This document discusses the types, characteristics, and development of English for Specific Purposes (ESP). It identifies three main types of ESP: 1) English as a restricted language for occupations like air traffic controllers, 2) English for Academic and Occupational Purposes which includes branches like English for Science and Technology, and 3) English with specific topics focused on future needs like attending conferences. Characteristics of ESP include being needs-based, content-focused, analyzing appropriate syntax and lexis, and not following a predetermined methodology. The development of ESP involved register analysis, rhetorical analysis, target situation analysis, emphasizing skills and strategies, and adopting a learning-centered approach.

1. TYPES, CHARACTERISTICS
AND DEVELOPMENT OF ESP

2. TYPES OF ESP
 David Carver (1983) identifies of three types of
ESP:
 1. English as a restricted language
 2. English for Academic and Occupational
Purposes
 3. English with specific topics

3. 1. English as a restricted language
 The language used by air traffic controllers or
by waiters are examples of English as a
restricted language (Mackay and Mountford;
1978).

4. 2. English for Academic and
Occupational Purposes (Carter; 1983)
 In the ‘Three of ELT’ (Hutchinson & Waters, 1987),
ESP is broken down into three branches:
1. English for Science and Technology (EST)
2. English for Business and Economics (EBE)
3. English for Social Studies (ESS)
 Each of these subject areas is further divided
into two branches:
1. English for Academic Purposes (EAP)
2. English for Occupational Purposes (EOP)

5. English for Science and
Technology (EST)
 An example of EOP for the EST branch is
‘English for Technicians’
 Whereas an example of EAP for the EST
branch is ‘English for Medical Studies’

6. 3. English with Specific Topics
 Emphasis shifts from purpose to topics
 It is uniquely concerned with anticipated future
English needs, for example, scientists
requiring English for postgraduate reading
studies, attending conferences or working in
foreign institutions.
 This situational language has been determined
based on the interpretation of results from
needs analysis of authentic language used in
target workplace settings.

7. CHARACTERISTICS OF ESP
(Strevens, 1988)
 Meets specified needs of the
learner;
 Content centred on particular
subjects, professions and
social activities;
 Centred on that language
which is appropriate to those
activities in syntax, lexis,
discourse, semantics, etc.,
and analysis of this discourse;
 Contrasting with General
English
 Restricted as to the
language skills to be
learned (e.g.
reading only);
 Not taught
according to any
pre-ordained
methodology.
1. Absolute Characteristics 2. Variable Characteristics

8. THECHARACTERISTICS OF ESP
COURSES
CHARTER
1983
1. The authenticity of the course
contents,
2. The purpose-related to orientation
3. Self-direction

9. Authentic Material
 ESP should be offered at an intermediate or
advanced level
 Closer examination
 Modified or unmodified in form

10. Purpose-related Orientation
 Refers to the simulation of communicative
tasks
 Student simulation of a conference, involving
the preparation of papers, reading, note taking,
and writing.

11. Self-direction
 Turning learners into users.
 Learners must have a certain degree of
freedom to decide when, what, and how they
will study.

12. THE DEVELOPMENT OF ESP
(1960s until todays uses)
1. The concept of special language: register
analysis
2. Beyond the sentence: rhetorical or discourse
analysis
3. Target situation analysis
4. Skills and strategies
5. A learning-centred approach

13. 1.The Concept of Special
Language: Register Analysis
 The main motive behind register analysis was the
pedagogic one of the making the ESP a course
more relevant to the learners needs.
 The aim was to produce syllabus which gave high
priority to the language forms students would
meet in their Science studies and in turn would
give low priority to forms they would not meet.
 The basic principle that the English, of, say,
Electrical Engineering constituted a specific
register different from other registers such Biology
or of General English.

14. 2. Beyond the Sentence:
Rhetorical or Discourse Analysis
 This phase gives more understanding how
sentences were combined in discourse to
produce meaning.
 The typical teaching materials based on the
discourse approach taught students to
recognize textual patterns and discourse
markers.

15. 3. Target Situation Analysis
 It aimed to take the existing knowledge and set it
on a more scientific basis, by establishing
procedures for relating language analysis more
closely to learners reasons for learning.
 The ESP course design process should proceed
by first identifying the target situation and then
carrying out a rigorous analysis of the linguistic
features of that situation. The identified features
will form the syllabus of the ESP course.
 This stage process is usually known as needs
analysis or target situation analysis according to
Chambers (1980).

16. 4. Skills and Strategies
 An attempt to look below the surface and to
consider not the language itself but the thinking
processes that underlie language use.
 Underlying all language use there are common
reasoning and interpreting processes, which,
regardless of the surface forms, enable the
students to extract meaning from discourse.
 This approach generally puts the emphasis on
reading or listening strategies. (analyze how
meaning is produced in and retrieved from written
or spoken discourse)

17. 5. A Learning-centred Approach
 ESP must be based on an understanding of
the processes of language learning.