ESP: rigorous needs analysis and authentic occupational tasks
What this specialism tests
The ESP option tests the rigour of your needs analysis and the authenticity of your tasks: can you separate what the target situation demands from what these learners currently have and what they want, and can you design assessment that mirrors the real task rather than a convenient test?
Core rules and concepts
- Three-way analysis. Hutchinson and Waters' framework - necessities (what the target situation demands), lacks (the gap between that and present competence) and wants (learner perceptions) - should be evidenced separately, ideally with different instruments.
- Target, present and means. Target situation analysis describes the destination; present situation analysis (Richterich and Chancerel) establishes the starting point; means analysis covers practical constraints such as time, rooms, equipment and access to informants.
- Beyond Munby. Munby's Communication Needs Processor produced target-only specifications; the exam rewards awareness that it ignores the learner and the learning situation.
- Genre and discourse community. Analyse the texts your learners must produce or read - their moves, typical lexicogrammar, level of formality - rather than relying on intuition or a general coursebook.
- Authenticity. Use real documents, recordings and procedures, adapting only where the cognitive load, not the language, would otherwise block the task.
- Assessment. Performance-based tasks with a rubric derived from the target tasks; validity matters more than ease of marking.
Worked example
Fourteen hotel receptionists, 40 hours over ten weeks, funded by the employer. Target situation analysis (observation of the desk, sample emails, recordings of calls) yields check-in and check-out, complaints, telephone enquiries and written confirmations. Present situation analysis: A2, accurate writing, weak listening, especially on the telephone. Wants: confidence on the phone. The sponsor wants a B1 certificate. The syllabus is task-based, sequenced by the four target tasks, with telephone listening as a recurrent strand. Assessment is a role-play scored with a rubric derived from the observed target tasks, plus a short email portfolio; the certificate requirement is met by mapping rubric criteria to B1 descriptors, and the tension between exam format and real tasks is discussed in the evaluation.
Traps that cost marks
- One instrument, usually a questionnaire, doing all the analytical work.
- Target situation analysis only: you describe the job but not the learners.
- Importing technical content you cannot teach, or that learners already know in their first language.
- Equating the sponsor's demands with learner needs without comment.
- Assessment that is easy to mark but unlike anything in the workplace.