Language for Specific Purposes

Language for Specific Purposes

1. is an area of applied linguistics that focuses on the analysis and teaching of language in order to meet specific language needs of non-native speakers of the language.

   • These specific language needs may be academic, vocational, or professional.
   • A research into language use should be descriptive; focus should be on the real language used by regular people; current, everyday language should be of primary importance; language as it is spoken or written in specific contexts should be the focus of study and there should be an analysis of functional grammar along with the contextual factors that influence language use.

2. Their defi nition, though, is not a simple one, as it is comprised of a set of both “absolute” and “variable” characteristics:

   • Absolute characteristics
     • • ESP is designed to meet specific needs of the learner; ESP makes use of the underlying methodology and activities of the disciplines it serves; ESP is centred on the language (grammar, lexis, register), skills, discourse and genres appropriate to these activities.
   • Variable characteristics
     • ESP may be related to or designed for specific disciplines; ESP may use, a different methodology from that of general English; ESP is likely to be designed for adult learners; • ESP is generally designed for intermediate or advanced students.
   • Current Issues
     • There are three broad areas of debate regarding best practices in LSP
       • (a) the needs assessment process,
       • (b) how specifi c the materials and teaching methods should be
       • (c) what level of subject knowledge instructors must have to be effective
       • The entry critical english explores the entries of the culture and language for specific purposes and intercultural rhetoric in language

3. Specificity

   • Are there skills and features of language that are transferable across different disciplines and occupations, or should we focus on the texts, skills and language forms needed by particular learners?
     • they are divided into two ways
       • The “narrow-angle” which often focus more on general language structures and vocabulary.
       • The "wide-angle" there are broad reading skills and strategies that should be addressed when teaching in LSP contexts.

4. The “Subject Knowledge Dilemma”

   • The teachers often find themselves having to deal with specialized areas of knowledge in which they have not been trained.
   • The teachers to simply be able to use content from the specific area as a tool to teach language
   • It's argue that subject-specific language instruction is most effective when subject-area specialists are involved, and this involvement can take place at three different levels:
     • Cooperation: is determine the sorts of language and language use students have to master in specific contexts.
     • Collaboration: is directly involved in lesson planning and material selection/development.
     • Team teaching: is the interaction between the language and subject-area specialist is used, that is best determined by the needs of the students in the particular context

5. Research in LSP

   • As an area of applied linguistics, LSP has from the beginning been grounded in scholar-ship and research, and constantly develop new techniques for examining language tasks, contexts, structures and learning strategies, also the analysis of the structures and uses of language in the specific contexts that learners want and need to interact. That is because LSP is driven by understanding student needs, and the dividing lines “between researchers and teachers are frequently blurred”