ESP: English for Specific Purposes

ESP is generally conceived as a learner-centered approach in relation with EFL and

ESL practices. It includes language programmes, designed either for individual or
team work, so as to meet adult learners needs, who are learning a foreign language
with clearly identifiable purposes, as Johnson suggests, for use in specific fields from
leisure to business activities. In the sense of using English for Specific Purposes,
Hutchinson and Waters have claimed that ESP cannot be identify with teaching
specific and specialized forms of the English language.ESP is no different from any
other form of language teaching should be assessed in the same principles and
processes that guide effective and efficient learning and teaching. ESP addresses, at
first, adult learners at a tertiary educational level or in a professional work situation.
In this, it may employ different teaching and learning policies from that of general
English. Though addressing student at a higher level, essentially ESP may also be
used in students of an intermediate or advanced level. With adult learners needs as a
point of departure, there are certain principles that need to be followed as Knowles
has proposed. We need to specify the reasons for learning as well as the way an adult
learner is to be benefited from this learning process. Adults have the need to be looked
upon as being responsible and capable of self-direction as well as of learning on their
own accord. Since the case is often that, adult learners are task-centered or problem-
focused they should be intrinsically or extrinsically motivated. With reference to
motivation Rogers has effectively mapped the characteristics of adult learners. Adult
learners are engaged in a process of perpetual growth, accumulating their values and
experiences. In meeting their educational needs they bring together their own
expectations. They have competing interests and last but not least they have already
internalized their own learning patterns. Our role as teachers is varied. We must be
open to subjects content negotiation and teaching methodology. Risk-taking and
providing guidance for the acquisition of certain skills by training and consulting are
also parts of our role. We should always collaborate with specialists, counsel the
learner and evaluate the learners material. In designing the course, we must choose,
adapt, write and evaluate every possible and provided material, along with a course
evaluation and needs analysis altogether.