-
Period: to
Early Origins
According to Rahman (2015), ESP resulted from many occurrences:
-The end of the second world war in 1945.
-The growth of science and technology.
-The use of English as the international language of science, technology and business.
-The economic power of oil-rich countries and
-Increased numbers of international students studying in UK, USA, and Australia. From the 1950's (Richards, 2001). -
Period: to
1960's
-It was essentially English for Science and Technology(Swales, 2020, as cited in Yang & Swales, 2023). -
The term, ‘English for Specific Purposes’ appeared at the Makerere Conference (Commonwealth Education Committee).
(West, 1994, as cited in Rahman, 2015). -
Period: to
Early ESP development
𝔸. Teaching of functional vocabulary
-1970s linguists promoted register analysis to enhance the development of scientific and technical lexis.
-Practitioners' major role: imparting and training of technical vocabulary related to a field of study or profession.
-Emphasis on learner needs and needs analysis as the foundation of ESP course design.
𝔹. 1974 Emergent teaching trend: Rhetorical and discourse analysis, linking language form to language use (Dou, Chan, & Win, 2023). -
Official birth of ESP in the teaching of the English language marked by the work “The Linguistic Sciences and Language Teaching,” by Halliday, Mackintosh & Strevens (1964).
These authors consider that the term specific is used to refer to the varieties of the language that is used in a professional activity (Hijuelos, Medina & Pérez, 2020). -
First English for Specific Purposes textbook: Herbert’s (1965), The Structure of Technical English.
Based on a serious and detached investigation into the characteristics and the language found in science and engineering written texts.
⁽ˢʷᵃˡᵉˢ, ¹⁹⁸⁵, ᵃˢ ᶜᶦᵗᵉᵈ ᶦⁿ ˢᵗᵃʳᶠᶦᵉˡᵈ, ²⁰¹²⁾. -
First attempt of classification of ESP made by the British Council, under the auspices of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Great Britain.
English for Academic Purposes (EAP) was divided into two branches:
-English for Science and Technology (EST) and
-English for Occupational Purposes (EOP) (Hijuelos, Medina & Pérez, 2020). -
Period: to
Late 1970’s
Focus of EAP: the development of study skills (Ramírez, 2015). -
Munby’s “Communicative Syllabus Design". Very early model of analyzing ESP needs.
He concentrated more on communicative syllabus design where the end product is a profile of the students language needs after using his model, ‘Communication Needs Processor’ (Rahman, 2015). Munby’s attempt to being systematic and comprehensive makes his instrument inflexible, complex and time-consuming (West,1994, as cited in Rahman, 2015). -
Debut of an international journal, The ESP Journal (ESPJ).
Representing the emergence of an independent area of inquiry as well as being a professional home for the widely scattered ESP community (Fox, 1980, as cited in Yang & Swales, 2023).Renamed English for Specific Purposes when it was taken over by Elsevier in 1986(Yang & Swales, 2023). -
Period: to
1980's
-ESP broadened its scope to include other fields, e.g. medicine, law, and aviation (Hutchinson & Waters, 1987, as cited in Shahid, Khan & Ishtiaq, 2023). -
Tarone et al introduced the concept of using the area specialist as a content expert consultant.
From that moment on, “subject-specialist informants” were more commonly involved as part of ESP research (Johns, 2013, as cited in.Ramírez, 2015). -
Period: to
ESP development
-Recognition as an academic discipline internationally.
-Studies outside of the US and the UK (Hewings, 2002, as cited in Dou, Chan, & Win, 2023).
-Theoretical work tends to lag behind practical material development at this period of time.
-ESP learning influenced by genre analysis and rhetorical moves
-Preferred data for analysis: written discourse (Hewings, 2002, as cited in (Dou, Chan, & Win, 2023).
-Research had remained more focused on EAP.
(Dou, Chan, & Win, 2023). -
McDonough’s model resulted from Munby’s work.
Integrated procedure for needs analysis,
The model has also its limitations. The model does not concentrate on learning needs. It only concentrates on target and present needs (Rahman, 2015). -
Hutchinson & Waters' classification of ESP
English for Specific Purposes was separated into three branches:
-English for Science and Technology (EST),
-English for Academic Purposes (EAP) and
-English for Occupational Purposes (EOP) (Hijuelos, Medina & Pérez, 2020). -
Hutchinson & Waters’ Model. Needs as Necessities, Lacks And Wants.
Their model lacks some aspects of needs. It does not consider means analysis, linguistic analysis, discourse analysis and genre analysis (Rahman, 2015). -
Period: to
The Modern Age in ESP development
-Work focused on intercultural rhetoric, genre and corpus studies as evidenced.
-Needs analysis has undergone changes (Otilia & Brancusi, 2015, as cited in Dou, Chan, & Win, 2023). Today it aims to gather information from many dimensions of students’ experience that can fall within the objective context as well the ESP learning environment.
-New international journals brought a new level of rigor to the field (Basturkmen, 2006, as cited in Shahid, Khan & Ishtiaq, 2023). -
Dudley-Evans & St. John introduced one of the most recent needs analysis models.
The most comprehensive model for an investigation of ESP needs. It prioritizes the four essential components for ESP needs assessment:
-TSA (Target Situation Analysis),
-PSA (Present Situation Analysis) and
-LSA (Learning Situation Analysis) and
-MA (Means Analysis) (Rahman, 2015). -
Establishment of The Journal of English for Academic Purposes (JEAP).
By Liz Hamp-Lyons and Ken Hyland.
-It publishes ESPJ-like articles encompassing in scope aspects of needs analysis, teacher education, discourse analysis, corpus methodologies, acquisition studies in EAP contexts, research into writing and speaking at all academic levels, etc. (Lesiak, 2015). . -
British Academic Written English (BAWE) corpus
One of the earliest and most influential corpus studies in ESP (Nesi & Gardner, 2012, as cited in Shahid, Khan & Ishtiaq, 2023).
-Providing insights into the language used in specific academic genres, such as research articles, book reviews, and grant proposals (Shahid, Khan & Ishtiaq, 2023). -
First issue of English for Specific Purposes World.
International online journal publishing papers on topics related to a wide range of ESP issues (Lesiak, 2015).