INTRODUCTION

As we walk on the path of life, we encounter different terminologies from our family,

friends, teachers, and other people that surrounds us. There are terms that we are familiar with and

there are also terms which are not. Then our curiosity pops out that we seek answers to our

questions regarding. We tend to look for ways on how to understand such terms we go over

dictionaries and Internet for word meanings, etymologies, synonyms or any type of information to

satisfy our learning needs.

As we place ourselves in a world called college, we can observe the diversity of students,

particularly in their fields of specialization or the program they are taking. That includes the terms

they will used in their specific fields. Then here comes English for Specific Purposes or ESP. A

subject that focuses on the terminologies used by different people of different fields of

specialization. This includes the what and how of terms in every specific field.

The English for Specific Purposes or ESP has its two (2) main category: the English for

Academic Purposes or the EAP and the English for Occupational Purposes or EOP. Under English

for Academic Purposes are the English for Science and Technology, English for Management,

Finance, and Economics, English for Medical Purposes and, English for Legal Purposes. All of

these focus on the English language, and terms used in the academes. Under English for

Occupational Purposes or EOP are the English for Pre-Vocational Purposes and English for

Vocational Purposes. These focus on the English language and terms used in the workplace.
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DEFINITION OF ESP

The definitions of English for Specific Purposes or ESP varies on the different perspectives

or views of different person. As defined by Tom Hutchinson and Alan Waters Lancaster, it is a

teaching which as a specific objective. It is also a learner-centered approach to teaching English

as an additional language, which focuses on developing communicative competence in a specific

discipline. According to Dudley-Evans, ESP may be related to or designed for specific disciplines.

ORIGIN OF ESP

The Demands of the Brave New World

The end of the Second World War in 1945 heralded an age of enormous and unprecedented

expansion in scientific, technical and economic activity on an international scale. This expansion

created a world unified and dominated by two forces technology and commerce which in their

relentless progress soon generated a demand for international language. English was the key to the

international currencies of technology and commerce.

 A Revolution in Linguistic

In the past, the purpose of linguistics was only for the usage of the language which is well

known as grammar. However, as the time goes by, the early studies began to find out that the usage

of language grammatically is actually different from the real-life usage, one of the example is the

way we speak and write the language. It can be explained that in the real, there are some differences

of the usage of language in some parts of life. Then it developed that if the use of language varies

from one situation to another, it should be possible to decide the features of specific situations and

make these features as basis for learning the language.

Focus on the Learner

Learners were seen to have different needs and interest which would have an important

influence on their motivation to learn and therefore on the effectiveness of their learning. The clear

relevance of the English course to their needs would improve the learners motivation and thereby

make better and faster.

DEVELOPMENT OF ESP

English for Specific Purposes developed starting from the 14th century, 16th century and up

to the present. It first developed as a collection of everyday dialogues written for English travelers

to France. Then commercial interests produced other phrase books and polyglot dictionaries which

are beneficial for merchants in order for them to learn languages and survival knowledge for
buying and selling. During that time, learning languages has been regarded as a matter of prestige

and pleasure than as a necessity to get a job.

The end of World War II in 1945 signaled an expansion in scientific technical and

economic activity on an international scale. Learning languages was not only for prestige and

pleasure but it also aims to create a whole mass of people wanting to learn English because it was

the key to international currencies of technology and commerce.

When English became the accepted international language of technology and commerce,

it created a new generation of learners who knew specifically why they were learning.

As the Oil Crisis came at the early 1970s, it accelerated the development of ESP. Its general

effect of all their development was to exert pressure on the language teaching profession to deliver

the required goods.

The stages of ESP start with the concept of special language, the register analysis which

focuses on the use of words. This stage operates on the basic principle the English of, example,

Electrical Engineering constituted a specific register different from other register such as Biology

or of General English. Register is defined in a discourse, it means as the patterns communication

used in particular settings and for specific reasons.

According to Halliday in 1960, there are variables that affect register these are: 1) Tenor,

which refers to the relationship between the speakers affecting the type of language used; 2) Field,
which is the subject of conversation or discourse matters, as particular situation calls for particular

kinds of vocabulary or mood. These variations are called Jargons. Example of these are medical

jargons like MRI, BP, and FX, political jargons like red state, and blue state, and Internet jargon

such as FAQ, bookmark, browser; and 3) Mode, which is the medium of communication, whether

spoken or written. Example of this are instant messaging, which is less formal than a handwritten

letter and a professional presentation that is different from a coffee shop conversation.

The Register Analysis Stage is operated on the principle that Academic or Scientific

English had a specific register different from the one used in General English. It aims to identify

grammatical and lexical features of these registers at a sentence level.

The second stage of ESP is the Rhetorical or Discourse Analysis, which focuses on the

intention of the discourse. In this stage, activities were based on analyzing the intention of

discourse by identifying discourse markers and textual patterns such as narratives, argumentations,

descriptions, and instructions.

According to the hypothesis of Allen and Widdowson in 1974, the difficulties which the

student encounter arise not so much from effective knowledge of the system of English but from

an unfamiliarity with English and that consequently their needs cannot be met bet by a course

which simply provide further practice in the composition of sentences, but only by one which

develops a knowledge of how sentences are used in the performance of different communicative

acts. It is clearly stated that it is not from the system of English where the students are having this
difficulty but it is with their capacity in learning the language. Thats why it is a need for us to

familiarize the language very well.

The third stage of ESP tackle about Target Situation Analysis or how you are going to

communicate in a specific setting. The target situation of ESP is the Academic or Occupational

setting that the student will be using the English language at. An ESP course at this stage would

first identify the target situation and then carry out a rigorous analysis of the linguistic features

seen in this situation. The identified features will form the syllabus of the ESP course which would

guarantee that it will be useful for the learners.

The fourth stage of ESP is all about the skills and strategies on how you are going to acquire

the language. This approached was not focused on the language itself but on the thinking processes

involved in it. The focus would be on the underlying interpretive strategies, which enable the

learner to cope with the surface forms like guessing the meaning of the context. It puts emphasis

on reading or listening strategies.

THREE TYPES OF ESP

According to David Carter in 1983, there are three (3) types of ESP these are the 1)

English as a Restricted Language, 2) English for Academic and Occupational Purposes and 3)

English for Specific Topic.

 The English as a Restricted Language employ only a limited number of formal items and

patterns. It is often artificial and highly specialized, created and used with a particular end in mind.

The English for Academic and Occupational Purposes have three (3) main categories.

These are the EST or the English for Science and Technology, the EBE or the English for Business

and Economics, and the ESS or the English for Social Studies. Under these three categories are

the English for Academic and Occupational Purposes. The English for Medical Studies fall under

the English for Academic Purposes under ESS and English for Technicians fall under English foe

Occupational Purposes under ESS.

The English with Specific Topic is uniquely concerned with the anticipated future English

needs of, for example, scientists requiring English for postgraduate reading studies, attending

conferences or working in foreign institution. It is an integral component of ESP courses or

programs which focus on situational language.

VARIETIES OF ESP

There are varieties of ESP, namely: The Discourse Community, Learners Needs, and

Genre.

The Discourse Community refers to a group of people who share a set of discourses

understood as basic values, assumptions and ways communicating about those goals. In this
variety, discourse means the form of language used in a context. The context can be institutional,

professional, and it may be in the form of text, genre or any form of social context.

In the learners needs, Hutchinson and Waters view ESP as an approach in which all desires

including content and method are based on the learners reason for learning. Clearly, one ultimate

aspect of ESP is to meet the specified needs of the learners.

According to Dudley-Evans and St. John in 1998, motivation in ESP has a profound effect

on how specific the course is. Teaching one form of language would demotivate the learners and

needless to say, the teaching would be vague, irrelevant, and of no use to them in reacting their

goals. Belcher in 208 confirms that when the context of the course is relevant, the learners are

more likely to be motivated.

Genre is a term used to classify types of spoken or written discourse. These are normally

classified by its content, language, purpose and form.

SIMILARITIES AND DIFFERENCES OF ESP AND EGP

The English for Specific Purposes or the ESP can be viewed as a special and specific

edition of EGP that incorporates practical linguistic skills to enable students for the successful

performance of tasks (Potocar, 2002)

 The English for General Purposes or the EGP refers to the English language education at

school levels where the students are made familiar with the structural/grammatical elements of

English Language to pass the exams (Hutchinson and Waters, 1987)

The differences of ESP and EGP depends on its focus. If it is based on the learners, in ESP,

learners are usually adult who already have some familiarity with English Language and in EGP,

the learners vary from children to adult. If it is based on the focus of teaching, ESPs aims of

instruction needs analysis that determines which language skills are needed by the syllabus is

designed accordingly while EGPs aims of instruction are identified as a general rule, for skills are

stressed equally. The content in ESP is that English is intended to be used in specific vocational

contexts, selection of appropriate content is easier while course content in EGP is more difficult

to select since the future English needs of the learners are hard to predict.

The similarities of ESP and EGP is that the content of their syllabus must have a high

surrender value (high surrender values stands for the overall utility of English is taught by a

specific course), and both frameworks holistically develop learners communicative skills and

linguistic skills.

BENEFITS OF ESP

There are three (3) benefits that we could get from ESP the learning speed, learning

efficiency, and effectiveness.

 There is learning speed. ESP results in faster acquisition of required linguistic items. This

is because it follows the pattern of native speaker acquisition of language for specific purposes, in

which speakers learn what they need, when they need it, in authentic, context-based contexts.

There is learning efficiency. On an ESP course, trainees make the maximal use of their

learning resources, all of which are brought to bear an acquiring specific, pre-identified linguistic

items and skills. It also enables trainers to determine the specific requirement of trainees.

There is learning effectiveness. On the completion of an ESP course, trainees are ready to

use the language appropriately and correctly in job related tasks, which have been identified prior

to course by means of needs analysis. Trainees are prepared for further job-related training in

English. Such preparation will result in greater academic performance since no time is wasted in

acquiring necessary language.

NEEDS ANALYSIS

According to Nunan in 1988, a needs analysis contains three (3) elements an analysis of

the learners language, the information about the learner, and the beliefs about the learning process.

According to the language-centered approach, it is the ability to comprehend and/or produced the

linguistic features of the target situation.

The target needs are the things what the students need to do in the target situation.

According to the demands of the target situation, the necessities are what the learner has to know
in order to function effectively in that situation. Then, we decide what necessities are missing.

There is a gap between the existing proficiency and the target proficiency. And a need does not

exist independent of a person.

The learning needs are the things what we have not considered yet as the route because the

whole ESP is not concerned with knowing or doing, but with learning.

In a target situation, students may need to read long, dull, complex texts, but their

motivation may be high because they like the subject in general, job and promotion prospects may

be involved, they will carry out interesting experiments or practical work, and they like and/or

respect the teacher/boss.

In analyzing learning needs, there is a framework we need to follow these are guide

question that will bring us to the right path of the analysis: 1) Why are the learners taking the

course? 2) How do the learners learn?

In gathering information about the target needs, different ways can be used to gather them.

Some of these are questionnaires, interviews, observation, data collection, informal consultations.

There are reasons why we need needs analysis. 1) To help the gap between learners and

teachers belief about language learning; 2) To encourage the student to think about their reasons

and motivations for learning English; 3) To determine the gap between the learners wants, needs
to do with the language and what he is currently able to do; and 4) to inform the teachers decision:

a) to help identify goals and b) to help select/adapt/create relevant and useful course content.

THE ESP 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.

Thus, the ESP course takes into consideration not only the subject area of the learners, but

also the lexical, semantic and structural aspects of the language characteristics of that specialized

area.

From the above definitions, one may say that the aim of the ESP courses is 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 these aims, a number of
parameters have to be taken into consideration namely: The identification of needs, the syllabus

design, the material production and the evaluation and assessment

CONCLUSION

As to end this, ESP is very important to every individual living in this world. It helps us

understand the meaning of life and it gives us the identity in a mass society. It helps us distinguish

who we are by means of the terminologies we use in our everyday lives. It is not only intended for

workplaces but it also apply in the academe as we prepare ourselves for the future.