ESP courses teach the English learners need for a defined job or study purpose (Hutchinson and Waters 1987; Dudley-Evans and St John 1998). Everything starts from needs analysis.
Needs analysis
| Component | Question | Methods |
|---|---|---|
| Target situation analysis (TSA) | What tasks, texts and interactions will learners face in English? | Job descriptions, interviews with learners and managers, observation, workplace documents, recordings |
| Present situation analysis (PSA) | What can learners do now? | Placement test, task-based diagnostic (role play, writing sample), self-assessment |
| Learning needs | How do they learn best; constraints? | Questionnaire: time, preferences, motivation, technology, budget |
| Means analysis | What does the context allow? | Course hours, group size, sponsor expectations, materials, teacher expertise |
Gap = TSA - PSA. Priorities = tasks that are frequent, important and difficult (needs_analysis.py).
Sources: learners, their managers or tutors, experts in the field, documents and recordings from the workplace. Triangulate; learners and sponsors often see needs differently.
Survey design (task list)
- Interview 2-3 practitioners to draft a list of 10-25 tasks in the target situation (give handover reports, write incident reports, explain procedures to patients).
- For each task ask: How often? (1 never - 5 daily), How important? (1-5), How difficult in English? (1-5).
- Add open questions: hardest situation in the last month; examples of misunderstandings.
- Pilot with two respondents; then survey the group (and managers separately).
Course design steps
- Write outcomes as can-do statements for the core tasks (I can give a structured handover using SBAR).
- Choose a syllabus type: task-based or genre-based (usually), with language mapped to tasks.
- Collect authentic materials from the workplace (with permission and anonymised).
- Analyse genres and interactions: stages, typical phrases, register, specialist vocabulary.
- Sequence: core tasks first; recycle language across tasks; simulations increase in complexity.
- Assessment: performance tasks matching the workplace (role plays, document writing) with criteria agreed with subject experts.
- Evaluate: learner feedback, manager feedback, performance in real tasks.
Genre analysis (example: nursing handover)
| Stage | Language |
|---|---|
| Situation | This is Mr Jones, 72, in bed 4. He was admitted yesterday with... |
| Background | He has a history of... He's on... |
| Assessment | His obs are stable. He's in pain - 6 out of 10. |
| Recommendation | He needs... Could you check... in two hours? |
Common ESP fields
| Field | Typical core tasks | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Medical / nursing | Handover, patient explanations, history taking, documentation | OET for registration in some countries; patient safety language |
| Aviation | Radiotelephony, non-routine situations | ICAO Language Proficiency Requirements: Operational Level 4 minimum for pilots and controllers in international operations |
| Legal | Contracts, client letters, negotiation | Precision; plain English movement |
| Hospitality and tourism | Guest interaction, complaints, bookings | Politeness, upselling, intercultural awareness |
| Engineering / technical | Reports, specifications, meetings, safety | Technical vocabulary, describing processes |
| Business | Meetings, emails, presentations, negotiations, calls | Often combined with intercultural skills |
| Academic (EAP) | See the EAP course planner skill |
Teacher's role
The ESP teacher is a language expert, not a subject expert: work with practitioners, let learners teach the content, and focus on how the language works in their tasks.
academic-english-eap-course-planner
Plan English for Academic Purposes (EAP) courses: pre-sessional, in-sessional, foundation, IELTS preparation and discipline-specific EAP, with syllabus strands (academic reading, lecture listening and note-taking, essay and report writing, paraphrase, summary and synthesis, referencing and plagiarism, seminars and presentations, academic vocabulary, critical thinking), a 10-week pre-sessional outline, exit assessment, IELTS-CEFR alignment and academic style (formality, hedging, cohesion, reporting verbs). Estimates study hours and weeks to close an IELTS gap from overall or per-skill scores (IELTS rounding, minimum per skill, priority skills, feasibility before a deadline), and checks learner texts for contractions, informal words with academic alternatives, unhedged claims, 'you', And/But/So starts, rhetorical questions and missing citations.
actfl-proficiency-curriculum-mapper
Map world language curricula to the ACTFL framework: proficiency levels (Novice, Intermediate, Advanced, Superior, Distinguished with sublevels), functions, contexts, text types and accuracy, proficiency vs performance, the three modes of communication (interpretive, interpersonal, presentational), the 5 Cs World-Readiness Standards, backward-designed thematic units with Integrated Performance Assessments, typical programme targets and FSI time estimates. Looks up approximate ACTFL-CEFR-ILR equivalences with what each level can do, and checks a unit map for missing modes, rehearsed skits mislabelled as interpersonal, translation or word lists as interpretive tasks, and units without an integrated performance assessment.
adult-literacy-esl-lesson-builder
Build lessons for adult ESL learners who are developing literacy (LESLLA learners: pre-literate, non-literate, semi-literate, literate in a non-Roman script): learner profiles and sensitive initial assessment, principles (oral language first, known to new, systematic phonics with adult-relevant text, repetition, classroom skills, respect for experience), a lesson routine (oral warm-up, review, new grapheme, blending, segmenting, decodable text, writing, functional literacy, Language Experience Approach), a phonics sequence for adults, sight words, functional literacy targets (forms, signs, medicine labels) and portfolio assessment. Checks whether a reading text is decodable with the letter-sound patterns and sight words taught so far, catching untaught digraphs, listing non-decodable words with the untaught part, and suggesting the most useful next patterns.
authentic-material-lesson-adapter
Turn authentic material (news articles, podcasts, videos, songs, menus, timetables, adverts, social media posts, forms, infographics) into language lessons by grading the task rather than the text. Selects texts for interest, relevance, exploitability, coverage, cultural load and rights; finds the 4-6 words to pre-teach, words to gloss on the page and words learners can ignore, plus names and cultural references to explain, with reading time by level; and builds a lesson shape (lead-in, pre-teach, gist or scanning, graded detail task, language focus on chunks and register, response) with task ideas per material type and level from A1 to C1. Covers copyright, fair dealing and fair use, Creative Commons and attribution.
can-do-statement-writer
Write and review can-do statements for language courses, units, lessons and learner self-assessment, CEFR or NCSSFL-ACTFL style: action (observable verb) + text or situation + level-specific conditions, learner ('I can') and descriptor ('Can') versions, progressions of one activity from A1 to C1, and coverage of reception, production, interaction and mediation. Includes a verb bank by mode and level and condition and text-type banks. Lints statements for teacher-centred phrasing, knowledge instead of use (learn, know, understand the passive), missing context, two skills in one statement, vague quality words, grammar items as outcomes, overlong statements and missing modes in a set.
cefr-aligned-syllabus-builder
Build language course syllabuses aligned to the CEFR (A1-C2, plus levels, Companion Volume 2020): entry and exit levels, guided learning hours and course length (with an L1-distance adjustment), syllabus type (topic, functional-notional, task-based, skills-based, multi-strand), unit-by-unit can-do outcomes, grammar from a core inventory by level, vocabulary, functions, pronunciation, balance of reception, production, interaction and mediation, recycling and assessment points. Checks a syllabus for units without can-do statements, core grammar for the level not covered, items above the course level, skills missing from most units and units with no vocabulary or functions.