Machine summary:
for Teacher Education Introduction English for specific purposes has been one of the most polemic issues in the field of teaching English as a second or foreign language(TESL/TEFL).
Explanations provided by different theories in psychology have directed language educators to gear their activities towards the most efficient procedures which would help learners to achieve their instructional objectives.
On the one hand, the demands for learning a foreign language were continuously growing because of the considerable expansion on international communication and on the other, the field of language teaching was not well-equipped enough to accommodate the needs of the learners.
Therefore, a new area, referred to needs analysis, emerged in language teaching field in general, and in materials development in particular.
The trend in language teaching which emphasized communication and the use of authentic materials forced the scholars to reexamine the process of syllabus design as well.
And third, the materials had to be designed into syllabuses which would help the learners develop the communicative competence in the shortest time possible.
English for specific purposes is based on the learner needs, communication through language, and efficiency of instruction.
A. Generations of ESP One major reason for the emergence of these generations was the fact that language education focused on learners specific needs.
An undesirable outcome of such a treatment has been the focus on comparative and contrastive studies of linguistic properties of materials in different fields of science and technology with those of what may be called "the general English"(GE hereafter).
The central issue in ESP is multidimensional specification of purpose for which the language is taught, learned, and put to use.