English for Specific Purposes (ESP) has developed in the last five decades in response to learners’ communicative needs in specific scientific fields and professional settings. Since its emergence in the 1960s the number of publications on ESP has spread both on a theoretical and practical basis, although the bulk of the research has focused on ESP pedagogy, syllabus, course design and classroom-based practice. The present paper aims to trace the evolution of ESP from the beginning of the movement in the mid-1960s to the present day. We will see that the major ESP developments are in consonance with developments in the fields of theoretical and applied linguistics. In this light, four phases can be distinguished: (1) mid-1960 – early 1970s; (2) mid-1970s – mid-1980s; (3) mid-1980s – 1990s; (4) 2000–present. Another outstanding development in ESP is related to the predominance of the different ESP strands. While English for Science and Technology was dominant in early ESP, today English for Academic Purposes and Business English are the largest areas of activity
