My first encounter with English for specific purposes (ESP) teaching was in the late 1980s. I was asked to lead a small team of teachers in designing a new English course for university students of art and design. We had just a few weeks to devise a teaching plan and materials. ESP was famously described at that time as ‘essentially a materials and teaching-led movement’ (Dudley-Evans & St John, 1998, p. 19) and my initial encounter with ESP largely reflected this. However, I believe this description and some other characterizations of ESP have persisted rather too long. In this paper, I seek to problematize a view of ESP as essentially a practical movement and I argue that a characterization of ESP for the present time needs to reflect a broader vision of endeavours and interests.

中文翻译：

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ESP 是一种以材料和教学为主导的运动吗？

我第一次接触特定目的英语（ESP）教学是在 1980 年代后期。我被要求带领一个小教师团队为艺术与设计专业的大学生设计一门新的英语课程。我们只有几周的时间来制定教学计划和材料。ESP 在当时被描述为“本质上是一种以材料和教学为主导的运动”（Dudley-Evans & St John, 1998, p. 19），而我最初与 ESP 的接触很大程度上反映了这一点。然而，我相信这种描述和 ESP 的其他一些特征已经持续了相当长的时间。在本文中，我试图将 ESP 本质上作为一种实践运动的观点质疑，并且我认为当前对 ESP 的描述需要反映对努力和兴趣的更广泛视野。