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Academic Year :2013-20134 Department :English Language and Literature

Filière :TEFL Master program Semester : 3, MODULE 9 Course : ESPFaculté des Lettres

ESP

AN INTRODUCTION

Pr. Afkinich ESP:

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1. Introduction2. The Tree of ELT3. The origins of ESP

A. Economic reasons,B. Educational reasons, andC. Linguistic Reasons

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Introduction

• Language for Specific Purposes (LSP) goes back as far as the times of the Greek and the Romans,

• The Greek with the “Pre-Socratic” philosophers and the Sophists are probably the first to have dealt with LSP,

• Each of these 2 groups had their own view about what to teach and why teach it and what is the purpose behind the teaching of language

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Introduction

• The sophists stood for a new breed of educators who excelled in their control of language and in teaching this control to other fellow citizens,

• They could be said to have occupied the front scene after the time of the supremacy of the use of weaponry was over,

• Protagoras was one of the most important sophists;• They offered both theoretical courses and practicum,

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Introduction

• For most Sophists, everything could be defended as long as the person could be said to have a very good general knowledge,

• For them general knowledge was a must since it makes dealing with any topic a very easy task.

• A Good general knowledge makes of its possessor ready for the unexpected,

• Within this perspective, to talk well was seen to be equivalent with to think well,

• It is rhetoric that makes the truth.Pr. Afkinich

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Introduction• Corax (around 4th and 5th B.C.) is most probably the First LSP

teacher ,• Tisias (around 4th and 5th B.C.), his student, refused to pay him his

tuition fees on rhetoric,– In court, Corax told the judges:

“Tsias must pay me regardless of your decision. If he wins the case, that proves the lessons I taught him were valuable and I deserve payment. And if he loses, the court will force him to pay. So either way he must pay.”

• The response of Tsias reflects an attitude towards LSP teachers that many still believe in:

“I shall pay nothing. If I lose the case, that will prove the training I received from Corax was worthless and he does not deserve payment.”

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Introduction

• The 1st Latin Grammar (Priscilian’s Grammar) and the first Arabic grammar (Ali’s Grammar).

• Priscilian wrote a grammar of Latin and used it to teach Greeks in Constantinople.

• His grammar contained 18 books of which the first 16 deal with Latin morphology (Priscian major)and the last two deal with Latin syntax (Priscian minor)

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Introduction

• ESP is firmly established in the post WWII world.• English, as a global language and as vehicle of

communication, is indeed very essential for getting open access to opportunities;

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EDUCATION in English, English in EDUCATION

English TEXTS – INFORMATION in English

English STUDIES

English THEATRE AND DRAMA – PLAYS, PERFORMANCES AND RE/PRESENTATIONS partly in English

English (British, American, Australian, Caribbean . . .) CULTURE – CULTURES partly through English

English Literary HISTORY, HISTORY of English Language, Lang. & Lit. in HISTORY

English LANGUAGE, Teaching & Learning English as a Foreign, Second LANGUAGE – or for Special Purposes (technical, scientific, etc.)

English WRITING, SPEAKING AND PRESENTATION – for academic, business and other purposes

ENGLISH LITERATURE – LITERATURES in ENGLISH

• HISTORY (social, political, inter/national, oral . . . )• ART & ARCHITECTURAL HISTORY• HISTORY OF MUSIC, DRAMA, DANCE• HISTORY OF IDEAS, PHILOSOPHY, EDUCATION, SCIENCE .. .

LINGUISTICS (general, applied, socio-, ethno-, psycho-, historical, etc.)MODERN LANGUAGES – FRENCH, SPANISH, ITALIAN,GERMAN, RUSSIAN, JAPANESE, CHINESE, AFRICAN, INDIAN, etc.CLASSICAL LANGUAGES – LATIN, GREEK, SANSKRIT,INDIAN, CHINESE, etc.

WRITING FOR ACADEMIC, TECHNICAL, BUSINESS, etc. PURPOSESRHETORIC (ancient, neo-classical, modern and ‘new’)COMPOSITION (comprehension, technical, literary)CREATIVE WRITING (adaptation, imitation, expressive; individual,collaborative; print, multimedia)INTERNET & HYPERTEXT (e-mail, World-Wide-Web, multimedia)PUBLISHING & COMMUNICATIONS

LITERARY HISTORYLITERARY APPRECIATIONLITERARY CRITICISMLITERARY THEORYLITERARY STUDIESENGLISH, AMERICAN, CANADIAN, SCOTTISH. . .WRITING (WOMEN’S, BLACK . . .)

EDUCATION (theory, methodology and practice)HISTORY OF EDUCATION (formal and informal – including that of ‘English’ atelementary, primary, secondary and tertiary levels)TEACHING, LEARNING & ASSESSMENT (individual, group; written, oral,recorded, multimedia; other, self- and peer; ‘open’, ‘closed’ and negotiated)EDUCATIONAL METHODS & TECHNOLOGY (strategies; audio-visual; . . . )STAFF & STUDENT SUPPORT & DEVELOPMENT (counselling, training,careers, etc.)

PUBLISHING (book, magazine, newspaper; paper, electronic; editing,design, marketing, distribution; general, specialist)BIBLIOGRAPHY & TEXTUAL SCHOLARSHIPLIBRARY & INFORMATION SERVICESINFORMATION SCIENCESCOMMUNICATIONS

WOMEN’S STUDIES,GENDER STUDIES,POSTCOLONIAL STUDIESAREA STUDIESENVIRONMENTAL & ECOLOGICAL

THEATRE STUDIES (textual, practical, vocational)DRAMA & PERFORMANCE (with music and dance; on page, stage or screen; classical, contemporary; in and out of education)VISUAL STUDIES – photography, film, video, art (fine, popular and commercial)FILM, TV, MEDIA & MULTIMEDIA STUDIES

ART, MUSIC & DANCE (‘high’ and ‘popular’)CLASSIC & POPULAR CULTUREHISTORY, GEOGRAPHY, SOCIOLOGY, LAW, POLITICS, HEALTH CARE, BIOLOGY,SCIENCES (theoretical and applied) . . .CULTURAL STUDIES (British, American, Australian etc. models)CULTURAL THEORY

Adapted from:Pope, Rob (1998) The English Studies Book: An Introduction to Language, Literature, and Culture (Appendice C: English and or as other educational subjects). London: Routledge.Pr. Afkinich 9ESP; Introducing ESP

INTRODUCTION

ESP; Introducing ESP 10

The tree of ELT

Pr. Afkinich ‘The tree of ELT’ from Hutchinson and Waters (1987:17)

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Origins of ESP

• Three reasons lay at the heart of its establishments: • economic, • Educational, and • linguistic

(Tom Hutchinson and Alan Waters (1987)English for Specific Purposes: A

Learning-centred approach ).Pr. Afkinich

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Economic reasons

• After the WWII, the USA ended up being the economic dominator of the whole world ;

• As it has to intervene in many post-war countries which stayed at the receiver end of the many millions of dollars that the USA was then dolling,

• Second, the Oil-crisis of the 70’s resulted in Western money and knowledge flowing into the oil-rich countries;

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Economic reasons

• With the US as the superpower (economically, technically, and scientifically) of the time, English started being used as the International language to communicate about this knowledge and wealth;

• This definitely resulted in English becoming subject to the wishes, needs and demands of people other than those of the language teachers,

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Educational reasons

• Rather than simply focusing on the method of language delivery, more attention was given to the ways in which learners acquire language and the differences in the ways language is acquired;

• It started to be acknowledged that learners employ different learning strategies, use different skills, enter with different learning schemata, and are motivated by different needs and interests;

• Therefore, focus on the learners' needs became equally paramount as the methods employed to disseminate linguistic knowledge.

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Educational reasons

• The Learner was, in some sense to become clearer with time, at the centre of the learning process;

• Learners are understood as having different needs and interests and this affects and effects their motivation to learn;

• Learning is better and faster if the English course has a clear relevance to the needs of the learner.

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Linguistic Reasons

• The big changes that linguistic research started going through during the last half of the 20th century, had an immediate impact on the teaching of English for specific purposes;

• Thanks to the achievements of this revolution, many non-traditional linguists started looking into what is involved in written and spoken communication;

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Linguistic Reasons

• As an immediate result, variation as admitted in this new trend of linguistic research found its reflex in the field of teaching.

• Language instruction is tailored to the needs of learners in specific contexts.

• A guiding principle in ESP: “Tell me what you need English for and I will the English that you need’

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