The development of ESP

ESP develops at different speeds in different countries. Swales (1985) “with one or two exceptions..English for Science and Technology has always set and continues to set the trend in theoritical discussion, in ways of anaysing language, and in the variety of actual teaching materials”

1. The concept of special language: register analysis 1st stage: Focused on language at the sentence level Stage that took place mainly in 1960s and early 1970s Operating on the basic principle that the English ( such as, electrical engineering ) constituted a specific register, different from other disciplines.

The analysis aims to identify the grammatical and lexical features of these registers. Lead to register analysis-based syllabus

2. Beyond the sentence: rhetorical or discourse analysis 2nd phase: focus on language above the sentence level Ewer &Hughes-Davies(1971) found the school textbooks neglected some of the language forms commonly found in the science texts (ex. Compound nouns, passive, conditionals)

Focus on understanding how sentences were combined in discourse to produce meaning. The typical teaching materials based on the discourse approach taught students to recognise textual patterns and discourse markers mainly by means of text-diagraming exercises.

The context of the sentence is also important in creating meaning. Central feature of ESP textbook at this phase aimed at developing a knowledge of how sentences are combined in texts in order to produce a particular meaning.—lead to text diagraming exercise.

3. Target Situation Analysis (Need Analysis) How ESP developed again later --3rd stage: Aimed to take the existing knowledge and set it on more scientific basis, by establishing procedures for relating language analysis more closely to learner’s reason learning. Learner’s need was placed at the centre of the course design process.

4. Skills and Strategies 1&2 stages of the ESP development had been on the surface of the language 3 stage: TSA didnt really change the above features because its analysis in learner need still looked mainly at the surface linguistic features of the target situation.

4th stage: attempt to look below the surface and to consider not the language itself but the thinking process that underlie language use. The principal idea behind the skill-centered approach is that underlying all language use there are common reasoning and interpretating process. Lead to notion: no need to focus closely on the surface form of the language

The focus should rather be on underlying interpretative strategi The focus should rather be on underlying interpretative strategi., which enable the learner to cope with the surface form, (such as; guessing meaning of words from context, using visual layout to determine the type of text) The focus on register is unnecessary in this approach, because the underlying process are not specific to any subject register.

Which of the stages outlined above has your country experienced? Why do you think EST (English for Science and Technology) has set the trends in the development of ESP?

in linguistics, a register is a variety of a language used for a particular purpose or in a particular social setting. For example, when speaking in a formal setting, an English speaker may be more likely to use features of prescribed grammar—such as pronouncing words ending in -ing with a velar nasal instead of an alveolar nasal (e.g. "walking", not "walkin'"), choosing more formal words (e.g. father vs. dad, child vs. kid, etc.), and refraining from using contractions such as ain't—than when speaking in an informal setting.

In sociolinguistics, the term register refers to specific lexical and grammatical choices as made by speakers depending on the situational context, the participants of a conversation and the function of the language in the discourse.

Discourse : (1) In linguistics, a unit of language longer than a single sentence. (2) More broadly, the use of spoken or written language in a social context.

Discouse analysis The study of the ways in which language is used in texts andcontexts. Developed in the 1970s, discourse analysis "concerns itself with the use of language in a running discourse, continued over a number of sentences, and involving the interaction ofspeaker (or writer) and auditor (or reader) in a specific situational context, and within a framework of social and cultural conventions" (M.H. Abrams and G.G. Harpham, A Glossary of Literary Terms, 2005).