English For Specific Purposes Research Research Articles

At the intersection of multiliteracies and glocalisation: a case study in a university in Taiwan

ABSTRACT This study introduces a pedagogical framework incorporating multiliteracies, a new literacy concept proposed by the New London Group (1996, A pedagogy of multiliteracies: Designing social futures. Harvard Educational Review, 66(1), 60–92. https://doi.org/10.17763/haer.66.1.17370n67v22j160u), and glocalised marketing, the adaptation of marketing strategies to fit local markets, within an English for Specific Purposes (ESP) setting. The article first reviews ESP research that adopts a multimodal approach and outlines the main features of a multimodal pedagogical framework, which is then expanded to encompass a pedagogy of multiliteracies and glocalised marketing for an English for advertising and marketing curriculum. In doing so, the framework is further connected with disciplinary literacy, a subject-specific skill set combining knowledge construction and language communication that can be cultivated through the pedagogy. The study presents findings from multimodal projects and surveys completed by 28 university students from a university in Taiwan. Using case study analysis, the study investigates the effectiveness of the pedagogical framework in promoting multimodal meaning-making practices and assesses participants’ perceptions of the learning benefits of this approach. The study hopes to provide pedagogical insights for ESP teachers to cultivate learners’ communicative competence in a digitalised and globalised society.

A Bibliometric Analysis of English for Specific Purposes from 2011 to 2023 Using Citespace: Visualizing Status, Themes, Evolution, and Emerging Trends

Introduction. Research on English for Specific Purposes (ESP) emerged in the 1960s. A few researchers conducted reviews on ESP literature. However, there is currently a lack of up-to-date and comprehensive bibliometric analysis covering the last decade from an international perspective, particularly covering the last decade's developments in ESP research.
 Purpose. Combining bibliometric analysis and systematic review of the literature on English for Specific Purposes, this study serves to objectively maps the knowledge area, and aims to identify the current status, major research themes, evolution, and the emerging trends in this field.
 Method. To maintain the objectivity and transparency, the review followed the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses protocol. Based on literature retrieved from the Web of Science core collection, a total of 1657 bibliometric records published from 2011 to 2023 were visualized and analyzed via Citespace.
 Results. The current research status through publication distribution and co-country network shows that the research is undergoing a steady increase and international authorship. Clusters and systematic review of citing articles indicate four themes, i.e., “linguistic inquires”, “teaching pedagogy”, “student learning”, and “teacher development”. Through the timezone view of keyword co-occurrence network, four features, such as the predominance of genre, corpus and pedagogy, varied pedagogies, varied research methodologies, and technology-assisted teaching, were identified. The keyword and citation burst detection, as well as systematic review of citing articles, were conducted to identify the research trends. It is found that EAP, teacher development, needs analysis in under-researched settings, as well as EMI and Corpus-based teaching pedagogies are the new frontiers in this field.
 Conclusions. The field of English for Specific Purposes continues to experience exponential growth and development, indicating an ongoing expansion and advancement of research in this area. This paper provides references for researchers to understand the status, hidden structure, evolution, and emerging trends of research on English for Specific Purposes.

Historical and Theoretical Perspectives of English for Specific Purposes: An Overview

This research article investigates the historical and theoretical developments of English for Specific Purposes (ESP) over the past six decades. Early years of ESP research primarily focused on text-based counts before gradually transitioning to a greater emphasis on rhetorical devices. The following decades saw the introduction of central concepts such as NEEDS assessment, linguistic devices and their rhetorical purposes, genre, and rhetorical move, which broadened the scope of ESP research. In the modern age of ESP, corpus studies and genre emerged as central concepts in the field. This led to the emergence of intercultural rhetoric as a key area of research, and the development of genre-based approaches in ESP. The use of corpus studies allowed for a data-driven approach to language analysis, enabling the identification and analysis of linguistic features and patterns of specific genres. Overall, this article provides an in-depth overview of the historical and theoretical perspectives that have influenced ESP research. The analysis highlights the evolution of central concepts such as genre, rhetorical move, and intercultural rhetoric, and emphasizes the significance of corpus studies in ESP research. It provides insights on the historical and theoretical development of ESP.

Changing visions in ESP development and teaching: Past, present, and future vistas.

Globalization and international development in language education have inspired a shift from the learning of traditional College English to English for Specific Purposes (ESP). This article begins with a section on the methodology used to develop the literature review. From various literatures, a historical perspective was first presented for the period, 1962 to the present day, and accompanied by a review on the teaching approaches. The purpose was to reveal emerging trends in ESP development and forefront the strength of association between ESP development and the changes in teaching approaches. Then it focuses on the relationship between needs analysis and ESP, as needs analysis is well recognized as a vital ESP characteristic and it is given a comprehensive revisit as an update in ESP development. The review continues with some insights into recent studies from various countries to reflect on various aspectual developments of current ESP practices that illustrate the dynamics of growing research agendas that have implications for current and future ESP research directions. Finally, future vistas for ESP development and teaching are affirmed. The paper concludes on the note on the importance of knowing past and future ESP developments, and the prioritizing of effective teaching based on soundly designed materials tailored to particular student-centered needs and wants.

ESP Research from 2000 to 2021: A Content Analysis of Articles in TR Dizin

This paper conducts a descriptive content analysis of the articles written on English for Specific Purposes (ESP) and published in TR Dizin from 2000 to 2021. A total of 23 ESP articles have been analyzed. Analyzing the articles written on ESP provides a fruitful opportunity for the researchers studying ESP. This study fulfills this gap by analyzing the ESP article published in TR Dizin from 2000 to 2021 as a replication of the research conducted by Gül and Sözbilir. According to the findings, the majority of ESP research papers were written by one author, handled by Turkish affiliations, published in IOJET, written in English, done with the Faculty of Medicine, used descriptive and survey research designs, Likert scale as a tool, done with undergraduate students with a sample size of 31 to 100, and displayed in frequency and percentage tables. Finally, the results of the paper were analyzed by showing the findings with frequency and percentage tables via SPSS Statistics 21.0.

English for Specific Purposes Research and Practice in the Past 20 Years (2001-2020) in China: A Literature Review

This paper reviews the literature on English for Specific Purposes (ESP) research in 15 CSSCI foreign language journals in China’s CNKI database over the last two decades. The data have been quantified and visualized with Citespace. This paper analyzes research advances and themes, and then puts forward suggestions based on the current situation of college English teaching in China. The findings reveal that: 1) ESP publications have shown a rising trend during the past 20 years; 2) The study of ESP in academic dissertations is mainly at the MA level; 3) ESP research focuses on such issues as relationships between ESP and college English, academic English, corpus and teaching modes; 4) The dominant method of ESP research in China is non-empirical while more and more empirical studies have emerged since 2011. This study also critically analyzes the research limitations and recommendations of the ESP study.

Cross-disciplinary collaboration in research on a specific-purpose language test in the healthcare setting

Central to teaching and assessing languages for specific purposes is collaboration between domain experts and applied linguists; yet, the complexity of the process has been little documented. A project involving collaboration between language testers, applied linguists and healthcare professionals in Australia provided an opportunity for exploration of this complexity. The project focused on interprofessional written communication about patient care, which forms the basis of a writing task in the Occupational English Test (OET), an English for Specific Purposes (ESP) test for health professionals. The project aimed to identify criteria indigenous to the work setting in order to inform the criteria used by language professionals in judging performance on the OET. This methodological paper examines the decisions involved in designing the collaboration and considers the possible effect of decisions on the validity of findings. The decisions include the choice of workplace writing tasks, of participants, of work settings and of written materials to be used as stimuli, the mode of eliciting responses to the stimuli from the domain experts and the coding and interpretation of data. The ways in which the research results are to be implemented in practice are examined, as well as the broader implications for the methodology of ESP research.

Personal learning environment: an experience with ESP teacher training

ABSTRACT English for Specific Purposes (ESP) teacher development has become a crucial issue in ESP teaching and research. How to equip ESP teachers with necessary knowledge and skills in the digital era becomes a hot topic. A Personal Learning Environment (PLE) is a potential pedagogical approach to realize learning-centered in ESP teacher development. This paper is an exploratory research which attempts to integrate Learning Management System (LMS) with Personal Learning Environment for the training of ESP teachers at tertiary education in China. Based on the previous research on the seven-factor technology, pedagogy, and content knowledge (TPACK) framework and the five-factor skill Framework for ESP teachers in China, a PLE-ESP platform was built in the form of a website (www.esper.cn). The platform was evaluated with 20 ESP participants within a two-month pilot study. A survey about the value and flexibility of the platform was carried out, the result of which indicated an improvement on the skills required in ESP teaching, learners’ self-regulated learning competency and their ICT literacy. Recommendations were made for future research on the successful integration and maintenance of PLE and LMS.

Current and Future Directions in English for Specific Purposes Research

Current and Future Directions in English for Specific Purposes Research

New Directions in English for Specific Purposes Research edited by BELCHER, DIANE, ANN M. JOHNS, & BRIAN PALTRIDGE

The article reviews the book New Directions in English for Specific Purposes Research, edited by Diane Belcher, Ann M. Johns, and Brian Paltridge.

El profesor de inglés para fines específicos ante el Espacio Europeo de Educación Superior

This paper focuses on the role of the teacher of English for Specific Purposes (ESP) from the beginning of ESP research in the 80’s to date when educators are faced with the challenges of the European Space for Higher Education (ESHE) and its implementation in educational systems across Europe. Firstly, the most outstanding aspects published in the relevant literature and dealing with the ESP teacher are explored and summarized. Secondly, the new roles to be played under the framework of ESHE are presented and discussed – it has been found that these new roles are not distinctively prescribed by ESHE but references to them are spread through the existing literature. Next, particular attention will be paid to «interdisciplinary collaboration». This notion is highlighted across ESHE instruments of implementation as a brand new practice in tertiary education but in the context of ESP it is a long-established goal with practical approaches adopted worldwide. As a way of conclusion, ESP teacher’s duties are listed bearing in mind the existing bibliography and the ESHE requirements.

Genre in Three Traditions: Implications for ESL

Within the last two decades, a number of researchers have been interested in genre as a tool for developing L1 and L2 instruction. Both genre and genre-based pedagogy, however, have been conceived of in distinct ways by researchers in different scholarly traditions and in different parts of the world, making the genre literature a complicated body of scholarship to understand. The purpose of this article is to provide a map of current genre theories and teaching applications in three research areas where genre scholarship has taken significantly different paths: (a) English for specific purposes (ESP), (b) North American New Rhetoric studies, and (c) Australian systemic functional linguistics. The article compares definitions and analyses of genres within these three traditions and examines their contexts, goals, and instructional frameworks for genre-based pedagogy. The investigation reveals that ESP and Australian genre research provides ESL instructors with insights into the linguistic features of written texts as well as useful guidelines for presenting these features in classrooms. New Rhetoric scholarship, on the other hand, offers language teachers fuller perspectives on the institutional contexts around academic and professional genres and the functions genres serve within these settings.