What is the main difference between ‘general English language’ and ‘English for specific purposes’?

1. What is the main difference between
‘general English language’ and ‘English
for specific purposes’?
DIFFERENCE BETWEEN EGP AND ESP
BY ALIREZA HAJARIAN

2. Characteristics of ESP
1. ESP refers to the teaching and learning of English as a second language or foreign language or Native Speaker
where the goal of the learners is to use English in a particular domain. 2. ESP teachers teach academic skills to
future (or real) professionals. They teach English for the profession and encourage their students to use their
background knowledge along with the academic skills in dealing with all sorts of authentic information in their
profession. 3. ESP teachers design courses according to their students’ professional needs, having in mind their
target language use situation. 4. The focus is on training. *As the English is intended to be used in specific
vocational contexts, selection of appropriate content is easier. *The aim EVP syllabus may only be to build a
restricted English competence. 5. Learner more likely to meet in the target situation. Lesson based on learners’
specific needs required by their profession or occupations. 6. Emphasis on language learning. 7. The teachers are
expert in teaching English for any profession, able to design teaching materials based on the content material
presented by the professors, or experts in the subject. 8. External goals can be related to the uses of language
outside the classroom – being able to get things done in the real world, such as being able to buy groceries or
provide medical information. 9. ESP can be viewed as a special and specific edition of EGP that incorporates
practical linguistic skills to enable students for the successful performance of professional tasks. 10. ESP is
objective-oriented learning where the specification of objective corresponds to the aim – the training operation –
which deals with the development of restricted competence. 11. ESP teacher is to design a syllabus based on
realistic goals and evaluating students’ performance through the evaluation of relevant language skills. 12. ESP
teacher is basically involved in a ‘training operation’ equipping the learners with a ‘restricted competence’ to cope
with defined tasks..

3. 13. ESP includes the specific knowledge of the target situation, field of knowledge or profession. 14.
In certain ESP contexts, e.g. English for Academic Purposes (EAP), English for Occupational Purposes
(EOP) and Business English, the teacher assumes the role of a mentor who offers one-to-one advice
to students. This kind of special attention has proved to be more helpful to students in achieving
their communication skills and ‘linguistic accuracy’. 15. ESP teacher has to prepare his own teaching
materials. He / She either collects materials from various sources or writes his / her own when the
desirable is not available. Furthermore, ESP practitioner has to assess the efficacy of those materials
during and after the course. 16. ESP practitioners work in various academic and professional genres,
they need to have knowledge of their students’ specialism to plan courses and teaching materials.
*A teacher and the subject specialist of the specific disciplines collaborate to meet their students’
specialism. *This kind of collaboration may be of various kinds; simple cooperation, specific
collaboration and the fullest collaboration. 17. ESP practitioner not only evaluates the linguistic
knowledge and skills of students but also the courses and materials he himself devised. *Discussion
with the students and their on-going needs analysis can be very helpful to know the compatibility
between course and materials taught and students’ identified learning priorities. 18. In ESP teaching
a teacher will usually find older students. 19. Dudley Evans and St. John (1998) identify five key roles
for the ESP practitioner: *teacher *course designer and materials provider *collaborator *researcher
*evaluator

4. Characteristics of EGP
1. The focus is on education. Course content is more difficult to select since the future English needs of the
learners are hard to predict. As a consequence, to the above point, it is important for the content in the
syllabus to have high surrender value. 2. Learner learns general English for everyday use 3. Emphasis on
language use 4. Internal goals relate to the educational aims of the classroom – improving attitudes to
speaker of other languages, promoting thinking skills such as analysis, memorizing and social goals. 5. EGP
provides basic knowledge and skills of English language at a school level where the occupational /
professional and higher educational orientations of the students are not defined properly. 6. General
English teacher is aim-oriented which does not equate the specification of objective to aim – an educational
operation – dealing with the development of general capacity. 7. EGP teacher does not necessarily set the
goals and objectives of the programme. 8. EGP teacher, on the contrary, is involved in an ‘educational
operation’ equipping learners with a general capacity ‘to cope with undefined eventualities in future’. 9. A
teacher is usually trained in language skills only. 10. A teacher is usually the fountain of the content
knowledge. He asserts his authority in the class and seldom serves as a mentor or consultant of his
students. 11. A teacher is usually the fountain of the content knowledge. He asserts his authority in the class
and seldom serves as a mentor or consultant of his students. 12. An EGP teacher follows the prescribed
syllabus and teaches published textbooks recommended for different levels by the school authorities. He /
She adheres to the teaching methodology recommended in the book or advised by the authorities. 13. This
kind of collaboration is not needed in an EGP context.

5. 14. EGP teacher also performs this role to a certain extent as he is also involved in the evaluation of his / her students. 15. In
EGP teaching a teacher usually deal with younger students. 16. Teachers are to be the ones responsible for developing the
curriculum, they need the time, the skills and the support to do so. Support may include curriculum models and guidelines,
and may include support from individuals acting in a curriculum advisory position. The provision of such support cannot be
removed and must not be seen in isolation, from the curriculum. 17. General English consist below characteristics: 1. General
English is a free time task. 2.General English has more freedom as compared to the ESP Course. 3.General English offers a
soothing environment. 4.General English uses literary texts to produce effectual skills in students. 5.General English permits
learners to acquire and improve general writing skills. 18. EGP helps students to cope with any subject matter course. It
gives them the ability to generate more language. EGP learners, if well-taught, can use English to cope with the language in
any undefined tasks. 19. EGP courses deal with many different topics and each of the four skills is equally treated. Due to the
general nature of these courses no needs analysis is conducted. EGP courses are responsible to the general language
acquisition and, for the vast majority of learners. 20. The age of EGP learners varies from children to adults and learning the
English language is the subject of the courses. 21. EGP courses are mostly focused on grammar, language structure and
general vocabulary.
‫فقط‬‫نقش‬‫یک‬‫معلم‬‫ساده‬‫دارند‬‫که‬‫فقط‬‫از‬‫همه‬‫ویژگی‬‫های‬‫انگلیسی‬‫و‬‫دامنه‬‫های‬‫انگلیسی‬‫تدریس‬‫میکنند‬ EGP ‫مدرسان‬ ‫متمرکز‬‫بر‬‫هدف‬‫خاصی‬‫نیستند‬ ‫تدریس‬
‫انگلیسی‬‫به‬‫صورت‬‫کلی‬‫است‬‫و‬‫برای‬‫دالیل‬‫نامعلوم‬‫مثل‬‫تدریس‬‫تلفظ‬‫لغات‬‫گرامر‬‫یا‬‫غیره‬ ‫دانش‬‫پایه‬‫ارائه‬‫می‬‫دهند‬ ‫نمی‬‫توان‬‫به‬‫دو‬‫دسته‬‫تقسیم‬‫کرد‬‫و‬‫قول‬‫خودمان‬
‫یک‬‫جور‬‫ترشی‬‫ساالری‬‫یا‬‫ترشی‬‫هفت‬‫لشکر‬‫است‬ ‫به‬‫اهداف‬‫یادگیرندگان‬‫اهمیت‬‫نمیدهد‬‫یادگیرندگان‬‫رده‬‫بندی‬‫سنی‬‫و‬‫رشته‬‫ای‬‫خاصی‬‫ندارند‬ .