What is ESP?

As described above, ESP has had a relatively long time to mature and so we would
expect the ESP community to have a clear idea about what ESP means. Strangely,
however, this does not seem to be the case. In October this year, for example, a very
heated debate took place on the TESP-L e-mail discussion list about whether or not
English for Academic Purposes (EAP) could be considered part of ESP in general. At
the Japan Conference on ESP also, clear differences in how people interpreted the
meaning of ESP could be seen. Some people described ESP as simply being the
teaching of English for any purpose that could be specified. Others, however, were
more precise, describing it as the teaching of English used in academic studies or the
teaching of English for vocational or professional purposes.
At the conference, guests were honored to have as the main speaker, Tony DudleyEvans, co-editor of the ESP Journal mentioned above. Very aware of the current
confusion amongst the ESP community in Japan, Dudley-Evans set out in his one hour
speech to clarify the meaning of ESP, giving an extended definition of ESP in terms of
'absolute' and 'variable' characteristics.

English for Professional and Academic Purposes

English in academic and professional settings has received great attention over the last
50 years, as its use has become a key asset for anyone interested in improving his/her
chances of communicating internationally. However, it still offers rich opportunities for
teachers and researchers working on English in specific settings. The aim of English for
Professional and Academic Purposes is to offer an overview of several topics within the
field of discourse analysis applied to English in academic and professional domains.
The book compiles contributions from different origins, ranging from Japan to the USA
and several European countries, and covers English as a native, second, foreign and
international language. It also deals with various specialities, including academic writing,
business discourse or English for medicine, nursing, maritime industry and science and
engineering. This volume is divided into three sections: Discourse Analysis of English
for Academic Purposes, Professional English and EPAP Pedagogy, since it was
conceived as a contribution to the research on how English is analysed as both the
discourse of and for effective communication in academic and professional settings, and
how it can be applied to teaching. This manuscript offers some fresh insights for those
involved or interested in this field of expertise, in an attempt to shed some light on its
latest innovations.
The Structure of Academic Texts
An important feature of academic texts is that they are organized in a specific way; they
have a clear structure. This structure makes it easier for your reader to navigate your
text and in that way understand the material better, but it also makes it easier for you to
organize your material. The structure should be clear on all levels of the academic text:
the entire text, each section, every paragraph, and even sentences.

Structure of the whole text

A standard format for analytical and argumentative essays is the three-part essay
structure consisting of Introduction, Body and Conclusion. In the Introduction, the reader
is introduced to the topic that will be discussed and to the argument that will be
presented. After the Introduction, follows the Body, which is the main part of the text. In
the Body, the discussion/analysis is carried out and the results are presented. In the last
part of the essay, the Conclusion, the argument is summed up and conclusions are
drawn.
A more formalised text structure is the IMRD structure (Introduction - Method - Results Discussion), where the body part of the text consists of two sections referred to as
Method and Results. The concluding part of research articles written according to this
format is called Discussion, and has a slightly different set-up than the Conclusion of the
three-part essay. For more information on the IMRD structure, see