ESP Practitioners: A Case Study on How They Need More from Institutions

Abstract

When talking about ESP, the term needs analysis comes to the fore repeatedly and one of the key points that must be included within this analysis is the training required to ESP practitioners. Is there any kind of certificate that is required for practitioners? Is there any specific training to be provided by institutions? Considering these research questions, the aim of this research was to study ESP practitioners beliefs about the background knowledge they had as well as with the formation they got from this institution before they began teaching ESP and to check what their knowledge about teaching ESP was. At Universidad Europea del Atlántico (a private university in Santander, Spain) a case study was developed through semi-structured interviews in which six practitioners participated, and these were developed after an ethical committee validated the development of this study during the course 2022 – 2023. All the interviewees declared that the training provided by this institution was very poor, and they agreed on the need to create training courses for ESP practitioners, as only two of the professionals declared having certain background training on teaching ESP. Therefore, taking into consideration the importance ESP has within the Spanish university context, its practitioners should be specifically trained so as to provide students with the field-specific knowledge they need for their future careers.