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Post-World War II
After the WWII, the activity in commerce and technology massively increased over the world, leading to the necessity of a lingua franca to respond to the needs of cross cultural communication, business doing, and information sharing. The lingua was English due to the USA worldwide influence and military power. This new job-related wave of English learners led to the branching in ELT as there were several fields to cover. -
Register Analysis
Referred by Gonzáles as the "First Boost of ESP", register analysis "extremely" focused on form and little input about use was given. This boost is characterized by giving "special importance to to semi- or subtechnical vocabulary." And Smoak (2003) refers to it as “to teach the technical vocabulary of a given field or profession.” -
Rhetoric and Discourse Analysis
This movement prioritized use over form. In other words, the focus on the lexical properties and statistical grammar accounts to the communicative values of discourse. Although this movement had a deep interest in the relation between grammar and rhetoric, it did not pay attention to study skills, which would be the focus of EAP on the late 70's. Image taken from: https://www.mudandinkteaching.org/mastering-rhetorical-analysis-tools-techniques-ela-teaching -
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Wide-Angle Approach vs Narrow-Approach
The two approaches differ in the broadness of the content taught, the Narrow-approach stays within the specific area of development of the students while the Wide-angle approach also includes the teaching "through topics beyond students’ specialist area." This period of time also witnessed a debate on monoskill. Johns Dudley-Evans state that teaching one skill only can be limiting while concentrating on multiple ones can "enhance the language learning processes." https://tinyurl.com/yc2hr3k7 -
Target Situation Analysis
John Munby developed a model that entails the production of a thorough "profile of the learners' needs" in given areas such as: "communication purposes and setting, means of communication, language skills, functions, structures, among others. It is said this was a "coming age" for ESP. The learners' need became the nucleus of curriculum designing. -
The ESP Journal
In 1980, The ESP Journal was launched, which eventually changed its name to English for Specific Purposes: An International Research Journal or ESPJ. Topics that are considered for publication in ESPJ include, but are not limited to, the following: second language acquisition in specialized contexts, needs assessment, curriculum development and evaluation, materials preparation, discourse analysis, among others (ESPJ, Author Information Pack, 2021, p. 1 as cited in Curtis, 2021, p. 1). -
Tarone et al.
In their paper, they held the rhetorical-grammar relationship as well as reinforcing Selinker's (1979) claim on the importance of working with "subject specialist informants" or "subject-area specialists" which continue to be fundamental in ESP research and curricula. Subject Specialist Informants allow to draw the linguistic experience in the field for it to be blended with teaching strategies according to the target population. -
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ESP Expansion
Hewings (2002) noticed the overseas spread of ESP research across Central and South America, China and Hong Kong, which, in his words, "demonstrates the growing acceptance of ESP as an academic discipline." Johns also came to the same conclusion. See also: https://static.cambridge.org/binary/version/id/urn:cambridge.org:id:binary:20250211110745960-0179:9781009376723:57197fig1.png?pub-status=live -
Episodes in ESP
Episodes in ESP by John Swales (1985), it charted the origins and rise of ESP, starting with Barber’s (1962) article Some Measurable Characteristics of Modern Scientific Prose. Swales presented examples of ESP publications over the following 20 years, from Herbert’s (1965) The Structure of Technical English and Swales’ (1971) own Writing Scientific English to Hutchinson and Waters’ (1980) ESP at the Crossroads a decade later. -
ESP—approach, not product.
Hutchinson and Waters promoted the view of ESP as an approach rather than a product since it is not exclusively linked to a particular type of "language, teaching material, or methodology”; instead, it adapts to the specific needs of the learners involved, making use of need analysis, discourse analysis, genre analysis, among other strategies to convey a class with a specific purpose. -
Skill-Based and Student-Centered Approaches (Hutchinson & Waters)
The focus now was placed on skill-based curricula with a learner-centered approach that wanted to develop "underlying competences" in the students for them to, later on, extrapolate these to their occupational realities. Hutchison and Waters also outlined in this approach the focus on the exploitation of learner's previous knowledge. Image taken from: https://archive.org/details/CambridgeLanguageTeachingLibraryTomHutchinsonAlanWatersEnglishForSpecificPurpose/page/n77/mode/2up -
Genre Analysis and Rhetorical Moves
John Swales refer to Genre Analysis and Rhetorical Moves as (1) the way texts function inside a discourse community, according to the target population and their purpose for learning the language; (2) the strategic steps a learner should follow to achieve the communicative purpose of their texts, speeches, among others. -
Johns and Dudley-Evans
Johns and Dudley-Evans published the article “English for specific purposes: International
in scope, specific in purpose”, discussing skill specificity and emphasizing the need for integrated language skills in ESP, countering previous approaches focused on monoskill teaching. -
Journal of Second Language Writing (JSLW)
The Journal of Second Language Writing (JSLW) was founded in 1991 by Ilona Leki and Tony Silva; and though many of its early articles focussed on writing processes or student errors, topics that have not been central to ESP research, in the 2000s, articles about academic argumentation, text analysis, and other issues that overlap with ESP interests appeared with increasing frequency (Johns, 2013, p. 12). -
Japan Conference on English for Specific Purposes
Anthony (1997) stated in his paper, "Defining English for Specific Purposes and the Role of the ESP Practitioner", that, during Japan’s Conference on ESP, Dudley-Evans included another feature within this definition, that “ESP is defined to meet specific needs of the learners” (p. 2 as cited in González Ramírez, 2015, p. 384). Dudley-Evans also stated that ESP is usually aimed at professionals or tertiary-level students with some target language basic knowledge (González Ramírez, 2015, p. 384) -
Developments in ESP: A Multidisciplinary Approach
Dudley-Evans and St John (1998) insisted on the idea that ESP should be defined neither as a subject-content directed discipline nor as a distinct area from General English. They considered ESP a discipline that attempts to meet the needs of a specific population of students, employs methodologies and materials from the discipline it is centered on, and focuses on the language and discourse related to it (González Ramírez, 2015, p. 384). -
Gatehouse (2001)
Gatehouse addressed the very name of the field in her paper “Key Issues in English for Specific Purposes (ESP) Curriculum Development,” where she discussed the meaning of the word “specific” and clarified that it addresses the specificity of the purpose or aim of this teaching area, not the special registers or vocabulary entailed (The Meaning of the Word ‘Special’ in ESP, para. 3, as cited in González Ramírez, 2015, p. 384). -
Journal of English for Academic Purposes (JEAP)
In 2001, responding to the overwhelming number of articles in ESPJ and elsewhere on academic texts, students, and contexts, Liz Hamp - Lyons and Ken Hyland established the Journal of English for Academic Purposes (JEAP). JEAP published special issues on topics and methodologies that often expanded the journal’s scope and predicted research topics or methodologies for the future. (Johns, 2013, p. 13). -
Michigan Corpus of Academic Spoken English (MICASE)
The MICASE corpus is a spoken language corpus of approximately 1.7 million words (nearly 200 hours) focusing on contemporary university speech within the microcosm of the University of Michigan, in Ann Arbor, Michigan. This is a typical large public research university with about 37,000 students, approximately one-third of whom are graduate students (Simpson-Vlach et al., 2002, p. 2). -
Michigan Corpus of Upper-level Student Papers (MICUSP)
The Michigan Corpus of Upper-level Student Papers (MICUSP) is a resource that provides EAP and English as a Second Language (ESL) teachers, students, and corpus researchers access to 829 A-graded writing samples produced by senior undergraduate and first- to third-year graduate students in 16 different disciplines at a large American research university (Römer, 2012, p. 71). -
Hyland and Wong (2019) - “Specialised English: New Directions in ESP and EAP Research and Practice”
Ken Hyland and Lillian Wong present 17 specially commissioned chapters by some of the world’s leading experts to offer discussions of key topics in research, theory and pedagogy from a variety of international perspectives. Specialised English is essential reading for upper-level undergraduate and postgraduate students and researchers in EAP/ESP and applied linguistics, as well as pre- and in-service teachers and teacher educators (Routledge, 2019). -
ESP in Times of COVID-19 Pandemic
The COVID-19 pandemic required ESP facilitators to adapt to remote learning. The pandemic significantly impacted the entire educational system. Both instructors and students needed to adapt their traditional in-person learning methods to an online format. Different technological resources had to be employed like videoconferencing platforms along with digital learning platforms (Waicekawsky et al., 2020). -
The Role of AI in ESP
Modern Business English teaching combines traditional classroom methods with AI technology to improve student learning. Teachers use AI tools like ChatGPT (which was released in late 2022) alongside to provide extra language practice, create relevant business activities, and give students helpful feedback. These digital tools also help teachers track student improvement and gather important data about how well their teaching methods work (Coanca, 2023). -
Space for References
Römer, U. (2012). Corpora and teaching academic writing: Exploring the pedagogical potential of MICUSP. In: James Thomas Alex Boulton (eds.). Input, Process and Product: Developments in Teaching and Language Corpora. Brno: Masaryk University Press. 70-82. -
Space for References
Coanca, M. (2023). The role of artificial intelligence in teaching English for specific purposes. Journal of Information Systems Operations Management, 17(1), 74-82. https://web.rau.ro/websites/jisom/Vol.17%20No.1%20-%202023/JISOM%2017.1_74-82.pdf Curtis, A. (2021). TIRF language education in review: English for specific purposes. TIRF Laureate International Universities. -
Space for References
González Ramírez, C. (2015). English for Specific Purposes: Brief history and definitions. Revista de Lenguas Modernas, 23, 379-386. https://doi.org/10.15517/rlm.v0i23.22359 Johns, A. M. (2013). The history of English for specific purposes research. In B. Paltridge S. Starfield (Eds.), The handbook of English for specific purposes (pp. 5-30). Wiley-Blackwell. -
Space for References
Routledge. (2019). Specialised English: New Directions in ESP and EAP Research and Practice Description. Retrieved from https://www.routledge.com/Specialised-English-New-Directions-in-ESP-and-EAP-Research-and-Practice/Hyland-Wong/p/book/9781138588776?srsltid=AfmBOorsc03gYc8sUF-uo6F2txPRQhfBXmfTm95HOe9xZgslscL_tYHJ Simpson-Vlach, R. C., Lee, D. Y.W., Leicher, S. (2002). MICASE Manual: The Michigan Corpus of Academic Spoken English. The University of Michigan. -
Space for References
Waicekawsky, L., Laurenti, L., Yuvero, F. (2020). Teaching ESP online during the COVID-19 pandemic: An account of Argentinian students on this teaching modality. SHS Web of Conferences, 88, 1-8. https://doi.org/10.1051/shsconf/20208802002
