Developments in English for Specific Purposes (Cambridge Language Teaching Library)

About this book

English for Specific Purposes (ESP) is an important and distinctive part of English Language Teaching. Since the late 1980s ESP has changed in two very significant respects. Firstly English for Business Purposes has become an increasingly important even dominant area of ESP. Secondly the work of discourse and genre analysis on the one hand and the results of computer-based analysis on the other provide a fuller understanding of how specific texts both written and spoken work. This book provides an update on these major developments in ESP and a summary of where the discipline is now. It is practical and accessible while covering a wide range of both theoretical and methodological topics. It also charts how ESP has been influenced by new ideas in the areas of management training human resource development sociology and intercultural training.