ESP Syllabus Design: A Must for EFL Students

English for Specific Purposes (ESPs) is a learner-centered approach to teaching English as a foreign or second language and designed to meet the needs of most learners who have to learn a foreign language for use in their specific disciplines, such as science, technology, medicine and academic learning. The requirement of an ESP approach to course design would be Needs Analysis (NA), since it involves the awareness of a target situation. When evaluating an ESP course and identifying the language needs of the learners, NA is not the only parameter to be taken into account by the ESP teacher. There are other factors that have to be considered, such as formulation of goals and objectives, besides content and selection, and development of ESP materials. The dominant assumption in the field of ESP has been that if the needs of a group of English language learners can be accurately specified, then this identification can be used to establish the content of a language syllabus that will meet these needs. Yet, in Algerian universities, progressive efforts are made to design comprehensive Language for Specific Purpose syllabus which focuses on learners’ needs. Algerian ESP teachers, among others, should be aware that the syllabus is a valuable document; since it clarifies the different stages the teacher has to go through in order to reach the objectives of the course and allow the learners to be aware of the various stages of the learning process.