ABSTRACT
Whereas General English Language teaching tends to set out from point A toward an often pretty indeterminate destination, setting sail through largely uncharted waters, ESP aims to speed learners through to a known destination. The emphasis in ESP on going from A to B in the most time-and energy-ef cient manner can lead to the view that ESP is an essentially practical endeavor. Nevertheless, within ESP there are proposals and counterproposals, arguments and counterarguments about the nature of the destination (views of what is meant by knowing a language for special purposes) and the best way of getting there (views of learning and teaching). Thus, although practical in orientation, ESP, like any other language teaching enterprise, is based on ideas about the nature of language, learning, and teaching. The task of this chapter is to set forth the approach to examination of these ideas used in this book.
