This longitudinal study examined how an English for Specific Purposes (ESP) teacher transformed her teacher identity over time. Hinging on the close relationship between teaching and identity construction, this study was grounded on the notion that teaching a language is becoming a person who teaches it (Benson, 2017). Data were collected through six face-to-face interviews and six electronic interviews with the teacher during a four-year period. Findings demonstrate that becoming an ESP teacher is a complex process of constructing and negotiating identities. The teacher started ESP teaching as a scared general English teacher, and then negotiated her identities as a struggling but hardworking collaborator and learner. Later, she positioned herself as a novice ESP teacher, and then finally constructed her identity as a competent, helpful ESP teacher. Significant factors affecting identity transformation include needs analysis, enhanced subject matter knowledge, capacity to develop teaching materials, and teacher agency. Based on these findings, this study suggests implications for ESP teacher education programs.

The present study investigates secondary school student athletes’ specific needs for English learning and analyzes correlation and a cause and effect relationship among the needs-related variables. Two hundred forty six student athletes enrolled in physical education. Junior and senior high schools participated in the study. Data were collected through a survey that inquired about the students’ perceived English ability and learning areas of interest, their needs for ESP education, and aspects to be considered for ESP course design. The results show that the students put more emphasis on verbal communication (i.e., on speaking and listening) than on written communication (i.e., on reading and writing) and that they wanted more practical ESP education reflecting their needs and interests. Additionally, there was significant correlation (p<.01) among the subjects’ learning areas of interest, needs for ESP education, and aspects to be considered for ESP course design; a cause and effect relationship among the above three variables was discovered by goodness of fit test for structure equation model. Based on these findings, it is concluded that secondary school student athletes’ perceived English ability and areas of interest for English learning influence both their needs for ESP education and aspects to be considered for ESP course design.