Abstract
Although the field of ESP studies is, comparatively speaking, a relatively new area of academic enquiry, it has nevertheless well over half a century of existence and evolution to its name. Present in the most far-flung reaches of the world today, ESP is undoubtedly one of the most cross-cultural of disciplines and as such subject to constant processes of adaptation and reinvention, at times calling into question the epistemological core of the discipline itself. In a two-step approach, this study first presents a theoretical overview of the main epistemological trends in ESP studies today. Having established the general theoretical framework, the paper focuses on practitioner-orientated concerns in relation to implementing a wide-angled socio-cultural approach for university level English for Legal Purposes (ELP). In this dual perspective, it looks at the potential offered by the use of specialised fictional narrative in the form of popular television series or fiction à substrat professionnel (FASP).
Highlights
ESP has traditionally been defined in terms of three central constructs: the inherently symbiotic nature of its interdisciplinarity centred on language and learner specialism interdependence; a pragmatic teaching-based vocation; a corollary focus on learner language needs
The identification of learner needs has evolved to take into consideration present situation parameters as well (PSA) and has matured towards a more nuanced analysis of needs based on a learner-teacher-professional triangulation involving the three main stakeholders concerned
The second issue raised with regard to television FASP as English for Legal Purposes (ELP) teaching material concerns the density of specialised lexis: surely, it could be argued, authentic texts present a higher density of specialised lexis than general public entertainment-orientated legal FASP television series? To test ELP teachers’ empirical intuitions on this subject, an experimental protocol was designed to validate the hypothesis that legal FASP television series present an equal if not higher density of specialised legal lexis than a number of professional documents habitually used in the context of ELP teaching (Chapon 2011)
Summary
ESP has traditionally been defined in terms of three central constructs: the inherently symbiotic nature of its interdisciplinarity centred on language and learner specialism interdependence; a pragmatic teaching-based vocation; a corollary focus on learner language needs. These defining parameters have evolved differently over the past 60 years of the maturing of ESP studies. The “P” for purposes in the acronym “ESP” points to the essentially “functional” or “focused” objectives behind language learning in the ESP perspective and, as such, remains largely uncontested Such “purposes” were unhesitatingly defined in terms of the language competences needed to pursue clearly identified professional target situation goals (TSA). Of the varying approaches to ESP today, three dominant and divergent theoretical approaches stand out in terms of the interpretative variations of the “S” of the acronym: “specific”, “specialized” and “social” or, as Belcher puts it, “the sociodiscoursal, sociocultural and socio-political” (2004: 166)
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