THE ROLE OF THE ESP TEACHER The case of the ESP teachers at the Algerian University

Abstract

English for Specific purposes (ESP) has become an important focus both in the English and non-English speaking countries, and in the last few years many works were published in this branch of English language teaching ( ELT) to fulfill the special needs of specific groups of learners all over the world. As a result, the area has now a fair enough background of research, materials, and an outpouring of books. The present work examines the role of the ESP teacher which has often been identified as different from that of General English (GE) teacher. The study starts by discussing some basic issues in ESP, starting from Origins of ESP, its Developments and the extent to which the teaching of ESP is different from that of general English, the perspective of the process of teacher‟s training, and the different roles of the ESP teacher. The study adopts the Communicative Language Teaching (CLT) approach in its methodology, since it views the role of any foreign language teacher, including that of ESP, as one that goes beyond the traditional lock-step role of teaching