CHAPTER 1 THE ORIGINS OF ESP
1.
The
Demands of a Brave New World
The end of the Second World War in 1945 heralded
an age of enormous and unprecedented expansion in scientific, technical and
economic activity on an international scale. This expansion created a world
unified and dominated by two forces (technology and commerce) which in their
relentless progress soon generated a demand for an international language. For
various reasons, most notably the economic power of the United States in the
post-war world, this role fell to English. English was the key to the
international currencies of technology and commerce and it became the accepted
international language of technology and commerce. Then it created a new
generation of learners who knew specifically why they were learning a language.
For the example the doctors who needed to keep up with developments in their
field. The development was accelerated by the OIL Crises of the early 1970s,
which resulted in a massive flow of funds and Western expertise into the
oil-rich countries. Time and money constraints created a need for
cost-effective courses with clearly defined goals. English now became subject
to the wishes, needs and demands of people other than language teachers
2.
A Revolution
in Linguistics (Sudarma)
At the same time as the use of English
which was growing up for specific needs, it also influenced the study of
language itself. In the past, the purpose of Linguistics was only for the usage
of the language which is well known as grammar. However, as the time goes by
the early studies began to find out that the usage of language grammatically is
actually different from the real life usage, one of the example is the way we
speak and write the language.
It can be explained that in the real
life there are some differences of the usage of language in some parts of life
e.g engineering, hospital, and more. Then it developed that if the use of
language varies from one situation to another, it should be possible to decide
the features of specific situations and make these features as basis for
learning the language. Since then, especially in the late 60’s and 70’s, the
research were developed into the varieties of language. In conclusion, by
analyzing linguistic characteristics of the specialist area of language study,
particular group of learners could be identified. This is as the principle of
ESP that “Tell me what you need English for and I will tell you the English
that you need”.
3.
Focus on the Learner (Novita)
The developments in educational
psychology contribute to the rise of ESP, by emphasizing the central importance
of the learners and their attitudes to learning. Learners were seen to have
different needs and interest, which would have an important influence on their
motivation to learn and therefore on the effectiveness of their learning. This
lent support to the development of courses in which
relevance to the learners need and interest was paramount. The assumption
underlying this approach was that the clear relevance of the English course to
their needs would improve the learners’ motivation and thereby make learning
better and faster. The growth of ESP was brought about by a combination of
three importance factors. The expansion of demands for English to suit
particular needs and developments in the fields of linguistics and educational
psychology. All three factors seemed to point towards the need for increased
specialization in language learning.
ESP EED
ENGLISH FOR SPECIFIC PURPOUSE
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