Vocational Purpose Vocational English as a Foreign Language. In brief ESP can be defined as teaching of English for any purpose that could be specified. Dudley-Evans
set out in his one hour speech to clarify the meaning of ESP, giving an extended definition of ESP in terms of absolute and variable characteristics
Definition of ESP Dudley-Evans, 1997 Absolute Characteristics
1. ESP is defined to meet specific needs of the learners 2. ESP makes use of underlying methodology and activities of the discipline it serves
3. ESP is centered on the language appropriate to these activities in terms of grammar, lexis, register, study skills, discourse and genre.
Variable Characteristics 1. ESP may be related to or designed for specific disciplines
2. ESP may use, in specific teaching situations, a different methodology from that of General English
3. ESP is likely to be designed for adult learners, either at a tertiary level institution or in a professional work situation. It could, however, be for learners at secondary
school level 4. ESP is generally designed for intermediate or advanced students.
5. Most ESP courses assume some basic knowledge of the language system
ESP should properly be seen not as any particular language product but as an approach to language teaching which directed by specific and apparent reasons for
learning.
b. ESP for Hotel Staffs
ESP for hotel staffs one branches of EOP English for Occupational Purpose. ESP for hotel staffs is approach in specific field related with hotel. The learners in
this course are the hotel staffs from some departments, e.g., Front Office Department, Housekeeping Department, Food Beverage Department, and Accounting Dept.
The term specific in ESP refers to the specific purpose for learning English. Students approach the study of English through a field that is already known and
relevant to them. This means that they are able to use what they learn in the ESP classroom right away in their work and studies. The ESP approach enhances the
relevance of what the students are learning and enables them to use the English they know to learn even more English, since their interest in their field will motivate them
to interact with speakers and texts.
c. Course design
Hutchinson and Waters 2000: 21-23 define course design as “ the process by which the raw data about learning need is interpreted in order to produce an
integrated series of teaching-learning experiences, whose ultimate aim is to lead the learners to a particular state of knowledge”.
In practice, this process requires the use of the theoretical and empirical information available to produce a syllabus, to select, adapt or write material in
accordance with the syllabus, to develop a methodology for teaching those materials and to establish evaluation tools by which progress toward the goals will be
measured.
Hutchinson and Water 2000: 72 propose a learning-centered approach to course design. There are two reasons to use this approach. First, learning is an
internal process, which is dependent upon the knowledge the learners already have their ability and motivation to use it in order to understand new information they have
obtained. Second, a learning-centered approach to course design considering the learners at every stage of the design process. It is shown in the chart below.
Figure 1. A learning-centered approach to course design
The figure shows that learning-centered approach to course design takes account of the learners at every stage of the design process. This has two
implications: • Course design is a negotiated process. There is no single factor which has an
outright determining influence on the content of the course. Each of these components will influence and be influenced by the other.
• Course design is dynamic process. It does not move in a linear fashion from initial analysis to completed course. Needs and resources move every time. The course
design, therefore, needs to have built in feedback channels to enable to respond to development.
Using this approach, Hutchinson and Water 2000 propose four major steps in developing a course design:
1 Needs
As Hutchinson and Water’s model shows, preparatory work in the form of information gathering must take place before designing a new language program. The
information, in turn, will be the basic for formulating goals Hutchinson and Waters, 2000:53. The information must be obtained in order to guarantee an individual or
groups’ success in an educational program. Needs analysis is the first procedure conducted in the process of course
design. It is the process to find out and define students’ need in their learning process. Needs analysis identifies and define the learners’ personal, socio cultural, and
educational background, their expectation and interest, what the students needs to do in program, the context in which they will do it and what they current level of English
is.
2 Learning objectives
Learning objective is the precise behavioral objectives that can be measured Kemp, 1977:24
