LANGUAGE CENTERED APPROACH

• It is the simplest and more familiar kind to english teacher

• It is particularly common in ESP
• It aims to draw as direct a connection as possible between the analysis of the target
situation and the content of the ESP course.
• A language-centred approach says : this the nature of the target situation performance
determines ESP course
It has a number of weaknesses :
1. It might be considered a learner-centered approach because it starts from the learners
and their needs but in reality its not learner-centered. The learner is simply used
as a means of identifying the target situation.
2. The language-centred process can also be criticised for being a static and inflexible
procedure.
3. The language-centered analysis of target situation data is only at the surface level. It
reveals very little about the competence that underlined the performance

SKILLS-CENTERER APPROACH

• This approach aimed to help learners for developing skills and strategies which
continue after the ESP course by making learners better processors of
information.
• A skills-centerer approach says : we must look behind target performance data to
discover what processes enable someone to perform. Those processes will
determine the ESP course
The skills-centered approach based on two fundamental principles :
1. The basic theoretical hypothesis is that underlying any language behaviour are certain
skills and strategies, which the learner uses in order to procedure
2. The Pragmatic basis for the skills-centered approach derives from a distinction made
by widowson (1981) between goal-oriented courses and process oriented courses
Need analysis plays two roles in a skill-centered approach :
• It provides a basis for discovering the essential competence that enables people to
perform in the target situation
• It enables to course designer to discover the potential knowledge and abilities that the
learners bring to the ESP course.
LEARNING_CENTERED APPROACH

• This approach is based on the principle that learning is totally determined by the
learner. As teachers we can influence what we teach, but what learners learn is
determined by the learners alone
• In this approach learning is seen as a process in which the learners use what knowledge
or skills they have in order to make sense of the flow of new information.
Learning is not just a mental process, it is a process of negotiation between
individuals and society
• A learning-centered approach says : We must look beyond the competence that enables
someone to perform, because what we really want to discover is not the
competence itself, but how someone acquires that competence