Karl Drobnic

Karl Drobnic (born 1943) is an American educator and publisher, He pioneered work in English for Specific Purposes during the era of large scale technology transfer programs between developed and underdeveloped nations in the latter half of the twentieth century.

Drobnic co-edited English for Specific Purposes: Science and Technology in 1978 with Louis and Mary Trimble and co-wrote Sci Tech (publisher: Prentice Hall, 1980). He published the English for Specific Purposes newsletter from 1978 to 1980, a monthly newsletter that advanced the turn of English as a Second Language teaching methodology from prescriptive to descriptive.

Drobnic worked as a consultant to the governments and university systems of Sri Lanka, Pakistan, North Yemen (Sana’a), Nicaragua, Peru, Indonesia, Mexico, and Costa Rica. His later work involved the administration of grants and contracts for the establishment of projects based on the education models he developed for various governments and universities. The work applied the principles of linguistic analysis to financial analysis and led to the publication of a nationally recognized investment newsletter, Venture Returns, from 1990 to 2002.