The Role of an Ideal ESP Practitioner

Abstract

This paper aims to reflect onthe role of an ideal ESP practitioner. There are a lot of challenges and problems which affect an ESP practitioner to teach ESP courses such as lack of modern use of technology and lack of learners’ motivation. The paper starts with key concepts about ESP. Then; it discusses the role of an ESP practitioner. Next, problems and challenges affect teaching ESP. Finally, the status of an ESP today is presented. The researcher followed a descriptive method to shed some lights on the variety of the topics to make clear distinction especially between a general English (GE) teacher and the English for Specific Purposes (ESP) teacher and to what extent they are different. The findings of this paper showed that lack of training and lack of specialist knowledge were considered as the main obstacles. It is recommended for any educational institutions to train ESP practitioners in advance before starting to teach ESP courses/programs. It also recommended for educational institutions to establish ESP Units in order to overcome the challenges and problem.