ESP after Thirty Years: An Overview of the Position of ESP in the 1990s

Abstract

ESP (English for Specific Purposes) is a relatively new branch of ELT (English Language Teaching) which is normally goal directed. ESP students study ESP courses because they need English for study or work purposes. Therefore, ESP is a means not an end as students study it to operate properly in their fields. In the view of many ESP practitioners and thinkers, the year 1962 has increasingly been considered as the year which marks the birth of ESP, the son of ELT (see, for example, Swales 1985: 1-3). The year 1992 could mark the thirtieth birthday of ESP which is a good opportunity to reconsider the status of ESP, which is arguable now. The article of Barber (1962) 'Some measurable characteristics of modern scientific prose' indicated clearly the birth of ESP. On the basis of these considerations, the principal aim of this paper is to take a fresh look at ESP and its status in terms of its current issues and recent drawbacks.