The Anatomy of ESP - Peter J.

Roe
Reviewed by: Wong Siew Ching (4-SPL)

The Anatomy of ESP by Peter J. Roe is a timely addition to the literature of English
for Specific Purposes (ESP). Over the decades, ESP has developed and grown to become a
distinctive area from other Englishes taught today. As Roe points out in his abstract, it is
extremely crucial to grasp the real nature and concept of ESP to avoid being trapped into
thinking in the irrelevant terms of other times and cultures. Despite having ESP for many
decades, many still do not have the foundations and clear ideas about ESP. This article will
prove to be useful for ESP researchers and practitioners, as it not only provides clear insights
of ESP, but also allows readers to think and clarify their thoughts on ESP.

This article is divided into several subtopics: introduction to ESP, hypotheses and
necessary conditions of ESP, role of teacher as facilitator, examples of ESP in Malaysia,
orientation to ESP research and some possible Malaysian research projects in ESP. Roe gives
his opinions in most of the topics, however he also includes a number of questions for the
readers to ponder. This allows readers to reflect the nature of the genuine ESP, instead of only
accepting and agreeing to whatever they are exposed to.

The introduction sheds light on the definition and the nature of ESP. Roe believes that
our view of ESP depends on the way we see language. In addition, the value of ESP actually
depends on how we value language, and it also depends on the selection of the community
for certain purposes. Khairi et. al. (1993) defined ESP as the preparation of a learner for
effective participation in a specific academic or professional community. In the last
paragraph, Roe illustrates the differences between General English and ESP. According to
him, General English is valueless, or more disparagingly, English for No Obvious Reason
(Johns, Paltridge & Belcher, 2011). It is believed that learning a language without any
purposes is therefore, useless and valueless. The reason for this judgment is probably due to
the teaching of the language in general without taking the learners needs into account. For
instance, learners are taught all the four skills listening, speaking, reading and writing in
General English, regardless of their actual needs for the language. However, they do not
necessarily have to apply the skills in their workplace or even in their lives. Therefore, it is
clear that the relevance of ESP greatly depends on the needs of the learners.

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English for Specific Purposes (Article Review)

The Anatomy of ESP - Peter J. Roe

Reviewed by: Wong Siew Ching (4-SPL)

In the next part, Roe offers a number of hypotheses and necessary conditions for ESP
practitioners. For instance, he mentions ESP is learner-defined in his third hypothesis, where
ESP learner is defined as a neophyte who seeks to bring his/her communicative competence
up to that of other members of the community, and an ESP teacher is someone who helps
the learner to achieve this objective. Riabtseva and Arestova (2006) address ESP as teaching
professional communicative competence, which is the ability to communicate in English
according to the situation, purpose and specific roles of the participants. It is obvious that the
ball is in the learners court, as only the learners themselves are aware of their own purposes
and needs of learning the language. ESP teachers are expected to address the learners needs
and goals of the language in an ESP approach. The author points out a good question in this
part: What if the learners do not know what discourse community they wish to join? Most
likely this is the reason why ESP programs are not suitable for everyone. Johns (2003)
mentioned that the ESP curriculum is designed for adults and people who are motivated to
learn the language quickly in order to progress rapidly in their work and study. Thus, if the
learner does not know which direction he will be venturing in the future, he probably does not
need ESP for the time being. If not, he will only be learning valueless English.

Roe suggests two necessary conditions of genuine ESP, and one of them is The
logical link between the learning activity and the motivating force (MF) must always be
conserved. This is very true indeed, because to learn effectively, learners must possess MF in
the ESP learning activities. With MF, learners will be able to learn wholeheartedly. In fact,
ESP is a combination of the subject matter and English language teaching. Learners will be
highly motivated by this combination if and only they are able to relate their knowledge they
gain from their ESP classes to their field of study. The realization of the relevance of ESP by
the learners is essential to build up their MF. Otherwise, they will not possess MF; and this in
turn, creates meaningless learning to them.

Previously in his hypotheses, Roe defines an ESP teacher as someone who helps
ESP learners to achieve their objectives. Under the subtopic of The Teacher as Facilitator,
Roe suggests five ways for ESP teachers to help their learners. In fact, the author does not
regard ESP teachers as real teachers, he uses the term facilitators instead. Dudley Evans
and St. John (1998) also proposed five key roles for ESP teachers: teacher, course designer
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English for Specific Purposes (Article Review)

The Anatomy of ESP - Peter J. Roe

Reviewed by: Wong Siew Ching (4-SPL)

and materials provider, collaborator, researcher and evaluator. As we are aware, language
teachers may not be well versed in the subject matter. The question lies here: How and what
are they going to teach then? Teachers are believed to be a group of professional and
knowledgeable individuals. It is a common norm in anywhere that teachers should not be
doubted of their knowledge and expertise. If the teachers rely wholly on the learners
knowledge of the target discipline, learners may lose confidence in teachers and also their MF
to learn the language. Most importantly, what if the learners are not good in their target
disciplines? The teacher cannot possibly rely on the learners under these circumstances. Thus,
teachers should not only be well versed linguistically; they should also possess sufficient
knowledge on the target subject matter. In short, in order to conduct a meaningful ESP lesson,
ESP teachers should master the content of the subject matter.

In addition, the teacher should clarify their roles in the ESP approach to the learners
they are not there to teach them all the things they need, instead; it is a two-way approach,
where the teachers make use of the knowledge of the subject matter of learners to guide them
in the language, and the learners learn the language through their disciplines. It is inevitably
essential to get rid of the teacher-knows-it-all concept in an ESP approach. Gatehouse
(2001) clarified that ESP is an approach, not a subject to be taught. Abdelfatteh Harrabi
(2010) also mentioned that the ESP movement targets to let learners to learn purposefully
within a framework, which makes clear and meaningful reasons for learning for both teachers
and learners. Evidently, both teachers and learners should benefit from the ESP approach.

In the next subtopic, Roe gives three examples of scenarios that can be considered as
real ESP projects in Malaysia. These scenarios are designed based on his considerations made
in the previous subtopic The Teacher as Facilitator. It can be observed that these
scenarios are culturally and socially relevant to the Malaysian context, where Roe gives
examples of ESP for company staff, secondary school students and university students. The
scenarios may be perfect theoretically, but they are not foolproof in reality. Many aspects
must come into consideration; for instance, in scenario 3 (university students follow an
elective course in English with the participation of foreign lecturers), what if the students are
a group of heterogeneous learners? How the teacher should approach the students differently

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English for Specific Purposes (Article Review)

The Anatomy of ESP - Peter J. Roe

Reviewed by: Wong Siew Ching (4-SPL)

in this case? There is no best answer for these questions it depends on the teachers beliefs
and the context in which the learners are situated in.
Besides, in the subtopic An Orientation to ESP Research, the author introduces one of
the problems in ESP: teachers claim to use ESP when they are not even any step closer to the
approach. Most teachers do guesswork as stated by Roe: they make assumptions of the other
target disciplines and approach the learners with these assumptions. Anthony (n.d.) also
mentioned the ironical situation where many General English teachers actually use an ESP
approach for teaching, on the other hand; teachers who claim to use ESP are distancing
themselves away from the real approach. This phenomenon can be said as a result of the
insufficiency of the foundation in ESP. It is very true when Roe points out that ESP teachers
should examine the purposes from the society; and not based on their views and assumptions
of the real world. The needs of the society are actually in relationship with the purposes of the
learners they learn the language to fulfil the needs of the society. Therefore, it is futile if
teachers do not understand the real situation of the society. To summarise, ESP teachers need
to get themselves into the real situation and context, only then they will understand the needs
of the learners and the real nature of ESP.

At the end of the article, Roe proposes a number of possible Malaysian research
projects in ESP. In his conclusion, again, he asks several questions to elicit the readers
response on the nature of ESP. To sum up, this article provides a new insight for researchers
and practitioners on ESP, although not done comprehensively, but it is still adequate for
readers to ponder the ESP issues and questions raised in the article.

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English for Specific Purposes (Article Review)

The Anatomy of ESP - Peter J. Roe

Reviewed by: Wong Siew Ching (4-SPL)

References:
Anthony, L. (n.d.). English for Specific Purposes: What does it mean? Why is it different?
Retrieved

September

27,

2012,

from

http://www.antlab.sci.waseda.ac.jp/abstracts/ESParticle.html

Belcher, D., Johns, A. M. & Paltridge, B. (2011). New Directions in English for Specific
Purposes

Research.

Retrieved

September

27,

2012,

from

http://www.press.umich.edu/titleDetailDesc.do?id=371075

Dudley-Evans, T. & St John, M. (1998). Developments in ESP: A Multi-disciplinary

Approach. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Gatehouse, K. (2001). Key Issues in English for Specific Purposes (ESP) Curriculum
Development. The Internet TESL Journal. Vol. 7, No. 10. Retrieved September 27,
2012, from www.iteslj.org/Articles/Gatehouse-ESP.html

Harrabi, A. (2010). Issues in Education of English for Specific Purposes in the Tunisian
Higher Education. ESP World. Vol. 9, Issue 2(28), pp. 1-20.

Johns, A. M. (2003). Genre and ESL/EFL Composition Instruction. Retrieved September 27,
2012, from http://writingcenters.org/wp-content/uploads/2011/07/Johns-2003-genreand-ESL-comp.pdf

Khairi Izwan Abdullah et. al. (1993). ESP in Malaysia: An Overview. ESP Malaysia. Issue
1(1), pp. 61-72.

Riabtseva, E. V. & Arestova, A. A. (2006). Some Problems of Teaching English for Special
Purposes to Students of Technical Specialities at University Level. Retrieved
September 27, 2012, from www.tstu.ru/en/tgtu/science/st/pdf/2006/ryabceva.pdf

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