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of English. As the characteristic of ESP, ESP is designed to meet the needs of the learners in specific teaching activities with different
methodology from general English.
b. The Roles of ESP Teachers
ESP teaching is different from General English teaching. In ESP teaching, ESP teachers have different roles from General English
teachers. Harmer 2001:57 classifies some of teachers ’ roles. He states
that the roles of the teacher in a classroom are as a controller, organiser, prompter, resource, tutor and observer.
The first role of the teacher is as a controller. Controllers take the roll, tell students things, organise drill activities, read aloud, and in
various other ways exemplify the qualities of a teacher-fronted classroom.
The second role is teacher as an organizer. Having this role, the teachers organize the students to do various activities, give the
students information, tell them how they are going to do the activity, put them in pairs or in groups, and close things down when it is time to
stop. The third role is the teacher as a prompter. Having this role,
teachers a dopt some kind of a “prompting” role, for example, when
students are involved in a role-play activity, they lose the thread of what is going on, or they are lost of words, the teachers offer words or
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phrases, suggest that the students say something or suggest what could come next in a paragraph the students is writing.
The next is that the teacher has a role as a resource. When the students ask the teacher how to write something or what a word or
phrase means, and they want to know information when they are doing an activity, the teacher can be one of the most important resources they
have. The next teacher role is as a tutor. When the students are
working on longer projects, for example writing or preparing for debate, the teacher works with individual or small group then act as
tutor combining the role of a prompter and resourse The last role is the teacher as a observer. Having this role, the
teacher can give the students useful group and individual feedback when she or he wants to observe what the students do.
In short, an ESP teacher should be able to facilitate students to learn in any kind of role. They can be controller, organizer, prompter,
resource, tutor, or observer. The teacher roles in ESP are important aspects to be considered.
c. The Roles of ESP Learners
