1. English for Specific Purposes (ESP) focuses on preparing learners for specific communication environments by identifying their needs and designing courses accordingly. 2. ESP aims to teach language skills and vocabulary relevant to learners' fields to allow them to communicate effectively in their target situations. Needs analysis and consideration of learners' necessities, lacks, and wants are important to course design. 3. Approaches to ESP course design include language-centered, skills-centered, and learning-centered. Syllabus design should follow a needs analysis and consider content, skills, and methodology. Issues like time, teacher skills, and support are important for effective ESP curriculum development.

1. ENGLISH FOR
SPECIFIC
PURPOSES
Fatima T Fakhroo
ENGL 544

2. Preview
• English for Specific Purposes: meaning
• ESP Courses Aim
• Brief History
• ESP Family Tree
• EGP vs ESP
• Need Analysis
• Approaches to course Design
• Course Design
• Syllabus Design
• Categories of Syllabus Design
• Issues In ESP
• Acknowledgement
• Refernces

3. What is ESP?
• ESP is as a branch of tree of English language teaching (ELT) but the roots the
nourish it are communication and learning. ( Hutchinson and Waters, 2002)
– Definition of ESP (Dudley-Evans, 1998)
- Absolute Characteristics
1. ESP is defined to meet specific needs of the learners
2. ESP makes use of underlying methodology and activities of the discipline it serves
3. ESP is centered on the language appropriate to these activities in terms of grammar,
lexis, register, study skills, discourse and genre.

4. What is ESP?
– Definition of ESP (Dudley-Evans, 1998)
- Variable Characteristics
1. ESP may be related to or designed for specific disciplines
2. ESP may use, in specific teaching situations, a different methodology from
that of General English
3. ESP is likely to be designed for adult learners, either at a tertiary level
institution or in a professional work situation. It could, however, be for learners at
secondary school level
4. ESP is generally designed for intermediate or advanced students.
5. Most ESP courses assume some basic knowledge of the language systems

5. What is ESP?
• ESP is this area of English language teaching which focuses in
preparing learners"for chosen communication environment". (Mohan,
1986)
– Hutchinson et al. (1978: 19) state "ESP is an approach to language
teaching in which all decisions as to content and method are based
on the learner's reason for learning".

6. The Aim of the ESP Courses
To prepare the learners in accordance with specific skills and vocabulary
needed in their own field in order to be able to communicate effectively in the
target situation.
TO achieve this aim there are numbers of parameters need to be taken
into consideration:
- The identification of needs.
- Syllabus Design.
- Materials production.
-Evaluation and assessment.

7. Brief History
Three reasons common to the emergence of all ESP:
• The demands of Brave New World.
[Originally a phrase written by William Shakespeare in The Tempest (c.1610): How beauteousmankind is! O brave new worl
d / That has such people in't! (later used by AldousHuxley as the title of his novel Brave New World (1932), a depiction of fut
ure dystopia in which humansare separated into rigid castes and controlled through technological and chemical means ).]
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright © 2016 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.
Hutchinson & Waters (1987) note that two historical periods breathed life into ESP. The Second World War which brought
with it an “... age of enormous and unprecedented expansion in scientific, technical and economic activity on an
international scale” and made the United States the most important economic and political power. (p. 6). The Oil Crisis of
the early 1970s resulted in Western money and know-how policy flowing into the oil-rich countries. The language of these
two knowledge times became English.

8. Brief History
• Revolution of Linguistic
Hutchinson and Waters (1987) make reference to the discovery of the
ways English vary in its spoken and written form. In other words, given
the particular context in which English is used, the variant of English will
change. This discovery of the language variation in different context led
to the idea of making the language instruction meet the needs of
learners in specific contexts.

9. Brief History
• Development in Educational Psychology
( Focus on the Learner)
According to Hutchinson and Waters (1987) more attention was given to
the ways in which learners acquire language and the differences in the
ways language is acquired. Learners were seen to employ different
learning strategies, use different skills, enter with different learning
schemata, and be motivated by different needs and interests.

10. ESP Family Tree
ESP
EOP
EBP EMP
EAP
EST

11. ESP Family Tree
• EAP ( English for Academic Purposes)
- EST (English for Science and Technology)
• EOP (English for Occupational Purposes)
- EBP (English for Business Purposes)
- EMP (English for Medical Purposes)

12. EGP vs ESP
EGP ESP
Learners
-All ages
-adults
- in some cases high schools
Aims - to improve overall
English competence involving
a range of skills (reading,
writing, speaking,
listening, vocab, grammar,
pronunciation etc)
- to meet the needs of
particular
Learners.
Concerns - on vocabulary work,
spelling,
grammar, pronunciation,
language
functions
- to design appropriate
courses for various groups of
learners according to their
needs

13. Need Analysis
Definition
A family of procedures of gathering information about learners and about
communication tasks.
Nunan,1988, P.75
Needs analysis reflects the key assumption that the learner is at the
heart of any teaching program”
McDonough,1984, P.29)

14. Learner Needs Analysis
A needs analysis means obtaining “a picture” of our
learners, as regards their needs and expectations, that is,
objective needs such as their previous knowledge, what
they know and the problems they have, their difficulties
in learning, but also “subjective” needs such as passing
the exam, working or studying abroad, etc., and ranking
of preferences, that is, what they would like to learn and
how they wish to study it, mainly concerning content and
language skills.
Isabel Balteiro-DECISION-MAKING AND THE INTEGRATION OF THE FOUR SKILLS WITH
LARGE, MIXED-ABILITY ESP GROUPS-Languages for Specific purpose-Cambridge Scholar

15. John Munby's “Communicative Syllabus Design”
CUP. 1978
Munby in 1978 worked on a set of procedures for determining target
situation needs. The procedures, he called, the ‘Communication Needs
Processor’ (CNP).
That means, ESP had the machinery for identifying needs. His book has
useful data banks of micro- skills, and attitudes. Using his guidelines, the
end product is a detailed profile of the learners' language needs.
Lowe I 2009. Needs Analysis P.3

16. Target Needs
- Necessities
What the learners have to know in order to function effectively
Hutchinson and waters, 1987, P.55

17. Target Needs
- Lacks
refer to the proficiency level and background of the learners; they also
refer to what the learners lack in order to reach the required level of
proficiency.
Hutchinson and waters, 1987, P.56
The target proficiency in other words, needs to be matched against the
existing proficiency of the learners. The gap between the two can be
reffered to as the learner's lacks.
Hutchinson, waters and Breen, 1979

18. Target Needs
- Wants
are the personal aims that the learners like to obtain from the language
course.
Richterich(1984 P.29) '...a need doesn’t exist independent of a person. It
is people who build their images of their needs on the basis of data
relating to themselves and their environment.'

19. Approaches to Course Design
1. Language-centred Approach
2. Skills-centred Approach
3. Learning–centred Approach
Hutchinson and waters,
1987, P.65-77

20. Language-centred Approach to
course design
Goal oriented needs (target needs) Process oriented needs ( learning needs)
Identify linguistic features of target situation
Create syllabus
Design materials to exemplify syllabus items
Establish evaluation procedures to test acquisition of
syllabus items
Hutchinson and waters,
1987, P.66

21. Skills-centred Approach to course
design Hutchinson and waters,
1987, P.71

22. Learning–centred Approach to course
design Hutchinson and waters,
1987, P.74

23. Course Design
Course design refers to the planning and structuring of a course to achieve
the needed goals. It is the outcome of number of elements: the result of
the needs analysis, the course designer's approach to syllabus and
methodology, and existing materials (Robinson: 1991).In the same vein,
Hutchinson and Waters (1987:65) have defined a course as “An
integrated series of teaching-learning experiences, whose ultimate aim is
to lead the learners to a particular state of knowledge.”
Munby continues saying (1978:2) ESP courses are : “Those where the
syllabus and the materials are determined by the prior analysis of the
communication needs of the learner.”This means that the identification of
learners' needs is the first step upon which the ESP course is going to be
designed.

24. “syllabus specification in ESP can
only take place after the prior and
necessary work has been done on
needs.”
Munby (1978:40)
Syllabus Design

25. Syllabus Design
It seems fairly obvious that if teachers are to be the ones responsible for
developing the curriculum, they need the time, the skills and the support
to do so. Support may include curriculum models and guidelines · and
may include support from individuals acting in a curriculum advisory
position. The provision of such support cannot be removed and must
not be seen in isolation, from the curriculum.
(Nunan, 1987, p. 75)
Nunan recognized that issues of time, skills and support are key for
teachers faced with the very real task of developing curricula.

26. Categories of Syllabus Design
• 1. Content: forms, functions, notions, situations, topics
• 2. Skill: productive, receptive, learning
• 3. Method: process, procedure

27. Issues in ESP Curriculum Design
My own Findings on addition to some other researches finding.
Ms. Preetha Josepoh, Lecturer in English, MA, M. phil
Mr. Senthil Kumar, Lecturer in English, MA, M. phil
Note taking and Discussion

28. Acknowledgment
Special Thanks for Mr. Senthil Kumar and Ms. Preetha Joseph( English
Language Lecturers – Language and communication Division -Bahrain
Training Institute) for adding their own experiences as a part of my
outcomes for this short presentation and my ESP paper.
Also I would like to thank my Professor Dr. Nuri R, Ageli for giving me a
great opportunity of drawing my own conclusion about English for
Specific Purposes.
And of course, I would like to thank my colleagues for listening and
interaction.

29. You can also find my presentation on Slideshare
website under my Linkedin account

30. Reference
• Dudley–Evans, T., & St. John, M. J. (1998). Developments in English for Specific Purposes. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
• Hutchinson T & Waters A 1987. English for specific purposes: a learning-centred approach. UK:CUP
• Nunan, D. (1987). The teacher as curriculum developer: An investigation of curriculum processes within the Adult Migrant
Education Program. South Australia: National Curriculum Resource Centre.
• McDonough, J. (1984). ESP in perspective: A practical guide. London: Collins ELT
• Elizbieta Danuta Lesiak-Bielawska ,English for Instrumentalists:Designing and Evaluating an ESP Course , published in English for
Specific Purposes World, www.esp-world.info., Issue 43, Vol 15, 2014,p23
• Munby, J. (1978). Communicative syllabus design: A sociolinguistic model for defining the content of pur- pose-specific
language programmes. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
• Robinson, P.C. (1991). ESP today: A practitioner’s guide. New York: Prentice Hall International.
• Richterich, R.,A European unit/Credit System for Modern Language Learning by Adults' in Van EK J. A and Trim J.L M. (eds.),
Across the Threshold Level, Perggamon , 1984