What Is the Language for Specific Purposes?

1.1        What is the Language for specific purposes?

Internationalization of humans, products and services are the salient features of today’s world. Those days have long gone when the businesses and people to people contacts used to be localized. The whole world has turned into a global village where the flow of information is unrestricted and not location bound. This extreme change of internationalization not only caused an unavoidable demand of acquiring language skills so that the interactions at the international level can take place without any language barriers, but it also gave birth to the “Language for Specific Purposes (LSP)” (Mulenda, 2013).

As the name suggests, the LSP has a specific purpose for which it is formed and this particular function forms the bases of a structured and specifically designed language method which has an aim to transfer knowledge and information to its leaners effectively and efficiently (Picht and Draskau, 1985). Its unique property of aiming at the specific nature of the language teaching means that it does not entail all the components of ordinary language which makes it different and unmatched with any standard language. Not having all the components of standard language does not diminish it productivity because the LSP contains some very specific features which are non-existent in general language. These features are primarily aimed to enhance leaners’ field related vocabulary, and skills set so that they have an ease in performing their respective jobs with maximum efficiency. The integral components of the LSP are its specific language terminologies and expressions related to the pertinent field of study to establish the specialized language skills among its learners (Borsukova, 2004).

In the LSP, the applied methodology of furnishing students with the required skills and expertise for communication in a specific setting with particular objectives is equally important as incorporating a theoretical approach to teach the specific purposes of the target language (María, 2013). One of the salient features of the LSP studies is its emphasis on improving students’ communication skills with the help of the specialized vocabulary skills, reading and listening to authentic texts, working with specialized articles, as well as writing specialized texts (Moravcova & Madarova, 2013).

The LSP cannot be completely understood without knowing its specific objective which is to cater leaners’ needs through the teaching of the diverse range of languages (Tuesday, 2011).  (Robinson, 1991) has classified these languages as follows:

Language for Specific Purposes (LSP)[pic 1]

[pic 2][pic 3][pic 4]

Language for Occupational Purposes (LOP)                Language for Academic Purposes (LAP)[pic 5][pic 6]

[pic 7][pic 8][pic 9][pic 10][pic 11][pic 12]

Language for                         Language for                Language for              Language for Science

Professional                        Vocational                 Academic               & Technology

Purposes (LPP)                Purposes (LVP)        Purposes (LAP      (LST)

other than LST)

As the above graphical representation depicts, the LSP contains the LOP and LAP as the bases for its further classifications. One hand, the LOP focuses on the area of language teaching which targets general workplace training and developments so that the learners, who are already working in their designated careers, gain required skills in the vernaculars which are essential in the effective execution of their jobs. On the other hand, LAP is used to concentrate on the students, studying at their colleges or universities, to equip them with the key study skills required to succeed in academic settings. The LOP is sub-divided into the LPP and LVP as two different types of language instructions.  The LPP provides professionals with exposure to their respective countries professional contexts and field specific language communication training to help best use their technical expertise. The LVP is designed to prepare people for a specific trade by improving their language skills in techniques related to technology, skills and scientific methods to cover all aspects of the trade. The LAP has the LAP (other than the LST) and the LST. The LAP (other than the LST) focuses to improve the language skills for various other fields than science and technology so that students become more confident in the use of these languages while the LST strive to improve the skills related to the fields of science and technology and targets to develop professional skills such as critical thinking, oral presentation and intercultural communication which are extremely important for scientists, technology professionals and engineers to perform their jobs effectively and efficiently.

REFERENCES:

Borsuková, H. (2004) Postavenie a funkcia odbornej lexiky v cudzojazyčnom vyučovaní. Nitra: SPU, Slovensko, pp.10 -11

Cambronero, María Buendía (2013), Considering cultural content in Language for Specific Purposes: Business Spanish curricula, Vol. XXXII N° 1 | 2013 : Les langues de spécialité en Europe, pp. 1-2.

Maseno, Mubalama, 2013:Linguistic effects of globalization: A case study of French for specific purposes (FSP) in Kenyan vocational schools. Vol. 8(20), pp. 1900-1906, 23 October, 2013.

Moravcova, L., M., Ludmila, 2013, Teaching English and German for Specific Purposes to Agricultural Engineers as a Path to Better Career Opportunities on the Foodstuff Market, Journal of Central European Agriculture, DOI: 10.5513/JCEA01/14(3), p. 1220 - 1231

PICHT, H and DRASKAU, J (1985). Terminology: An Introduction, England, The University of Surrey.

Robinson, P. (1991) ESP Today: a Practitioner’s Guide. Hemel Hempstead: Prentice Hall International, pp

Tuesday, Owoeye, 2011, Foreign Languages for Specific Purposes and Sustainable Human Development in Africa, Research Journal of Internatıonal Studıes - Issue 19, pp. 53-54

1.1.1        Historical Development, Genesis and Promises of the LSP

The Language for Specific Purposes’ history dates back to the time in the 1960s when the globalization had just started to strengthen its grip across the continents and the major economies of the world started going through the process of industrialization which in result, caused greater demand of people to people interactions at the international level which consequently led to the birth of the LSP. From the 60s till now, the LSP entails a great importance in the language teaching (Biria and Tahririan, 1994; Dudlry-Evans and St. John, 2005). The LSP had already been trialled and tested in the 1970s, because it was considered as the authentic language (Davies, 2001).