ESP Practitioner Professionalization through Apprenticeship of Practice: the Case of Two Iranian ESP Practitioners

English for specific purposes (ESP), the popular catchphrase of presently English language teaching programs, has been investigated from different perspectives. However, there have been occasional forays in to the role of ESP practitioner as one of the most distinctive features in the literature. In addition to fulfilling the usual role of a language teacher, ESP practitioner may be required to deal with administrative, personnel, cross-cultural, interdisciplinary, curricular, and pedagogical issues that may be unfamiliar to general English teachers (Hutchinson & Waters 1990; Koh 1988; Robinson 1991; Waters 1994). Consequently, those practitioners who have passed the thorny way of professionalization would be great assets for the teachers who are new to the ESP programs. Moreover, lack of an independent disciplinary status for ESP worsens the issue. Drawing on the interview data and observational evidence, present study investigates the route of professionalization of two Iranian ESP teachers in the particular context of Petroleum University of Technology (PUT) in Ahwaz. What they say are critically analyzed in the context and emerging guidelines are categorized accordingly. It is hoped that findings grounded minimally in this particular ESP context will act as broad guidelines that bestow a more academic image to the general English teacher-ESP teacher change in the present ‘no man land’ of Iranian ESP teaching programs.