CORRELATIONAL ANALYSIS OF

STUDENTS PERFORMANCE
ON ENGLISH FOR SPECIFIC PURPOSES
(ESP) AND GENERAL ENGLISH (GE)

Jasser A. Al-Jasser, Ph.D.

College of Languages and Translation
King Saud University

Abstract
Applied linguists and EFL program designers have
been actively involved not only in introducing new
teaching methods and strategies for improving the quality
of learning foreign language skills in general English, but
also in putting more emphasis on designing ESP programs
that meet the needs of the learner.
In this article an attempt is made to explore general
English and ESP as part of the EFL program at King Saud
University, and the extent to which students performance
correlates in these areas.
The correlational analysis of the students test
scores, and the t-test have indicated that no statistically
significant correlation between their achievement scores
has been observed. The t-test result has also shown no
significant statistical differences in the students mean
scores in general English and ESP.
The findings of this research suggest that general
English and ESP should be regarded as one entity rather
than two separate parts of the EFL program. The
implementation of an effective teaching approach that
works for general English should similarly work for ESP.
Further, it is deemed important to relate the ESP items to
their functional and communicative use; otherwise their
value in the EFL program will be limited.

INTRODUCTION
Focus on foreign language learners has led
FL teachers and applied linguists not only to
develop new approaches and strategies for
constructing curricula that meet their needs, but
also to go beyond teaching the foreign language
skills of general English to emphasize the
implementation of English for special (or specific)
purposes (ESP) in the course syllabuses of many
international academic institutions.
Concentration on ESP in second/foreign
language programs is attributed to the ..growing
awareness that the language needs of students in
the highly specialized fields of science and
technology-as in many other professional areas of
business and industry-go beyond the standard
format of ordinary course offerings in SL (Second
Language), and that certain, perhaps major,
adjustments in orientation, methods and materials
may be required to satisfy these needs.(1)
ESP and its specific register is not a new
concept. It is associated with the work of Jack
Ewer (1969), A.R.Bolitho and P.L. Sandler
(1977), Peter Strevens (1977), Munby (1978),
Widdowson (1978),
John Swales (1985) and
Louis Trumble (1985).
There is no specific definition of ESP, that is, no
distinction has been made between ESP, EOP
(English for occupational purposes) and EAP
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(English for academic purposes). Yet, there is a

tendency for foreign language teachers and
applied linguists to consider EOP and EAP as the
two broad categories of ESP. For this reason
authors such as Sinha and Sadorra (1991) refered
to ESP as a a generic term used to indicate an
approach practiced in teaching and learning of
content-oriented English for any very specific
purpose.(2)
To develop a second/foreign language program,
Mackay and Parlmer (1981) suggested that, ..a
preliminary analysis of learners needs and
expectations will be a prerequisite to program
development in any language-teaching situation,
whether for general or for specific
purposes.(3)
In pointing out the difference between ESP
and General English, Hutchinson and Waters
(1987) believe that there is a great deal of
difference in practice but not in theory. As to the
distinction between these two terms, they stated
that, what distinguished ESP from general
English is not the existence of a need as such but
rather the awareness of the need. If learners,
sponsors and teachers know why the learners need
English, that awareness will have an influence on
what will be acceptable as reasonable content in
the language course and, on the positive side,
what potential can be exploited.(4)
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They also believe that the fact that language is

used for specific purposes does not imply that it is
a special form of the language, different in kind
from other forms.. There are some features, which
can be identified as typical of a particular
context of use and which, therefore, the learner is
more likely to meet in the target situation. But
these differences should not be allowed to obscure
the far larger area of common ground that
underlies all English use, and indeed, all language
use.(5)
Malmkjaer (1991) claimed that the
functional/notional syllabus probably worked
more effectively in ESP courses than in general
English courses.(6) He supported his judgement
by referring to Bates and Dudley Evans Nucleus
(1976) and Allen and Widdowsons English in
Focus (1974), of which both series were based
largely on concepts and functions respectively.
Swales (1981) introduced the term Genre
Analysis and related it to ESP, which
consequently influenced both branches of ESP.
He explained the term Genre Analysis as a
system of analysis that is able to reveal something
of the patterns of organisation of a genre and
the language used to express those patterns.(7)
Terms such as Medical English, according
to Swales, can be misleading. This is because
They over privilege a homogeneity of content at
the expense of variation in communicative
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purpose, addresser-addressee relationships and

genre conventions. (8)
According to Johns and Duddley-Evans
(1993) the history of ESP ..has been dominated
by English for academic purposes, and under that
rubric, by English for science and technology,
EAP continues to dominate internationally.(9)
They asserted that ESP requires methodologies
that are specialized or unique.(10) They believe
that an English for academic purposes (EAP)
class taught collaboratively by a language teacher
and a subject-area lecturer.. sheltered and adjunct
EAP classes and special English classes for
students in the workplace.. require considerably
different approaches to those found in general
English classes.(11)
METHOD
This research is intended to explore the
association between general English and the ESP
parts of the EFL intensive program designed for
the medical science students at King Saud
University. The discussion will later deal largely
with ESP since, for such students, it is given
significant fundamental weight in their EFL
training.
The students enrolled in the program are
expected to complete the requirement for this
program as a pre-requisite for their official
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admission to the colleges of Medicine, Pharmacy,

Dentistry or Applied Medical Sciences where
English language is the medium of instruction.
The purpose of this research is to
specifically discover whether there is a degree of
association and statistically significant differences
between the students overall performance score
in the general English and in the ESP
components. The findings of this study might
have implications on whether there is structural
harmony in the EFL syllabus and whether the ESP
part of the curriculum meets the students needs
and the expectations of the English language
teachers and the extent to which it needs to be
improved.

HYPOTHESIS:
To examine the relationship between
students scores in general English and ESP and
their mean variation, the following hypotheses
were formulated and tested:
HO1: There is a statistically significant
correlation between the medical students
performance in general English (GE) and in
English for Special Purposes (ESP) at university
level.
HO2: There are no statistically significant
differences between the medical students mean
scores in general English (GE) and in English for
Special Purposes (ESP) at university level.
SUBJECTS:
The samples for this study consisted of a
hundred and thirty two subjects. They were
randomly selected from the 177 male student
population registered in the second semester
intensive English program of the academic year
1998. The analysis of their performance is based
on their overall scores on the final exam on
components both of the General English and ESP
course.
The course is 20 contact hours a week and
16 weeks in duration. The test format of the
general English components consisted of 55
items. They cover tenses and modals,
active/passive forms, gerunds and infinitives, verb
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agreement, and adjective clauses, while the ESP

covers 51 items in two reading comprehension
texts and in a medical terminology text. The test
items represent the students major language
objectives on the course syllabus.
The maximum mark for each part of the test is
twenty out of twenty.
PROCEDURE:
To test the hypotheses of this study, the
author employed two types of research design:
Pearson product-moment correlation (r), and
T-test (sometimes called student t test), which is
a special case of the F test. (12)
The Pearson product-moment correlation was first
conducted on the two parts of the observations
which represent the students raw scores in general
English and ESP. The purpose of such a statistical
test is to discover any existing degree of
correlation between the students performance
scores and whether the correlation is positive or
negative.
A t-test analysis was also conducted on the
same observations, to find out any existing
statistical differences between the students mean
scores based on their overall performance in
general English and ESP.

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TABLE 1
Means and Standard Deviations of students
score in general English (GE) and English for
Specific Purposes (ESP). (N=132).
GE
ESP

MEAN
13.25
13.66

STANDARD DEVIATION
3.37
2.43

TABLE 2

Correlation Coefficients(r) and t-test for paired

samples: GE and ESP (N=132)
Variable
MEAN STD
t-value Sig.
GE
13.25
2.37
1.68
.095
ESP
13.66
2.43

P<.05

10

R
.3209

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RESULTS
From the preceding tables we noticed that
the descriptive statistics for the full data indicated,
at first glance, that the mean for both general
English and English for Specific Purposes were
relatively similar (GE=13.25 and ESP=13.66).
(Table 1). On the other hand, when the correlation
coefficient test was conducted, the result indicated
in the r-value, which is r=.32 (Table 2) showed
that although there was a low positive correlation
between the students scores on GE and ESP, the r
value (r=.32) is not statistically significant at the .
05 level.
The statistical table (Table 2) indicates that
the t-value (t-value = 1.68) is not statistically
significant at the .05 level, which suggests
absence of any significant differences between the
students score on GE and their respective mean
score on ESP.
These results indicate that single language
components of the syllabus of the intensive
English program do not account for the students
level of performance. That is, both general
English and ESP have equal weight in a foreign
language context, at least in the Saudi EFL
learners case.
The findings of this research paper are
consistent with the assumption of our second
hypothesis. On the other hand, the assumption of
our first hypothesis (HO1) is rejected. It is,
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therefore, fair to claim that Saudi students

performance in the GE component of the EFL
program does not have any significant association
with or impact on their performance in ESP, nor
does the reverse hold true (HO1)
Secondly, there is no noticeable significant
difference in the students mean scores in general
English and ESP. (HO2).
DISCUSSION
Since general English and ESP are taught in
a foreign language (rather than second language)
environment, fundamental objectives have to be
considered for making the program more
pedagogically effective: an objective needs
analysis, well-designed materials, effective
methodology, and systematic evaluation.
An objective needs analysis should not be
institution-centered, because it would be
insufficient if it were based only on the university
course needs. It should rather take into
consideration the learners needs as well.
Emphasis on this aspect should reinforce the
students motivation.
Mead (1980) studied ESP courses for a
number of different colleges at a university in the
Middle East. In his inquiry into the students
interest, he found out that ..only medical students
were adequately motivated to study the subject
matter of their specialism.(13)
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The objectives of the ESP course should

enable the EFL learner to communicate in the
target situation rather than furnishing him with
conventional memorisation of language text. The
criteria for selecting ESP material should be
based on ..how well and how far it develops the
competence of the learner, rather than on the basis
of the extent to which it mirrors the performance
data of the target situation.(14)
Due to the fact that Saudi medical students
are expected to complete pre-requisite required
courses on physics, chemistry, mathematics and
biology, the design of their ESP course should
follow what R Williams (1978) Calls a wideangle approach. That is, an approach ..in which
language and skills are taught through topics that
are drawn from a variety of subjects rather than
from the students own discipline.(15)
Such an approach ..needs to be
supplemented by some attempt to define students
more specific needs and the actual language
difficulties that they face on a day-to-day basis in
classes in their disciplines or in their professional
lives(16)
To strengthen the originality of the ESP
material for the Saudi EFL learner, it is also
highly important to construct it from the target
situation. What the Saudi student needs is not
only content-specific ESP but also general
English language skills to reinforce his acquisition
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of the specialised features of the language and the

communicative ability to interact with his teachers
and to comprehend lecture presentation of the
other required courses for his study.
Although some ESP advocates agree on the
fact that ESP is not restricted to any specific
methodology and that the communicative
approach is often thought to be closely related to
ESP (Strevens, 1988, Hutchinson and Waters,
1984) it can be safely asserted that an effective
approach for teaching general English should
work for teaching ESP, and the teacher who has
sound experience in teaching general English can
transfer it successfully to the ESP teaching
situation. In other words a new teaching method
is not required for this new situation. Although
the communicative approach can be effective, the
situation for both general English and ESP
requires an effective eclectic approach rather than
adherence to a specific teaching method. I also
believe that, just like general English, ESP does
not have to employ any particular method or
technique that already exists, if the requirements
do not point in that direction.(17)
A final consideration concerns the role of
formative and summative evaluation in
developing the program. Systematic formative
and summative tests of the students achievements
on the parts and the whole of the EFL program
(ESP and GE components) help not only in
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making decisions concerning the continuation

and/or discontinuation of the program and the
placement of students, but they can also
indicate weaknesses in specific components of the
program as a whole, and therefore provide
information for making decisions about revising
the program itself.(18)
CONCLUSION
Based on the findings of this study, and the
related background information on the status of
the intensive English program for the Saudi EFL
learners, ESP and general English should be
viewed as a single unified descipline. The ESP
and the general English constitute an integral part
of the EFL course. The lack of a significant
correlation between students overall scores in
general English and their respective scores in
ESP, and the absence of significant differences in
their mean scores justify the fact that general
English and ESP components constitute the total
part of the EFL program rather than separate
parts.
Since specificity does not necessarily imply
uniqueness in the ESP syllabus design.(19), for
any EFL syllabus design there should be more
emphasis on the general English part. The ESP
part should be taught through general English.
That is, the specialized lexical items of the course
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should be introduced through the FL skills as part

of the overall vocabulary of the syllabus.
Another generalisation that can be made is
that ESP teachers do not have to be specialized in
the specific content or register of the program. In
the Saudi situation, teachers of ESP components
are in fact EFL (or general English) teachers
rather than teachers of medical science. They are
trained to teach English not medicine. Therefore,
an effective teaching approach for general English
can similarly work for ESP.
Furthermore, it is pedagogically significant
to provide a descriptive adequate frequency count
of the basic medical terminology from the
medical textbooks of the students major field to
be used for on ESP syllabus as a basis for
prioritizing teaching items. At the same time, I
believe, as Beeching (1997) stated, ..it is of
limited value when the items are unrelated to their
functional or communicative use.(20)
Finally, I believe the ESP of the Saudi
medical science is virtually EAP since its major
objective is to enable the students to interact with
the teachers of their colleges where English is the
medium of instruction. For this reason, emphasis
on an eclectic approach rather than adherence to a
specific teaching method is deemed necessary for
enabling the Saudi student to cope with the
college courses presented in English, and hence
guarantee effective learning outcomes.
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REFERENCES
(1) Mackey, R. and Parlmer, J. (Ed.), 1981,
Languages For Specific Purposes Program
Design And Evaluation, Newbury House
Publishers, Inc., p.29.
(2) Sinha A. and Sandorra L., 1991, A Primer on
ESP For Teachers of English, De LA Salle
University Press, p.10.
(3) Opcit, pp.29-30.
(4) Hutchinson, T. and Waters A., 1987, English
for Specific Purposes, A learning-centered
approach, Cambridge University Press, p.53.
(5) Ibid, p.19.
(6) Malmkjaer, K. (Ed.), 1991, The Linguistics
Encyclopedia, Routledge, U.K., p.459.
(7) Dudley-Evans, T., (Ed.), (1987),
Analysis, ELR Journal, Vol.1, p.1.

Gendre

(8) Swales, J., 1990, Genre Analysis, Cambridge,

Cambridge University Press, p.3.

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(9) Silberstein, S., (Ed.), (1993), State of the Art

TESOL Essays, Celebrating 25 years of the
Descipline, TESOL, Inc., p.124.
(10) Ibid, p.123.
(11) Ibid, p.123.
(12) Keppel, G., 1982, Design and Analysis, A
Researchers Handbook, Prentice-Hall, Inc.,
p.84.
(13) Hutchinson, T., and Waters, A., April 1984,
How Communicative is ESP?, ELT Journal,
vol.38/2, p.109.
(14) Ibid, p.109.
(15) Silberstein, S., (Ed.), 1993, State of Art
TESOL Essays, TESOL, Inc., p.122.
(16) Ibid, p.122.
(17) Sinha, A., and Sadorra, 1990, L.A. Primer
On ESP For Teachers of English, p.63.
(18) Mackay and Parlmer (Ed.), 1981,
Languages For Specific Purposes, Program
Design And Evaluation, Newbury House
Publishers, Inc., p.108.
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(19) Brumfit, C.J., 1983, Language Teaching

Projects For The Third World, Pergamon Press
Ltd., p.159.
(20) Beeching, K., 1997, French for Specific
Purposes: The Case For Spoken Corpora,
Applied Linguistics, Vol.18, No.3, Oxford
University Press, p.377.

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