Many people learn English because they have moved into a target-language community and they need to be
able to operate successfully within that community. A target-language community is a place where English is
the national language - e.g. Britain, Canada, New Zealand, etc - or where it is one of the main languages of
culture and commerce - e.g. India, Pakistan, Nigeria.
Some students need English for a Specific Purpose (ESP). Such students of ESP (sometimes also called
English for Special Purposes) may need to learn legal language, or the language of tourism, banking or
nursing, for example. An extremely popular strand of ESP is the teaching of business English, where
students learn about how to operate in English in the business world. Many students need English for
Academic Purposes (EAP) in order to study at an English-speaking university or college, or because they need
to access English-language academic texts.
Many people learn English because they think it will be useful in some way for international communication
and travel. Such students of general English often do not have a particular reason for going to English
classes, but simply wish to learn to speak (and read and write) the language effectively for wherever and
whenever this might be useful for them.
(Harmer, Jeremy. How to teach English. (2010, p. 11))
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