english for specific purposes
Teaching English for Specific Purposes
The advancement of business and communication technology in the course of past twenty years has revolutionized the field of English language teaching and has radically served the attention of course designers from teaching English for Academic purposes to teaching for more specialized purposes, English for Specific Purposes (ESP).
The teaching of English for Academic Purposes (EAP) falls within the framework of what is generally called English for Specific Purposes (ESP), taking place in essence, and as its name suggests, in an educational environment. The reasons for its increasing relevance is due to the fact that English has changed from simply being another foreign language into having become a universal form of communication in all walks of life. Dudley-Evans and St. John (1998:95) state that the teaching process of any kind of language for occupational purposes should take as a starting point the analysis of the four traditional skills within an appropriate context, that being, as far as possible, the conditions given in the workplace.
English for Occupational Purposes (EOP) is more general compared to ESP because it does not focus on the specific job disciplines but it is more based on general basic skills required by students in order to be prepared for the workforce. Examples of basic skills in EOP are the same as in ESP: reading, writing, listening and speaking.
“English for specific purposes is a term that refers to teaching or studying English for a particular career (like law, medicine) or for business in general” (International Teacher Training Organization, 2005). Pauline C. Robinson (1989) describes ESP as a type of ELT (English Language Teaching) and defines it as “goal-oriented language learning” which means that students have to attain a specific goal in the process of learning. According to the same author, “Students study ESP not because they are interested in the English language as such but because
The advancement of business and communication technology in the course of past twenty years has revolutionized the field of English language teaching and has radically served the attention of course designers from teaching English for Academic purposes to teaching for more specialized purposes, English for Specific Purposes (ESP).
The teaching of English for Academic Purposes (EAP) falls within the framework of what is generally called English for Specific Purposes (ESP), taking place in essence, and as its name suggests, in an educational environment. The reasons for its increasing relevance is due to the fact that English has changed from simply being another foreign language into having become a universal form of communication in all walks of life. Dudley-Evans and St. John (1998:95) state that the teaching process of any kind of language for occupational purposes should take as a starting point the analysis of the four traditional skills within an appropriate context, that being, as far as possible, the conditions given in the workplace.
English for Occupational Purposes (EOP) is more general compared to ESP because it does not focus on the specific job disciplines but it is more based on general basic skills required by students in order to be prepared for the workforce. Examples of basic skills in EOP are the same as in ESP: reading, writing, listening and speaking.
“English for specific purposes is a term that refers to teaching or studying English for a particular career (like law, medicine) or for business in general” (International Teacher Training Organization, 2005). Pauline C. Robinson (1989) describes ESP as a type of ELT (English Language Teaching) and defines it as “goal-oriented language learning” which means that students have to attain a specific goal in the process of learning. According to the same author, “Students study ESP not because they are interested in the English language as such but because