Na sentença “Thus, on one hand, ESP is to be understood as ...

                                            TEXTO I

             The English for Specific Purpose Myths in Brazil

      The most prevailing myth associated to ESP in Brazil, and created because of the Brazilian ESP Project, is that “ESP is reading”. [...] Reading was the only skill that deserved special attention in the Project. Thus, on one hand, ESP is to be understood as synonymous with reading and, on the other hand, any reading course is to be understood as ESP. As a consequence of this current myth another one comes together: “ESP is monoskill” as any teaching action that is related to its design and implementation is devoted exclusively to one ability. However, the point to stress here is that this myth may be deconstructed easily when the reasons why the Brazilian Project concentrated on reading are made apparent: this was the paramount ability identified during the needs analysis conducted in the late I9 70 's as needed by most target groups. [...] These should be recognizable arguments for teaching reading comprehension and, thus, making of this course a truly ESP course. Unfortunately, there are still many professionals in Brazil who still think that if you need to teach any other skill or more than one skill you are not teaching ESP.

      Another recurrent myth is: “ESP is technical English”. One of the reasons that may explain such a misconception may have stemmed from the I970's and early 1980's when many materials on the market focusing on the language of sciences, a well-established idea among ESP practitioners in many parts of the world, were produced. [...] In addition to that, many efforts were made to characterize the language of science, and for a long time, this was broken down into domains: the language of chemistry, the language of medicine, etc. [...] Turning back to the argument, such domain-specific breakdown materials may have contributed to an understanding that these specific Englishes were sufficiently different for a course to be based on them, with specific vocabulary being one of the chief features, and consequently creating such a misconception. Another explanation but this time rooted in “local” reasons may be found in the fact that subject matters of students' disciplines were (and still are in some places) brought to compose part of the syllabuses of many ESP courses. Third, the fact that the Technical Schools, now upgraded as Technological Centres for Higher Education (CEFETs), joined the Brazilian ESP Project in the mid-eighties may have strongly contributed to this association.

      Other current myths aligned with ESP Reading Courses due to the adopted methodology and the specific contents that were developed during the implementation of the ESP Project in the country are: “the use of the dictionary is not allowed”, “grammar is not taught”, and “Portuguese has to be used in the classroom”. In order to better understand these misconceptions it is necessary to briefly explain the underlying principles adopted to teach reading. Some of the procedures put into work in the classroom were based on the belief that cognitive and linguistic difficulties should be eased and/or balanced during the learning process by making up the most of students' previous knowledge. So, the use of the dictionary during the initial classes was avoided to make students explore other areas of knowledge and resources rather than those, which were believed to be very familiar (the dictionary, translation of word by word, for example). The same applies to the teaching of grammar: strategies were emphasized over grammar at the beginning of the course and the teaching of grammar, in turn, concentrated on discourse grammar rather than traditional (structural) teaching of grammar. The same underlying principle was attributed to the use of Portuguese by teacher and students in the classroom, as well as in the written instructions of activities [...].

RAMOS, R. C.G ESP in Brazil: history, new trends and challenges. In: KRZANOWSKI, M. (Ed.). English for academic and specific purposes in developing, emerging and least developed countries. IATEFL, 2008. p. 68-83.