English for specific purposes and proverbs for cultural understanding

Starting from a brief review of English for Specific Purposes, this paper describes how ESP language and cultural issues can interweave. So far ESP literature has mainly focused on practical aspects, such as course and materials design, since when defining ESP the focus has been on need analysis with a goal-oriented vision. On the other hand, culture teaching has been widely discussed, but mainly within foreign language teaching. However, the communication taking place in an ESP context is also intercultural communication, hence developing intercultural understanding should be a goal in ESP teaching too. In this article proverbs are used as a means of teaching culture for specific purposes, by highlighting a series of principles in business, management and entrepreneurship, and focusing on cultural insights, values and behaviours.