English for Specific Purposes: The state of the art (An online interview with Ann M. Johns)

This forum paper is based on a friendly and informative interview conducted with Professor Ann M. Johns. In providing answers to the interview questions, Professor Johns suggests that all good teaching is ESP, and also distinguishes between EOP and ESP in that the former entails much more “just in time” learning while the latter may be directed more at “just in case.” She further adds ‘context’ as the sixth enduring conception to the list of the five concepts which, according to Swales (1990), underlie ESP. She further suggests that (a) Register Analysis, (b) Rhetorical Discourse Analysis, (c) Target Language Use Situation Analysis, and (d) Genre Analysis have had a major role in the development of ESP. As for CBI or CLIL, she suggests that there is much more to ESP than content, and emphasizes that ESP can account for the changing needs of learners in the twenty-first century by employing effective on-going needs assessment and target situation analysis. Towards the end of the interview, she presents her views on the future direction of ESP by suggesting that more serious research into target situations is needed, and invites ESP specialists to be more open, flexible, and sensitive to context.