The Handbook of English for Specific Purposes E-Book
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- Herausgeber: John Wiley & Sons
- Kategorie: Fremdsprachen
- Serie: Blackwell Handbooks in Linguistics
- Sprache: Englisch
A field-defining survey of research in the rapidly growing field of English for Specific Purposes, now in its second edition
The Handbook of English for Specific Purposes provides an up-to-date account of the origins, development, current state, and future directions in the study of English as used in its specific contexts, including medical English, business English, and academic English. Featuring research from leading authorities, this comprehensive volume addresses all key aspects of ESP, including speaking, reading, writing, legal English, nursing, assessment, intercultural rhetoric, multimodality, English as a lingua franca, and ethnography.
The second edition of the Handbook is fully revised to incorporate new areas of ESP research and reflects changing demands on English Language Learners (ELL), including a new historical overview of the field by Prof. Vijay K. Bhatia and entirely new chapters English medium instruction and ESP research, materials development, teacher development, call center communication, Global Englishes and translanguaging, identity, and the emergence of digital genres. Unmatched in its breadth and depth of coverage, The Handbook of English for Specific Purposes:
- Features original state-of-the-art reviews relevant to scholars and students working across applied linguistics and education
- Features contributions by scholars working on ESP in a wide range of international contexts
- Addresses current and emerging challenges in ESP, with implications for related fields of TESOL and English language education more broadly
- Includes in-depth reviews of new ESP research findings and suggestions for further scholarship
Part of the Wiley Blackwell Handbooks in Linguistics series, The Handbook of English for Specific Purposes, Second Edition, is an essential reference for upper-level undergraduate and graduate students, scholars, researchers, and educators working in TESOL, ELL/ELT, applied linguistics, and language studies.
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Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2025
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Table of Contents
Cover
Table of Contents
Series Page
Title Page
Copyright Page
Author Biographies
Acknowledgments
Overview of the Handbook
What Is English for Specific Purposes?
Research Directions in English for Specific Purposes
REFERENCES
1 English for Specific Purposes Research: An Historical Overview
Overview
ESP Inspired Analyses of Discourse Variation
Needs Analysis
Approaches to ESP Course Design
Authenticity of Input to ESP Materials
Designing ESP Materials
REFERENCES
Part I: ESP and Language Skills
2 ESP and Speaking
Relational Aspects of ESP Speaking
ESP Spoken Corpora and Authenticity
Multimodality
Pedagogy
Future Research Directions
Conclusion
REFERENCES
3 ESP and Listening: Theory, Technology, and Multimodality
Introduction
The Construct of ESP Listening
Researching ESP Listening
Future Directions for ESP Listening Research
Recommendations for Teaching
REFERENCES
4 ESP and Reading
Introduction
Contextualizing Reading from an ESP Perspective
Reading as Captured in ESP‐Related Scholarship
In the Classroom: Reading in Partnership with Writing (Genre‐Based Pedagogy)
Conclusion
REFERENCES
5 ESP and Writing
Introduction: Some Characteristics and Challenges
ESP Conceptions of Writing
ESP and Research Approaches to Writing
Research in ESP Writing
ESP Writing Instruction
Future Challenges and Directions
Conclusions
REFERENCES
6 Vocabulary and English for Specific Purposes
Introduction
What Is Vocabulary for English for Specific Purposes and Why Is It Important?
Features of Vocabulary for ESP
Identifying Vocabulary for ESP
What Are Some Challenges and Opportunities for Vocabulary in ESP?
Directions for Future Research and Conclusion
REFERENCES
Part II: ESP and Pedagogy
7 Needs Analysis and Curriculum Development in ESP
Introduction: Overview and Key Approaches
Sources and Methods
Moving from Needs Analysis to Pedagogic Implications/Applications
Moving from Needs Analysis Through the Curriculum Development Cycle
Current and Future Directions
REFERENCES
8 Genre and ESP
Introduction
How ESP Researchers and Practitioners Define and Analyze Genres
Now and Beyond
Conclusions
REFERENCES
9 English Medium Instruction and English for Specific Purposes
Introduction
Themes in Research at the ESP–EMI Interface
Differentiating ESP from EMI
Stakeholders' Perceptions
Preparedness for EMI
Pedagogies and Learning at the Interface of ESP and EMI
Collaboration Between ESP and EMI
Linguistic Descriptions
Outcomes: ESP Impact on Learning
Concluding Reflections
REFERENCES
10 ESP and Assessment
Introduction
The Theory and Practice of Assessment in ESP
English for Academic Purposes
English for Employment Purposes
Conclusion
REFERENCES
11 Materials Development and English for Specific Purposes
Materials in EAP and ESP
General vs. Specific Materials
Specialist Help with Materials Writing
Three Approaches to Researching Materials: Content, Consumption, and Production
Studies of Materials Content
Studies of Materials Consumption
Studies of Materials Consumption and Production
Critical ESP Materials
ERPP Materials
Conclusion and Future Directions
REFERENCES
12 ESP Teacher Development
Introduction
Contexts of Teaching and Variable Teacher Development Needs
Content Knowledge and Pedagogical Content Knowledge Needs
Modes of Delivery
Suggestions for Teacher Education and the Research Agenda
REFERENCES
Part III: Areas of ESP Research
13 English for Academic Purposes
Introduction
The Scope of EAP: Four Overviews
Academic Discourse
Contexts of EAP
Suggestions for Future Research
REFERENCES
14 English for Science and Technology
Introduction
Values and Beliefs of the Science Community: The Ideology of Science
Register and Rhetorical Purpose
Genre and Rhetorical Moves
Future Directions in EST
Conclusion
REFERENCES
15 English in the Workplace
Introduction
Research into Workplace Communication
Workplace Discourse Activities and Functions
A Field Focused on Identity
What Is the Impact of Culture?
The Place of English Within a Multilingual Repertoire
Critical Approaches to Language
Increasing the Complexity of Workplace Interaction: Mediation and Modes
Conclusion
Acknowledgment
REFERENCES
16 Business English
Introduction
Data Collection Through Literature Search and Interviews
Methods of Analysis
Major Findings
Essence of Business English Research
Describing and Interpreting Discursive Processes and Outputs in Professions
Concluding Remarks
Acknowledgments
REFERENCES
17 Legal English: Past, Present and Future
Introduction
Language and Law
Translation Studies
Common Law as a Source of Difficulty
Common Law Contracts
Legal English Research
Implications for Legal English Practice
Conclusion
REFERENCES
18 English for Medical Purposes
Introduction
Health Communication Research: An Overview
The Contexts of EMP
Courses in EMP
Methods and Course Contents
EMP Materials
Language Proficiency Assessment in EMP
Language‐Related Research in EMP
Conclusion
REFERENCES
19 English for Nursing
Introduction
Linguistic Content in English for Nursing
Research from Outer and Expanding Circle Countries
Developments in ENP Coursework and Assessment
Suggestions for Future Research
REFERENCES
20 Call Center Communication
Introduction
Analyzing Call Center Communication
The Call Center
Outsourcing
Phenomenon
ESP in Outsourced Call Centers: Current Trends and Issues
Categorizing Caller Clarification Sequences
Text Analysis of Caller Clarification Sequences
Corpus‐Based Analysis of Call Center Communication
Studying Attitude and the Prevailing Negative Perception of Outsourced Call Center Services
Concluding Remarks
REFERENCES
21 Thesis and Dissertation Writing
Introduction
Organizational Structure
Genre Analysis of Dissertations
Writers and Supervisors
Teaching Dissertation Writing
Areas for Further Research
REFERENCES
22 English for Research Publication Purposes
Introduction
Inequalities in Academic Publishing
Approaches to Theory in ERPP
Conclusion and Future Directions
REFERENCES
23 Digital Genres and Practices in English for Specific Purposes
Introduction
Digital Genres for Occupational, Organizational, and Institutional Communication
Digital Genres and Open Science
Multimodality and Hypertextuality in ESP Research
Connected Genres and Genre Ecologies in ESP Research
Digital Practices and Pedagogies of Digital Literacies
Conclusions and Future Directions
REFERENCES
Part IV: Research Perspectives and Methodologies in ESP Research
24 ESP and Corpus Studies
Introduction
Types of ESP Corpora
Additional Contextual Information
Corpus Markup and Annotation
Methods of Corpus Analysis
Pedagogical Uses of ESP Corpora
Publicly Available Corpora Referred to in the Text
Software and Search Interfaces Referred to in the Text
REFERENCES
25 ESP and Intercultural Rhetoric
Introduction
Examples of Recent Published Works
Methodology in Intercultural Rhetoric Research
Future Directions
REFERENCES
26 English for Specific Purposes and English as a Lingua Franca
Introduction
From English as a Lingua Franca to Global English
Business English as a Lingua Franca
ELF in Europe
Approaches and Methodologies: Work in
ESPJ
The Future of ELF Research in ESP
REFERENCES
27 Global Englishes, Translanguaging, and ESP
Introduction
Global Englishes
Global Englishes and Language Teaching
From Global Englishes to Translanguaging
Studies of Translanguaging, Global Englishes, and ESP
Conclusion
REFERENCES
28 Critical Perspectives on ESP
Introduction
Critical Perspectives on English for Academic Purposes
Critical Perspectives on Needs Analysis
Critical Perspectives on Plagiarism
Genre, Access, Power
Critical Perspectives on Writing for Publication in English
Future Directions
REFERENCES
29 Gender and Race in ESP Research
Introduction
Pragmatism Contested: Critical Approaches and Their Relevance to Gender and Race
Shifting Conceptualizations of Gender and Identity
Conceptualization of Race and Critical Race Theory
Intersectionality
Pragmatic Challenges
Teaching English for Resettlement and Work Purposes
Teaching EAP
Conclusion and Future Directions
REFERENCES
30 Identity and ESP
Theorizing Identity
Discoursal Identity
Authorial Identity
Disciplinary Identity
Identity and Investment
Future Directions
REFERENCES
31 Ethnography in ESP
Introduction
Why Ethnography?
What is Ethnography?
Describing an Ethnographer's “Core Values”
Toward a Common Frame of Practice for ESP Research
Conclusion and Areas for Further Research
REFERENCES
32 Multimodality and ESP Research
Multimodality and ESP Research
Theoretical Background and Key Concepts
Multimodality and Genre Analysis
Multimodal Genres and Processes in ESP Research
Pedagogical Implications
Future Directions
REFERENCES
33 The Future of ESP Research: Resources for Access and Agency
Introduction
Communicative Practices: Learning from Discourses Written, Spoken, and Digital
Writing Practices
Speaking Practices
Digital Practices
Communities
English for Academic Purposes (EAP)
English for Occupational Purposes (EOP)
English for Civic Community Membership and Engagement
Communities of Practitioners
Understanding the Practices and Practice of ESP Practitioners
Learning About Learners
Conclusion
REFERENCES
Index
End User License Agreement
List of Tables
Chapter 5
Table 5.1 Some written genres studied in ESP research
Chapter 6
Table 6.1 Knowledge required for production of a word in writing
Chapter 18
Table 18.1 English contact situations of potential difficulty for non‐anglo...
Table 18.2 The schematic structure of medical RA (Nwogu (1997)/with permiss...
Chapter 20
Table 20.1 Composition of a test call center corpus for comparison in this ...
Chapter 25
Table 25.1 Similarity constraints used in the design of Moreno’s (1998) cor...
Chapter 27
Table 27.1 The differences between ELT/ESP and GELT
List of Illustrations
Chapter 1
Figure 1.1 ESP, business communication and discourse analysis.
Figure 1.2 Key aspects of critical genre analysis.
Figure 1.3 Interdiscursivity in legal genres.
Figure 1.4 Analyzing learner needs.
Figure 1.5 Approaches to ESP course design.
Figure 1.6 Critical genre‐based ESP materials design process.
Chapter 7
Figure 7.1 Subcategories of ESP with subdivisions of EST.
Figure 7.2 Adaptable methodological checklist for reliable and valid NA prac...
Chapter 10
Figure 10.1 Overview of the VITAEA environment simulation in Second Life....
Chapter 12
Figure 12.1 Factors in ESP teacher development.
Figure 12.2 Topics linking content knowledge and PCK in ESP teacher educatio...
Chapter 20
Figure 20.1 Distribution of factors causing callers' clarification sequences...
Figure 20.2 Comparison of agents' average dimension scores for addressee‐foc...
Figure 20.3 Politeness and respect markers across agent groups. Note: Freque...
Chapter 22
Figure 22.1 Methods used in ERPP Research.
Figure 22.2 Kwan's model of the discursive task.
Chapter 23
Figure 23.1 Major areas of ESP research on digital genres and practices.
Chapter 32
Figure 32.1 Multimodal genres and processes in ESP research.
Guide
Cover Page
Table of Contents
Series Page
Title Page
Copyright Page
Author Biographies
Acknowledgments
Begin Reading
Index
WILEY END USER LICENSE AGREEMENT
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The Handbook of English for Specific PurposesEdited by Sue Starfield & Christoph A. Hafner
The Handbook of English for Specific Purposes
Second Edition
Edited by
Sue Starfield
Christoph A. Hafner
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Library of Congress Cataloging‐in‐Publication Data:Names: Starfield, Sue, 1952‐ editor. | Hafner, Christoph A., editor.Title: The handbook of English for specific purposes / edited by Sue Starfield, Christoph A. Hafner.Description: Second edition. | Hoboken, New Jersey : Wiley‐Blackwell, [2025] | Series: Blackwell handbooks in linguistics | Includes index.Identifiers: LCCN 2024058685 (print) | LCCN 2024058686 (ebook) | ISBN 9781119985006 (hardback) | ISBN 9781119985013 (paperback) | ISBN 9781119985020 (adobe pdf) | ISBN 9781119985051 (epub)Subjects: LCSH: English language–Study and teaching.Classification: LCC LB1576 .H2334 2025 (print) | LCC LB1576 (ebook) | DDC 428.0071–dc23/eng/20250117LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2024058685LC ebook record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2024058686
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Author Biographies
Will Baker is an associate professor of applied linguistics and director of the Centre for Global Englishes at the University of Southampton, UK. His research interests are intercultural and transcultural communication, English as a lingua franca, English medium education, intercultural education and citizenship, and decolonial ELT. Recent publications include Intercultural and Transcultural Awareness in Language Teaching (2022 Cambridge University Press), Baker, W., & Ishikawa, T. Transcultural Communication Through Global Englishes (2021 Routledge), Tsou, W., & Baker, W. (Eds.). English‐Medium Instruction Translanguaging Practices in Asia (2021 Springer), and co‐editor of the Routledge Handbook of English as a Lingua Franca (2018).
Helen Basturkmen is professor of applied linguistics and language teaching at the University of Auckland, New Zealand. She has written three books on English for specific and academic purposes (Palgrave Macmillan 2010; Routledge 2006, 2021) and edited the multivolume work, English for Academic Purposes (Routledge 2015). Her research bridges topics in language teacher education, discourse analysis, and specialized registers of English. Her current research projects include topics that forge links between English medium instruction and EAP.
Diane D. Belcher, professor of applied linguistics at Georgia State University, has published a number of books, articles, and book chapters primarily about advanced academic literacy. Former co‐editor of English for Specific Purposes and TESOL Quarterly, she currently co‐edits the Michigan Series on Teaching Multilingual Writers.
Vijay K. Bhatia is adjunct professor in the Department of English, the City University of Hong Kong. His research interests include (critical) genre theory; analysis of academic and professional discourses, particularly in legal, business, promotional, and new media contexts; English for specific purposes (ESP) and professional communication; and simplification and easification of legal and other public documents. He has more than 200 publications to his credit. Three of his monographs on genre theory – Analysing Genre: Language Use in Professional Settings (1993), Worlds of Written Discourse: A Genre‐Based View (2004), and Critical Genre Analysis: Interdiscursive Performance in Professional Practice (2017) are widely used in genre theory and practice.
Susan Bosher, PhD, is professor and director of English as a Second Language (ESL), St. Catherine University, St. Paul, Minnesota. She taught English for cross‐cultural nursing for pre‐nursing immigrant and international students for over 10 years and has written two ESL for nursing textbooks: English for Nursing: Academic Skills and Talk Like a Nurse as well as co‐edited the anthology: Transforming Nursing Education: The Culturally Inclusive Environment. She has conducted research and given workshops for nurse educators on various topics related to ESL students in nursing. She has also worked on English for healthcare projects in Colombia, Eritrea, Taiwan, and Ukraine.
Clarice Chan is a researcher and practitioner in the areas of ESP, English for academic purposes (EAP), and business communication. She supervises doctoral students in TESOL at the University of St Andrews, UK. She is co‐editor (with Catherine Nickerson) of a special issue of English for Specific Purposes entitled “Business English: Research into Professional Practice” (2023–2024). Her paper, “Proposing and Illustrating a Research‐Informed Approach to Curriculum Development for Specific Topics in Business English,” published in English for Specific Purposes (2018), received the inaugural award for “Outstanding Article on Business Communication in Non‐ABC Journal” from the Association for Business Communication (ABC), USA.
Dr. Maggie Charles taught EAP at Oxford University for many years, specializing in academic writing. She currently works on the Cara EAP programme for exiled Syrian academics. Her main research interests are in the analysis of academic discourse and the use of corpora in EAP writing pedagogy, especially data‐driven learning. She has published widely in these areas, most recently in Journal of EAP, Applied Corpus Linguistics, and The Routledge Handbook of Corpora and English Language Teaching and Learning (Routledge 2023). Her latest book is Corpora in ESP/EAP Writing Instruction co‐edited with Ana Frankenberg‐Garcia (Routledge 2021).
An Cheng is professor of English at Oklahoma State University, USA. He is interested in the genre‐based framework of teaching and learning writing. He has published in many prominent journals. He is the author of Genre and Graduate‐Level Research Writing from the University of Michigan Press.
Ulla Connor is the Barbara E. and Karl R. Zimmer Chair in Intercultural Communication at Indiana University in Indianapolis.
Averil Coxhead is a professor in applied linguistics in the School of Linguistics and Applied Language Studies, Victoria University of Wellington, Aotearoa New Zealand. She is the co‐author of Measuring the Vocabulary Size of Native Speakers (2021; John Benjamins) with Paul Nation and English for Vocational Purposes: Language Use in Trades Education (2020; Routledge) with Jean Parkinson, James Mackay, and Emma McLaughlin. Averil's current research includes vocabulary in trades education and specialized vocabulary in bilingual contexts.
Ron Darvin is an assistant professor in the Department of Language and Literacy Education of the University of British Columbia in Vancouver, Canada. His research examines issues of identity and investment in language learning, technology, and critical pedagogy. He has published in English for Specific Purposes, Language Teaching, and Language Learning & Technology and is the recipient of the 2020 Dissertation Award of the American Association of Applied Linguistics (AAAL) and the 2017 Emerging Scholar Award of the American Educational Research Association (AERA) Language and Social Processes SIG.
Dan Douglas is an emeritus professor in the applied linguistics program at Iowa State University. He has published extensively on language assessment and language for specific purposes.
Dacia Dressen‐Hammouda is a professor in English for specific purposes at Université Clermont Auvergne and research member of ACTé (Activité, Connaissance, Transmission, Education). Her research examines the interactions between sociocultural context and situated communication practices. Her current projects focus on teaching and evaluating professional and multimodal digital literacies, the effects of AI‐driven tools on developing writing competency, digital science communication practices, and the implications of indexicality for international writers' ability to negotiate their positions through writing.
Fan Fang obtained his PhD from the Centre for Global Englishes, University of Southampton, UK. He is currently professor at Shantou University, China. His research interests include applied linguistics, intercultural communication, and teacher education. He has published more than 80 articles in both home and international journals. Recent publications include Re‐positioning Accent Attitude in the Global Englishes Paradigm (Routledge) and two edited volumes titled Policies, Politics, and Ideologies of English Medium Instruction in Asian Universities: Unsettling Critical Edges (co‐edited with Dr. Pramod K. Sah) and English‐Medium Instruction Pedagogies in Multilingual Universities in Asia (co‐edited with Dr. Pramod K. Sah).
Christine B. Feak is the lead lecturer for EAP writing courses at the English Language Institute, University of Michigan, and a member of the African Studies Center where she serves as the writing mentor for the University of Michigan African Presidential Scholars. She is co‐author (with John Swales) of Academic Writing for Graduate Students. From 2015 to 2022, she was co‐editor‐in‐chief of English for Specific Purposes. Her current research interests include research writing in medicine and business, writing for publication needs of scholars in low‐ and middle‐income countries, and academic writing curricula development.
Gibson Ferguson is an honorary research fellow at the University of Shefield. Now retired, he was formerly reader in applied linguistics and director of the MA program in applied linguistics. Prior to this, he was involved in teaching medical English at the University of Edinburgh. His publications include articles in various well‐known journals, book chapters, edited books, and a volume on language policy. His research interests encompass ESP, language policy, and corpus linguistics.
John Flowerdew is a visiting professor at the University of Lancaster and a visiting research fellow at Birkbeck, University of London. He was previously a professor at City University of Hong Kong and at the University of Leeds, UK. His research is in the fields of applied linguistics and discourse analysis. His books include Academic Listening: Research Perspectives (Cambridge), Research Perspectives on English for Academic Purposes (with M. Peacock) (Cambridge), Second Language Listening: Theory and Practice (with L. Miller) (Cambridge), Academic Discourse (Longman), Discourse in English Language Education (Routledge), Signalling Nouns in Discourse: A Corpus‐Based Discourse Approach (with R.W. Forest) (Cambridge), Discourse in context (Bloomsbury), The Routledge Handbook of Critical Discourse Studies (with J. Richardson), Discipline‐Specific Writing: Theory into Practice (with T. Costley) (Routledge), and Introducing English for Research Publication Purposes (with P. Habibie) (Routledge).
Lynne Flowerdew holds an honorary research fellowship in the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences, Birkbeck, University of London. She has taught ESP/EAP in Libya, Venezuela, Kuwait, the Sultanate of Oman, and Hong Kong. Her main research interests include corpus linguistics, discourse analysis, EAP/ESP, and disciplinary writing. She has published widely in these areas in international journals and prestigious edited collections and has also authored and co‐authored several books.
Eric Friginal is professor and head of the Department of English and Communication at The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Hong Kong SAR. He specializes in applied corpus linguistics, language policy and planning, technology and language teaching, sociolinguistics, discipline‐specific writing, and the analysis of spoken professional discourse in the workplace. His recent books include The Routledge Handbook of Corpus Approaches to Discourse Analysis (2021), co‐edited with Jack Hardy, and Global Aviation English Research (2024), co‐edited with Malila Prado and Jennifer Roberts (Bloomsbury). He is founding co‐editor‐in‐chief of Applied Corpus Linguistics (ACORP) journal with Paul Thompson (Elsevier).
Christine C. M. Goh is chair professor in education (Linguistics and Language Education) at the National Institute of Education, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore. A qualified English teacher, Christine is passionate about second language education, particularly in listening and speaking, learner metacognition, and language teacher cognition. She publishes extensively in these areas and is frequently invited to speak and lead workshops at conferences for second language researchers and practitioners. One of her latest publications on listening is the second edition of Teaching and Learning Second Language Listening: Metacognition in Action (with Larry Vandergrift) (2022, Routledge).
Christoph A. Hafner is professor in the Department of English, City University of Hong Kong. He is president of the Asia‐Pacific LSP & Professional Communication Association and past president of the Hong Kong Association for Applied Linguistics. His current projects investigate digital multimodal pedagogies in language education and second language socialization of law students in Hong Kong. His books include Understanding Digital Literacies: A Practical Introduction (second edition) (Routledge 2021, co‐authored with Rodney Jones) and English in the Disciplines: A Multidimensional Model for ESP Course Design (Routledge 2019, co‐authored with Lindsay Miller).
Nigel Harwood is professor of applied linguistics at the University of Sheffield, UK. His research interests include English for academic and specific purposes, academic writing, citation analysis, and TESOL textbooks and instructional materials. He has published his research in journals such as Applied Linguistics, Journal of English for Academic Purposes, Journal of Pragmatics, Modern Language Journal, TESOL Quarterly, and Written Communication. He is a former co‐editor of the journal English for Specific Purposes. He has edited two volumes on textbooks and instructional materials, and his latest book is Proofreading and Editing in Student and Research Publication Contexts: International Perspectives (Routledge).
Alan Hirvela is professor emeritus in the Department of Teaching and Learning at Ohio State University. His publications have focused, in various ways, on second language academic writing. His most recent work has explored the teaching and learning of argumentative writing and expertise in second language writing instruction. In addition to his scholarship, he has held editorial positions with the following journals: assistant editor (1998–2003) and reviews editor (2004–2008) of English for Specific Purposes and co‐editor (with Diane Belcher) of TESOL Quarterly (2010–2013).
Ken Hyland is an honorary professor at the University of East Anglia. He has published over 300 articles and 29 books on writing and academic discourse with 94, 000 citations on Google Scholar. According to the Stanford/Elsevier analysis of the Scopus database, he is the most influential scholar in language and linguistics (2022, 2023 and 2024). A collection of his work, The Essential Hyland, was published in 2018 by Bloomsbury. He is the editor of two book series with Routledge and Bloomsbury and was founding co‐editor of the Journal of English for Academic Purposes and co‐editor of Applied Linguistics.
Ryuko Kubota is professor in the Department of Language and Literacy Education in the Faculty of Education at the University of British Columbia, Canada. She has many publications in edited books and journals such as English for Specific Purposes, Journal of Second Language Writing, and TESOL Quarterly. Her research interests include critical applied linguistics and second language writing.
Jean C. P. Lee is a senior lecturer at the Language and Communication Centre at the Nanyang Technological University, Singapore, where she specializes in teaching engineering communication courses. She plays a key role in the curriculum development of these courses and co‐authored the textbooks for them. Her research interests include ESP spoken discourse, multimodal discourse studies, and interdisciplinary education.
Hans Malmström is professor of communication and learning science at Chalmers University of Technology. His primary research interests are within the areas of integrating content and language/communication in higher education (ICLHE), English‐medium instruction (EMI), and second language acquisition (particularly vocabulary). Recent past publications have featured in Language Testing, Journal of Multilingual and Multicultural Development, TESOL Quarterly, and Journal of English for Academic Purposes. He is (co) editor‐in‐chief of the Journal of English‐Medium Instruction and (co) series editor for Routledge Studies in English‐Medium Instruction.
Meredith Marra is professor in linguistics at the University of Canterbury in New Zealand and director of the Language in the Workplace Project. She teaches sociolinguistics, pragmatics, and discourse analysis at all levels and supervises in a range of areas at postgraduate level, including workplace communication, language and gender, language maintenance, and critical sociolinguistics. Meredith has published on many aspects of workplace talk, most notably meetings, leadership, gender, identity, humour, and intercultural communication.
Hilary Nesi is a professor of English language at Coventry University, UK. Her research activities mostly concern corpus development and analysis, the discourse of EAP, and the design and use of dictionaries and reference tools in academic contexts. She is co‐editor‐in‐chief of the Journal of English for Academic Purposes and the Elsevier Encyclopedia of Language and Linguistics (forthcoming) and was principal investigator for the projects to create the BASE corpus of British Academic Spoken English and the BAWE corpus of British Academic Written English. She has published more than 100 research articles and book chapters.
Catherine Nickerson is a professor at Zayed University in the United Arab Emirates, where she is the dean of the College of Business. Her research interests include the use of English as an international language in business contexts, the development of appropriate skills for undergraduate learners entering the digital workplace, and the communication of corporate social responsibility.
Jill Northcott is head of English Language for Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences, ELE, Centre for Open Learning, University of Edinburgh. She has worked internationally with law students, lawyers, translators, interpreters, judges, prosecutors, legal English teachers, and graduate students since beginning her language teaching career in Malaysia. She is currently a member of the BALEAPLaw SIG Organizing Committee.
Jean Parkinson teaches in the School of Linguistics and Applied Language Studies at Victoria University of Wellington in New Zealand. Her current areas of research interest include disciplinary writing especially writing in the disciplines of science and engineering, written and spoken language use in vocational education, and written and visual expression of meaning. She has published widely on science and technology discourse and language use in vocational education.
Diane Pecorari is professor of TESOL at the University of Leeds. Her research, situated in the broad area of educational linguistics, investigates the widespread and growing phenomenon of English as the medium of instruction, along with aspects of EAP and second language writing, including source use and plagiarism. Her publications include Introducing English for Academic Purposes (Routledge). She is editor‐in‐chief (with Hans Malmström) of the Journal of English‐Medium Instruction.
Carmen Pérez‐Llantada is professor of English applied linguistics at the University of Zaragoza (Spain). Her research interests include genre analysis, EAP, academic writing, academic literacy development, and genre‐based pedagogies. At present, she investigates digital genres for professional and public communication of science. She is co‐editor in chief of English for Specific Purposes and serves on the editorial boards of the Journal of English for Academic Purposes and Journal of English for Research Publication Purposes.
William Rozycki is a research fellow at the International Center for Intercultural Communication at Indiana University in Indianapolis, and also the coordinator of the Bridges: Children, Language, World program at the Hamilton‐Lugar School of International and Global Studies at Indiana University, Bloomington. His research has been directed toward professional discourse in engineering and medicine.
Sue Starfield is an emeritus professor in the School of Education at the University of New South Wales. She has co‐authored Change and Stability in Thesis and Dissertation Writing (Bloomsbury 2024), Thesis and Dissertation Writing in a Second Language: A Handbook for Students and their Supervisors (Routledge 2020), and Ethnographic Perspectives on Academic Writing (2016). She is an editor emeritus of English for Specific Purposes and founding co‐editor of the Journal of English for Research Publication Purposes. She co‐edits the Routledge Research in English for Specific Purposes monograph series and the Routledge Introductions to English for Specific Purposes series.
Paul Thompson is reader in applied corpus linguistics at the University of Birmingham, UK, and director of the Centre for Corpus Research. He taught in Japan for 14 years and has worked in Kenya and in the United Kingdom. He was a co‐editor of the Journal of English for Academic Purposes for nine years and is a founding co‐editor of the Applied Corpus Linguistics journal with Eric Friginal. His research interests are in second language writing, academic discourses, and corpus linguistics.
Yue Zhang is an assistant professor in the Department of English Language Education, The Education University of Hong Kong. She received her MPhil and PhD from the Department of English, The Chinese University of Hong Kong. Her research interests include L2 identity and investment, critical pedagogies, language teacher education, and CALL (IDLE). Some of her work can be found in Computer Assisted Language Learning; Journal of Multilingual and Multicultural Development; TESOL Quarterly; ReCALL; Journal of Language, Identity, and Education; Language Awareness; and Chinese Journal of ESP.
Zuocheng Zhang is an associate professor in English, literacies, and language education at the University of New England, Australia. He is interested in disciplinary literacies, ESP teacher development, Business English and international education. His recent publications include a monograph on Learning Business English in China: The Construction of Professional Identity (Palgrave Macmillan 2017) and a co‐edited volume on International Student Education in Tertiary Settings: Interrogating Programs and Processes in Diverse Contexts (Routledge 2021).
Acknowledgments
We would like to thank all the authors who have contributed their expertise and time to this second edition of the Handbook of English for Specific Purposes. Many of the authors of chapters from the first edition have updated their original chapters, and a number of new fields of interest have been included. We believe this volume will make a substantial contribution to what is a mature and dynamic area of applied linguistic research.
We would also like to acknowledge the contribution of our dear colleague, Brian Paltridge, to the initial conceptualization of the second edition and thank Rachel Greenberg, Juhita Manivannan, and Sarah Milton at Wiley for their support and patience.
We are, as ever, grateful to our families for their support and encouragement.
We, along with the publishers, would like to thank the following individuals and companies for their permission to reproduce the following material:
Image from
Introducing Needs Analysis and English for Specific Purposes
(Brown 2016) reproduced with kind permission of Taylor and Francis Informa UK Ltd.
Image from
Development and Validation of Virtual Interactive Tasks for an Aviation English Assessment
(Park 2015) reproduced with kind permission of Dr. Moonyoung Park.
Overview of the Handbook
English for specific purposes (ESP) is a now a well‐established field of applied linguistic research that emerged in response to growing demands for English language instruction from the 1960s onward with the advent of globalization (see Benesch 2001; Johns 2013; Starfield 2012 for more detail). The first edition of the Handbook of English for Specific Purposes, published in 2013, was a state‐of‐the‐art survey of research that captured a mature field with an increasingly diverse range of areas of interest. The first edition, edited by Brian Paltridge and Sue Starfield, has been well received by the ESP community, and more than a decade later, a second edition appears timely. Brian has stepped down as co‐editor and Christoph Hafner has stepped into the role.
In addition to providing detailed updates on topics covered in the first edition written for the most part by the original specialist authors and that are of enduring relevance, this second edition includes several new chapters by leading scholars on topics that have grown in interest more recently. These chapters cover areas of increasing relevance to our field: materials development, English medium instruction, ESP teacher development, identity, call center communication, digital genres, and global Englishes and translanguaging. Their inclusion is testimony to the dynamic nature of the field as researchers and practitioners engage with a rapidly evolving global environment in which both the role and nature of English are constantly interrogated. This volume comprises 33 chapters with a new introductory chapter titled English for Specific Purposes Research: An Historical Overview by Vijay Bhatia who is identified as one of the field's most highly cited authors in a recent bibliometric analysis of 3500 papers on an ESP topic in the Social Sciences Citation Index (SSCI) over the past 30 years (Hyland and Jiang 2021).
As with the first edition, the second edition of the Handbook envisages a broad readership of students, teachers, and researchers with a direct interest in ESP research as well as those working in adjacent areas of language studies, language teaching, and applied linguistics more broadly. It is aimed at upper‐level undergraduate students as well as graduate students undertaking masters’ and doctoral degrees in TESOL, English language teaching, and applied linguistics. The Handbook is also a reference work for scholars with an interest in researching this particular area of language teaching and learning. It does not assume a background in the area of ESP, but is, at the same time, sufficiently advanced to meet the needs of researchers in this area. It aims to be a user‐friendly yet authoritative reference work for students and researchers in the area of ESP.
What Is English for Specific Purposes?
English for specific purposes (ESP) refers to the teaching and learning of English as an additional language where the goal of the learners is to use English in a particular domain and for particular purposes. The ESP learner is not, therefore, learning the language for general educative purposes or for the study of literature in which the language is the subject matter of the course but rather as a means to the “acquisition of some quite different body of knowledge or set of skills” (Robinson 1980: 6). Context and content have from the outset been key issues in ESP; in what contexts would learners be using the language skills and what content would they need to access through the language?
Key issues in the teaching of ESP are therefore how to identify learner needs in these specific contexts, the nature of the discourses and genres that learners need to be able to understand and produce in order to participate in the communities they seek to join, how we can know whether they have been able to do this successfully, and, if not, what we can do to help them. These (and many other) issues are discussed in this Handbook.
ESP is now a flourishing field of research and pedagogy that has expanded to include areas such as, inter alia, English for academic purposes (EAP), English for occupational purposes (EOP), English for vocational purposes (EVP), English for medical purposes (EMP), English for business purposes (EBP), English for legal purposes (ELP), English for research publication purposes (ERPP), and many others that have chapters devoted to them in the Handbook.
In the contemporary world, learners are part of multilingual, mobile, diverse communities with rapidly evolving needs, and our understandings of content and contexts are becoming more nuanced through the use of diverse methodologies and theories not only of language learning but also of the relationships of individuals to society. Again, many of these approaches and theories are discussed in the Handbook.
Strevens (1977: 146), an early proponent of ESP, characterized it as being part of a “major, world‐wide educational tide of change” (see Benesch 2001; Johns 2013; Starfield 2012 for more detail), and this dynamism has continued to characterize work in the field as it identifies new areas to investigate and responds to new challenges. Chapters on multimodality and digital genres reflect the significant changes occurring in communication practices in the digital worlds we now inhabit and their impact on learning, teaching, and research.
None has been more challenging than the changing nature of English and how its role and function are perceived across the globe. As Hyland and Jiang (2021) note in their review of the emergence of ESP as a discipline, critical and sociopolitical concerns more widely have featured in many published ESP studies over a number of decades. An important chapter in the first edition of the Handbook by Catherine Nickerson (2013) charted the emergence of English as the international lingua franca of business, industry, and science and drew attention to the growing calling into question of native speaker norms. As the dominance of English in many fields has since proceeded apace, so have the critiques of its dominance in areas such as writing for scholarly publication and education. Catherine's updated chapter emphasizes the ongoing relevance of ESP for researching and teaching English lingua franca (ELF) communication with new chapters in the second edition addressing key concerns such as the continuing development of English medium instruction in multiple settings as well as global Englishes and translanguaging.
Research Directions in English for Specific Purposes
Swales's prescient comment from almost 40 years ago that “ESP is required to operate within the multifarious universe of discourse denizened by other occupations, disciplines and professions” (1985: 221) is still relevant today. The challenge facing researchers and practitioners remains that of entering these worlds, meeting their inhabitants, understanding their meaning‐making practices, and assisting newcomers to successfully participate in these discursive worlds. The first edition of the Handbook identified numerous research trends that strove to facilitate this participation; they have continued to drive scholarly studies in ESP. Genre perspectives on ESP language and discourse provide an important lens through which texts can be studied, and this research informs much ESP pedagogy. An Cheng, a leading genre researcher, has authored a new chapter on genre and ESP for the second edition. Similarly, corpus studies of language in use in specific contexts show no sign of declining in popularity. Research into the discursive and non‐discursive challenges facing multilingual scholars writing for publication in English is an area attracting the attention not only of ESP researchers but also of scholars from a wide range of disciplinary backgrounds who seek to publish their work in English medium journals (see chapters by John Flowerdew and Sue Starfield in this volume).
As noted above, research into ELF in specific purpose settings is a continued focus of interest with newer theoretical frames shedding more light on ELF interactions in diverse communities where English may be the medium of instruction or of commerce and industry. ELF interactions in call centers have emerged as a growing focus of ESP research, and the second edition of the Handbook includes a chapter by Eric Friginal, a leading researcher in this area. As issues of identity in ESP teaching and learning remain an enduring theme, the new edition of the Handbook has a standalone chapter authored by Ron Darvin and Yue Zhang on this key topic. Ethnographic approaches to examining texts and their contexts of reception and production are being more widely adopted by ESP scholars as are studies of multimodal communication in ESP and EAP. Dacia Dressen‐Hammouda has extensively revised her chapter on ethnographic approaches to ESP research, and Christoph Hafner has a new chapter on his specialist area of multimodality. Since the publication of the first edition of the Handbook, we live more and more of our lives online; Carmen Pérez‐Llantada's new chapter on digital genres opens a scholarly window into the rapidly evolving studies of the emergent, multimodal genres that we all encounter on a daily basis.
As Diane Belcher (2013) noted in her concluding chapter to the first edition of the Handbook, it is ironic that the community ESP professionals may know the least about is their own. We hope that this second edition goes some way to remedying this gap with a new chapter on ESP teacher development by Helen Basturkmen that carefully maps out the terrain of work that is needed to support current and future teachers.
Finally, it was during the writing and compilation of this Handbook that generative artificial intelligence (AI) rose to prominence, introducing profound changes to processes of composing and education, especially language education. From the perspective of ESP research and practice, generative AI offers both opportunities and challenges and many of the authors touch on these in their contributions. At a very basic level, what it means to communicate and learn in specialist contexts is changing, giving rise to new, emerging needs for ESP learners and new, emerging topics for research. In closing this Handbook, Diane Belcher suggests three main avenues for future ESP research in this area: (1) understanding how generative AI composes, (2) understanding how professionals make use of generative AI, and (3) understanding how to teach students to learn from generative AI, as they go about composing specialist texts.
REFERENCES
Belcher, D. (2013). The future of ESP research: Resources for access and choice. In:
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Benesch, S. (2001)
Critical English for Academic Purposes
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Hyland, K. and Jiang, F. (2021). Delivering relevance: The emergence of ESP as a discipline.
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Johns, A. M. (2013). The history of English for specific purposes research. In:
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(ed. B. Paltridge and S. Starfield), 5–30. Malden, MA: Wiley‐Blackwell.
Nickerson, C. (2013). English for specific purposes and English as a lingua franca. In:
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Robinson, P. (1980).
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Starfield, S. (2012). The historical development of languages for specific purposes. In:
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1English for Specific Purposes Research: An Historical Overview
VIJAY K. BHATIA
Overview
The origin of English for Specific Purposes (ESP) has often been traced back to several restricted language teaching courses, such as “Spanish for Tourists” in the early 1900s (Upton 2012), Michael West's “New Method Readers” for reading only (1926–1927), and several others. One may also include “Business Communication” books (for instance, Hotchkiss 1916
