English for Specific Purposes

English for Specific Purposes (ESP) is a subdiscipline of the general English Language Teaching (ELT) tree which emphasizes practical outcomes of a language instruction program (Dudley-Evans & St. John, 1998; Hutchinson & Waters, 1991). ESP should also be understood as an instructional methodology largely resulting from the recognition that since World War II, the English language has become a primary communications medium in business, science, education, and diplomacy (Hutchinson & Waters, 1991). English has become a key to the international global environment and is currently the primary language in which the vast majority of print publications of all types are written. Over two-thirds of the world's scientists read in English, 80 percent of the world's electronically information is in this language, and of the estimated 40 million users of the Internet, some 80 percent communicate in English (Crystal, 1995; Graddol, 1997).

Approximately 375 million people across the globe speak English as a first language, with a similar number speaking English as a second language, and about 750 million individuals speaking English as a foreign language (Crystal, 1977). It is believed that speakers of English as a second language will soon outnumber those who speak it as a first language (Graddol, 1997). Studies indicate that students across the world are aware of the growing importance of English proficiency for professional careers.

Related Essays

LEARNING & TEACHING BUSINESS ENGLISH WRITING .... English for Specific Purposes (Newletter), 36(Oregon State University), 1-6. Hutchinson, T., & Waters, A. (1987). .... English for Specific Purposes, 9, 33-48. .... (7028 28 )

Case Study Research Strategy .... Anthony, EM (1967). English for specific purposes - a lexical context. .... English for Specific Purposes, 21(1), 59-79. Brown, TP, & Lewiss, M. (2002). .... (8821 35 )

Eclectic Approach to Teaching English .... English Teaching Forum, XXV(2), 7-12. Phillips, MK (1981). Toward a Theory of LSP Methodology. In R. Mackay & JD Palmer (Eds.), Language for specific purposes. .... (4128 17 )

Selection of ESL Didactic Materials .... Myers, G. (1992). Textbooks and the Sociology of Scientific Knowledge. English for Specific Purposes, II, 3-17. Richards, J., Platt, J., & Platt, H. (1992). .... (1764 7 )

English as a Second Language .... English for specific purposes (or ESP), which focuses on developing language and communication skills needed for professional fields of study such as business .... (9630 39 )

in texts and specifying their linguistic needs in order to form the syllabus of an ESP course. Later, theory and practice in ESP shifted again to Needs Analysis or target situation analysis. Munby (1978) described this process as beginning with the individual learner or group of learners, moving to an investigation of the particular communication needs of the learner, and finally, the development of an ESP specification that indicates the target communicative competence of the participant. Kelliny (1994) affirmed that there are two types of needs that must be analyzed. Target needs consist of what the learner needs to do in the target situation, whereas learner needs address what the learner needs in order to learn. Needs analysis can therefore be product-oriented or process-oriented. Kelliny (1994) further contends that affective and variables mold the learning processes, the learners' entry behaviors, their linguistic competencies, and their expecting learning outcomes and language tasks. A next stage in the development of ESP emphasized study skills analysis described by Dudley-Evans and St. John (1998) as based on the idea that underlying all language use are common reasoning and interpreting processes that, regardle

Category: Psychology - E