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ESP's origin
ESP was born as an evolution that responded to the needs of learners of language for science, technology and business especially after WWII (1937-1946). The reasons for learning were work related.
"García Laborda, J. y Frances Litzler, M. (2015)." -
ESP's First Approaches
ESP research had a need to identify "specialized" language used in specific contexts, which learners needed to know. Additionally, materials were extra specialized, and the focus of the lessons was on words and structures.
"García Laborda, J. y Frances Litzler, M. (2015)." -
Register Analysis Phase
It portrayed the conception that language varied in relation to the people who speak it and the purposes to which it is put.
"García Mayo, M. P. (1998)." -
A Course in Basic Scientific English
The publication of this title reflected the focus of ESP in areas of science and technology. It included more than three million words of scientific English analyzed; including the most frequent grammatical patterns, structural words and vocabulary items across all scientific disciplines.
"García Mayo, M. P. (1998)." -
Rhetorical Analysis Phase
This second phase focuses on the level above the sentence in language use. It also concentrates on the writer's purpose, rather than the form they employ.
"García Mayo, M. P. (1998)." -
Period: to
ESP in the EFL World
Coursebooks such as the Nucleus Series, a Course in Basic Scientific English, or Writing Scientific English were being distributed widely in the EFL word, more precisely Middle East and Latin America.
"Johns, A. M. (2013)." -
Communicative Syllabus Design
Munby created the Communication Needs Processor (CNP) which offered a highly detailed set of procedures for discovering target situation needs, also it provided a detailed profile of the learner's needs in terms of communication purposes, communicative setting, means of communication, language skills, functions, and structures.
"García Mayo, M. P. (1998)." -
The Conception of Need - The Target Situation Analysis
During this period research aimed to take the existing knowledge of ESP and set it on a more scientific basis by establishing procedures for relating language analysis more closely to the learner's reasons for learning.
"García Mayo, M. P. (1998)." -
ESP and Thinking Processes
ESP turns to consider the thinking processes underlying language use. It considered the common reasoning and interpreting processes that enable us to extract meaning from discourse. Also, the authenticity of the task became more important; this meant designing tasks requiring students to process texts as they would in the real world.
"García Mayo, M. P. (1998)." -
The ESP Journal Vol. 1
Created by Tarone, et al., the ESP Journal's first publication focused on the syntactic voice. It tried to identify the rhetorical reasons for the choice of language, e.g. active or passive, related to authorial meaning.
"Johns, A. M. (2013)" -
ESP in the United Kingdom
Swales work "Aspects of Article Introductions" exploring the beginnings of Genre analysis research marked the beginning of a change for ESP in the U.K.
"Johns, A. M. (2013)." -
Concerns Regarding ESP's Limitations
A concern started showing regarding ESP continuing to be limited, and irrelevant to the TESOL community. Thus, many TESOL professionals, working in content-based instruction and vocational ESL, did not think of themselves as part of ESP.
"Johns, A. M. (2013)." -
ESP in Academic Contexts
At this point the central focus of ESP research continued to be on science and technology in the academic context.
"Johns, A. M. (2013)." -
ESP in the Netherlands
The Eindhoven University of Technology (Netherlands) held a Language for Specific Purposes conference including a technology take on the topic (posters, telexes, slides, and computer medited instruction, e.g. Technical communication via computational abstracts).
"Johns, A. M. (2013)." -
Genre in ESP
The term genre began to appear in ESP literature, linguistic devices were contrasted among text types.
"Johns, A. M. (2013)." -
Modern Age in ESP
Start of the Modern Age in ESP, among its important characteristics are the introduction of new international journals, such as the ESPJ (Journal of Second Language Writing); the dominance of genre in ESP research; as well as corpus studies, particularly in analyses of written academic genres.
"Johns, A. M. (2013)." -
ESP's Current Focus
ESP in recent years has placed special attention on learner's needs, as well as language use in specific contexts. Additionally, materials have been focused on contexts and interactions.
"García Laborda, J. y Frances Litzler, M. (2015)." -
ESP & Identity
Identity is contemplated in relation to learners’ imagined communities; conceiving their desired memberships of these communities influences their motivation for learning and the investment they make in the learning. Especial attention is placed in students' imagined identities and social change.
"Starfield, S. (2014)." -
Ethnography & ESP
Ethnography can play an important role in ESP research by providing a contextual orientation to this research that goes beyond description and explanation to an understanding of the worlds of specific purpose language use and what matters for language users.
"Starfield, S. (2014)." -
Genre Studies Shift in ESP
ESP genre studies aim to go beyond descriptions of texts, to the exploration of the social action of genres, their socially situated nature and the role the genre is playing in the particular setting. Texts are seen as multimodal, especially with the increase in digital genres which students and practitioners needed to be able to engage in, in the academic and workplace settings.
"Starfield, S. (2014)." -
ESP Research to Advanced Academic Literacies
This is a branch of ESP focused in writing for publication, and thesis and dissertation writing in a second language. It has become especially important with the ever increasing globalisation of higher education, as well as the continued dominance of English as the language of scientific communication.
"Starfield, S. (2014)." -
Current Research in ESP
The research that is currently being published in English for Specific Purposes is especially international in character, with the increase in the use of English as the lingua franca of international research.
"Starfield, S. (2014)."