From ESL to ESP

According to different studies there is a lot of information related to the history of the English instruction and the methodologies used in order to have a more meaningful teaching and learning process. It is important to mention that education is a field that is always changing to adapt to what people need in a specific moment in time to fulfill society’s needs and the shifting environment. The bottom line is that everyone is looking for better ways or tools for a successful class. It is the instructor's job to create a good teaching- learning environment and promote motivation within the group. This cannot be done if they keep doing what they did 50 years ago. As a result, teachers continuously try to find the best way to teach and then share the experiences and the material used in order to receive feedback and provide others with everything that has been learned. For this, academics must be flexible, not only to adapt to the needs, environments, objectives, and basically lead the way. Yet, this is not the only step they have to follow, there has to be study of the needs, no matter what these are because every society and setting is different. ESL teaching is required to change to comply with the demands today. As a result of this, ESL must transform into a more specific, direct, and meaningful process that includes what has worked but concentrating in the individuality of each group. Now, ESP comes in as the best answer. It is becoming more and more famous among the community of educators because it offers a “personalized” or almost “customized” way of teaching. It takes away the generic characteristic that sometimes creates a barrier among the learners and gives a chance for people to be taken into account. ESP takes language teaching to the next level and everything that it was in the past to perfect it so that it keeps an up to date answer to people’s needs. ESP, right now, is closing the gap in the learning process and focusing on what is necessary for the students. This is a light in the dark in this changing world, so gather your thoughts, flexibility, and open minded creativity to enjoy the ride...

Comments

  1. "Past is present in the future". I do not remember who wrote that one, but it is a clear example of how everything we do can be used to either improve or damage the future. In the case of ESP, there is a long way (taking into account what was discussed in class) from what ESP was to what it is now. And thank God we live in this era that makes things a little easier.

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  2. It´s true our society is always changing so this what we have to do with it. Be part of this continuum process. This basically goes beyond needs analysis and methodology as you said this is all about students and what they strive for.

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  3. Hi! Gloriela

    Above it was stated that teachers are in charge of promoting a good learning environment and that "This cannot be done if they keep doing what they did 50 years ago". What value do past approaches have in ESP today? In what ways do previous and current practices of language teaching differ?

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    1. I believe they have an influence in today's teaching-learning process, as we discussed in class, previous approaches built up the basis of what we have now. However, the most important gift from those approaches is that they allow us to determine their pros and cons, the innovative and obsolete methods there are; and improve towards a better future for the teaching community. I think ESP takes into account different approaches and methods in order to comply with the needs of the population. Some of previous practices focused on translation, today's practices focus on communication. Both help the society at a specific period in time and they were appropriate; however as the wold changes so do the teaching methodologies because they serve the society.

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  4. Motivation is a key to start the teaching learning process, today we face the chanllege of companies sending their students to different institutions to learn what they are suppose to perform in their jobs, not all of them are motivated to do so, but here is when a teacher can go ahead and set his/ her style and make student´s know the benefits within the learning experience.

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