Business English, Legal English, English for Academic Purposes, etc.

A HISTORY OF ESP THROUGH ENGLISH FOR SPECIFIC PURPOSES

Martin Hewings
The University of Birmingham, United Kingdom

2 Authors and geographical origins of papers

Figure 1 shows the country of origin of the papers, broken down initially into the percentage from the United States, the United Kingdom and Other Countries. This information does not necessarily indicate nationality of authors but the country where the ESP work reported was conducted. So, for example, an ESP practitioner normally based in the US might be reporting work they undertook in Thailand, andin this case Thailand is taken as the location for the ESP activity.

Figure 1
Place of origin of papers

It is clear that there has been a steady increase in the percentage of papers originating from outside the US and the UK. In volumes 1-5 some 40% came from the US, 25% from the UK and other countries provided the remaining 35% or so. In the most recent block, volumes 16-20, the percentages for the US and the UK have approximately halved (to 19% and 12% respectively) and the contribution from other countries has doubled (to about 70%). It is possible that this reflects two main trends: first and most obviously the growth of ESP work around the world; second, the acceptance of ESP as a recognised academic discipline in tertiary institutions in a growing number of countries or at least as a sub-discipline within departments of English, applied linguistics or education and therefore a legitimate subject for research.

The Other Countries category can be broken down to identify the main sites of ESP activity around the world outside the US and UK. This is shown in Figure 2.

	Vol 1-5	Vol 6-10	Vol 11-15	Vol 16-20
China/ HK	1	1	4	14
Central/South America	3	3	13	11
Europe	2	7	9	11
Rest of Asia	1	8	9	9
Australasia/ Oceania	0	3	6	7
Africa	1	6	3	5
Near East/ Arabian peninsula	4	4	7	4
Other	1	0	0	0

Figure 2
Origin of papers excluding US and UK (number)

Between Volumes 1-5 and 6-10 the most notable increases were in Europe, Africa (notably Nigerian) and the Rest of Asia (notably Singapore). The major shift, however, appeared to come in the second decade with a substantial increase in the number of papers from Central and South America and from China and Hong Kong. In the first ten years there were 6 papers from Central and South America and 24 in the second, and in the first decade only 2 from China and Hong Kong but 28 in the second.One of the main sites of ESP activity (particularly in English for Science and Technology (EST) in its early life was the Near East (Saudi Arabia, Iran, Oman, etc.) and although there has been a steady flow of papers from this area, there seems to have been a relative decline in activity in this region.

Looking ahead, I would suggest that China and Hong Kong will continue to produce a substantial proportion of published papers, reflecting again both growth in ESP activity and the academic standing of those who research and report it. The second main area of growth is likely to be Europe, particularly eastern Europe where the number of recent conferences on ESP seems to reflect growing interest in the area, and also in Mediterranean countries, particularly Spain, where ESP is becoming a focus of special interest in universities.

Finally in this section, it is of interest to note the gender of authors, where a shift has taken place over the last two decades. This is shown in Figure 3

	Vol 1-5	Vol 6-10	Vol 11-15	Vol 16-20
Female	42%	51%	52%	55%
Male	58%	49%	48%	45%

Figure 3
Gender of authors

In the early years of ESPj the majority of authors were male (58% in Vols. 1-5). Female authors took over as majority contributors from Vols. 6- 10, however, and have steadily increased their dominance up to 55% in Volumes 16-20. Whether this is a reflection of the relative proportions of males and females engaged in ESP, or whether it reflects a growth in the number of female academics in universities who have the opportunity to research and write this up, is difficult to tell. Interestingly, this balance towards female writers is not yet reflected in the gender of the main authors cited in papers in ESPj (see section 4 below).

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