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2 - The Development of Esp

The document discusses the development of English for Specific Purposes (ESP) through five stages: 1. Register analysis in the 1960s-1970s focused on identifying grammatical and lexical features of specific registers or contexts to inform teaching materials. 2. Rhetorical analysis in the 1970s examined language use beyond the sentence level and how sentences are organized into discourse. 3. Target situational analysis in the 1980s aimed to design ESP courses based on identifying linguistic features of target situations and learner needs. 4. In the 1980s, interest turned to the skills and strategies underlying language use, such as interpreting processes for comprehending texts. 5. A learning-centered approach from the

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78 views

2 - The Development of Esp

The document discusses the development of English for Specific Purposes (ESP) through five stages: 1. Register analysis in the 1960s-1970s focused on identifying grammatical and lexical features of specific registers or contexts to inform teaching materials. 2. Rhetorical analysis in the 1970s examined language use beyond the sentence level and how sentences are organized into discourse. 3. Target situational analysis in the 1980s aimed to design ESP courses based on identifying linguistic features of target situations and learner needs. 4. In the 1980s, interest turned to the skills and strategies underlying language use, such as interpreting processes for comprehending texts. 5. A learning-centered approach from the

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2_ The development of Esp:

English development has been through different speeds in various countries


due to different reasons. Moreover, English for science and technology ( Est )
has particularly a crucial role in the development of Esp . Swales 1985
implements the development of EST to illustrate the development of Esp. He
states that Est has influenced ways of analysing language and teaching
materials ( like in theoretical discussions).
The rapid development of science and technology after World War Two paved
the way for Est emerge together with the shift development of science
and technology as well as the popularity of the English language, EST has
developed into an important part of modern English in many countries. Due to
its main functions of statement, description, exposition, definition,
classification, instruction, comparison, exemplification, inference and
reasoning, EST has achieved its own language characteristics that contribute to
the formal, concise, precise, impersonal and economical style of scientific
documents. Therefore, this features have paved the way for ESp to broaden
and establish its own differences, sections and sub-sections.
Widdowson and Waters possess that Esp development went through five
stages :
1_Register analysis: the concept of special language ( late 1960_ early 1970) in
this stage language was studied at sentence level . Each language or sentence
grammar had a specific register . The aim of register analysis was to identify
grammatical and lexical features of these registers that later on teaching
materials can adopt as their syllabus. Register analysis shown that each area in
which English is used has a distinctive form . Therefore the aim of the study
was to find out the nature of registers and make Esp courses more relevant to
students' needs . In other words , the main aim of register analysis was to
generate a syllabus that prioritizes and contains language syllabus forms
relevant to science students' needs exclusively .
2_ Rhetorical or discourse analysis: beyond the sentence : Esp interest shifted
to discourse or rhetorical analysis. In other words ,what is above the sentence.
Allen and Widdowson (1974) assert that language difficulties that students
strive with are because of the unfamiliarity with language use where needs are
not met. Student are not able to know how to preform sentences in different
communicative acts. They focus on how sentences are transformed into
discourse to produce meaning. Thereby, I agree with widdowson and Allen's
assertion. Learners real obstacle is not the learning process itself rather it is the
use of language. The learner can memorize grammatical forms and vocabulary
items but cannot preform a sentence, communicate, convey a message
,respond or interact . Simply because they are trained to learn about the
language and not the use the language. Everyone learn languages to
communicate with. Therefore, language usage that is practice is a sacred step
in learning process that should not be ignored. However , it is important to
mention that language usage is not the only barrier that learners struggle with
while learninga language.Then, the aim is to identify organisational patterns in
texts that form a syllabus in an Esp course. The rhetorical patterns of text
organisation differ in term of area of use for instance: rhetorical structure of
science texts is different from commercial texts. Thereby, discourse approach
thought learners to recognize textual patterns and discourse markers by text
diagram exercises .

3_ Target situational analysis: in fact ,this stage did not really update precedent
orientations. It aimed to set the existing knowledge on more scientific basis by
establishing patterns that make language analysis relevant to learner's reason
to learn . It is obvious that the aim of any Esp course is to enable learners to
function adequately in target situations. Therefore, Esp course design need to
be indicated by identifying the target situation then launching precise analysis
of the linguistic feature of a situation. Finally, those features will be
implemented as a syllabus for Esp course. Chambers' 1980 call this process
Target situation analysis but it can be simply named needs analysis. John
Munby explain it in a model that includes learners' needs taking into account
communicative purposes, setting, means of communication, language skills,
functions and structures.
4_ skills and strategies: in this stage intrest turned to look below the surface
and thinking process that underlies language use. Projects in this area aimed at
studying how students managed to accomplish a reading task of an amount of
English specialist texts . Skill centred approach believes that there are sets of
shared common reasoning and interpreting processes that enable us to extract
meaning from discourse regardless the surface form. The main focus is on
major interpretative strategies, that enable the learner to decode the surface
form such as guessing meaning from the context. It holds that the underlying
processes such as reading skill are not exclusive to any subject register
( language) rather ,they are universal ( Chitravelu, 1980). It focus on reading
and listening ( receptive skills) strategies and how learners reflect, analyse,
retrieve, observe, process meaning. In other words , their cognitive abilities.
5_ A learning centred approach : all four previous stages provided description
of language use but this process is particularly concerned with with language
learning . It claims that a healthy Esp approach must include an understanding
of language learning because describing and exemplifying what we do with
language ( as in grammar books ) is not sufficient. Therefore, there is a crucial
necessity to make a difference between language use and language learning.

I think Algerian educational system had been adopting a mixture of stages .for
instance , register analysis stage was adopted but the thing is that its main aims
were not fully accomplished. In other words, grammatical and lexical forms
were thought but in a vague manner for instance, students were not thought
that grammatical features of scientific texts were different from those of
literary text . We can assume that approaches were adopted but in a holistic
manner which did not achieve its aims. For instance, students know the past
simple and the past perfect but they barely define appropriate situations where
they are supposed to use each, they strive to generate a sentence of their own
and they cannot preform. Fluency , accuracy and communication are set as
general aims ,therefore , I would say that the educational program did not
really meet learners' needs. However, lately stakeholders started updating the
curriculum in term of content,methodology...in order to support
communicative abilities and language usage which lies under the umbrella of
learner centred approach.

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