4. Commercial interests produced
other phrase books and
polyglot dictionaries to cope
with merchant needs of
learning languages for
acquiring survival knowledge
for buying and selling.
5. Learning Languages has
been regarded more as a
matter of prestige and
pleasure than as a
necessity to get a job.
6. The end of the second World War was
in 1945 signaled an expansion in
scientific, technical and economic activity
on an international scale.
The effect was to create a whole new
mass of people wanting to learn English,
not for pleasure or prestige of knowing
the language, but because was the Key to
international currencies of technology
and commerce.
7. A knowledge of a foreign language
had been generally regarded as a sign
of a well rounded education.
But as a English became the
accepted international language of
technology and trade, it created a new
generation of learners who knew
specifically why they were learning
language.
8. This development was accelerated by
the oil crises of the early 1970’s.
The general effect of all this
development was to exert pressure on the
language teaching profession to deliver
the required goods. English had
previously decided its’ own destiny, it now
became subject to the wishes, needs and
demands of people others than language.
12. In Japan, the ESP movement has
shown a slow but definite growth over
the few years.
MOMBOSHO’s decision in 1994
This has led to a rapid growth
in English courses aimed to specific
disciplines, (e.g. English for Chemists,
in place of the more traditional
General English.)