 8(1), 81- 86.

Maleki, A. (2008). ESP teaching: A matter of controversy. ESP World, 7(1(17)), 1-21.

Munby, J., 1978. Communicative Syllabus Design. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.

Richards, J. C., & Farrell, T. S. C. (2005). Professional development for language teachers.
Cambridge University Press.
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Robinson, P., 1981. The contribution of discourse analysts to ESP and ESP practitioners to Discourse
analysis. ELT Documents 112, 53-57

Suzani, S. M., Yar Mohammadi, L., & Yamini, M. (2011). A critical review of the current situation of
teaching ESP in the Iranian higher education institutions. The Iranian EFL Journal, 7(6), 179-
204.

Swales, J., 1989. Service English programs design and opportunity cost. In: Johnson, R. (Eds.), The
Second Language Curriculum. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, PP. 79-80