What is Esp

The Distinguish between GE (General English) with ESP (English for Specific Purpose)
There are two points that distinguish the General English and English for Specific Purpose, they are:
1) The need of GE (General English) are not specifiable
It is often argue that the needs in GE are not specifiable. This is the weakness of all arguments, because it is always possible to specify needs, even if it’s only the need to pass exams at the end of school year. There is always an identifiable need of some sort.
2) The awareness of need
It is not so much the nature of the need which distinguishes ESP from GE but rather the awareness of a need, e.g. the awareness of a target situation, the need to communicate in English. Thus, any course should base on an analysis of the learners needs.


Analysis for General English and English for Specific Purpose is the question will be the same but the answer will be different. Nevertheless, for the time being the tradition persists of GE that the learners cannot be specified and as a result no attempt is usually made to discover learner’s true needs. Thus, if we had to state in practical terms the irreducible minimum of an ESP approach to course, it would be need analysis, since it is the awareness of a target situation, that distinguish the ESP learners from the learners of GE.


Need anylysis
A needs analysis is the process of identifying performance requirements and the “gap” between what performance is required and what exists at the moment.
Needs Assessment is the process of identifying and measuring areas for improvement in a target audience, and determining the methods to achieve improvement.
Essential step in a course design
According to Nunan (1998), a needs analysis contains the following 3
elements:
An analysis of the learner’s language,Information about the learner,Beliefs about the learning process
(placement test, linguistic needs analysis )
Why do we need a needs analysis?
To help negotiate the gap between learners’ and teachers’ beliefs about language learning
To encourage the student to think about their reasons and motivations for learning English
To determine the gap between what the learner wants/needs to do with the language and what he/she is currently able to do (Nunan 1998)
To inform the teacher’s planning decision
To help identify learning goals
To help select/adapt/create relevant and useful course content
To find out more about your student(s) background, experience, job, interest