A Parallel Approach to ESAP Teaching

Abstract

It is fair to say that English language teaching has always been teaching for special purposes, however since the 1960's, English for Specific Purposes (ESP) has grown to become one of the most important areas of English as a Second Language (ESL). Consequently there has been a notable increase in courses, materials and methodologies. However, despite its reasonably long history the ESP community doesn’t seem to have a clear idea of what ESP means. This paper aims to examine the teaching of (ESP) in the tertiary level of the education system. It will consider the emergence of English for Academic Purposes (EAP) and how this approach gave way to other approaches, focusing on English for Specific Academic Purposes (ESAP The paper will also consider factors of the local context; the students, the institution and issues related to the academic discipline and to assess to what extent these factors impinge upon methodologies, course design and classroom activities. In doing so I intend to describe and exemplify a pragmatic approach, which I call a parallel course approach, to teaching English for Special Academic Purposes and discuss the rationale for and nature of such an approach.