Appunti per preparazione orale Lingua inglese

ESP – English for Specific Purposes

1. Definition of ESP

ESP stands for English for Specific Purposes.

English for Specific Purposes refers to the teaching and learning of English as a

second or foreign language when learners need to use English in a particular

domain. In other words, ESP is not English studied in a general or abstract

way, but English studied for a precise academic, professional or occupational

purpose. ESP = English used when “the goal of the learners is to use English in

a particular domain”; historically, it was motivated by the need to communicate

across languages in fields such as commerce and technology.

SHORT ORAL DEFINITION:

ESP is a branch of English language teaching focused on the specific

linguistic, communicative and professional needs of learners who

have to use English in a particular academic or occupational field.

The key word is specific.

ESP asks:

What English do these particular learners need in order to perform specific

tasks in a specific context?

2. ESP vs General English

The main difference between ESP and General English is the role of the

learner’s needs.

In General English, students usually study the language in a broad way:

grammar, vocabulary, speaking, writing, listening and reading for general

communicative purposes.

In ESP, instead, the content and aims of the course are oriented to the specific

needs of the learners. The course focuses on the language, skills and genres

that learners need in order to perform specific activities in English. A key

feature of an ESP course is that “the content and aims of the course are

oriented to the specific needs of the learners.”

So ESP is not simply “technical vocabulary”. It includes:

vocabulary;

 grammar;

 discourse;

 genre;

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communicative functions;

 professional practices;

 cultural conventions;

 rhetorical structures.



3. Main branches of ESP

ESP has expanded over time and now includes several areas. The course

explicitly mentions:

EAP – English for Academic Purposes;

 EOP – English for Occupational Purposes;

 EVP – English for Vocational Purposes;

 EMP – English for Medical Purposes;

 EBP – English for Business Purposes;

 ELP – English for Legal Purposes;

 ESCP – English for Sociocultural Purposes.



4. Learner needs and needs analysis

One of the most important concepts in ESP is needs analysis.

ESP courses are built around the question: What do learners need English for?

Key issues in ESP teaching include:

how to identify learner needs;

 what genres learners need to produce or participate in;

 whether learners are able to perform those tasks successfully;

 what teachers can do to help them.



This means that an ESP teacher or course designer must investigate:

the learners’ professional or academic context;

 the texts they need to read or write;

 the oral situations they need to manage;

 the vocabulary and grammar required;

 the communicative goals;

 2

the level of specialization;

 the target audience.



So ESP is strongly learner-centred and purpose-oriented.

5. Typical ESP learners

ESP learners are usually adult learners, often with clear academic or

professional goals. ESP students are often a homogeneous group in terms of

learning goals, even if not always homogeneous in terms of language

proficiency.

This is important because ESP students are not usually learning English “just

because”. They need English to do something.

6. The History of ESP

The course divides the history of ESP into three main phases:

1. The initial phase: 1962–1981

2. The more recent past: 1981–1990

3. The modern age: 1990–2011

Each phase introduced important methods, topics and concepts.

7. The initial phase: 1962–1981

General context

The initial phase of ESP developed after the Second World War, especially in

the 1950s and 1960s, when English became increasingly important for science,

technology, commerce and international communication.

During this period, the central focus was English for Science and

Technology, usually abbreviated as EST. In the years after World War II, the

central focus of ESP research was strongly connected with scientific and

technical discourse.

From grammar counts to rhetorical devices

At the beginning, ESP research was mostly descriptive. Scholars counted

grammatical features in written texts, especially in textbooks and journal

articles, to identify general sentence-level characteristics of scientific English.

For example, researchers counted:

passive forms;

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verb tenses;

 sentence structures;

 lexical items;

 grammatical patterns.



However, this approach had a limitation. It could describe what appeared in

texts, but it could not fully explain why those linguistic features were used.

Swales observed that this kind of work had “descriptive validity but little

explanatory force.”

This means that simply counting linguistic features was not enough. ESP

researchers gradually became interested in the relationship between linguistic

form and rhetorical purpose.

The Washington School

A central role in the initial phase was played by the so-called Washington

School. Their work focused on the relationship between grammar, lexis and

rhetorical purposes in scientific and technical texts. For the Washington School,

the relationship between EST grammar or lexicon and authors’ rhetorical

purposes was central.

This was a turning point. The important question became:

Why does an author use a certain grammatical or lexical device in a scientific

text?

For example, passive forms are not used randomly. They may help the writer:

focus on the process rather than the researcher;

 make the text sound objective;

 emphasize results;

 follow the conventions of scientific discourse.



This connection between purpose and linguistic device became central to

ESP discourse analysis.

Purpose, device and rhetorical theory

Robert Bley-Vroman introduced an important idea: ESP rhetorical theory should

establish a correspondence between purpose and device.

In this context:

purpose means the communicative aim of the writer;

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device means the linguistic means used to achieve that aim.



The course explains that “device” refers to the linguistic means by which the

author achieves his end.

In ESP, language is not studied in isolation. A grammatical form is studied in

relation to what it does in a text.

Limits of the initial phase

The initial phase was innovative, but it also had limitations.

Early Washington School research was ground-breaking, but it did not usually

involve interviewing students or disciplinary experts to verify hypotheses

derived from texts.

So, at this stage, ESP was still mainly text-based.

Later, ESP research would become more empirical, more contextualized and

more attentive to learners, specialists and real communicative situations.

8. The period 1981–1990

This is the second major phase in the history of ESP.

The course calls it “The More Recent Past: 1981–1990” and describes it as

a period of broadening scope and introducing central concepts.

Two key notions became central in this period:

genre;

 rhetorical moves.



John Swales and Aspects of Article Introductions

A central figure in ESP is John Swales.

In 1981, Swales published Aspects of Article Introductions, a fundamental

work for ESP research. The approach developed there became widely

recognized later, especially after the publication of Genre Analysis in 1990.

Swales’ work was important because it helped scholars understand that

academic texts are organized according to recognizable communicative

structures.

For example, research article introductions are not random. They usually

perform specific rhetorical functions.

Tarone and her colleagues 5

Another important contribution came from Tarone and her colleagues.

Their 1981 work was published in The ESP Journal, established by Grace

Burkhart at the American University in Washington, D.C., and later reprinted

with commentary in Episodes in ESP in 1988.

Tarone and her colleagues focused on syntactic voice in scientific prose. They

studied the use of passive forms because it had been argued that about 25% of

the verbs in research articles were passive.

What made their study important was that they did not simply generalize about

scientific language. They tested hypotheses about the function of a specific

grammatical feature and involved an expert as a specialist informant.

This was important because ESP research began to connect linguistic analysis

with expert knowledge.

Two influential ESP methodologies

Tarone’s study and the Washington School helped establish two influential

approaches in ESP methodology:

consultation with subject-specialist informants;

 rhetorical/grammatical analysis of specific types of texts, especially in

 science and technology.

These two methods are still important today.

A translator, teacher or researcher cannot simply look at words. They must

understand:

the professional field;

 the communicative function of the text;

 the expert conventions of the discourse community.



ESP Journal and broadening the field

During the 1980s, ESP scholars tried to broaden the scope of the field.

Swales and Ann Johns, editors of English for Specific Purposes Journal,

were concerned that ESP was too limited and was seen as irrelevant by many

TESOL professionals. They wanted ESP to return to Strevens’ broader definition,

which included English for Academic Purposes and English for Occupational

Purposes.

As a result, the period 1981–1990 became very inclusive in terms of research

topics and pedagogical practice.

The journal included special issues on: 6

teacher training;

 Vocational ESP;

 interlanguage;

 training of international teaching assistants.



This is important because ESP was no longer limited only to scientific texts. It

began to include a wider range of professional, academic and pedagogical

contexts.

9. Genre

Definition of genre

In ESP, genre is one of the most important concepts.

A genre is not simply a “type of text”. It is a communicative event

characterized by:

a specific purpose;

 a specific audience;

 a typical structure;

 recurring linguistic features;

 conventions shared by a discourse community.



Examples of genres include:

research article;

 abstract;

 business email;

 contract;

 patient leaflet;

 tourist brochure;

 legal judgment;

 medical case report.



The term genre became increasingly important in ESP research when linguistic

devices were contrasted among text types.

So, in ESP, studying a genre means studying how language is used to achieve

specific purposes in a specific context. 7

Genre volatility

An important idea is genre volatility, discussed by Tinberg.

Genre volatility means that genres are not completely fixed. Even texts

belonging to the same genre may vary because writers must respect the

conventions of the discourse community while also making individual choices

and responding to specific rhetorical needs. Tinberg found differences in

rhetorical purposes between texts within the same genre, caused by competing

constraints on the author.

This shows that ESP does not treat genres as rigid formulas. Genres are

structured but also dynamic.

10. Rhetorical moves

Definition

A rhetorical move is a functional unit within a text.

It is a section of discourse that performs a specific communicative function.

For example, in a research article introduction, a writer may:

establish a research territory;

 identify a gap;

 present the purpose of the study;

 announce the structure of the article.



These are not merely paragraphs. They are communicative actions.

Swales and the CARS model

Swales’ most famous contribution is the CARS model, which stands for Create

a Research Space.

The course explains that the CARS model for research article introductions was

successful because it was simple, functional, corpus-based and pedagogically

useful. It also used the metaphor of ecological competition for research space.

The idea is that researchers must “create space” for their own study by

showing that:

1. a field exists;

2. something is missing or problematic;

3. their own research fills that gap. 8

This is extremely important in academic ESP because it helps students

understand how research articles are structured.

11. Linguistic devices and rhetorical purposes

During the 1980s, ESP research continued to investigate the relationship

between linguistic devices and rhetorical purposes.

Researchers studied how grammar and vocabulary perform functions in texts.

For example, Adams and Smith explored problems L2 speakers may have in

distinguishing objective statements of fact from author-marked observations.

Other studies looked at tense usage and the rhetorical functions of verb forms

in scientific texts.

The key idea is:

In ESP, linguistic form must always be connected to communicative

function.

A verb tense, a passive construction or a connector is never studied only as

grammar. It is studied as part of a professional or academic communicative

strategy.

12. Technology in ESP research

During the 1981–1990 period, computers were not yet widely used, but

researchers began to study available technologies.

The course mentions:

slides in biomedical speeches;

 posters at biomedical meetings;

 telex in Business English;

 word omission and abbreviation;

 computer-mediated communication.



Zak and Dudley-Evans studied telex features such as word omission and

abbreviation and suggested how they might be taught in Business English.

Murray studied computer-mediated communication in a business environment,

comparing it with more traditional forms of written communication.

This anticipates later developments in corpus studies, digital communication

and online professional discourse.

13. Other ESP research topics in the 1980s

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ESP also began to include topics closer to general ESL/EFL, such as:

error analysis;

 learning strategies;

 academic writing;

 students’ subjective knowledge;

 classroom-based research.



For example, Adamson studied ESL students’ strategies such as note-taking

and dictionary use in academic classrooms, concluding that English for

Academic Purposes is best taught together with academic content.

This is important because ESP increasingly became connected with pedagogy,

not only text analysis.

14. The Modern Age: 1990–2011

The third phase is called the Modern Age of ESP.

The course identifies the period 1990–2011 as the modern age in ESP and

explains that this period was characterized by:

new international journals;

 the centrality of genre;

 corpus studies;

 increasing contextualization;

 more international research.



New international journals

During this period, new international journals appeared, including the Journal

of Second Language Writing, founded in 1991 by Ilona Leki and Tony Silva.

The importance of journals increased because scholars were increasingly

required to publish in international journals. This helped ESP become more

visible, but it also risked centralizing research in international academic

venues.

Genre becomes central

After Swales’ Genre Analysis in 1990, genre became a dominant concept in

ESP research. 10

The course says that the dominance of genre in ESP research is one of the

most important characteristics of the 1990–2011 period. Swales’ work initiated

a remarkably productive topic for scholars.

Genre analysis continued to focus on advanced academic genres, but scholars

such as Bhatia showed that genre analysis could also be applied to professional

genres.

This matters because ESP is not limited to university texts. It also studies

professional documents such as contracts, business letters, legal texts, medical

documents and tourism promotional materials.

15. Textography

A very important term introduced by Swales is textography.

In Other Floors, Other Voices (1998), Swales brought “textography” into the

ESP lexicon. He studied the interaction between texts and contexts in three

discourse communities, using written work, interviews, observations and other

data.

Textography is important because it shows that texts cannot be fully

understood without their context.

A text is connected to:

the community that produces it;

 the people who use it;

 the institutional setting;

 the communicative purpose;

 the social practices surrounding it.



Textography links ESP to a more contextual, ethnographic and discourse-

community-based approach.

16. Corpus studies

In the modern age, corpus studies became increasingly important.

A corpus is a large collection of authentic texts that can be analysed

systematically. Corpus studies allow researchers to identify patterns in real

language use.

In ESP, corpora help scholars and teachers study:

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recurrent terminology;

 collocations;

 grammatical patterns;

 genre structures;

 rhetorical moves;

 phraseology.



This is particularly relevant for specialized languages because it helps identify

what professionals actually write and say in real contexts.

18. Final development of ESP

ESP has evolved greatly since the 1960s. Genre, introduced in the early 1980s,

remains central. Other topics and methodologies have opened the way for

learner-centred approaches, associated with Hutchinson and Waters and later

Tardy. Future research may focus more on classroom-ba