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Empowering ESP practitioners: Rethinking the paths to ‘specialized knowledge’ through the lens of genre analysis

An ChengDepartment of EnglishOklahoma State Universityan.cheng@okstate.edu

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Understanding learner needs

Analyzing specialized discoursesDeveloping curriculum

Experimenting with methodologies

(Dudley-Evans & St John, 1998; Hutchinson & Waters, 1987; Kennedy & Bolitho, 1984; Mackay & Mountford, 1978; Robinson, 1980; Selinker, Tarone, & Hanzeli, 1981; Schleppegrell & Bowman, 1986; Swales, 1985).

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Understanding learner needs

Analyzing specialized discourses

Developing curriculum

Experimenting with methodologies

(Mackay & Mountford, 1978; see also Holden, 1977; Kennedy & Bolitho, 1984; Robinson, 1980; Selinker, Tarone, & Hanzeli, 1981; Schleppegrell & Bowman, 1986; Swales, 1985; Basturkmen, 2006, 2010; Belcher, 2009; Belcher, Johns, & Paltridge, 2011; Paltridge & Starfield, 2013).

Corpus linguistics

Multi-methodological genre analysis

Learner identities

Critical ethnography

ESP program evaluation

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What kinds of needs?

How specifi

c?

Collaborate, corporate, team-teaching, or not at all?

Wide-angled or

narrow-angled?

Product-oriented or process-oriented?

Laurence Anthony

Image from http://lukenixblog.blogspot.jp/

“ESP has frequently been a hotbed of conflict—the Wild West of ELT” (Hutchinson & Waters, 1987, p. 158).

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Content knowledge, should we? How much?

• “The most frequently asked questions and the core of many debates in the field” (Tsou & Kao, 2014, p. 5)

• “A feeling of inadequacy” (Tsou & Chen, 2014)

• Turning away from specialized ESP teaching (Anthony, 2011; Cai, 2004)

• A part of teacher empowerment (Tsou, 2013)

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How much content knowledge?

• Process-oriented skills (Anthony, 2011)

• Specialist knowledge vs. specialized knowledge (Fergusson, 2014)

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Specialist knowledge

Specialized knowledge

Knowledge of content in the student’s content area

Knowledge of disciplinary culture <- sociological and anthropological

Knowledge of epistemological basis of disciplines <- philosophical

Knowledge of genre and discourse <- linguistic (Tsou, 2013; Wu & Badger, 2009)

Too much to learn

Outdated easily

Not easy to determine what a discipline is

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The third knowledge of genre Linguistic

Understanding the language of the discipline/profession

Genres as structured communicative events engaged in by specific discourse communities whose members share broad communicative purposes (Swales 1990)

Structured: moves/steps as function units/indicators of communication functions

Lexical grammatical features

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OPENING SALUTATION

SUBJECT

ACTIONS TAKEN

DISCUSSION OF ISSUES(with [optional] clear distinct issue headings)

SOLICIT ACTION

EXPRESS AVAIL ABILITY

CLOSING SALUTATION

The recurrent schematic structure of Tax Computation Letters (Flowerdew & Wan, 2006, p. 141).

The typical rhetorical organization of the introduction section of technical instructions Describing the goal of the instructions, Defining the intended readers of the

technical instructions Motivating the readers to read the technical

instructions Explaining the usage and conventions used

in the technical instruction, including safety information

Providing a list of tools and equipment necessary for completing the tasks described in the instruction

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SOLICIT ACTION [politeness strategies and the avoidance of modal auxiliary]

• Please note that the filing date of the above return is on. . . .

• We look forward to receiving your agreement to the holdover application before.. .being the first payment due date of the provisional tax liability.

(Flowerdew & Wan, 2006, p. 147).

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Element of ‘specialized knowledge’

The paths to gaining the knowledge

Knowledge of disciplinary cultures and values

??? <- ethnographic observation?

Knowledge of epistemological basis

A course about science/in science; a course about law/in law

Knowledge of genre and discourse <- Linguistic

Learning to • Recognize genre as ‘structured’

communicative events • Analyze function units

(moves/steps)• Categorize the conventionalized

linguistic features that perform the moves and steps

Defeating purpose?

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Element of ‘specialized knowledge’

The paths to gaining the knowledge

Knowledge of disciplinary cultures and values

??? <- ethnographic observation?

Knowledge of epistemological basis

A course about science/in science; a course about law/in law

Knowledge of genre and discourse <- Linguistic

Learning to • Recognize genre as ‘structured’

communicative events • Analyze function units

(moves/steps)• Categorize the conventionalized

linguistic features that perform the moves and steps

Defeating purpose?

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Genres as structured communicative events engaged in by specific discourse communities whose members share broad communicative purposes (Swales 1990)

Context• Culture of discourse

community• Communicative

purposes valued by discourse community

Text• Schematic

structures (Moves and steps)

• Lexico-grammatical features

Trajectory of inquiry in genre analysis (Bawarshi & Reiff, 2010; see also Basturkmen, 2010; implied in Fergusson, 1997) )

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Genres as structured communicative events engaged in by specific discourse communities whose members share broad communicative purposes (Swales 1990)

Context• Culture of discourse

community• Communicative

purposes valued by discourse community

Text• Schematic

structures (Moves and steps)

• Lexico-grammatical features

Trajectory of inquiry in genre analysis (Bawarshi & Reiff, 2010; see also Basturkmen, 2010; implied in Fergusson, 1997) )

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Additional ways to turn genre into a window into context Genre system Meta genre

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Element of ‘specialized knowledge’

The paths to gaining the knowledge

Knowledge of disciplinary cultures and values

??? <- ethnographic observation?

Knowledge of epistemological basis

A course about science/in science; a course about law/in law

Knowledge of genre and discourse <- Linguistic

Learning to • Recognize genre as ‘structured’

communicative events • Analyze function units

(moves/steps)• Categorize the conventionalized

linguistic features that perform the moves and steps

Defeating purpose?

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Element of ‘specialized knowledge’

The paths to gaining the knowledge

Knowledge of disciplinary cultures and values

??? <- ethnographic observation?

Knowledge of epistemological basis

A course about science/in science; a course about law/in law

Knowledge of genre and discourse <- Linguistic

Learning to • Recognize genre as ‘structured’

communicative events • Analyze function units

(moves/steps)• Categorize the conventionalized

linguistic features that perform the moves and steps

• Use the genre features to read the disciplinary cultures and values as well as the epistemological basis

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Genres as structured communicative events engaged in by specific discourse communities whose members share broad communicative purposes (Swales 1990)

Context• Culture of discourse

community• Communicative

purposes valued by discourse community

Text• Schematic

structures (Moves and steps)

• Lexico-grammatical features

Trajectory of inquiry in genre analysis

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Take-home messages/Implications for ESP?

• The need for and quantity of specialist knowledge will continue to be an elusive question

• The power of genre analysis enables us to ask the right questions• Not constrained by issues of

specificity • Enable a particular stance of

working with content experts

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Thank you!