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syllabus, has eleven correlated descriptors. They are enthusiastic, interesting, passionate, motivating, creative, charismatic, stimulating, interactive, energetic, assertive, and positive
Delaney et al., 2010:40. The third characteristic, communicative, which is also considered one of the most important parts, has five correlated descriptors. They are clear,
understandable, thorough, constructive, and attentive Delaney et al., 2010:43. The last characteristic is responsive. This characteristic has five correlated descriptions. They are
available, helpful, efficient, perceptive, and accommodating Delaney et al., 2010:50.
4. A Learning-centered Approach in ESP
According to Hutchinson and Waters 1987:8, there are three important factors determining the growth of ESP English for Specific Purposes. These factors are the
expansion of demand for English to suit particular needs, the developments in the field of linguistics, and the developments in educational psychology. Furthermore they 1987:19 also
state that ESP should not be considered a language product, but it should be considered as a language t
eaching approach in which students „specific and clear reasons of learning should
be the main focus.
ESP in its progress has gone through four phases of development. They are a register analysis, a rhetorical or discourse analysis, a target situations analysis, skills and strategies,
and the recent phase, a learning-centered approach Hutchinson and Waters, 1987:9-14. Each of these phases has its own focus. The register analysis focuses on sentence grammar
while the rhetorical or discourse analysis focuses on how sentences were combined in discourse to produce meaning ibid, 1987:11. The target situations analysis on the other hand
gave attention to identifying a target situation and employing careful analysis of linguistics features of the target situation ibid, 1987:11. The fourth phase, skills and strategies, is
actually an effort to look below the surface of linguistic feature of the target situation and to
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give attention to the thinking processes that underlie language use. This skills-centered approach has principle stating that there are common reasoning and interpreting processes
below the surface form of the language which enable us to get meaning from discourse ibid, 1987:9-14.
Hutchinson and Waters 1987:14 believe that all the previous stages have been fundamentally flawed because they just focus on language use what people do with
language. Although language use helps to define the course objective, the main focus should be on how people learn to do what they do with language language learning ibid, 1987:63.
The idea that language learning should be the focus instead of language use has brought the latest learning-centered approach in ESP. This approach is a result of three forces that
characterize the development of ESP namely need, new ideas about language, and new ideas about learning ibid, 1987:14.
These authors 1987:72, furthermore, distinguished learning-centered approach and learner-centered approach. The later approach, according to them, is based on the principle
that learning is totally determined by the learners which is actually seen more as a theoretical attack on established procedure than as a practical approach course design. However, the
former approach is in line with the principle of learner-centeredness in Richards 2001:117. This principle focuses on the individual needs of learners, the role of individual experience,
and the need to develop qualities or skills that are believed to be important for learners to develop such as awareness, self-reflection, critical thinking, learner strategies, and others.
With the learning-centered approach, which is in accordance with the principle of learner-centeredness, teaching, designing course or designing syllabus should be based on six
main questions: what, why, when, how, where, and who Hutchinson and Waters, 1987:21. The answers of those questions can be obtained by conducting needs analysis which is the
main characteristic feature of ESP ibid, 1987:63.
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5. Needs Analysis
