The Development of ESP Approaches

Abstract

Being the lingua-franca, English became dominant in every aspect of education, trade, commerce and international relations. English language teachers are required to respond for the needs of their learners. Such needs range from basic skills to advanced and specific needs. It is such advanced and specific needs which are the interest of English for Specific Purposes are. Motivated by the learning theories and views of language learning, the ESP practitioners have been trying with several approaches to respond to the needs of the students. While there are as many approaches to English for Specific Purposes as there are practitioners, this paper examines the three dominant approaches: language-centered, skills-centered and learning-centered approaches to course design. It highlights the development of each approach and sheds the light on its merits and demerits.