ABSTRACT
This chapter highlights the global desire for English, seen by many as the gateway to increased opportunity. At the same time, we should acknowledge that the spread of English can, as Belcher reminds us, open the door to a form of domination. Learning and teaching English for specific rather than general purposes is an approach that began to develop during and after World War II and has shown continued growth since. The growth of multinational capitalism during this period and the emergence of the United States of America as a global superpower also encouraged the development of English for specific purposes (ESP) teaching. By 1981, with the founding of the first scholarly journal devoted entirely to English for specific purposes, ESP could be said to have become an established field of study within English language teaching. Ethnographically oriented methods are therefore starting to be used in ESP needs analysis.
