I’m preparing a presentation in commemoration of the 50th Issue of the IATEFL ESP SIG publication for the IATEFL conference IN Brighton in April  Here are a few more images that I plan to use, plus some figures and charts drawn from an analysis of article titles from 50 issues of the publication:

Issue 1

The first issue of the IATEFL ESP SIG Publication was published in January 1994.

Issue 50

Issue 50 was published in March 2018. They both used Serif PagePlus software

Regions of the world.

In the first 25 years, we have published 260 articles written by authors working in 70 countries. These are the areas of the world where our authors have come from. Mostly Europe, but significant numbers from East and South Asia. Out of the 260 articles, 245 have been written by people working in higher education.

If we classify ESP into EAP (English for Academic Purpose), EPP (English for Professional Purposes)  and EOP (English for Occupational Purposes), this is what our authors write about, including general ESP articles.

Development over time.

And this shows graphically how it has developed over time, concentrating on EAP and EPP. Notice that EAP has increased and EPP has decreased.Is this a trend or an artefact of a particular editor?

Topic Focus

Apart from general discussion on the nature of ESP, the main aspects of ESP that authors write about are course design and research.

Focus according to region.

Of course, authors from different parts of the world have different priorities.

Development of purposes

And this shows development over time.

If we compare type of ESP (EAP, EOP, EPP) with what the authors are writing about, we find that most EAP teachers are writing about research they have done,compared to EPP teachers, who are writing about courses they have designed. And, although the numbers are very small, EOP teachers write about materials.

And finally some examples of how the word “student” is used in article titles. (NVivo Word Tree)