ENGLISH FOR SPECIFIC PURPOSES (ESP): CHARACTERISTICS AND CURRENT TENDENCIES IN LANGUAGE TEACHING

The teaching area of English for Specific Purposes has consolidated itself as a teaching approach focused and oriented to attend specific learners' needs interested in developing competences that help them to participate in occupational and/or academic contexts meaningfully. One of its branches, English for Academic Purposes, can be considered a current tendency in language teaching due to its aim at focusing on specific communicative needs of members that participate in the academic contexts either conducting research and publishing results or interacting with foreign researchers through the target language. The internalization process of Brazilian universities, the role of English as the language of science and English teaching programs at universities (such as Language without Borders) has intensified the proposal of courses for specific purposes, especially for academic purposes, which categorizes itself as a current tendency in English teaching contexts.