ENSEÑANZA DE INGLES PARA FINES ESPECIFICOS

Name: María José Párraga García

Class: 8 A

Teacher: García Farfán Isabel

English for Specific Purposes (ESP)

The process of teaching English has changed through all this time. New methods
were created and also new focuses and needs were born as well. Long ago due to
cultural needs and globalization, it was necessary to create an English course that
teaches English according to the students’ needs. Nowadays, it is recognized the
importance of this courses and its studies to improve it have increased.

Belcher (2009) defines ESP as an approach in which the goal is to provide

language instruction according to the students’ own specific language learning
purposes. The commitment to this purpose is what differentiates it from other approach.
In simple words, an ESP course can be seen as a program focused in providing content
and material designed to fulfill the specific needs of the students. Putting an example, a
receptionist will have to learn specific vocabulary to deal with the client as well as the
necessary skills to communicate. These skills and vocabulary will not be acquired in a
general English course.

Now talking a bit about its history, how it emerged, it is known that ESP begins
after the Second World War, but it did not start as the ESP we know now. Johns (2013)
mentions that “the central focus of ESP research was English for science and
technology (EST) in academic contexts. In the first years, research tended to be
descriptive, involving statistical grammar counts within written discourses” (p. 7). As
we know, in those years the method most used was the grammar-translation method, so
it is not weird to think that it was also used in ESP courses.

We should add another important reason for the origin of ESP, English as a
universal language, after the World War countries like the United States gained more
economic power and this created a big influence on the other countries. For that reason,
people realized that it was important to learn English for specific needs. This also
created a revolution in linguistics and an education phycology based on the learners’
reasons for learning.

ESP has faced some problems in its development and its comprehension. Some
authors analyze the fact that it was considered as a product-based approach or a narrow
approach, and this conception of ESP limits the actual goals of this kind of courses. For
Laurence (2011) ESP is more based on “process-oriented skills like observing,
recording, and analyzing texts, which are likely to be more stable and highly valued
over the long term.” (p. 1). This is where the importance of ESP lays and as a personal
opinion, the nature of an ESP course and its role in society determines the undoubtful
importance that have for all the people that are in a situation where they need to use
English for specific needs.

The impact of ESP all around the world shows that this type of courses should
be more studied in order to create good courses with effective results that achieve the
goals that the learner need.
References

Belcher, D. (2009). What ESP is and can be: An introduction. English for specific
purposes in theory and practice, 1-20.

Johns, A. M. (2013). The history of English for specific purposes research. The

handbook of English for specific purposes, 5, 30.

Laurence, A. (2011). Products, processes and practitioners: A critical look at the

importance of specificity in ESP. Taiwan International ESP Journal, 3(2), 19-
50.