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THE IMPORTANCE OF TEACHING ESP


Matej Sojda
BrnoUniversity of Technology, Czech Republic
The knowledge of foreign is very important and essential nowadays. It is not only reliable basis for process of communication, it is the source of technological progress as it enables rapid rate of the exchange of information and further development of global problems.
The development of communicative skills aims at active expansion of students’ proficiency in En­glish. Teaching English at a higher school makes use of the information of specific professional areas (design, engineering, manufacturing, technology, etc). However, teaching and learning English for specific purposes (ESP) includes much more than the teaching of English through specific material and content. Teaching ESP combines not only the development of language skills but the acquisition of speci­fic ‘professional’ information.
Teaching language for specific purposes is de­termined by different – professional, social and cultural needs of the learner. There­fore ESP includes specialized programs which are designed to develop the communicative students’ skills – listening, speaking, reading and writing in a specialized field of science, work or technology.
There are numerous projects (individual tasks) by means of which teachers are able to involve their students in real-world, interesting activities that will open them the doors to the big world. One example is a collaborative writing project or written group communication project – an excellent way to integrate all above-mentioned activities and to improve them by working in groups. Many professionals such as engineers, chemists or psychologists often write collaboratively, especially for projects that require team work and group analysis. Students should be aware of this real life practice of collaborative writing so they will not see this classroom activity as merely “school work” but rather as something they will apply in their future careers.
At the first stages of learning writing students face a lot of difficulties and doubts when trying to compose a piece, that is why many of them consider the writing a daunting and boring activity.
The main language tea­cher’s task is to encourage the student to attend the classes, be active during them, to make students interested in writing by involving them in real-world and interesting activities, provide them with the opportunity to interact in groups, to share their ideas, and to help each other deal with specific problems. Besides, group work usually brings personal satisfaction, self-confidence, gives students a chance to be creative and imaginative through assignments such as revising a story or changing its ending and their motivation and enthusiasm also increase when they make their contribution and ideas in the written product.
Such activity is profitable as it makes student think and share his or her ideas expressing them in English. To reduce fear and stress written activity has a lot of advantages: writing exercise encourages students to freely express their opinions on any topic. One of the most important advantages is that students are taught to feel the time as their  written activity is usually limited with definite time frames (5 minutes’, 10 minutes’ activity) that with no doubt will bring benefits in their study especially while passing examinations which require students to write timed assignments.
Thus, the aim of teaching ESP is to develop both linguistic and professional students’ skills and abili­ties as well as their knowledge and competence.
References:
1. Dudley-Evans T., St John M. J.  Developments in English for Specific Purposes: A multi-disciplinary approach. / T. Dudley-Evans, M. J. St John. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1998. – P. 234-247.
2. Patterns of thought in scientific writing: A course in information structuring for engineering students. English for Specific Purposes / [Hall, D., Hawkey, R., Kenny B., & Storer G.]. – 1986. – P. 147-160.

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