The Electronic Journal for English as a Second Language

November 2018 – Volume 22, Number 3

Introducing English for Specific Purposes

Introducing English for Specific Purposes

Author: Laurence Anthony (2018)

Publisher: New York, NY: Routledge.

Pages ISBN Price

210 978-1-138-93664-5 $36.95

Introduction

Laurence Anthony’s (2018) Introducing English for Specific Purposes is a user-friendly book
which introduces the following core aspects of English for Specific Purposes (ESP): needs
analyses, learning objectives, methods and materials, and evaluation. With a focus on these
key features of ESP, the book is well-aligned with its intended audience: students and
practitioners who are new to the field. The author makes three assumptions about the
audience. The first is that readers welcome uncomplicated and understandable language. The
second assumption is that readers have no to minimal teaching experience, and the third is
that readers are using the book in a class or for professional development. These assumptions
drive the book and introduce the readers to the central components of ESP.

Summary

The book is divided into ten chapters. Each chapter is organized similarly, with an
introduction, opening reflection and commentary, several tasks intended to engage learners,
research ideas, a closing reflection, and additional resources. Section 1 (Chapters 1-3),
Contextualizing ESP, provides a general but comprehensive overview of ESP. Chapter 1
discusses the two branches of ESP: English for Academic Purposes (EAP) and English for
Occupational Purposes (EOP), and their corresponding sub-branches, such as English for
nursing and English for tour guides. However, the author is careful to note that realistically,
EAP and EOP exist on “a continuum of needs that are weighted more strongly in one area or

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setting than another” (p. 15) and are thus difficult to divide into sub-branches. The chapter
also connects ESP to the larger field of Teaching English as a Second Language (TESL) and
Teaching English as a Foreign Language (TEFL) and the different pedagogical approaches
used in ESL and EFL classrooms. Chapter 2 introduces English as a lingua franca and

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explains its importance in academic and occupational settings with examples from English for
Business Purposes in Asia, English for Tourism worldwide, and English for Academic
Purposes in North America, Latin America, Africa, Asia, and Europe. Chapter 3 is an
overview of what the author has termed the “four pillars of ESP” (p. 44), the central
components of the field which include needs analyses, learning objectives, materials and
methods, and evaluation. This chapter serves as a general introduction to these concepts
which are discussed in more depth in the following section.

Section 2, Understanding the four pillars of ESP (Chapters 4-7), is the core of the book and
explains needs analyses, learning objectives, methods and materials, and evaluation. Drawing
heavily on Brown (2016) and Hutchinson and Waters (1987), Chapter 4 focuses on the first
pillar by defining the term “needs” and outlining the diagnostic, discrepancy, democratic, and
analytic viewpoints (Brown, 2016) which can be used to conduct a needs analysis. The role of
the different stakeholders in a needs analysis is also considered. Chapter 5 discusses learning
objectives, the second pillar of ESP, by briefly introducing register analysis, rhetorical
analysis, and genre analysis. The author explains how these analyses and their results can
inform how language is used in different contexts and how the learning objectives in an ESP
course could be appropriately sequenced. Chapter 6 discusses the third pillar of ESP: methods
and materials. The chapter outlines the purpose of pedagogical materials within ESP, suggests
guiding questions for evaluating published materials, and provides a five-step approach to
creating custom materials. The chapter concludes with a brief overview on using technology
to adapt and create materials, discussing tools for corpus analyses like AntConc (Anthony,
2018) and ProtAnt (Anthony & Baker, 2017). Chapter 7 introduces the fourth pillar of ESP,
which is evaluation. Using Brown’s (1989) three characteristics of successful evaluation
(reliability, validity, and practicality), the author discusses how to evaluate learners,
instructors, courses, and programs in different ESP contexts.

Section 3, Applying ESP in real-world settings (Chapters 8-10), discusses the application of
the concepts explained in the previous section. Chapter 8 outlines the strengths and
weaknesses of ESP courses in different situations, including: “ideal settings” (p. 150) in
which both instructors and administrators work through the four pillars to create courses;
“opportunistic settings” (p. 153) in which instructors are assigned to a pre-designed course;
and “just-in-time settings” (p. 154) in which instructors might only have a few days to
prepare. The chapter also examines the different roles of instructors and administrators in
these contexts and ends with a discussion of the decision to focus more broadly on language
skills (a wide-angled approach) or on language skills specific to a discipline or career (a
narrow-angled approach). Chapter 9 outlines the challenges faced with needs analyses,
learning objectives, methods and materials, evaluation, and programmatic change in ESP

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contexts. Chapter 10 concludes the book by looking to the future of ESP curriculum, methods
and materials, research, and the role of technology in the ESP classroom.

Evaluation

Considering the audience identified at the beginning of the text, Introducing English for
Specific Purposes is successful in providing a broad introduction to the field. The book
begins with a clear definition of ESP and provides a useful overview of its key components
(needs analyses, learning objectives, materials and methods, and evaluation). While students
will likely encounter these concepts in other courses during their program of study and
practitioners in their teaching contexts, this book reinforces these foundational principles and
makes an explicit connection between language teaching and ESP. Additionally, the book’s
organization, including explicit objectives for each chapter, interactive tasks, research ideas, a
closing reflection, and additional resources, provides learners with the opportunity to engage
meaningfully with the content.

Even though the book offers a valuable introduction to the field, it is somewhat limited in its
inclusion of examples of diverse ESP educational and geographical contexts. While Chapter 2
provides some discussion of different ESP contexts and Chapter 3 briefly discusses applying
the four pillars to call centers, Chapters 4-10 are missing a connection between the pillars and
the specific educational and geographical contexts in which ESP is taught. Basturkmen
(2010) has argued that decontextualized accounts of ESP might not demonstrate “how
courses are developed in response to a given situation and in light of the particular
characteristics of the learners” (p. 71). Given readers’ presumed limited knowledge of ESP,
they might wonder how needs analyses, learning objectives, methods and materials, and
evaluations take place in different ESP contexts (e.g., English for engineering students at an
English-medium Turkish university, English for immigrants working in service jobs in the
hotel industry in the U.S., or English for airline pilots in Brazil). Integrating examples into the
explanation of each pillar would allow readers to apply their developing knowledge to
various and real ESP contexts.

Despite this limitation, Introducing English for Specific Purposes is an accessible and
comprehensive introduction to ESP, balancing both pedagogy and research. The text’s candid
and friendly prose will be useful in introducing truly novice readers to the field of ESP,
particularly undergraduates and pre-service teachers studying in a TESL/TEFL program. For
a more comprehensive overview and discussion of different ESP contexts, pedagogy, and
research, instructors will likely need to supplement this book with additional readings.
However, this book provides a foundation for ESP and can inspire students and new
professionals to further investigate the field of ESP so that they can see the depth and breadth
of ESP pedagogy and research.

References

Anthony, L. (2018). AntConc (Version 3.5.7) [Computer Software]. Tokyo, Japan: Waseda
University. Available from http://www.laurenceanthony.net/software.

TESL-EJ 22.3, November 2018 Anthony/Todey 3

Anthony, L. & Baker, P. (2017). ProtAnt (Version 1.2.1) [Computer Software]. Tokyo,
Japan: Waseda University. Available from http://www.laurenceanthony.net/software.

Basturkmen, H. (2010). Developing courses in English for specific purposes. New York, NY:
Palgrave MacMillan.

Brown, J. D. (2016). Introducing needs analysis and English for specific purposes. New
York, NY: Routledge.

Brown, J.D. (1989). Language program evaluation: A synthesis of existing possibilities. In K.

Johnson (Ed.), The second language curriculum (pp. 222-241). Cambridge, UK: Cambridge
University Press.

Hutchinson, T., & Waters, A. (1987). English for specific purposes. Cambridge, UK:
Cambridge University Press.

Reviewed by

Erin Todey
Iowa State University
[email protected]

© Copyright rests with authors. Please cite TESL-EJ appropriately.

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