Transcription
[Music] hello dear students and welcome to the series of e-learning lectures prepared to enhance your learning of esp.
now one can deny the importance of english all over the world. among the factors that could explain its vitality and its expansion is the emergence of english as a world language. accordingly, it is vital to cope with the different teaching learning situations and to understand how teachers become more effective at dealing with the needs that such a position brings about.
such necessity implies deep reflection of esp basic notions, of its developments, its types, and different teaching concepts needed to support learners. however, it is of great importance to start with the main definitions stated by the language concerning esp. but before, if you like videos like this, then make sure to hit the subscribe button and also smash the notification bell to receive notifications when i produce more videos like this. and if you do like it, please give it a thumbs up. i greatly appreciate it.
so today, we are going to present the basic notions dealing with the field of esp, english for specific purposes. differences may be noticed in how people interpret the meaning of esp. so the real question is, how people consider the meaning of esp? some people describe esp as simply being the teaching of english for any purpose that could be specified. others, however, were more precise, describing it as the teaching of english used in academic studies or the teaching of english for vocational or professional purposes.
three major trends may be mentioned: first, esp as simply being the teaching of english for any purpose that could be specified. second, esp is the teaching of english used in academic studies. third, esp is the teaching of english for vocational or professional purposes. be aware of the current confusion amongst the esp community. researchers strive to define the esp field and provide definitions to meet the learner's needs.
according to stravan's 1977, esp concerns the emergence of a number of activities, movements, and subjects that are carried out predominantly, do not exclusively, in english across the world. it looks at the purpose for which the student needs to learn english, that is, for occupational or for study purposes. the main concern of esp is all about the activities, movements, and the subjects related to first, occupational purposes, eop, english for occupational purposes, to study purposes, eap, english for academic purposes.
following the same line of thought, cafe 1985 observes that esp is a quick and economical use of the english language to pursue a cause of academic study, eap, or effectiveness impaired employment. two parameters can be singled out as far as esp is concerned. first, esp helps learners in different disciplines to follow their academic studies. second, esp helps learners to access the economical field and find effective paid employment.
hutchinson and others 1987 state that esp is an approach to language teaching in which all decisions as to content and the method are based on the learner's reason for learning. hutchins and underwaters 1992 emphasize esp to be an approach and not a product, which means language learning, not language use, is highlighted. esp is a term that refers to teaching or studying english for a particular career like law, medicines, or for business in general.
lorenzo 2005 reminds us that esp concentrates more on language in context than on teaching grammar and language structures. thus, different factors must be taken into account to understand how the social, interpersonal, and discursive context of language shapes its forms and uses. in the same vein, carter 1983 believes that self-direction is important in the sense that an esp course is concerned with turning learners into users of the language.
all the above-mentioned definitions draw the attention to a learning-centered approach in which all decisions as to content and methods are based on the learner's reason for learning. in fact, english for specific purposes, esp, is a learner-centered approach to teaching english as an additional language, which focuses on developing communicative competencies and skills in a specific discipline, such as academics, accounting, agrology, business, iet, teaching, and engineering. students are also exposed to the workforce supply and demand or academic culture and real-world communication practice.
accordingly, the english for specific purposes syllabus is intended to offer classes content that focus on developing the language skills needed for success on the job are in study, following the learner's needs. we should keep in mind that esp programs differ from general english language courses and contain some specific characteristics. first, esp course must be designed to meet the specific needs of the learners. second, esp is mainly related in content, themes, and topics to particular disciplines or occupations. third, esp uses authentic word-specific documents and materials. fourth, esp is intended to promote cultural awareness and seeks to improve intercultural competency. fifth, esp provides intermediate and advanced level language training. generally, these students study english not because they are interested in the english language or english culture as such, but because they need english for study or work purposes.
robinson 1991 in esp, language is learned not for its own sake or for the sake of gaining a general education, but to smooth the path to entry or a greater linguistic efficiency in academic, professional, or workplace environments. this denotes that the role of esp is to help language learners to build up the needed abilities in order to use them in a specific field of inquiry, occupation, or workplace. these definitions were stated according to esp evolution through time. this latter is viewed in more details in the following sections.