TIKO jaTra NUR ALIF (147074)

INTAN MU’ARIFAH (1147041)

 In this chapter we will consider this situation in more detail,
focusing in three problems :

 The lack of an ESP orthodoxy to provide a ready-made guide

 The new realms of knowledge

 The change in the status of English Language Teaching

 Lacking a long tradition which might give some stability,
ESP has frequency been a hotbed of conflict-the Wild West of
ELT.
The importance of a text is not intrinsic to the text, but
devices from the rule the text has to play in the teaching/
learning process.
As the example of the use or non-use of authentic texts
illustrates, ESP teacher will often have to orientate themselves
to difficult problems with little or no guidance.
 There are no easy solutions to this situation, but some
methods that might be useful are:
 Surveys of the history and present state of ESP in your own or
neighbor countries
 Formations of groups of ESP teacher, perhaps allied to any
existing national organization for the promotion of ELT, to
further the support and development of ESP
 Establishment of newsletters and other form of publication, for
exchanging information and views about ESP in your country
 Provision of pre-and in-service teacher training focusing on
ESP issues. Such provision can take a variety of form:
workshops, seminars, short courses etc.
 As well as having to cope with the uncertain values of the
strange land of ESP teachers may also have to struggle to
master language and subject matter beyond the bounds of their
previous experiences.
Does the ESP teacher need to understand the subject
matter of ESP materials?Taken in isolation, the answer to this
question must be ‘yes’.
Teachers of social or literary English would not enter the
classroom understanding little about the content of the texts to
be taught.
 Does the content of ESP materials need to be highly
specialized?
The answer of this question is lies in looking at the teaching of
ESP in terms of a whole teaching/learning process, any factor within
that process must be evaluated on the basis of how it relates to the
other the role of the ESP teacher. materials must take proper account
of the knowledge and competence of the teacher and negotiate a
workable relationship and the starting point for such negotiation is
the teacher's current state of knowledge. If teachers are unable to
operate highly specialised texts effectively they should not be used.
This problem arises from four causes:

There is the tradition in education of separating the Humanities and the

Sciences. Languages have usually been allocated to the Humanities camp.

 Many ESP teacher are reluctance settlers in the new territory. They would
prefer to be teaching literature and Social English in the comfortable
environs of ELT, but have been obliged by economic pressure to emigrate.

 Considering the scale of the ESP revolution it must be admitted that little
effort has been made to retrain teachers or to at least allay their fears.

 The general attitude in ESP seems to be to expect teachers to conform to

the requirements of the target situations.
 ESP teachers do not need to learn specialist
subject knowledge. They require three thing only:

 A positive attitude towards the ESP content;

 A knowledge of the fundamental principles of the

subject area

 An awareness of how much they probably already

know
 One of the most important features of ESP in relation to
General English is that the status of English changes from
being a subject in its own right to a service industry for other
specialism. In many cases this leads to a lowering of status for
the teacher, or at least this seems to be the ESP teacher’s view.
There are only two ways in which the subject has any
kind of influence on the language content:
 Vocabulary. But even here the differences are far less
significant than might be expected.
 Certain subject areas show a higher proportion of particular
grammatical or structural forms. For example, a register
analysis of Scientific and Technological subjects will show a
high percentage of passives and nominal/adjectival
compounds.
 Face validity. Subject-specific materials look relevant

 Familiarity.
A strategy for dealing with the problem

 The first step is to try and establish grouping along broad

subject lines

 Avoid highly specific materials and try to give everyone’s

specialism some chance.

 Look for topics which give access to a number of different

specialist areas.

 Make learners aware of the lack of specificity of their needs.

 If people are havong fun, they are far less likely to complain.