SEARCHING FOR THE GOLDEN AVERAGE BETWEEN ESP AND CLIL

Abstract

Higher education institutions have turned into main actors of multidimensional societal transformations in the EU context but also worldwide. Moreover, these rapid international developments and dissemination of the scientific research at global level have been cohesively accomplished through English language; by now English has been acknowledged as the lingua franca of technological, economic, socio-cultural and educational advances. Consequently, the current academic debate regarding effectiveness of English teaching approaches at university programs has gained special significance. This debate has been centered into two main English teaching approaches; the one targeting English for Specific Purposes (ESP) and the other focused on Content Language Integrated Learning (CLIL). This paper will shed light upon the attributes of each of these two important English language teaching paradigms. Yet, we argue that it is precisely the flexible - agile nature of ESP to help students socially construct their linguistic potentials which matches very precisely with the social constructivism of European environment and global adjustments of international universities these days. Moreover, we aim to prove that having abundant knowledge on various subject matters is definitely important however, knowing how to express clearly, correctly and properly this immense knowledge to guarantee successful ‘competitive ‘communication in an increasingly interdependent, multi-cultural world takes more prominence than ever before. Therefore, despite similarities between ESP and CLIL, ESP promises a brighter perspective of coping with future linguistic challenges. Our analysis will be carried through a comparative method of the theoretical literature on ESP and CLIL as elaborated in line with the most representative theoretical literature of social constructivism encompassing its recent adaptation in higher educational context especially in the EU.