English for specific purposes

by Tony Dudley-Evans
M.A. English, Sem.3
ELT.1 Unit.1
Department of English,
Maharaja Krishnakumarsinhji Bhavnagar University
 Introduction
• English for specific purposes (ESP) has for about 30
years been a separate branch of English Language
Teaching. It has developed its own approaches,
materials and methodology and is generally seen as a
very active, even 'feisty' (aggressive) movement that
has had considerable influence over the more general
activities of TESOL and applied linguistics.
• ESP has always seen itself as materials-driven and as a
classroom-based activity concerned with practical
outcomes. Most writing about ESP is concerned with
aspects of teaching, materials production and text
analysis rather than with the development of a theory
of ESP.
 Background
• DEFINITION OF ESP:
• The key defining feature of ESP is that its teaching and materials are
founded on the results of needs analysis. The first questions when
starting preparation for teaching an ESP course is almost always: What do
students need to do with English? Which of the skills do they need to
master and how well? Which genres do they need to master, either for
comprehension or production purposes? Various commentators (notably
Brumfit 1984a) have remarked that needs analysis is not exclusive to ESP
and that much general TESOL - especially when following the
communicative approach - is based on needs analysis. However, in ESP
one can be more precise about learners' needs; their needs are defined by
a learning or occupational situation in which English plays a key role.
Specific needs can be identified by examining that situation and the texts
(written or spoken) in detail; in contrast, for students not immediately
using English, or about to use it, needs are much more general.
• Apart from the primacy of needs analysis, defining features of ESP
can be difficult to identify. Robinson, in her first overview of ESP
(1980), suggested that limited duration (i.e. an intensive course
• of a fixed length) and adult learners are defining features of ESP
courses. However, in her second survey (1991) she accepts that,
although many ESP courses are of limited duration, a significant
• number are not (e.g. a three- or four-year programme as part of a
university degree) and, while it is true that the majority of ESP
learners are adults, ESP can be taught at school (even at primary
level in English-medium schools where English is not the pupils' first
language). Similarly, ESP is generally taught to intermediate or
advanced students of English, but can also be taught to beginners.
• The above are optional or variable characteristics of ESP. I
would add to this list the idea that ESP may be designed for
specific disciplines or professions. The ESP teacher needs to
bear in mind
• and exploit if possible this specific subject knowledge,
which leads to classroom interaction and teaching
methodology that can be quite different from that of
general English; however, in some situations - e.g. pre-
study or pre-work courses where learners have not started
their academic or professional activity and therefore have
less subject knowledge - teaching methodology will be
similar to that of general English. The use of a distinctive
methodology is therefore a variable characteristic of ESP.
• We therefore return to the question of the defining features of ESP.
Looking closely at 'specific purpose', ESP materials will always draw
on the topics and activities of that specific purpose, in many cases
exploiting the methodology of the subject area or the profession
(Widdowson 1983). For example, an English course for engineers
will use engineering situations to present relevant language and
discourse; problem-solving activities (calculations, making
recommendations) will probably also be used, since they draw on
skills and abilities possessed by the students. Similarly, a business
English course will use case studies as these are widely used in
business training. It must not, however, be forgotten that ESP is
concerned with teaching language, discourse and relevant
communication skills: it exploits topics and the underlying
methodology of the target discipline or profession to present
language, discourse and skills.
 I thus see the absolute characteristics
of ESP as follows:
• ESP is designed to meet the specific needs of the learner. ESP makes use
of the underlying methodology and activities of the discipline it serves.
• ESP is centred on the language (grammar, lexis, register), skills, discourse
and genres appropriate to these activities (Dudley-Evans and St John
1998: 4-5). The variable characteristics are:
• ESP may be related to or designed for specific disciplines.
• ESP may use, in specific teaching situations, a different methodology from
that of general English.
• ESP is likely to be designed for adult learners, either at a tertiary-level
institution or in a professional work situation. It could, however, be used
for learners at secondary school level.
• ESP is generally designed for intermediate or advanced students. Most
ESP courses assume basic knowledge of the language system, but it can be
used with beginners (Dudley-Evans and St John 1998: 5).
 CLASSIFICATION
• As with most branches of TESOL and applied linguistics, ESP
is often divided up into various categories with mysterious
acronyms. It is usually classified into two main categories:
English for academic purposes (EAP; see Chapter 18) and
English for occupational purposes (EOP). EAP largely
speaks for itself: it relates to the English needed in an
educational context, usually at a university or similar
institution, and possibly also at school level. EOP is more
complicated: it relates to professional purposes, e.g. those
of working doctors, engineers or business people. The
biggest branch of EOP is business English, the teaching of
which can range from teaching general business-related
vocabulary to the teaching of specific skills important in
business, e.g. negotiation and meeting skills.
• Another key distinction is between more general ESP and
more specific ESP. Dudley-Evans and St John (1998) -
drawing on an idea from George Blue (Blue 1988) - make a
distinction between English for general academic purposes
(EGAP) designed for pre-study groups, or groups that are
heterogeneous with regard to discipline, and English for
specific academic purposes (ESAP) designed to meet
specific needs of a group from the same discipline. A similar
distinction can be made between the teaching of general
business-related language and skills (English for general
business purposes; EGBP) and the teaching of specific
business language for skills such as negotiation, or the
writing of letters or faxes (English for specific business
purposes; ESBP).
• It is often convenient to refer to types of ESAP or ESBP by
profession, so one commonly hears terms such as medical English,
English for engineers or English for administration. These terms
may be useful as a quick classification, but may lead to confusion.
Medical English may include EAP for students following a degree
course in medicine where English is the medium of instruction, or a
reading skills course where the subject is taught in a language other
than English, but also a type of EOP for practising doctors using
English to talk to patients (e.g. Cuban doctors in South Africa) or to
write up research in English. Similarly, English for engineers may be
for students of engineering, or for practising engineers needing,
say, to write reports in English. In the USA, ESAP is often called
content-based instruction (CBI), which is seen as separate from ESP
(Brinton et al. 1989).
• Finally, two other commonly used abbreviations
are EST (English for science and technology),
which was widely used when most EAP teaching
was for students of engineering and science. It is
thus a branch of EAP. In the USA, EVP (English for
vocational purposes) is frequently used for
teaching English for specific trades or vocations.
This branch of EOP is often sub-divided into
vocational English (concerning language and skills
needed in a job) and prevocational English
(concerning skills needed for applying for jobs
and being interviewed).
 Research
• BEYOND NEEDS ANALYSIS
• I have emphasised needs analysis as the key defining
feature of ESP. The initial needs analysis provides
information about the target situation, what learners will
have to do in English and the skills and language needed.
This is generally called target situation analysis (Chambers
1980). While initial needs analysis will always be the first
step for ESP, it is usually the next stage that involves the
most detailed analysis, and there has been increasing
emphasis on investigating these additional factors.
Information about the learners - in particular their level in
English, weaknesses in language and skills needed (often
called lacks), and also their own perceptions of what they
need - are increasingly investigated.
• Taking an example, the need to understand lectures is an objective need
that comes under target situation analysis. Learners' confidence or lack of
confidence in their listening abilities, and their perception that they need
more vocabulary to understand lectures, is subjective. This investigation
of subjectively felt needs, as opposed to the objective needs established
by target situation analysis, is called learning situation analysis. The
investigation of learners' weaknesses or lacks is called present situation
analysis. Analysis of the learning situation within the teaching institution
or company is also important and is called means analysis (Holliday and
Cooke 1982). For ESP courses to be successful and to have a lasting effect
on learners' ability to study or work using English, the environment in
which English is taught versus that in which it is used must be assessed.
For example, if learners are used to rote-learning, it may be that a
problem-solving approach to learning ESP will be alien to their learning
styles and contrary to their expectations. This does not mean that the
problem-solving approach cannot be used, but it would be more effective
if the factors that militate against its use are known and allowed for.
• THE NEED FOR TEXT ANALYSIS However much priority is given to needs analysis
and the various approaches to it outlined above, I believe that the key stage in ESP
course design and materials development is the action needed following this
needs analysis stage. This next stage is when the ESP teacher considers the
(written or spoken) texts that the learner has to produce and/or understand, tries
to identify the texts' key features and devises teaching material that will enable
learners to use the texts effectively. ESP work has thus always been interested in
the structure of discourse and, indeed, has often been at the forefront of applied
linguistic research. For example, early work by Lackstrom et al. (1973), Allen and
Widdowson (1974), Widdowson (1978) and Trimble (1985) showed ways of
analysing scientific and technical text that led to materials production. More
recently, work in genre analysis (see Chapter 27) has extended the analyses of the
above researchers, relating it more directly to the conventions and expectations of
the target discourse communities that ESP learners wish to become members of.
The work of Swales (1981, 1990a) on the academic article and Bhatia (1993) on
types of business letter are extremely insightful about the ways in which writers
manipulate these texts and also very productive in terms of generating
appropriate teaching material.
• Early work in ESP genre analysis placed the focus on
'moves', i.e. how the writer structures a text or part of a
text (such as an article introduction or discussion section)
through a series of stratagems. Masuku (1996) argues that
moves and genres are elements of discourse and that the
difference between them is that moves combine to form
genres. At a rank below the move 'we enter the domain of
grammar' (Masuku 1996: 117). A move may be defined as
'a meaningful unit represented in linguistic
(lexicogrammatical) forms and related to the
communicative purpose of the social activity in which
members of the discourse community are engaged'
(Hozayen 1994: 151). Skelton (1994: 456) takes the
definition a stage further by stating:
• Move structure analysis tentatively assigns a function to a
stretch of written or spoken text, identifies that function
with one, or a set of, exponents which signal its presence,
and seeks to establish whether or not the pattern
identified is a general one, by reference to ostensibly
similar texts. If the pattern can be generalised, its status is
confirmed.
• Swales (1990a: 141) argues that a writer 'creates a research
space' in an article's introduction in order to show the
originality of and need for the presented research; the
model is thus called the 'creating a research space' (CARS)
model (see Figure 27.1, p. 188). Bhatia (1993: 46-47)
follows a similar pattern to Swales in establishing the
moves for sales promotion letters (letters selling a product
to potential customers).
• Recently, Swales and others (e.g. Berkenkotter
and Huckin 1995; Swales 1998b) have turned
away from a reliance on moves to consider in
more detail the workings of discourse
communities and the role genres play within
those communities (see Chapter 27 on three
approaches to genre analysis: ESP school, New
Rhetoric and systemic linguistics). This greater
interest in the workings of discourse
communities and the decline in interest in moves
have led to an increasing overlap between the
ESP and New Rhetoric schools.
• While the ESP school is considering higher level issues, research
using corpora and concordancing techniques has linked genre
analysis with phraseological studies. Gledhill (2000) shows how
introductions to medical articles about cancer research use a
limited and predictable phraseology. This phraseology can be
established by examining the collocations of high-frequency
grammatical items (e.g. of, for, on, but, has, have, were, etc.).
Gledhill can, e.g., show that has been l have been are used in cancer
research articles to establish a relationship between a drug or
biochemical process and a disease (as in TNF alpha has been shown
to deliver the toxicity of ricin A; Gledhill 2000: 7). This research has
great potential, especially the potential of relating the more general
findings of genre analysis to specific language use, and thus to
materials production.
• Concern with the discourse community's work is also
characteristic of the teaching of business English, the
current growth area in ESP. Needs analysis in business
English must establish exactly how the discourse
community uses language and text, and the effect of
culture (both business or corporate culture and national
culture) on the way that discourse is structured. Charles
(1994, 1996) shows very effectively how the nature of the
business relationship (i.e. whether it is new or old) has a
significant effect on the structure of a sales negotiation,
and also that there are important differences between
British and Finnish styles of negotiation. The same has been
shown for Japanese-American negotiations (Neu 1986) and
Brazilian-American negotiations (Garcez 1993).
 Practice
• I have already argued that ESP is a materials-led field.
Most materials, however, are prepared by individual
teachers for particular situations, and there is not a
huge amount of published ESP material. Hamp-Lyons
(Chapter 18) discusses a number of coursebooks in
EAP. In EOP, especially business English, there is much
more material: St John (1996) discusses various types
of material, giving brief description of key
coursebooks. Research work in genre analysis (see
Chapter 27) is beginning to generate textbooks
applying its findings to the teaching of academic
writing (for examples of textbooks making direct use of
genre analysis findings, see Weissberg and Buker 1990;
Swales and Feak 1994).
 Current and future trends and
directions
• In discussing needs analysis and genre analysis, I have
shown how ESP research and teaching are increasingly
focusing on and sensitive to the learners' background
and the effects of the environment in which they use
English. This leads to an increased awareness of the
importance of cross-cultural issues (Connor 1996) and
a shift towards further research in this area. The
growth of business English will increase the need for
such research, particularly as business English is very
often used by two or more non-native speakers (St
John 1996) using both language and strategies that
may be very different from those used by native
speakers.
• I have also argued for the importance of genre
analysis as applied research that leads the course
designer from the initial needs analysis to
materials production and lesson planning. I
would expect future research in genre analysis to
go in two directions: first, concern with the
broader picture of how discourse communities
work and the role text plays within them will
continue; second, specific corpora will be used to
investigate the phraseology of particular
specialist genres in specialist disciplines and
professions.
• The concern with cultural issues is likely to lead to an increased
advocacy role for the ESP teacher. In Johns and Dudley-Evans
(1993) I suggested - on the basis of research into the discourse of
economics (Dudley-Evans and Henderson 1990a; Henderson et al.
1993) - that ESP teachers and researchers can have an increased
role as 'genre doctors', advising disciplines and professions on the
effectiveness of their communication. I also foresee ESP teachers
participating centrally in the debate on the dominance of the
Anglo-American rhetorical style in international publication. Many
(notably Mauranen 1993; Swales 1998a) argue that journals should
be tolerant of different rhetorics when considering manuscripts for
publication. This can only happen if journal editors become aware
of the issues; the ESP teacher/researcher is clearly well placed to do
this. I have the impression that this issue is being increasingly
debated, and that attitudes are changing.
• A similar type of role for the ESP teacher is envisaged by
those who argue that ESP teaching should be concerned
with rights analysis as well as needs analysis. Benesch
(1999) argues that in collaborative situations where the ESP
teacher is working closely with the subject teacher (either
together in the classroom or outside in planning classes),
the ESP teacher should not act just as interpreter of the
way that the subject teacher communicates information in
lectures or his/her priorities in marking
assignments/examination answers. She suggests that ESP
should develop an awareness in ESP students of how they
can assert their rights, by, e.g., insisting on asking questions
about points the lecturer has not made clear.
• It is interesting that the concern with rights
analysis has been influenced by the critical
discourse analysis movement in applied
linguistics (Fairclough 1989; Barton and Ivanic
1991). However, ESP has its own movements, its
own journal and, above all, its own procedures. It
is still, however, very much part of applied
linguistics and continues to be influenced by
developments there; it also plays its own role in
the development of applied linguistics.
 Key readings
• Dudley-Evans and St John (1998) Developments in English
for Specific Purposes
• English for Specific Purposes (in particular the special issue
'Business English' 15(1), 1996)
• Hutchinson and Waters (1987) English for Specific Purposes
• Johns and Dudley-Evans (1993) English for specific
purposes
• Jordan (1997) English for Academic Purposes: A Guide and
Resource Book for Teachers
• Robinson (1991) ESP Today: A Practitioner's Guide
• Swales (1990a) Genre Analysis: English in Academic and
Research Settings