English for Specific Purposes

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Lecture 5
Dr. Hameed Al-ZubeiryESP
- Language-centred Course Design
- Skills-centred Course Design
- A Learning-centred Course Design
Approaches to ESP Course Design

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Three Main Approaches to ESP
Course Design
Dr. Hameed Al-ZubeiryESP
1) Language-centred Course Design:
- is the simplest kind of course design process
- is most familiar to English Teachers;
- aims to draw as direct connections as possible between the
analysis of the target situation and the content of ESP
course.

3. 3
Dr. Hameed Al-ZubeiryESP
Model of Language-centred Approach
to Course Design
NOTE: Though this approach is logical and straightforward, it
fails to recognise the fact that learners are people and learning is not
a straightforward process.

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Dr. Hameed Al-ZubeiryESP
2) Skills-centred Course Design:
- Emerged in response to the students’ need to read
subject texts in English, because they are unavailable in
the mother tongue.
- a number of ESP projects have been set up with specific
aim of developing the students’ ability to read in English.
- Skills-centred course design is based on two fundamental
principles: Theoretical and pragmatic

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Dr. Hameed Al-ZubeiryESP
1) Theoretical hypothesis
- states that underlying any language behaviour are certain
skills and strategies, which the learner uses in order to
produce or comprehend discourse;
- aims to get away from the surface performance data and
look at the competence that underlies the performance.
Example from a Brazilian ESP syllabus for Library science students:

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Dr. Hameed Al-ZubeiryESP
1) Pragmatic hypothesis
- derived from a distinction made by Widdowson (1981)
between goal-oriented courses and process-oriented
courses. Holmes (1982) points out that:
“In ESP the main problem is usually one of the time available and
student experience. First, the aims may be defined in terms of what is
desirable. –i.e. to be able to read in the literature of the students’
specialism but, there may be nowhere near enough time to reach this
aim during the period of this course. Secondly, the students may be in
their first year of studies with little experience of literature of their
specialism. Accordingly, both this factors.. May be constraints which say
right from the start, “the aims cannot be achieved during the

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Dr. Hameed Al-ZubeiryESP
- The emphasis in the ESP course, then, is not achieving a
particular set of goals, but on enabling the learners to achieve
what they can within the given constraints;
- The process oriented approach is at least realistic in
concentrating on strategies and processes of making students
aware of their own abilities and potential, and motivating them
to tackle target texts on their own after the end of the course,
so that they can continue to improve..”

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Theoretical
views of
language
Identify target
situation
Analyze skills/ strategies
required to cope in target
situation
Write syllabus
Theoretical
views of
learning
Select text and write
exercises to focus on
skills/strategies in syllabus
Establish evaluation procedure
which require the use of
skill/strategies in syllabus
Dr. Hameed Al-ZubeiryESP

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3) A Learning-centred Approach
- based on the principle that learning is totally determined by the
learner. As teachers we can influence what we teach, but what
learners learn is determined by the learners alone;
-learning is seen as a process in which the learners use what
knowledge or skills they have in order to make sense of the flow of
new information;
-learning, therefore, is an internal process which is crucially
dependent upon the knowledge the learners already have and their
ability and motivation to use it;
-learning is not just a mental process, it is a process of negotiation
between individuals and society.

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Dr. Hameed Al-ZubeiryESP
Identify
Learners
Theoretical
views of
Language
Analyze
Target
Situation
Theoretical
views of
Learning
Analyze
Learning
Situation
Identify
attitudes/wants/potential of
learners
Identify needs/ potential/
constraints of learning
teaching situation
Identify skills and
knowledge needed to
function in the target
situation
Write syllabus/materials to
exploit the potential of the
learning situation in the
acquisition of skills and
knowledge required by the
target situation
EvaluationEvaluation

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Dr. Hameed Al-ZubeiryESP
A language-centered approach says: this is the nature of
the target situation performance and that will determine the
ESP course.
A skills-centered approach says: that’s not enough, we
must look behind target performance data to discover what
processes enable someone to perform. Those processes will
determine the ESP course.
A learning-centered approach says: that’s not enough
either. We must look beyond the competence that enables
someone to perform, because what we really want to discover
is not the competence itself, but how someone acquires that

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Dr. Hameed Al-ZubeiryESP
Acomparisonofapproaches
tocoursedesign
Analyze target situation
Analyze learning situation
Write syllabus
Write materials
Teach materials
Evaluate learner achievement
Identify target situation A language-centered approach
Considers the learners to here
A skill-centered approach
Considers the learners to here
A learning-centered approach
Considers the learners to here

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Dr. Hameed Al-ZubeiryESP
The diagram shows that a learning-centered approach to
course design takes account of the learner at every stage
of the design process. This has two implications:
 Course design is a negotiated process. There is no single
factor which has an outright determining influence on
the content of the course. The ESP learning situation
and the target situation with both influence the nature of
the syllabus, materials, methodology and evaluation
procedures. Similarly each of these components will
influence and be influenced by the others.
Course design is a dynamic process. It does not move in
a linear fashion from initial analysis to complete course.
Needs and resources vary with time. The course design,
therefore, needs to have built-in feedback channels
to enable the course to respond to developments.

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Dr. Hameed Al-ZubeiryESP
In Short:
ESP is based on designing
courses to meet Learner’s
need
What does
course design
involve?
Ways of
describing
language
Needs
Analysis
Models of
learning
Approaches to
course design
SECTION 2:
COURSE DESIGN

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Dr. Hameed Al-Zubeiry
- Hutchinson, T., & Waters, A. (1987). English for specific purposes:
a learning-centred approach. Cambridge: Cambridge University
Press.
-Munby, J. (1978). Communicative syllabus design.
Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Swales, J. (1988). Episodes in ESP. Prentice Hall.
Reading materials:
ESP