ESP

ESP stands for //English// //for Specific Purposes// and is an approach to learn English that differs from other general language courses. I learnt something very important about what it must be taught, since it not just about teaching simply technical vocabulary, it takes a whole lot more. For instance, it is necessary to observe and analyse the field we are working in not to make mistakes due to careless intuition or assumptions, which is pretty common when you are asked something you are not adept at. Truth be told, I have heard a lot about ESP, but I didn’t have any real definition to hang on to. I have attended classes of ESP, but never reflected on the term itself and the real needs it entails. I believe that the main difference is the one related to the nature of its usage and students’ needs. GE courses can be addressed to any sort of student trying to learn English or to improve in order to establish communication in any kind of context and with a broad range of different vocabulary generally used in a common English context. Moreover, students usually take these courses to pass an exam that certifies their level. Nevertheless, ESP is sought by students with very specific needs that try to get themselves to get blended in a context that GE usually does not deal with. Due to its special features, their needs have to be analysed in a very detailed and meticulous way, since very similar terms can lead to very different notions, so we must be really precise and careful about the meaning and usage of the terminology. In my own experience as a student, the most common skills that I have been taught are writing and reading. Practice on these two skills is deemed to be most important in degrees, for instance. I have studied Translation and Interpreting and I have been subjected to countless classes about how to read and write specialised vocabulary, layouts and structures for economic and judicial texts. In my experience as a teacher, I have tried to make my students from companies understand the importance of understanding (listening and writing), writing and speaking when they are attempting to learn English for some specific purpose, such as Finance English or Business English, yet maybe the needs are different, since they need to communicate and in my degree I was receiving specific training to learn something very specific.
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