The paper brings together recent work in English for specific purposes/languages for specific purposes (ESP/LSP) and adult education and puts forward an integrative model for ESP curriculum design. It outlines a set of characteristics that identify the ESP learner within the general adult learning framework. Taking current theories on the adult learner profile as a starting point, it then focuses on a model that associates adult education principles with effective ESP learning. This model has two sides. One side requires the adult learner's ESP teacher to come to terms with adulthood-oriented considerations (i.e. issues unique to adult learning), such as ‘mess-management’, motivation and adult learning cycles. The other side involves both a number of ELT-methodology-specific communicative strategies that are indispensable in the ESP class, such as self-directed learning techniques, as well as enhancing the role of the ESP teacher as counsellor. Some implications for the construction of CALL programmes are discussed and the paper ends with the suggestion that all approaches to teaching learners in the ESP framework can benefit from the successful handling of both aspects of the earlier model.

The paper addresses the commonly acknowledged challenge of globalisation with respect to the area of English language teaching and, more particularly, teaching English to speakers of foreign languages. It is argued that some of the primary issues involved concern the increasing role of technology and communication in modern societies and the looming conflict between local communities and the decision-making bodies. It is further suggested that the global English language teaching (ELT) community has already gone a long way towards researching and, in certain cases, resolving such conflicts and has much insightful material to offer. The paper incorporates a discussion of the notion of English as an international language and the question of 'ownership' of such a language. The roles and defining characteristics of the native and non-native speaker of English are then considered and the various occasions when communication and learning take place are briefly reviewed, with frequent reference to the authors' own teaching situation, i.e. English language teaching in Greece. The paper culminates with an appreciation of the pedagogical, ethical and methodological considerations that are suggested as a means of sensitising TESOL teacher education vis à vis the global status of English (also with the Greek context in mind).