Foreign Language Teachers for Specific Purposes have a lot in common with teachers of general foreign language. For both it is necessary to consider linguistic development and teaching theories, to have insights in contemporary ideas regarding their own position and role as well as the position and role of foreign language learners in education and to face new technologies offered as an aid to improve their methodology. The needs to understand the requirements of other professions and willingness to adapt to these requirements differentiate the foreign language teachers for specific purposes and their colleagues teaching general foreign language. ESP teaching presumes teaching of English as a foreign language regarding specific profession, subject or purpose
Language for Specific Purposes (LSP) has been primarily used to refer to two areas within applied linguistics:
- one focusing on the needs in education and training.
2. one with a focus on research on language variation across a particular subject field.
LSP is a widely applied approach to second or foreign language teaching and training that addresses immediate and very specific needs of learners who need that language as a tool in their education, training or job. And this is the situation we are experimenting in the market now. A lot of professionals are pushed to learn a foreign language because of their jobs. Enterprises sign contracts with other companies and have meetings in a country where English is spoken.For example, In the United States, nurses who work in hospitals with a high percentage of patients whose native language is Spanish might have to study Spanish for the very specific purpose of communication between nurses and patients.
LSP is a widely applied approach to second or foreign language teaching and training that addresses immediate and very specific needs of learners who need that language as a tool in their education, training or job. And this is the situation we are experimenting in the market now. A lot of professionals are pushed to learn a foreign language because of their jobs. Enterprises sign contracts with other companies and have meetings in a country where English is spoken.For example, In the United States, nurses who work in hospitals with a high percentage of patients whose native language is Spanish might have to study Spanish for the very specific purpose of communication between nurses and patients.
•The status of English is such that it has been adopted as the world's lingua franca for
communication in Olympic sport, international trade, and air-traffic control. Unlike any other
language, past or present, English has spread to all five continents and has become a truly
global language.“
•(G. Nelson and B. Aarts, "Investigating English Around the World," The Workings of Language, ed. by R. S. Wheeler. Greenwood, 1999)
