Revolution in linguistics

Traditionally the aim of linguistics had been to describe the rules of English usage, that is, the grammar. However the new studies shifted attention away from defining the formal features of language usage to discovering the ways in which language is actually used in real communication (Widdowson, 1978). One finding of this research was that the language we speak and write, from one context to another. In English language teaching this gave rise to the view that there are important differences between, say, the English of commerce and that of engineering.

Swales (1985) presents an article by C L. Barber on the nature of Scientific English which was published as early as 1962. But it Was the late 1960.1 and early i970s which saw the greatest expansion of research into the nature of particular varieties of English - for example, descrip¬tions of written scientific and technical English by Ewer and Latorre (1969), Swales (1971), Selinker and Trimble (1976) and others. They used the principle of ESP "Tell me what you need English for and I will tell you the English that you need

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The demands of a Bravo New World

We will now discus in little more detail the struggle or existence (Charles Darwin)

The end of the Second Word War in 1945 heralded an age of enormous and unprecedented expansion in scientific, technical and economic activity on an international scale. This expansion created a world unified and dominated by two forces - technology and commerce - which in their relentless progress soon generated a demand for an international language. For various reasons, most notably the economic power of the United States in the post-war world, tins role fell to English.

The effect was to create a whole new mass of people wanting to learn English, not for the pleasure or prestige of knowing the language, but because English was the, key to the international currencies of technology and commerce previously the reasons for learning English (or any other language) had not been welt defined. A knowledge of a foreign language had been generally regarded as a sign of a well-rounded education, but few had really questioned why it was necessary. Learning a language was, so to speak, its own justification. But as English became the accepted international language of technology and commerce, it created a new generation of learners who knew specifically why they were learning a language - businessmen a-id -women who wanted to sell their products, mechanics who had to read instruction manuals, doctors who needed to keep up with developments in their field and a whole range of students whose course of study included textbooks and journals only available in English, All these and many others needed English and, most importantly, they knew why they needed it.

This development was accelerated by the Oil Crises of the early 1970s, which resulted in a massive flow of funds and Western expertise into the oil-rich countries. English suddenly and commercial pressures began to except an influence. Time and money constraints created a need for cost-effective courses with clearly defined goals.

The general effect of all this development was to exert pressure on the language teaching profession to deliver the required goods. Whereas English had previously decided its own destiny, it now became subject to the wishes, needs and demands of people other than language teachers. English had become accountable to the scrutiny of the wider world and the traditional leisurely and purpose-free stroll thought the landscape of the English language seemed no longer appropriate in the harsher realities of the market place.

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