English for special or specific purposes (ESP): A study on teaching ESP courses

Abstract

English is taught for academic purposes as well as special or specific purposes in schools, colleges and universities as a part in ELT. English for academic purposes (EAP) is a course in ELT and teachers focus on language skills, vocabulary, grammar etc in ELT classrooms to train students or learners. English for special or specific purposes (ESP) is also another course where teachers focus on business English, technical English, scientific English, English for medical profession, aviation English, English for tourism etc. ESP is taught to meet the specific needs of the students or learners. Business English is the main concept of ESP. In ESP, grammar, lexis, register, discourse, genre etc are focused rather than language skills. Most of ESP courses are taught to the students who have basic knowledge in English and sometimes to the beginners also. Since 1960, ESP has become one of the prominent areas of EFL teaching. This paper focuses on the importance of ESP in ELT and the advantages of this course in special or specific situations. Moreover, this paper analyzes the use of ESP in business, tourism, aviation, science and technology and other technologies etc in a comprehensive way and teaching ESP courses in which teachers adopt different techniques is also discussed.